Trade News

EV only companies grabbing share, profits from franchised dealers, but how much?

At first glance, the numbers Automotive News reporter Hannah Lutz highlights in her report on electric vehicle makers disrupting franchised dealers in California and a handful of other states are startling.

Dealers, who once had a hand in every new light-vehicle sale in California, have lost nearly 12 percent of the market to Tesla, Rivian and Lucid, companies that sell directly to consumers.

The average California dealer lost about $700,000 in gross profit opportunity last year. The market erosion for dealers is spreading to Colorado, Washington and other states that follow many of the Golden State's environmental and motor vehicle policies.

While Tesla and other EV startups have capitalized on the direct sales model, it's unclear how far that can go. That top line may represent Tesla's success and a dearth of compelling EVs from legacy automakers, something that's…

The president and CEO of Blink Charging discusses his company’s new contract with the U.S. Postal Service, his time spent launching the Nissan Leaf and global charging needs in an age of electrification.

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HONG KONG -- Shareholders of China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group accepted a proposal to dispose of two subsidiaries in a restructuring, according to a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday night.

More than 50 percent of the votes under the EV company, a unit of embattled property developer China Evergrande, were cast at a Friday general meeting in favor of a proposal raised in late April, the filing said.

The EV unit on April 25 announced the plan to sell two debt-laden companies to another unit under China Evergrande as part of the automaker's restructuring.

The EV unit was expected to book a $3.6 billion gain from the transfer, while the two companies to be sold held 47 real estate projects altogether, said a previous stock filing by the EV unit. 

The deal would help the EV unit focus on the new energy vehicle segment and could help improve its valuation and eventually "may help to attract investors to Evergrande Auto a…

Austin Russell, a 28-year-old automotive technology billionaire, acquired an 82 percent stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings, parent of the well-known Forbes business magazine.

The deal values the company at close to $800 million, the parties said in a statement Friday. The seller, Hong Kong-based Integrated Whale Media Investments will retain a minority stake. The Forbes family will not, though Steve Forbes will remain involved.

Russell is the CEO of Luminar Technologies Inc., which provides autonomous driving technology to the automotive industry. The company, which has a $2.1 billion market capitalization, posted sales of $40.7 million last year and isn’t profitable. Shares in Luminar fell 2.8 percent to $5.53 on Friday.

Russell plans to serve as a visionary for the Forbes brand and won’t be involved in day-to-day operations, according to the statement.

Forbes plans to appoint a new board consisting of American media, technology and artificial…

New-vehicle inventories continued their slow climb last month, even in the face of the fastest sales pace in more than a year, in a further sign that production constraints are easing, according to data compiled by Cox Automotive and the Automotive News Research & Data Center.

Cox's most recent estimate of the U.S. inventory is 1,904,958 vehicles, a 53-day supply. That's up from 1,893,855 vehicles, or a 56-day supply, in the previous month, and about 71 percent higher than it was a year earlier. However, it is very close to where the industry was at the same point in 2021 as inventory levels began to rapidly recede and industrywide days' supply fell below 40. Cox computes days' supply based on the selling rate of the previous 30-day period.

As they have been for several months, midsize, compact, subcompact and high-performance cars were the only segments with less than a 40-day supply of inventory, Cox said, while full-size pickups, electric…

Alfa Romeo is preparing to launch a TV ad blitz for the Tonale compact crossover, the Italian brand's first plug-in hybrid vehicle.

The Tonale has been making the rounds in an outreach tour highlighted by a display at a Formula One race in Montreal, various auto shows and an April 2022 appearance on "Live with Kelly and Ryan."

Now, with it arriving in dealerships this month, Alfa Romeo wants to make the crossover's presence known on a broader scale with a significant investment in TV advertising.

Stephanie Goldstein, the brand's head of North America marketing, said the TV campaign has the potential to boost Alfa's other offerings, the Giulia sedan and the Stelvio crossover, as well. Consumers heading online to search for the Tonale may perhaps find those nameplates to be more appealing, she said.

The Tonale is the brand's last new vehicle with an internal combustion engine. Alfa Romeo — which reported a 30 percent U.S. sales decline in 2022 and …

As General Motors invests heavily in software, the automaker will get a boost from the Silicon Valley tech world.

Mike Abbott, who led cloud services at Apple Inc., will become GM's executive vice president of software beginning May 22, the automaker said last week. He will report to CEO Mary Barra and oversee a reorganized software team focused on information and digital technology, software-defined vehicle and operating systems, and digital business.

Abbott, 50, joins GM at a time of digital transformation at the automaker. GM continues work on its Ultifi software platform and the development of software-defined vehicles, which will be able to offer apps and other features to consumers through over-the-air updates. GM also expects software and subscription services to be a key future revenue driver, to the tune of $20 billion to $25 billion by 2030.

At the same time, GM said its upcoming electric vehicles would not offer Apple C…

Bosch is reorganizing its Mobility Solutions business sector, giving it more autonomy within the huge supplier's corporate structure, and forecasting a surge in revenue to $88 billion by the end of this decade.

The change reflects the auto industry's global shift away from the parts and hardware that make up vehicles powered by internal combustion engines, a business that has made Bosch a global leader over the past century. In the coming decade, automakers will increasingly rely on technologies that can update and alter a vehicle's performance or improve its safety.

The German company's unit will be called Bosch Mobility and led by Markus Heyn, chairman of Mobility Services since January 2022, the supplier said. The change will be effective Jan. 1, 2024.

Its expected growth engines will include automotive software, which Bosch says has been growing by "double digits" in recent years. The company estimated the segment will have a …