News

Tesla Inc. has parlayed price cuts into a formidable lead over its luxury competitors in the first quarter of 2023.

The Austin, Texas-based automaker's first-quarter sales volume surged 55 percent from last year, and it sold more than double the volume of No. 2 BMW.

But the segment's historic favorites are fighting back against the new front-runner with their own fleets of electric vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz's EV sales have more than quadrupled in the first three months. The brand's four EQ-branded models accounted for 9.7 percent of sales in the first quarter, including vans.

EV "product is driving momentum," Mercedes-Benz USA sales boss Senol Bayrak told Automotive News on Wednesday. "We have now a full lineup of these cars available — from SUV to sedan."

To boost EV adoption, Mercedes will launch a six-week marketing campaign starting April 22. The Mercedes EQE SUV, which debuted last month, will be the centerpiece of the blitz.

Mea…

LANSING — Michigan will give companies $410 million to open two electric vehicle battery plants following approval of transfers by a legislative panel on Wednesday.

The Democratic-led Senate Appropriations Committee authorized the subsidies for Ford Motor Co. ($210 million) and Novi-based Our Next Energy Inc. ($200 million) on 15-4 votes.

They did not vote on a $175 million package for Gotion Inc., a Chinese company with a U.S. headquarters in Silicon Valley, and The Right Place, a Grand Rapids-based economic development organization supporting the Gotion project.

Ford's factory will be in Marshall, Mich., ONE's in Wayne County's Van Buren Township.

The Michigan Strategic Fund board previously approved the aid, part of broader incentives packages for the multibillion-dollar plants, but final legislative authorization was needed to transfer money within the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund. The House budget panel gave its blessing, in…

Ourisman Cars, led by CEO Robert Ourisman Jr., expanded its Maryland footprint with the purchase of three dealerships in two transactions.

On Feb. 13, Ourisman Cars bought Ramsey Ford in Rising Sun from Steve Ramsey, Ourisman Jr. confirmed to Automotive News.

Ourisman Cars, of Rockville, Md., is a group of dealerships within Ourisman Automotive Group, Ourisman Jr. said.

The dealership was renamed Ourisman Tri-State Ford. Rising Sun is in northeast Maryland, near the Pennsylvania and Delaware borders.

"It's up in Cecil County, which is way north Maryland," Ourisman Jr. said. "So a new county for us and sort of new market representation for us."

It marks the first Ford dealership for Ourisman Cars, said Ourisman Jr., who noted that his group of dealerships has multiple Stellantis and Chevrolet stores.

"This sort of rounds out the domestic offering," Ourisman Jr. said.

Woody Woodward, a managing director of DCG Acquisitions, a …

Kia America Inc. is recalling 51,568 vehicles for power sliding doors that have closed on occupants, resulting in nine reports of injuries. The recall includes all 2022 and certain 2023 Carnival vehicles.

In the summer of 2021, Kia began to identify customer complaints that alleged the power sliding door injured children. As of November 2022, injury reports included one fractured thumb, one broken arm, seven bruises, swelling and minor cuts or scrapes related to the power sliding door.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation opened a preliminary evaluation into the 2022 Kia Carnival on April 10, 2022. The office has received five consumer complaints alleging auto-reverse malfunction since July 2021. Three of the complaints reported arms, hands or shoulders getting "trapped against the door." Consumers also said "excessive force" was needed to reverse the direction of the door.

Kia called the auto-reverse featu…

Lease-end satisfaction J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. End of Lease Satisfaction Study, conducted from November 2022 to January 2023, found lessees more satisfied with Ford Credit than any other mass-market lease financing competitor by a 16-point margin. Here are some of the mass-market lease satisfaction scores from the survey, which uses a 1,000-point scale. Ford Credit 873 Toyota Financial Services 857 Honda Financial Services 855 Hyundai Motor Finance 855 Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp. 853 GM Financial 851 Volkswagen Credit 851 Mass-market segment average 847 Kia Motors Finance 846 Subaru Motors Finance 845 U.S. Bank 842 Chrysler Capital 834 Ally Financial 825 Mazda Financial Services 808

An industrywide decline in leasing means captive finance companies and other lenders must not only be mindful of lessee satisfaction but find other ways of keeping customers loyal, said Patrick Roosenberg, J.D. Power auto finance director.

J.D. Power la…

LOS ANGELES — Electric vehicle brand Polestar has unveiled a certified pre-owned program to help drive business to its product-starved retailers. The program launches as the first Polestar 2 electric sedans are coming off their 36-month leases.

