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Auto retail giant AutoNation Inc., in a step toward developing its own captive finance unit, plans to acquire auto lender CIG Financial to support its growing standalone used-vehicle AutoNation USA business and further develop customer relationships throughout vehicle ownership.

AutoNation said this week in reporting lower second-quarter net income that it plans within the next 90 days to buy CIG Financial of Irvine, Calif., for $85 million.

The planned purchase marks a strategy move under AutoNation CEO Mike Manley's leadership. Manley, who took over as chief executive in November, said in February that he was "aggressively looking" to restart a captive finance company at the auto retailer and in April said he would prefer to create a captive finance company from an acquisition.

"This acquisition provides capabilities, footprint, technology and most importantly a proven, motivated team with great leadership," Manley told investors and analysts in a call…

Three dealership groups expanded with single-store purchases and an owner buying his second store in first-quarter and second-quarter transactions.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic and import dealerships and stores in Texas, Michigan, Oklahoma and Maryland.

Star Family of Dealerships buys Ford storeStar Family of Dealerships in Texas expanded last month with the purchase of a Ford dealership.

The group, owned by Mike Dunnahoo and Tracy Gilliam, bought Big Spring Ford in Big Spring, Texas, on June 28, according to DCG Acquisitions, a Dave Cantin Group company that handled the transaction. Tony Karabon of DCG Acquisitions was the broker.

The dealership was renamed Star Ford of Big Spring. Big Spring is west of Abilene, where Star Family of Dealerships is based, according to its website.

The group bought the store from Ford & Son's Auto Investors LLC. That's former RFJ Auto Partners Holdings Inc. CEO Rick Ford's holding compan…

Cadillac is looking back and forward in creating what it says will be the brand's most advanced vehicle ever.

The hand-built Celestiq show car, introduced Friday, previews Cadillac's vision for advanced electric vehicles. It is engineered and designed to place the brand equally alongside the latest luxury EVs from upstarts such as Lucid and longtime rivals Mercedes-Benz and Audi. It features five high-definition advanced LED interactive displays, a four-panel Smart Glass Roof and Ultra Cruise, General Motors' next-generation hands-free driver assistance technology that goes beyond highway driving. Cadillac plans to offer Ultra Cruise on the Celestiq production vehicle.

The production car -- billed by Cadillac as the "standard of the world" -- will be custom commissioned, meaning many features and materials, such as knobs, color trim, seating and even headliners, will be available from a menu.

It is scheduled to go on sale late next year, forecasters say…

Lithia Motors Inc., which outsold AutoNation Inc. for the first three months of 2022, did so again in the second quarter, making it the nation's largest new-vehicle retailer through the first half and putting Lithia closer to overtaking longtime No. 1 AutoNation for a full year.

Lithia reported Wednesday that it sold 68,752 new vehicles in the second quarter, including a small but undisclosed number sold in Canada. While Lithia's new-vehicle sales numbers dropped 8.5 percent compared with last year's second quarter, AutoNation's new-vehicle sales tumbled even more. New-vehicle sales performance for both retailers has been squeezed by the industry's inventory shortage, but Lithia's aggressive dealership acquisition strategy has helped it keep sales numbers up.

AutoNation on Thursday reported that it sold 57,890 new vehicles in the second quarter, down 25 percent from the year-ago period.

Through the first half of the year, Lithia sold 133,694 new vehicl…

Automaking chiefs warned for years about effects a costly transition to electric vehicles would have on their margins. But ahead of its landmark potential listing, Porsche is telling investors it can become more profitable focusing on battery power.

The Volkswagen Group-owned sports-car maker sees more potential to raise prices of its EVs than its combustion engine models, Chief Financial Officer Lutz Meschke said during Porsche’s capital markets day early this week.

Meschke sees the manufacturer’s EV margins reaching parity with those of combustion vehicles in two years, then expanding because customers are willing to pay more for new technology.

The brand — which plans an initial public offering in the fourth quarter — mapped out a push to grow return on sales to more than 20 percent in the long term, up from 16 percent last year.

Management expects eight in ten Porsches sold by the end of this decade to run on electricity, and for EVs to acco…

BERLIN -- Nearly nine months after German supplier Eberspaecher Group fell victim to a large-scale cyberattack, the company is finally eliminating the remaining effects from its 80 sites worldwide and has made its IT systems more secure.

The attack cost the company a "mid-double-digit million amount," Eberspaecher CEO Martin Peters told journalists.

This figure is likely to be between 40 and 60 million euros ($40 million to $60 million), according to a report in Automotive News Europe sister publication Automobilwoche.

Eberspaecher produces exhaust technology, air conditioning and heating systems. It has 80 locations in 29 countries and employs nearly 10,000 people. Volkswagen Group, BMW, Stellantis are among its customers.

The supplier's IT monitoring systems first registered suspicious activity on October 24, 2021, when perpetrators deployed ransomware to gain access to company systems.

