Trade News

New approaches to selling autos forced by the coronavirus crisis will play right into the desires of consumers, a study by KPMG has found.

Seventy-five percent of consumers would prefer to handle their purchase, trade-in, financing and delivery remotely, according to a survey of 2,500 U.S. consumers in the week beginning April 8. Nearly half said they'd prefer to take a test drive without having to enter a dealership.

"The whole online experience, we think people are going to be pushing for that," Gary Silberg, KPMG's auto chief for the Americas, told Automotive News.

The study says remote sales and deliveries have kept U.S. sales from a total collapse during the COVID-19 pandemic and are the future of auto retailing. Dealers have weeks, not months, to get their systems ready for e-commerce capabilities, the management consulting firm says.

Twenty-five percent of those surveyed said they were considering purchasing a vehicle within three months pr…

TOKYO -- Japan announced on Friday a list of companies subject to tighter foreign ownership rules including Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp., as the United States and Europe step up scrutiny of industries key to national security.

Japan identified 518 of roughly 3,800 listed companies with operations core to national security, making them targets for stringent regulations, a list released by the Ministry of Finance showed.

The tighter rules covering foreign investment in a dozen industrial, transportation, communications and technology sectors crucial to national security, such as oil, railways, utilities, arms, space, nuclear power, aviation, telecoms and cyber security, take effect from Friday.

Foreign investors buying a stake of 1 percent or more in Japanese companies in the 12 areas now face pre-screening in principle, compared with the previous threshold of 10 percent.

"The revised law is aimed at accelerating foreign direct investment in Ja…

Hertz Global Holdings Inc.’s creditors were offered two bad choices when hammering out a deal to keep it out of bankruptcy: cut the 102-year-old company some slack and hope it recovers, or let it slip into insolvency and try to recoup their investment in sales of its devalued rental fleet.

The holders of Hertz’s asset-backed securities (ABS) blinked and gave the company until May 22 to pay them about $400 million. Hertz knew its creditors would want to avoid bankruptcy, which could trigger a fire sale of devalued used cars if the ABS trusts that hold the vehicles have to liquidate, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

That sets up a parallel quandary for Hertz’s bank lenders, which kept fighting after the ABS holders had agreed to a forbearance. In the next two weeks, Hertz’s banks -- led by Deutsche Bank and Barclays -- must decide whether to allow Hertz to raise more money to pay the ABS holders, or let it slide into bankruptcy, said the people, wh…

Volvo Car Corp.’s sales in China, its largest market, staged a strong rebound in April, jumping 21 percent to 14,724. 

The coronavirus outbreak has been largely contained in China since mid-March. Showroom traffic at its local dealerships “began to return to normal levels” last month, the Swedish carmaker said.

Because of a steep decline in the first quarter, Volvo’s China deliveries through April still dropped 16 percent to 35,504.

China was the only market where the Swedish brand realized growth in April. 

With demand hit hard in Europe and the United States, Volvo’s global deliveries plunged 44 percent to 56,535 during the month. In the first four months, worldwide sales fell 25 percent to 163,649 cars and light trucks, Volvo said.

Volvo, owned by private Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, has maintained strong growth in the past several years. In 2019, its China deliveries advanced 19 percent to 154,961.

In…

Dongfeng Yueda Kia, Kia Motors’ car joint venture in China, said April sales recovered to year-ago levels of 23,534 after a steep decline in the first quarter. 

The new-generation K3 sedan and three crossovers -- the KX3, KX5 and Sportage -- last month generated more than 80 percent of the Korean automaker’s volume.

The KX3 alone contributed sales of 7,627, or 32 percent of April volume, the company said.

With production and sales disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak, sales at Dongfeng Yueda Kia tumbled 44 percent to 17,626 in March. 

In the first quarter, deliveries slumped 48 percent to 43,152.

Dongfeng Yueda Kia, based in the east China city of Yancheng, is a three-way partnership of Kia and two Chinese companies -- Dongfeng Motor Group and local investment company Jiangsu Yueda Investment Co.

The joint venture has operated well below production capacity since 2017. 

Its two plants in Yancheng can build up t…

DETROIT -- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday is expected to announce that the state's factories can reopen soon, removing one of the last major obstacles to North American automakers bringing thousands of laid-off employees back to work amid the coronavirus pandemic, two people familiar with the plans said.

Companies will be told they can begin work next week at their plants, including training their workforces for the restart, the sources said.

This week, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said they were targeting resuming vehicle production in North America on May 18, but suppliers would need time to prepare ahead for that date.

