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When Grené Baranco’s parents, Gregory and Juanita Baranco, moved to Atlanta in 1978 to open a Pontiac dealership, they became part of the first wave of African American auto dealers in the United States.

“It was a family business from the start,” says Grené, who remembers how exciting it was to be a 6-year-old at the dealership—and starring with her parents and sister in TV commercials.

Baranco worked at the dealership as a receptionist in high school and during her college years at Georgia State University. She thought about graduate school, but her parents offered her the opportunity to become assistant to the manager at their new Mercedes-Benz store—and she couldn’t say no.

“My path was always on the sales side,” Baranco says. That included a stint as internet sales manager.

After the Pontiac dealership closed following the Great Recession of 2008-09, the family focused on that second dealership, Mercedes-Benz of Buckhead, where today Baranco i…

The head of Peugeot maker PSA Group expects more consolidation in the auto industry as carmakers invest vast sums to make EVs, he said on Monday, while predicting some wouldn't make it through the coming decade.

"Only the most agile with a Darwinian spirit will survive," Carlos Tavares said at the Reuters Automotive Summit teleconference, adding PSA was no longer investing in internal combustion engines as Europe and China push for cleaner driving.

Tavares also said PSA was far ahead of its objectives in meeting European Union CO2 emission targets.

PSA is working towards a planned merger with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Tavares reiterated this was on track for the first quarter of 2021.

"So far, so good," he said, adding much of the hard work in bringing the two companies together had already been done.

PSA and FCA will operate under the name Stellantis after they merge, becoming the world's fourth-largest carmaker.

Tavares said on…

FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen Group is looking into potentially carving out its Lamborghini supercar and Ducati motorbike brands, it said on Monday, as the automaker seeks to streamline its operations and focus on mass-producing electric cars.

"We are working on our Italian legal structure," CEO Herbert Diess said, referring to Lamborghini, Ducati and design studio Italdesign, while adding that no decisions have been made.

Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last month that Volkswagen was drawing up plans for a potential spin-off or initial public offering of the brands.

Diess was speaking after Volkswagen announced on Friday it would increase its planned investment in digital and electric vehicle technologies to 73 billion euros ($86 billion) over the next five years.

Diess said on Monday that Volkswagen would miss its CO2 compliance target this year by "a gram or so."

He saw business recovering next year, with the company planning…

SHANGHAI/BEIJING -- China's Huachen Automotive Group, parent of BMW's China joint venture partner Brilliance Automotive Holdings, said Monday that its creditors had applied to a Chinese court to restructure the company.

Huachen faces the prospect of restructuring after Gezhi Automobile Technology filed an application to the Shenyang Intermediate People's Court, Hong Kong-listed Brilliance Auto said in an exchange filing on Sunday.

Huachen, owned by the government of Liaoning province, said it was uncertain if it would be able to enter restructuring, in a statement on the website of interbank bond market clearing house China Central Depository & Clearing Co.

The company said that if the court was unable to approve a restructuring plan, or if the approved plan could not be executed, the court would terminate the restructuring process and declare the company bankrupt.

Huachen defaulted on a 1-billion-yuan ($151.88 million) bond last month, joini…

Volkswagen Group will build a flagship electric car for Audi, Porsche, Bentley in Germany, the Handelsblatt business paper reported.

The car, codenamed "Landjet," will roll off a new production line at VW Group's factory in Hanover, Germany, the paper said in a report published on Saturday.

The three-row, seven-seat vehicle is being developed by Audi as part of its Artemis Project that is creating new technologies for electric, highly automated automobiles for VW Group.  

VW Group picked its Hanover factory, which mainly builds commercial vehicles, for the Landjet because Audi's factories are too small, Handelsblatt said.

"The Landjet can go into series production quite quickly in Hanover and with less additional effort than in an Audi factory," a VW Group executive told the paper.

The Hanover plant will also produce the ID Buzz, a modern, full-electric version of VW's Microbus that became a 1960s icon.

The Landjet is expected t…

The idea came to Kevin Telfor a few years ago in the middle of a campground as he watched a fellow camper struggle to back an RV into its parking space. Later, he struck up a conversation with the driver.