To prevent the possible spread of the attack withi…

After multiple price hikes that pushed Tesla's bestselling Model Y above $65,000 for the base version, CEO Elon Musk said the automaker's overall pricing is "at embarrassing levels" and blamed supply chain shocks and overwhelming demand for the steady march upward.

"We've raised our prices quite a few times," Musk said on the company's second-quarter earnings call Wednesday. "They're frankly at embarrassing levels. But we've also had a lot of supply chain and production shocks and we've got crazy inflation."

Musk said that inflation appears to be cooling off and he's hoping to avoid any additional increases on Tesla's four-vehicle lineup this year — and to perhaps even bring prices down.

"I think inflation will decline towards the end of the year," Musk said, adding that economic predictions should be taken with a grain of salt. "I'm hopeful — and this is not a promise — but I'm hopeful at some point we can reduce prices a little bit."

Tesla sell…

J.D Power released the results of its 2022 U.S Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout Study on Thursday and found that premium brands are, on average, more favorable to consumers and that electric vehicles are still not as appealing to consumers as gas powered ones.

The study measures owners' "emotional attachment and level of excitement" after purchasing a new vehicle and asks owners to evaluate 37 different qualities, from comfort to excitement to drive, in the survey. J.D power aggregated these responses and assigned each vehicle brand an index score measured on a 1,000-point scale.

The study found mass market brands decreased in emotional appeal as compared to premium brands, with the gap widening to 31 points from 19 points in 2021. The study also found that mass market brand satisfaction decreased by four points while premium brands increased 8 points from 2021.

The highest-ranked premium brand was Porsche with a score of 888, a six point i…

Sales of used light vehicles in China dipped 6.1 percent in June from a year earlier after shrinking at a double-digit pace the previous three months, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association. 

The trade group attributed the latest results to eased anti-pandemic measures, including the lifting of household lockdown requirements in Shanghai at the beginning of last month. 

The trade group said 1.14 million used vehicles changed hands last month. 

Sales of used sedans, multi-purpose vehicles and minibuses dropped 9.7 percent, 4.2 percent and 0.7 percent, to around 834,200, 32,700 and 89,600, respectively.

But the volume of secondhand crossovers and SUVs rebounded 9.5 percent to about 181,600. 

In the first six months, roughly 6.09 million used light vehicles were sold, a drop of 8.9 percent from the same period last year, according to CADA’s tally.

To spur the used-vehicle market, the State Council, Chi…

Volkswagen Group’s China sales fell 21 percent from a year earlier to some 1.47 million in the first six months as it halted output at plants in Changchun and Shanghai amid pandemic-triggered lockdowns from March to May. 

Deliveries at the flagship VW brand slipped 19 percent to roughly 1.08 million in the first half, according to data from the German auto giant.

Of those sales, more than 75,900 were full electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, an increase of 107 percent from a year earlier. The surge was driven by ID.-series EV models, which generated volume of 59,400. 

In the first six months, Audi deliveries slipped 24 percent to 319,558 while Porsche sales dropped 16 percent to 40,681. 

Skoda volume plunged 44 percent to 24,700.

VW Group didn’t break down brand sales on a quarterly basis.

RecoveryAlong with a rebound in the overall Chinese light-vehicle market, which came after Changchun and Shanghai lifted city-wid…

AutoNation Inc.'s net income slipped in the second quarter as sales of new and used vehicles dropped, and the dealership giant said Thursday it struck a deal to acquire auto finance company CIG Financial for $85 million.

Thursday's acquisition announcement follows CEO Mike Manley's previously announced vision to create a captive finance company for AutoNation. In February, Manley said the company was "aggressively looking" into restarting a finance company in part to help AutoNation as it expands its standalone used-vehicle business. In May, Manley said he would prefer to create a captive finance company out of an organization it acquired. AutoNation said the purchase of CIG Financial is expected to close within 90 days.

"This acquisition addresses a key strategic next step in the evolution and expansion of our customer relationships, particularly for our used vehicle business," Manley, who became AutoNation's CEO in November, said in a statement Thursday.

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. on Thursday said it will import lower-cost lithium iron batteries for North American electric pickup trucks and SUVs from Chinese battery giant CATL as it works on a broader alliance with CATL and an array of separate deals to secure battery and battery materials into the next decade.

Ford Vice President Lisa Drake said the automaker plans to secure lithium iron, or LFP, batteries from a new 40 GWh factory in North America starting in 2026. Drake would not say if that factory would be built by CATL. Reuters reported in May that CATL was looking at U.S. sites to build EV batteries to serve Ford and BMW.

Ford's decision to use lithium-iron batteries in its best-selling North American EVs is the latest sign that lithium iron's lower cost - Ford said the chemistry can cut material costs by 10-15 percent - is worth the trade-off in range. Tesla is offering LFP batteries in some lower-priced Model 3 sedans sold in the United States. Electric…