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Chinese electric carmaker Li Auto Inc. expects first-quarter revenue to come in as high as $2.7 billion as a revamped and expanded product lineup helps it win sales from rivals including Tesla Inc.

The Beijing auto manufacturer said revenue for the three months ending March 31 should be between 17.5 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) to 18.5 billion yuan, according to a statement Monday, more than the 16.5 billion yuan compiled by Bloomberg consensus estimates.

Li Auto also reported net income of 265.3 million yuan for the three months ended Dec. 31, falling short of analysts’ estimates of 359 million yuan. Revenue jumped 66 percent to 17.7 billion yuan versus the same period of 2021 as Li Auto’s more expensive L9 crossover pushed up shipments and contributed to higher selling prices. The market was looking for 17.6 billion yuan.

“We successfully executed our growth strategy in 2022, cementing our leadership in the family SUV segment while holistically strength…

SHANGHAI — CATL, the world's largest battery maker, has offered to cut costs for Chinese automakers, a move that demonstrates its market power and could also widen China's cost advantage in electric vehicles.

China's CATL has offered smaller domestic electric-vehicle makers discounted prices on batteries, according to four people with knowledge of the terms.

The discount offers included a clause that shocked the auto industry after a year of rising prices: a built-in assumption that prices of lithium carbonate, a key component in auto batteries, would more than halve, three of the people said.

The move shows CATL's cost advantage from investments in lithium mining and refining, and its determination to knock back the challenge from smaller Chinese rivals such as CALB and EVE Energy which have factories ramping up this year, analysts said.

"It's very much a market share game," said Caspar Rawles, chief data officer at Benchmark Mineral Intell…

Québec-based Uni-Select, Canada’s largest supplier of automotive refinish, industrial paint and more than two million replacement parts in the auto industry, is being purchased by U.S.-based LKQ Corp. for about $2.1 billion (USD) in cash.

Based in Chicago, LKQ supplies aftermarket and recycled parts, focusing mainly on RVs, trucks and off-roading, towing, speed and performance, wheels, tires and performance handling.

Both companies operate in North America and the United Kingdom.

"This acquisition further enhances LKQ's global automotive vehicle parts distribution business," LKQ CEO Dominick Zarcone said in a statement. "Uni-Select's North American automotive refinish paint and mechanical parts distribution operations complement LKQ's existing footprint and will allow us to distribute a broader array of products to our customers.

Uni-Select's FinishMaster division supplies paint and refinishing products to automotive dealership…

The U.S. Department of Energy on Monday said it will lend Li-Cycle Holdings Corp $375 million as it builds a battery recycling facility in New York set to become one of the country's largest sources of lithium by next year.

The loan is the latest move by Washington to spur development of a domestic electric vehicle supply chain, with greater battery recycling capacity seen as crucial to meeting President Joe Biden's goal for half of new U.S. vehicles to be electric by 2030.

"One of the benefits of recycling is it can bring metals to market more confidently than some of the mining companies that take a bit longer to go from the identification of the resource to full production," Jigar Shah, head of the Energy Department's Loan Programs Office, told Reuters.

The loan, which was in review for more than a year, will have a 12-year term and an interest rate matching the 10-year U.S. Treasury rate when funds are issued, expected by July. U.S. Senator Chuck Sch…

General Motors and Tesla are the big winners in the 2022 Automotive Loyalty Awards, with Tesla topping Ford for U.S. brand loyalty for the first time, S&P Global Mobility said Monday.

Despite a three-year industrywide drop in customer loyalty, GM managed to win the "Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer" award for the eighth-straight year. Industrywide shortages have caused customers to shop for other brands, prompting industry average loyalty to drop from 54.6 percent in 2019 to 50.2 percent in 2022.

GM sees a consistent demand for its SUVs and pickups as inventory levels rise, S&P Global Mobility said in a statement.

"The past three years have been a challenge for the automotive industry," Joe LaFeir, S&P Global Mobility president, said in the statement. "As customers are returning back to market post pandemic and inventory levels have slowly improved from last year's lows, retaining loyal customers has been more challenging than ever before." Read more

Valeo forecasts strong sales growth this year, as record 2022 orders helped by demand for car electrification and driving-assistance technology helped it navigate a challenging year for the automotive sector.