"I said to him, 'I've never worked on RVs, but if you ever need something, I'll give you my card,' " said Telfor, the body shop manager at Krapohl Ford & Lincoln in Mount Pleasant, Mich.

A few months later, the camper called. Ever since, Telfor and the body shop have developed a knack for fixing RVs, fifth-wheel trailers, motor homes and any other kind of vehicle they could fit into their bays. Pursuit of repair jobs beyond traditional passenger vehicles has become a hallmark of the dealership.

Among unconventional vehicles, none has brought in more business than RVs — and that was before a national boom in RV travel fueled by the pandemic. Now that more Americans are taking road trips, Krapohl's yearslong effort to hone an expertise in RV service…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ In defense of pivots

The word "pivot" is getting scorn from wordsmiths these days.

It even made an Atlantic magazine story on overused buzzwords this year: "If there's anything corporate America has a knack for, it's inventing new, positive words that polish up old, negative ones," a staffer wrote. "If you mess up and need to start over, just call it a 'pivot' and press on."

I'm usually all for nipping potential cliches in the bud. But "pivot" remains a pretty good way of describing the strategy shifts we focus on in Monday's issue. And each of them is being spearheaded by a new leader.

For example:

■ American Honda is rolling out a number of structural changes to its sales and manufacturing organization. The goals are more intriguing than the details. Simply put, Honda wants to be less bureaucratic and more open to trying new things.

"We can't afford anymore to have a dealer talk to a field rep, who tal…

For Michigan’s burgeoning aerospace industry, the sky isn’t the limit. It’s the starting point. Gavin Brown, executive director of the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association, details the state’s potential as a commercial space hub. Meanwhile, Adam Kall, co-founder of Kall Morris Inc., explains why his Marquette, Mich.,-based startup is laser-focused on collecting junk in space.

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TOKYO — Lawyers defending former Nissan director Greg Kelly, the American accused of conspiring to conceal Carlos Ghosn's big paychecks from the public, took their first crack at cross-examining a key state witness last week and argued that prosecutors had violated Japan-U.S. extradition laws by setting a trap to arrest the Tennessee executive on Japanese soil.

Kelly's legal team tried to poke holes in the case by showing the witness to have a faulty memory and by casting doubt on the level of Kelly's involvement in alleged schemes to hide Ghosn's pay.

Meanwhile, as that trial continued in Tokyo, a separate case kicked off just south of the capital in Yokohama, where Nissan Motor Co. is suing Ghosn for nearly $100 million in damages over allegations of financial misconduct and misappropriation of funds. As the second case began, Ghosn issued a statement from Lebanon, where he is living in self-imposed exile, denouncing the claims as having "ab…

With production of its first customer vehicles scheduled to begin in about seven months, Rivian is moving quickly to establish it parts and service operations. The company also has taken its first steps toward building a nationwide network of body shops to handle accident repairs.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told Automotive News that the company plans to have a fully operational service network ready before most customers take delivery of their battery-electric R1T pickups and R1S SUVs.

Customers, he said, will have two options for repairs that cannot be carried out by over-the-air software updates: They can visit a brick-and-mortar service center or schedule mobile service at their homes and businesses. That plan closely mimics Tesla's strategy.

In a wide-ranging interview with Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein on the "Daily Drive" podcast, Scaringe for the first time addressed how Rivian will offer service for its vehicles without …

TOKYO — Jeep boss Christian Meunier says his mission is to further globalize the iconic off-road company and transform its image into that of the "greenest SUV brand" in the world.

The strategy will involve leveraging synergies with PSA Group and promoting Jeep's upcoming range of electrified vehicles, partly through a new marketing campaign.

Speaking with journalists in Tokyo by videoconference last month, Meunier highlighted Jeep's rapid international expansion on the back of brisk sales in markets such as Japan.

Jeep's worldwide sales grew fivefold in the past decade, from just 300,000 vehicles in 2009 to around 1.5 million in 2019, he noted. Sales in Japan, Jeep's ninth-largest market, notched a tenfold increase over that period. Japan is now the top buyer of Wranglers outside North America.

Jeep used to have just four assembly plants, all in the U.S. Now, it has 10 in six countries.

"There are many d…