Tesla’s Monterrey plant ushers in Mexico’s electric vehicle age

Tesla Inc.'s plan to build a new assembly plant in Mexico is a clear sign the country will be a center for electric-vehicle making, even as the U.S. tries to bolster domestic, union-based manufacturing with the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act.

The planned factory in Monterrey will be one of Mexico's first that's entirely dedicated to the expensive and complex process of making electric cars. The Latin American nation, long a supply base for makers of gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles, brings with it advantages including relatively cheap labor and free trade agreements with 50 countries. The U.S. has similar deals with just 20.

One of the key agreements is between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, making it possible for electric vehicles made south of the border to be eligible for up to $7,500 in tax credits offered in President Joe Biden's IRA. Barring big changes to the law, automakers could build even more EVs in Mexico, which drifts away from S…

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Automotive tech startups land $647.5 million from VCs, equity investors in February

Private equity investors plowed at least $647.5 million into automotive-related startups in February.

Of that, almost 71 percent, or $457.5 million, went to companies working on battery technology, one of the safer bets in the electric vehicle space thanks to the federal government's industrial policy and incentive programs.

While automakers invest billions on EV development and production, new suppliers of batteries or battery components are emerging to support their efforts, and venture capital is an important way for those companies to raise money to fund research or build out operations.

"EV batteries are a safe investment compared to, say, autonomous vehicles and robotaxis, which are kind of tenuous at this point," Mike Ramsey, a transportation and mobility analyst at Gartner Inc., told Automotive News.

The tax and funding provisions for EV batteries and chargers in the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act have …

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Redwood recycled more than 1,000 battery packs through California program last year

Editor's note: Redwood will soon produce cathode from the recycling program. An earlier version of this story misstated that status of that production. Redwood also clarified that other packs were recycled outside of the California pilot program.

Redwood Materials recycled more than 1,000 end-of-life battery packs last year to produce high-quality battery materials through a pilot program with California.

The battery recycling company worked with Toyota Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co., Volvo Cars, Volkswagen Group of America and dismantlers to collect and recycle lithium ion and nickel metal hydride batteries in California as part of a program launched in February 2022, the company said in a statement Thursday.

Redwood recycled the batteries at its facilities in Nevada and has started to produce anode from the recycled batteries that can be used by battery cell manufacturers. Redwood will soon produce cathode from the packs, spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson to…

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Honda, VW and multiple Chevy stores sell in Q4 deals

One of the six publicly traded auto retailers sold a dealership in the San Francisco Bay Area, while a dealer and three groups expanded their holdings — all in fourth-quarter acquisitions.

Here's a look at the deals involving import and domestic brands and stores in California, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York.

Two transactions involved auto retailers ranked on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups.

California dealer buys dealership from Penske Automotive; purchases Chevrolet store

Penske Automotive Group Inc. divested a Honda dealership in northern California late in the fourth quarter.

The publicly traded auto retailer sold Marin Honda in San Rafael, Calif., north of San Francisco, to Mike Patel and Jeff Christoffel on Dec. 19, Patel confirmed to Automotive News in an email.

Patel said he is the dealer principal and majority partner, while Christoffel is minority partner. The dealership was renamed Honda Marin,…

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Vroom reports $25M net income, but fallen sales, revenues in Q4

Vroom Inc. said Tuesday its revenues, sales and total gross profit per e-commerce vehicle all tumbled in the fourth quarter, a period in which the company continued pulling back on growth in favor of improving its per-vehicle economics and other business processes.

The online used-vehicle retailer reported a net profit of $24.8 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, though that was primarily driven by a $127 million gain on debt extinguishment due to its repurchase of convertible notes, which "more than offset the impact" of lower sales and lower profit per vehicle, Vroom CFO Bob Krakowiak said on a Wednesday earnings call.

That net income is compared with Vroom's $129.8 million net loss in the same period a year earlier and its net loss of $51.1 million in the third quarter of 2022.

Vroom said its revenue tumbled in the quarter to $209.3 million, down 78 percent compared with the year-earlier period.

Earlier in 2022, Vroom undertook a business re…

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Volkswagen board to discuss U.S. assembly plant on Friday, report says

BERLIN/HAMBURG – Volkswagen Group’s supervisory board will discuss plans to build a new U.S. factory at a meeting on Friday, two sources close to the matter said, with one adding the board was expected to approve the project.

The factory is a new plant for the Scout brand, according to one of the sources, which Volkswagen has said will be designed, engineered and manufactured in the U.S. with production due to start in 2026.

Volkswagen declined to comment. The automaker has previously said a decision on whether to build a plant for the brand had not yet been made.