The group is targeting sales of between $23 billion and $24 billion this year, against the $21 billion posted for 2022, the company said in a statement.

The 2022 performance was in line with its guidance from October.

Valeo is betting on car electrification and the adoption of advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS), as governments and companies shift towards a low-carbon economy while consumers warm to the idea of automated driving.

The supplier's record business backlog of 32.6 billion euros ($34.4 billion) in 2022 included many orders for EV components and ADAS technology, CEO Christophe Périllat told reporters in a call.

The company's core profit (EBITDA) for 2022 came in at 2.40 billion euros ($2.5 billion), above the 2.34 bill…

TOKYO -- Nissan said it will be able to comply with U.S. local sourcing rules for electric vehicle tax credits starting in 2026 as it consolidates platforms and drivetrains for more competitive EVs.

The automaker will begin offering six EV nameplates in the important U.S. market starting that year.

The lineup will include a next-generation Leaf hatchback and the Ariya crossover, as well as four new models made for the Nissan and Infiniti brands at its Canton, Mississippi, plant.

The latter models, two sedans and two crossovers, will qualify for the full $7,500 EV incentive.

Nissan’s efforts to tap into the tax credits offered under the Inflation Reduction Act will be achieved through compliance with rules on final assembly, content from foreign entities of concern and the localization of battery components and minerals, COO Ashwani Gupta said.

“We as Nissan are confident that we will be complying for IRA with localization starting in CY 20…

The researcher fellow at the Harvard Law School and Breakthrough Institute director examines the effectiveness of the Inflation Reduction Act, urges more focus on electric-vehicle affordability, and foresees a long road ahead for meaningful carbon-reduction efforts.

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Small and midsize dealerships are struggling to implement the regulatory items needed to comply with the Federal Trade Commission's revised Safeguards Rule. The good news is the FTC has extended the original December 2022 deadline to June 9, 2023.

An important element of these rule updates is information security — protecting your data, systems and infrastructure with the correct cybersecurity tool sets and having the right people, processes and reporting mechanisms in place.

While this sounds like a heavy lift for small and midsize dealerships, it doesn't need to be complicated, cumbersome or expensive.

What do you really need to meet security safeguards? A letter from representatives of the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy requesting a deadline extension lists supply chain delays and a talent shortage as top concerns for meeting requirements. While these problems are real, there are solutions that are not com…

European auto plants took a fresh hit from the global semiconductor shortage and will cut nearly 91,000 vehicles out their production schedules for this week as a result.

The worldwide impact of the chip shortage continues to inconvenience the auto industry, according to the newest forecast from AutoForecast Solutions, which has tracked the crisis since it materialized in early 2021. 

Recent weeks of regional flare-ups of the problem have taken a toll on the global total so far this year. One week ago, AFS tallied another 147,000 chip-related factory cutbacks, much of them in North America. 

But with chip supplies and workarounds improving, AFS’ year-end global forecast for lost production has not materially changed. It still estimates that worldwide production cuts due to missing microchips will reach 2.8 million cars and trucks by the end of 2023, more than 900,000 of them occurring at North American factories.

Source: AutoForecast S…

Customers financed $41,445 on the average new-vehicle loan and $27,768 on the average used vehicle loan during the 4th quarter. Those loans on average had higher interest rates and higher monthly payments than a year earlier. Meanwhile, a larger proportion of customers were behind on their loans. Here are more highlights from Experian. Market share of total financing Hover over chart for more detail. Total risk distribution Loan and lease, new and used Q4 2018 Q4 2019 Q4 2020 Q4 2021 Q4 2022 Near Subprime Deep Subprime Super Prime 30-day delinquency Percentage of loans delinquent Q4 2018 2.43% Q4 2019 2.42% Q4 2020 1.81% Q4 2021 1.86% Q4 2022 2.31% 60-day delinquency Percentage of loans delinquent Q4 2018 0.83% Q4 2019 0.83% Q4 2020 0.64% Q4 2021 0.66% Q4 2022 0.87% New-vehicle loans Average amount financed Q4 2020 $35,420 Q4 2021 $39,834 Q4 2022 $41,445 Average loan rate Q4 2020 4.3% Q4 2021 3.88% Q4 2022 6.0…