Trade News

CarMax reported record sales and earnings in its fiscal fourth quarter and full year that ended Feb. 29.

Operations for the largest used-vehicle retailer in the U.S. were not impacted until March by the coronavirus pandemic that now is crippling the country's economy.

In its fourth quarter, CarMax's net sales and operating revenue rose 15 percent to $4.96 billion on total used-vehicle sales that increased 15 percent to 206,718. Net earnings grew 12 percent to $214.9 million. The company's comparable store sales were up 11 percent in the period.

For its fiscal year, CarMax's net sales and operating revenue increased 12 percent to $20.32 billion on total used-vehicle sales that were up 11 percent to 832,640. Comparable store sales rose 7.7 percent. Net earnings grew 5.5 percent to $888.4 million.

"We are very pleased to report record used vehicle sales and earnings per share for both our fourth quarter and the full year," CEO Bill Nash said in a sta…

Tesla Inc.’s new Model Y has what people have come to expect from Elon Musk’s cars: It’s lightning quick, handles nicely and has better electronic gadgetry than its competitors.

Unlike past Tesla offerings, early versions are rolling off the assembly line looking more like what you would expect from a company with a handle on the finer points of car building, according to Sandy Munro. The manufacturing consultant who’s been tearing cars apart piece-by-piece for three decades offered his initial impressions before digging into the Model Y that his shop took delivery of this week.

“I don’t have much negative to say,” Munro said in an interview with Bloomberg. “It’s much better than the Model 3 when we got it. We found problems, but the average car buyer won’t even see these things.”

Munro and his eponymous firm have been well known for years among Detroit’s automotive engineers for their in-depth analysis of hundreds of cars from virtually every manufact…

BEIJING -- GAC's joint ventures with Toyota and Honda are aiming for a big boost in annual China sales to a million vehicles each by 2025, according to a recording of a GAC call with investors.

At a joint venture with Toyota, that would represent a jump of 47 percent from 2019 levels while at a venture with Honda that would be a 30 percent surge.

Vehicles made by the JVs are mostly sold under the Japanese brands.

The state-owned automaker will also aim to sell 1 million units annually under its own brand by 2025, Feng Xingya, GAC's general manager told investors and analysts on the call Wednesday.

It was not clear when the plans were formed. For the current year, it expects industry-wide China auto sales to tumble 10 percent due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak although it expects its sales, which include sales of its JV partners, to climb 3 percent.

The long-term plans come as the state-owned automaker expands manufacturing c…

BEIJING -- Dongfeng Motor Group is reviewing a deal with PSA to cut its stake in the French automaker after a fall in share prices sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

PSA agreed to merge with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in December to create the world's fourth-biggest automaker by sales volume.

Dongfeng had agreed to lower its 12.2 percent stake in PSA by selling 30.7 million shares to the French company to help smooth the merger. The stake being was worth around 680 million euros ($744 million) and the sale will leave Dongfeng holding around 4.5 percent of the merged PSA-FCA group.

But, during an earnings call with investors, a Dongfeng official said that the Chinese company was reviewing the matter.

"There are possibilities that the stake sale plan will change. We are evaluating the issue," the official said during the call on Tuesday, a recording reviewed by Reuters showed.

"This is closely related to their [PSA's] merger talks with …

Volvo and Swedish supplier Veoneer will split up their automotive software joint venture Zenuity, the companies said in separate statements on Thursday.

Under the agreement, Volvo will set up a new stand-alone company to take over Zenuity's current development and commercialization of unsupervised autonomous drive software.

Veoneer will integrate and operate the current Zenuity business focused on development and commercialization of advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) software.

"The intent is for each party to pursue what’s the most critical core competence for them," Veoneer Chief Technology Officer Nishant Batra told Automotive News Europe. "Volvo wants to be a leader in autonomous driving and our intent is to more effectively pursue what we call advanced ADAS in the collaborative driving space."

Batra said that because Veoneer serves all automakers it made sense for it to take the part of Zenuity that works on ADAS because there is a muc…

FRANKFURT -- BMW and Audi are planning to adopt different strategies for electrifying their flagship sedans.

BMW's next-generation 7 Series will be available with a full-electric drivetrain in addition to plug-in hybrid, gasoline and diesel versions, CEO Oliver Zipse said on March 18 at the automaker's annual accounts press conference. 

The electric 7 series would be a competitor to the Tesla Model S and the upcoming Mercedes-Benz EQS expected to launch in the middle of the next year.

Zipse did not give a timeline for the rollout of the new 7 series. Production of the 7 Series EV is expected to begin in the second half of 2022 and be launched first in China and Europe, Automotive News reported.

Audi is backing away from its initial idea of making its next-generation A8 range-topping sedan a battery-electric vehicle. Instead the A8 will have a plug-in hybrid version as an electrified option.