Scott Keogh, the former VW Group of America CEO who last year was tapped to lead Scout Motors, also declined to comment.

Last week, Automotive News sibling publication Automobilwoche, citing company sources, reported that VW Group decided to build the Scout plant on its own after considering contract manufacturers Foxconn and Magna.

Volkswagen is expanding its Chattanooga plant t…

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CDK ‘fit and focus’ strategy continues with massive employee outsourcing plan

Retail technology giant CDK Global will unload an undisclosed number of its employees onto Genpact, a global business process outsourcer, as part of its continued "fit and focus" strategy to reorganize and boost efficiency. While CDK is acknowledging that some jobs will be eliminated, company officials also said they expect most affected employees will continue working for CDK through Genpact.

CDK CEO Brian MacDonald announced the move in a Feb. 22 email to employees that was obtained by Automotive News and confirmed by CDK. CDK's goal, MacDonald said in the email, is to free up resources to boost customer service, planning and strategic initiatives for the Hoffman Estates, Ill., dealership management system company.

The plan calls for outsourcing most of CDK's enterprise information technology unit, as well as parts of its technology, product, customer, finance and procurement divisions in the coming months to Genpact, according to MacDonald's email. It's unc…

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LIVE CHAT: The science behind Toyota’s electrification strategy

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VW’s Russia plant to be sold to local dealer group, report says

Russia's Avilon dealership group is poised to buy Volkswagen Group's Kaluga factory, Moscow-based business news site RBC reported on Wednesday, citing two unidentified sources.

RBC reported that one of the sources said the deal was already agreed, and would be finalized on March 3, which coincides with the automaker's upcoming supervisory board meeting.

VW said it was considering various scenarios, including selling Volkswagen Group Russia's assets to a third party, but that a decision had not yet been made.

Avilon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The factory, in which VW has invested more than $1.1 billion since its opening, employs 4,200 people and has capacity of 225,000 vehicles a year.

The plant has been furloughed since March 2022, when sanctions imposed by Western countries over the conflict in Ukraine caused supply chains break down.

A string of Western car brands have quit the Russian market in the year…

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Carputty Announces New Flexible Auto Credit Lines to Support Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs

ATLANTA, Feb. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Carputty, a fintech company modernizing both auto financing and ownership, today announced the introduction of the Business Flexline™, a new kind of credit line designed for small business entrepreneurs and the organizations that support them.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, 99.9% of businesses across the U.S. are small businesses, many of which need vehicles for their workers to get around, such as construction crews, landscapers, HVAC workers, general contractors, and car sharing hosts. Specifically, as of January 2021, there were over 380,000 small fleets in operation, with small fleets being defined as 5-14 vehicles, accounting for nearly 3,000,000 commercial cars and trucks.

Small business owners that rely on vehicles as part of their operation often face challenges when financing their cars and trucks. Most lenders consider each purchase independently and each individual lo…

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Origence announces integration with Tekion automotive retail technology

Irvine, California, Feb. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Origence, the leading lending technology solutions provider for credit unions, announced a partnership with Tekion, a next-generation, cloud-based automotive retail solutions provider. The partnership integrates CUDL, the nation’s largest automotive lending network and an Origence brand, with Tekion technology and positions both organizations to streamline the automotive online shopping and financing experience while providing credit unions with new indirect lending opportunities.

“The car buying experience has forever changed. Our mission at Origence is to help credit unions stay ahead of the digital curve,” said Brian Hendricks, chief product officer at Origence. “By partnering with Tekion, we will provide new online indirect lending opportunities for credit unions – along with tools and solutions that create incremental F&I efficiencies for dealerships.”

As the partnership between the two companies ro…

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Household Bills Take a 42% Bite Out of U.S. Household Income, Averaging $29,459 Per Year, as Consumers Struggle with Economic Headwinds

February 21, 2023 03:24 PM Eastern Standard Time

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--doxo, the innovative web and mobile bill pay service, today released its 2023 U.S Bill Pay Market Size & Category Breakout Report, revealing that of the $3.87 trillion that Americans spend annually on household bills, $3.22 trillion falls within ten essential bill payment categories, comprising nearly three quarters of all U.S. consumer spending1. The report found that the average U.S. household spends $29,459 per year, or 42% of income on all household bills, and also breaks out the household spending market size for each of the ten essential bill categories, percentage of households that pay each bill, and average monthly and annual bill pay costs by state.

doxo’s proprietary and comprehensive dataset — based on actual bill payments across 97% of U.S. zip codes and 45 bill pay service categories, enables precision much greater than typical survey-based estimates of market size…

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