Whitmer is scheduled to provide an update of the state's handling of the coronavirus outbreak at 3 p.m. EDT.

The governor previously extended the state's coronavirus stay-at-home order through May 15, but lifted restrictions for some businesses other than manufacturing. Neighboring Ohio allowed manufa…

More personal car trips, fewer shared rides post-COVID-19, survey finds

The auto industry can expect to see a lot of dramatic changes in consumer behavior regarding mobility in a post-COVID-19 world.

That's according to a survey of more than 25,000 U.S. customers by the IBM Institute for Business Value. The survey, conducted in April and published last week, found that personal behavior and preferences for transportation – along with retail, work and event attendance – are likely to change as a result of the pandemic.

On the mobility front, many consumers indicated they plan to reduce their use of – or forgo entirely – ride-sharing and public transportation.

More than half of people surveyed who use ride-hailing apps and services said they would either use these less or stop using these services.

More than 20 percent of respondents who now regularly use public transit, including buses, subways or trains, said they no longer would. A…

WASHINGTON -- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday it will not require automakers to recall 56 million additional Takata airbag inflators, saying the devices do not pose a safety risk.

Automakers in the U.S. have previously recalled than 60 million Takata airbag inflators that could explode when deployed, sending deadly metal fragments flying in a defect linked to at least 25 deaths worldwide.

The issue sparked the largest auto industry safety recall in history, involving more than 100 million inflators among 19 major automakers worldwide and is linked to more than 290 injuries.

In 2016, NHTSA ordered the recall of 40 million inflators and said it would review by the end of 2019 whether the airbags with a "dessicant" or drying agent needed to be recalled.

On Thursday, the agency said it will continue to monitor their performance over time. NHTSA said separately Volkswagen Group will recall 370,000 vehicles with Takata i…

Uber Technologies Inc. is leading an investment round of $170 million in scooter-rental company Lime, a lifeline for a startup reeling from plunging customer numbers and company-wide layoffs.

Alphabet Inc., GV and Bain Capital Ventures, along with other new and existing stakeholders, also participated, Lime said in a statement Thursday. As part of the deal, Lime will acquire Uber’s Jump bike-sharing business operations and the two companies will expand the integration of their mobile apps.

The investment round valued Lime at $400 million, a person familiar with the terms said, asking not to be identified because they’re private. That’s a massive drop from the $2.4 billion investors priced the company at in a funding round last year. Lime didn’t comment on the valuation in the statement.

Venture capitalists have invested more than $1 billion in the last few years in two startups renting electric scooters -- Lime and Bird -- but they began falling out of f…

Cox Automotive will furlough more than 12,500 employees — about 10,000 in the U.S. — and executives will forgo some or all of their salaries as a result of the financial hit the company has taken from the coronavirus pandemic.

Close to 87 percent of the furloughed employees work for Cox's Manheim wholesale auction unit, which stopped running physical sales in mid-March and shifted to all-digital sales as states began to shut nonessential business locations, Cox said Thursday.

More than half of the furloughed employees are part-time drivers for Manheim or perform other roles on auction days. About 4,600 others will be furloughed because their jobs can't easily be done at home or have reduced workloads.

Furloughs will begin May 17 and last up to 16 weeks, the company said in a statement. Employees will not be paid and can file for state unemployment benefits, though Cox said they will continue to receive health care benefits, with t…

FCA US appears to be moving forward with plans to introduce a new midsize pickup truck to complement the Jeep Gladiator. And there is an early, familiar contender for the name of the truck.

The company on April 29 filed a trademark application for the name "Dakota," related to "parts for vehicles, namely, automotive exterior decorative trim," according to a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office posting.

Ram dropped the midsize Dakota pickup in 2011 after a 25-year run. For years, the Dakota was a mainstay of the Dodge lineup.

General Motors and Ford have resurrected midsize trucks in recent years, in part to offer consumers a lower-priced alternative to full-size pickups, which are among the industry's most profitable light vehicles.

U.S. sales of midsize pickups rose 22 percent to nearly 640,000 in 2019. First-quarter demand slipped 0.9 percent.

Among U.S. truck buyers, the Dakota name is widely recognized with plenty of equity and "no no…

Hear Kumar Galhotra on Ford's pandemic shutdown mobilization and working with dealers and suppliers on strategies for the restart.

Speakers:KC Crain, Group Publisher, Automotive NewsKumar Galhotra, President, Americas & International Markets Group, Ford Motor Company

This conversation was originally broadcast on May 7, 2020 at 11am EDT as part of our Congress Conversations series. The series runs through June 4. Register to watch future Congress Conversations live at http://autonews.com/congress.