News

Volkswagen Group has lowered its sales target in China by roughly 14 percent for this year as the country reinstates its COVID-Zero policy that led to widespread supply-chain disruptions for the auto industry.

The automaker plans to sell 3.3 million cars in China this year, on par with the previous year’s results and about a half million fewer than the 3.85 million previously estimated, the company’s China chief Ralf Brandstätter said in an interview with Handelsblatt newspaper published Tuesday.

VW had reiterated its earlier target for China deliveries as recently as July, but in October said that its 2022 sales would be similar to the year before as global economic headwinds continued to build and supply-chain problems persisted.

Brandstätter said that VW needs to investment more in China to compete with local electric-vehicle brands that accounted for almost 80 percent of EV sales there in the first seven months of 2022, according to the China Passeng…

WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES -- Workers at the largest U.S. rail union voted against a tentative contract deal reached in September, raising the possibility of a year-end strike that could cause significant damage to the U.S. economy and strand vital shipments of food, automobiles and fuel.

Train and engine service members of the transportation division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) narrowly voted to reject the deal. That unit, which includes conductors, brakemen and other workers, joins three other unions in rejecting a deal brokered via a board appointed by U.S. President Joe Biden.

"There's a lot of anger about paid sick leave among the membership" who kept goods flowing during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Seth Harris, a professor at Northeastern University.

Railroads have slashed labor and other costs to bolster profits and are fiercely opposed to adding sick time flexibil…

Warehouse and distribution giant Prologis sees autonomous trucking as the future of logistics.

The San Francisco-based company is in the early stages of organizing its business to serve shippers and motor carriers that plan to add electric and autonomous big rigs to their fleets, said Henrik Holland, global head of mobility at Prologis.

Holland outlined the company's plans while discussing new business models at the Automotive News Congress in Los Angeles last week.

Prologis has a partnership with Alphabet's self-driving technology subsidiary Waymo to build highway-adjacent hubs for autonomous trucking. The first hub opened outside Dallas in July 2022.

Prologis and Waymo spent $10 million to build their nine-acre autonomous truck hub in Lancaster, Texas. The facility has 100 employees, 10 truck maintenance bays, six EV charging stations, and diesel fueling operations. Waymo operates 20 autonomous trucks out of the facility, although they are runni…

Lithia Motors Inc., whose most recent acquisition was for six Airstream dealerships, bolstered its presence in Texas this month with the purchase of a Stellantis store.

Lithia on Wednesday bought Meador Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram in Fort Worth from siblings Kyle Hunter and Laura Hunter, the auto retail giant confirmed.

The dealership was renamed Meador Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram, according to a post on Lithia's LinkedIn page.

The Texas acquisition is Lithia's first franchised automotive dealership purchase since it re-entered Wisconsin in September, with the acquisition of five dealerships from Wilde Automotive Group, Lithia confirmed.

Lithia, which also has sold several dealerships this year, divested an Acura store in Southern California this month.

Lithia on Nov. 7 sold DCH Acura of Temecula to Nathan Oh of OH Auto Group, the auto retailer confirmed. The dealership was renamed OH Acura of Temecula. Temecula is north of San Diego.

Lith…

LOS ANGELES — Sales of the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle may be small since its launch eight years ago, but those owners are using their cars in a big way.

More than 9 in 10 owners (92 percent) use their Mirais as their primary household vehicles, said Craig Scott, director of fuel cell solutions for Toyota Motor North America. Scott said less than two-thirds of battery-electric vehicle owners say the same.

But it is a small sample. The Mirai has been on sale in the U.S. since 2015 and struggled to gain a foothold. Since the start of 2020, Toyota has sold just 4,717 in the U.S. through October this year.

Nonetheless, Toyota's reported gap in how some owners are using the two technologies showcases ways in which hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles might complement and compete with BEVs down the road.

"People view the capabilities of hydrogen as a primary vehicle replacement, and they're acting accordingly," said Scott, who spoke Friday …

Your next pizza could be delivered by an electric vehicle.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Domino's Pizza Inc. announced Monday that it will roll out a fleet of nearly 800 Chevy Bolt electric vehicles around the country to deliver pizza orders — the largest such EV delivery effort.

Doing so offers advantages for the company, executives said in a news release, including ample battery life allowing for the potential to have days of deliveries on one charge, zero tailpipe emissions, advanced safety features and lower average maintenance costs than nonelectric vehicles.

Domino's CEO Russell Weiner pointed out that Domino's first launched pizza delivery in 1960 with a Volkswagen Beetle, and in 2015 tested autonomous vehicles for delivery.

