Trade News

SAN FRANCISCO -- Uber Technologies Inc. generated more revenue from delivering food than transporting people for the first time last quarter, but it failed to offset a steep and prolonged decline in ridership brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Sales fell 29 percent in the second quarter to $2.24 billion, ending a decade of unchecked growth. The loss in the quarter also widened, but Uber maintained Thursday that it will achieve its goal of turning an adjusted profit by the end of next year.

Delivery revenue, which was growing even before the pandemic, surged 103 percent during the quarter and is now central to Uber’s strategy. Along with a $2.65 billion deal to acquire Postmates Inc. and expand its food delivery operations, Uber has begun delivering other items including groceries, prescriptions and packages. Uber now includes UberEats, its food delivery service, as part of the Delivery category.

“Delivery is clearly one of the major beneficiaries of…

The growing Hudson Automotive Group is about to get even bigger.

The Charleston, S.C., dealership group, which has been acquiring stores at a brisk pace the past few years, plans to buy the four-store Beaman Automotive Group in Nashville.

Beaman announced the pending sale last week and said the deal is expected to close in October or November.

With 450 employees, Beaman Automotive generated $414 million in revenue last year. It has Toyota and Buick-GMC outlets in Nashville, a Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram-Fiat store in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and a Ford dealership in South Dickson, Tenn.

The sale will include all inventory and fixed assets, plus a parts warehouse and collision center. Other terms weren't disclosed.

Beaman Automotive CEO Lee Beaman, in remarks to employees shared with Automotive News, said he had been approached "dozens and dozens of times" over the years to sell his company, but nothing felt right until now.

"I can think of o…

Automakers and safety groups agree that automated emergency braking systems hold the potential to reduce traffic crashes and save lives. But sometimes these systems can activate when there's no imminent collision and instead place motorists in hazardous situations.

As automakers install more of these systems in their vehicles, concerns over these false-positive events have grown more prevalent.

Nissan Motor Co. is aware of more than 1,400 complaints and field reports alleging such activations, according to documents obtained by the Center for Auto Safety via public-information requests and multiple lawsuits.

The Center for Auto Safety is renewing its calls for a safety recall.

"False braking not only endangers the occupants of the Nissan vehicle but puts all surrounding road users at risk," Jason Levine, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy organization, said Thursday. "It undermines consumer trust in the long-term safety benefits of such …

Magna International’s new executive vice-president of R&D is Sherif Marakby, once a key executive at Ford Motor Co.

Marakby, 54, officially joined Magna on July 6, about eight months after stepping back at Ford, where he was CEO of the automaker’s subsidiary Ford Autonomous Vehicles. Marakby took personal leave from Ford for an undisclosed reason in November 2019. At the time, it was unclear whether he would return.

Ford Autonomous Vehicles was created in 2018 to handle Ford's fledgling AV business. Marakby rejoined the Detroit automaker in 2017, after spending a year heading Uber's autonomous-vehicle program, where he led the integration of their autonomous software into production OEM vehicles.

Marakby also was on the board of directors for Argo AI, Ford’s self-driving technology partner.

He comes to Magna with extensive experience in electrification, having led the Ford team in developing a battery-electric, plug-in hybrid and hyb…

Join Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein for a daily podcast series about the coronavirus crisis. He’ll speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about how the virus is impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

Ridecell's Mark Thomas says the third-party mobility platform is seeing an uptick in car-sharing services as more people opt out of using public transportation amid the outbreak. 

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Canadian auto supplier Magna International Inc. joined many of its North American peers in reporting a massive drop in revenue and posting a sizable loss for the second quarter, but showed signs of progress toward the end of the quarter as auto production resumed amid the pandemic.

Magna on Friday said it swung to a net loss of $647 million from a gain of $452 million during the same quarter last year. Total sales plunged about 58 percent to $4.29 billion, but topped estimates of $4.10 billion.

In a statement, Magna said the quarterly losses "far exceeded the worst comparable quarterly declines experienced during the 2008-2009 financial crisis."

Shares in Magna were unchanged in early trading on Wall Street.

The diversified parts supplier is the latest of several major automakers to report losses this week as its customers shut production amid government-enforced lockdowns. Light-vehicle production in North America, Magna's biggest market, tumbled…

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration plans to reimpose tariffs on some Canadian aluminum imports, hitting a crucial trade partner just weeks after the president’s landmark North American trade agreement went into effect. Canada threatened retaliation.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he’s removing Canada’s exemption from 10 percent tariffs, effective Aug. 16. The decision comes more than a month after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expressed concern about recent struggles by American aluminum producers, who have said they are hurting from a “surge” of metal from Canada flowing into the U.S.

“Several months ago, my administration agreed to lift those tariffs in return for a promise from the Canadian government that its aluminum industry would not flood our country with exports and kill all our aluminum jobs, which is exactly what they did,” Trump said during a speech at a Whirlpool Corp. factory in Ohio. “Canadian aluminum producers …

TOKYO -- Osamu Masuko, the chairman of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and one of Japan’s oldest and longest-serving automotive chiefs, has abruptly resigned citing health reasons.

The 71-year-old executive stepped down effective Aug. 7, the Japanese automaker said in a release.

The company did not give details about his health condition but said that Masuko would be staying on as a "special advisor" to the company he has led for 15 years.

Current CEO Takao Kato will take over as temporary chairman, the company said.

Masuko became president of Mitsubishi Motors in 2005 and cycled through various positions at the top, including the CEO and chairman posts, during a pivotal period at the small-sized Japanese player. Masuko hatched numerous plans to reboot the brand’s flagging fortunes, oversaw its foray into electrified vehicles and helped pen its 2016 partnership with Nissan.

With Mitsubishi then part of the Renault Nissan alliance, Masuko exerted a stabi…

Vehicle listings company CarGurus turned a profit in the second quarter as revenue tumbled during the coronavirus pandemic, reflecting discounted dealership subscriptions to its online marketplace.

The Cambridge, Mass., company on Thursday reported revenue of $94.7 million in the quarter ended June 30, down 35 percent from the same quarter a year earlier. Subscription revenue generated by its listings marketplace fell 38 percent to $80 million — $75.5 million of that in the U.S. — while advertising and other revenue fell 7 percent to $14.8 million.

The company reported a 43 percent drop in operating expenses, driven by steep declines in sales and marketing expenses, and said net income rose 19 percent to $7.1 million.

"Although our industry and our business are facing unprecedented uncertainty amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, CarGurus generated strong results in the second quarter that demonstrate our business's flexibility and resilience," CEO Langley Stei…