Audi development chief Hans-Joachim Roth…

Chancellor Angela Merkel and German auto industry executives are studying how and when to restart the country’s sprawling factory network amid concerns that some cash-poor suppliers may not survive the damage from the coronavirus pandemic.

In a phone conference late Wednesday, Merkel and the executives discussed measures to minimize contagion risks and protect workers’ health once assembly lines resume churning out vehicles, according to people familiar with the talks.

Participants included Hildegard Mueller, the head of the German cars lobby VDA, and Joerg Hofmann, leader of the IG Metall labor union, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the talks were not public. A government spokesperson confirmed that the phone meeting took place but declined to comment further.

The country can ill afford a prolonged shutdown of its car industry, which employs more than 800,000 people and is a key indicator of industrial health in Europe’s largest econ…

Volkswagen said it will introduce a series of aftermarket accessories at its dealerships to give its refreshed three-row Atlas crossover more of a rugged appearance.

Nearly 400 copies of the refreshed Atlas had been produced and were being shipped to dealers when Volkswagen temporarily halted production at its Chattanooga Assembly plant last month to help fight the spread of COVID-19.

Volkswagen first showed the Atlas refresh at the 2020 Chicago auto show.

The accessories are modeled after the Atlas Basecamp concept, first shown a year ago at the New York auto show. They include a two-tone front bumper guard, textured fender flares with integrated splash guards, side-door rocker panels and an upgraded rear valance with trailer hitch access.

The package also comes with special "Basecamp" badging. Upgraded alloy wheels and off-road tires are also available, the automaker said.

The accessory package, which will be available before summer, is d…

SAN FRANCISCO -- Tesla Inc. tends to pull out all the stops at the end of each quarter, with CEO Elon Musk often rallying the troops to deliver as many vehicles as possible to customers.

This approach probably didn’t work well for Tesla in March, with shelter-in-place orders and distancing guidelines around the globe limiting how many vehicles the company could hand over. While Musk tried to salvage the quarter by introducing a “touchless” delivery option in select locations, the coronavirus pandemic is expected to have done a number on demand for all automakers.

Analysts on average estimate Tesla delivered roughly 77,400 cars worldwide last quarter, the first to include hand-overs of the new Model Y crossover. While that would be a jump from a disappointing result a year ago, it also would mark a more than 30 percent drop from the record deliveries Tesla reported for the last three months of 2019.

It wasn't clear when Tesla will be disclosing first-quar…

LONDON -- Aston Martin said it may need to tap into high-interest notes it was trying to avoid drawing down, even after a capital infusion of up to 536 million pounds ($663 million) from a group led by billionaire Lawrence Stroll.

The automaker does not have sufficient working capital based on European Securities and Markets Authority rules because the coronavirus has created "increased and unquantifiable uncertainty" in its business, Aston Martin said.

That has made it impossible to come up with a model for a "reasonable worse case downside," the company said.

Aston Martin, which has struggled with cash flow and dealer-inventory back-ups since going public in 2018, had hoped that the fundraising approved by shareholders on Monday would avoid the need to seek additional money. But the coronavirus crisis has added a level of difficulty to the turnaround put in place with Stroll's arrival.

"Taking into account the proceeds of the capital raise,…

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump attacked automakers for the second time in a matter of days, chiding their “foolish executives” as his administration completed the final step of a three-year quest to dismantle Obama-era fuel efficiency rules.

Days after demanding that General Motors and Ford Motor Co. make ventilators, Trump claimed that unidentified company leaders were being “politically correct” by not endorsing his efforts to ease gas mileage and emissions regulations for automobiles, a move that has enraged environmentalists and sparked courtroom battles.

Last week, the president took Detroit -- and particularly GM and CEO Mary Barra -- to task for moving too slowly to build breathing devices for coronavirus victims. Shortly after Trump sent a set of angry tweets, the company announced a deal to partner with a ventilator maker and start production within weeks -- with or without the federal contract they had been seeking.

The back-to-bac…

Europe's automakers are calling for immediate support from the European Union and member states after suffering a production loss that could render companies short of cash in just weeks.

Industry association ACEA demanded "strong and coordinate action" to aid manufacturers, their suppliers and dealers who all face a "severe" financial hit.

"The effect of the coronavirus on the automobile industry is unprecedented," ACEA Director General Eric-Mark Huitema said in a statement. "It is becoming increasingly clear that Covid-19 has led to the worst crisis ever to impact the automotive sector."

EU-wide production losses from factory shutdowns amount to 1.23 million vehicles so far, with some 1.11 million workers affected, not including the supply chain, ACEA said. The wider sector provides jobs for 13.8 million people across the European Union, ACEA said.

Huitema spoke of "grave consequences" for the industry going far beyond what can currently be forec…