"Domino's has always been on the cutting edge of pizza delivery and electric delivery cars make sense as vehicle technology continues to evolve," Weiner said in the release. "We've made a commitment to net-zero carbon emission…

Valuing dealerships is complicated as buyers weigh many factors when determining how much they will pay in a transaction. The buy-sell market has changed dramatically from 2019 as profits surged, and valuations are changing again as conditions begin to get tougher. Past valuation methodologies may no longer accurate in determining blue sky value, so sellers must run a competitive auction process in order to uncover the Most Motivated Buyer® for their store(s).

Q: Do you think the elevated earnings dealers are enjoying will continue much longer?

Alan Haig: There’s a lot of confusing noise in the economy right now with inflation, rising interest rates and a falling stock market, but also increased employment and greater household wealth. Dealership profits more than tripled since the Pandemic hit. Profits likely peaked in the first half of this year, but we believe dealers will be enjoying elevated profits for some time. By our estimate, there will be pent-up d…

Stellantis is breathing a little more life into Fiat, the Italian brand that's been reduced to a solitary nameplate in North America.

It's bringing the electric 500e back to the U.S. to take advantage of the industry's ongoing electric "revolution," brand CEO Olivier Francois said. But after years of learning hard lessons about American consumer tastes, it doesn't have grand volume ambitions for the car, he said, and there are no plans to expand the portfolio further.

Fiat, Francois told Automotive News, isn't going to try to be everything to everybody.

"The lesson learned is humility," he said of Fiat's experience in the U.S. over the past decade. "America doesn't need another brand, doesn't need Fiat, doesn't need an average mainstream car brand doing mainstream cars. We are not bringing anything really new to the party, but where America needs us is to make this polarizing, niche, unique statement, and that's where the 500 and, to…

Tesla Inc. is recalling more than 321,000 U.S. vehicles because tail lights may intermittently fail to illuminate, the company said in a filing made public Saturday.

The news follows the company's recall on Friday of nearly 30,000 Model X cars in the U.S. over an issue that may cause the front passenger air bag to deploy incorrectly, which sent its shares down almost 3% to a near two-year low.

In the filing published Saturday to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the EV manufacturer said the tail light-related recall covers some 2023 Model 3 and 2020-2023 Model Y vehicles.

Texas-based Tesla said it will deploy an over-the-air update to correct the rear light issue and said it has no reports of any crashes or injuries related to the recall.

The company said the recall followed customer complaints that emerged in late October, largely from foreign markets, claiming vehicle tail lights were not illuminating.

The investigation …

Just as “Black Panther” marketing reaches a crescendo, the brand hype has started for the year’s next mega-blockbuster, “Avatar.” Mercedes-Benz debuted a co-promotional campaign with the sci-fi sequel, called “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which hits theaters Dec. 16.

The effort, created in partnership with Avatar’s movie studio 20th Century Studios, will run globally and plug Mercedes’ elective vehicle lineup, including the Mercedes-EQ and EQE crossover. Ads will run on TV, in cinemas as well as digital and social media.

An ad released Friday shows a woman being transported from a parking lot into Avatar’s fantastical world, filled with tropical forests, flying creatures and exotic sea life. The tagline, “Earth is Our Pandora,” is aimed at linking Mercedes with environmental causes while also serving as a film reference — Pandora is the name of the fictional planet invaded by the U.S. Armed Forces in search of minerals in the original movie, set in the year 2154…

Matt McGovern went on a dealership acquisition spree to start 2022.

With the exception of April, McGovern bought one franchised dealership each month from January through June, bolstering McGovern Automotive Group's presence in Massachusetts with five more stores.

McGovern's acquisition activity is a microcosm of the buy-sell market for the first half of the year: Private groups — not the publicly traded auto retailers — collectively were the most active buyers, often completing deals for just one or two dealerships at a time.

Automotive News, which last year for the first time rigorously documented dealership acquisitions, tracked 178 buy-sell transactions in the first half of 2022, involving 253 U.S. franchised dealerships trading hands. The transaction count rose 19 percent from 150 in the first half of 2021, while the number of acquired dealerships slipped slightly from 261 in the year-earlier period.

Lithia Motor…

Dealership acquisition and spending by the public dealership groups, which collectively played a significant role in last year's feverish buy-sell market, dropped sharply in the first half of 2022.

Lithia Motors Inc., Group 1 Automotive Inc., Penske Automotive Group Inc. and Sonic Automotive Inc. bought 21 U.S. franchised dealerships in 10 transactions in the first six months of 2022, down from 67 stores acquired by public auto retailers in 17 deals in the first half of 2021, according to Automotive News' tracking of dealership buy-sell activity.

The number of dealerships purchased by the public groups in this year's first half decreased by more than two-thirds compared with the first half of 2021, a period headlined by Lithia's April 2021 purchase of Michigan's Suburban Collection and its 34 franchised dealerships.

LMP Automotive Holdings Inc., which is now traded over the counter and is pursuing a liquidation plan, is included in the 2021 buying figu…