Polestar North America CEO Gregor Hembrough called the CPO program a "coming of age" moment for the Swedish brand, which launched its first and only mass-market model nearly three years ago.

"We've been in the marketplace long enough that we have lease returns; we have used cars that are coming back," Hembrough told Automotive News on the sidelines of an event here last week.

The remarketing program addresses a significant pain point for Polestar's fledgling retail network. With a new crossover product delayed by nearly a year and just one model — a sedan — to sell, some dealers say they lack enough throughput to justify their high-rent shopping center-based stores.

"Dealers are struggling to cover their e…

Google self-driving technology unit Waymo said on Wednesday that some of its vehicles in San Francisco encountered dense fog and briefly pulled over to the side of the road.

The incident, which occurred at around 6.00 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday, impeded some traffic movement before the cars moved out of the area as the fog began to clear, Waymo said.

"We have software updates planned to improve our fog and parking performance to address such situations in the future," the company said in a statement to Reuters.

The company's cars use a system consisting of lidar sensors, cameras and radar sensors to perceive their surroundings.

Waymo in December said it was expanding its testing area to all of San Francisco city, after applying for a final permit it needs in California before it can sell fully autonomous rides.

Last week, General Motors' robotaxi unit Cruise said it is recalling self-driving software in 300 vehicles after one of its drive…

Self-driving tech company Zoox Inc. may have created a robotaxi that looks like nothing else on the road today. But the Amazon-owned company says the process it used to ensure its toaster-shaped vehicles met federal safety standards is a conventional one used by other manufacturers.

"People look at it and go, 'How is this possible?' and 'How can you do this?' " Amanda Prescott, director of homologation at Zoox, told Automotive News. "They don't understand the certification process. We've done the same thing as everybody else."

Zoox disclosed more information Wednesday about its self-certification and occupant-protection efforts in the wake of fresh scrutiny from federal regulators.

The company released a video compilation that showed its crash-testing efforts and described the battery of tests it used to determine its purpose-built electric robotaxi met or exceeded the crash-test performance requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Read more

Edward Brown III, a former banking executive who spent the last decade of his career leading Hendrick Automotive Group as CEO, died April 3 at age 74.

Brown had non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to an obituary published by the Charlotte Observer.

Brown joined Hendrick Automotive, one of the country's largest dealership groups, in 2010 as its CFO, and company officials said at that time that he would become CEO in January 2011. Brown had retired six years earlier from a long career as an executive at Bank of America and banks it had acquired.

Rick Hendrick, chairman of the dealership group, said at the time of Brown's appointment that he was chosen for his financial management experience and community involvement. Brown replaced Jim Huzl as CEO in 2011. He retired from Hendrick at the end of 2019, and Rick Hendrick assumed CEO duties for the group at that time.

Brown's obituary named Rick Hendrick as one of six mentors in the former executive's life …

Capital One has decided to terminate its auto dealer services business offering floorplan lending.

"We will be winding down that work this year," a Capital One spokesperson told Automotive News in a written statement. "This has no impact on the CapitalOne Auto Finance business. Our auto business remains well-positioned to support our dealer partners and customers through these market cycles, as we have throughout our bank's history."

Capital One on its website said the dealer services business was dedicated to new franchised car dealers with floorplan needs of $5 million to more than $100 million. The bank has more than 25 years of experience in the automotive industry and lists floorplan monitoring and tracking software among its dealer services products.

In a follow up phone call, a Capital One spokesperson said floorplan lending comprised about 1 percent of its commercial bank business and was "not core to the long-term priorities of our commerci…

WASHINGTON - A major transport union on Tuesday opposed a request filed by Alphabet's self-driving unit Waymo and autonomous driving technology company Aurora for an exemption from rules on warning devices for large semi-trucks, citing safety issues.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) said last month it received a joint application from Waymo and Aurora seeking a five-year exemption from rules that require drivers to place reflective triangles or a flare around a stopped truck to alert other drivers and help prevent a crash.

Aurora and Waymo instead want to use warning beacons mounted on the truck cab to avoid the need for human drivers.

The Transport Workers Union of America said the petition is "inappropriate, represents an overreach and a misuse of the waiver and exemption process, and would significantly diminish the safety of our roads. It should be rejected in the strongest possible terms."

It urged the safety board to e…

A look at the near death and resurgence of MG as the iconic brand turns 100. CarMax net income and sales drop in Q1. And BMW sees EV sales double in the first three months of the year.

How do I subscribe?

Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

iPhone / iPad

Android

Spotify