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Online used-vehicle retailer Vroom Inc.'s initial public offering in June 2020 arrived at a fortuitous time.

It happened during a pandemic that necessitated more consumers buying vehicles partly or entirely online. As a result, Vroom sold more used cars and trucks and its shares skyrocketed to a record high closing price of nearly $74 in September 2020. Then came 2022, a year in which investors in Vroom and its competitors grew wary of how much cash the companies were still burning through to grow and the net losses they were recording.

In May 2022, Vroom announced plans to scale back. The company appointed COO Tom Shortt — who previously oversaw an e-commerce supply chain strategy at Walmart and held roles at Home Depot and ACCO Brands, among others — to become CEO and lead a long-term business plan that prioritized improving vehicle economics and reducing costs.

Shortt, 54, spoke with Staff Reporter C.J. Moore this month about V…

TO THE EDITOR:

There has been much talk about the need for more electric vehicle charging stations, but one subject that is not mentioned is personal security at these locations. Many of the current locations are in the open and somewhat remote. Who would feel safe on a cold, rainy or snowy night waiting in their car for 30-plus minutes for it to charge? A car running to keep the heat on would make a tempting target for a carjacker.

Additionally, we Americans are not a particularly patient lot. A scenario where someone just about out of a charge finds all the charging stations at a mall or restaurant filled and the vehicles possibly fully charged, with no idea when an owner will return, is just asking for trouble.

As the country is adding charging stations, the security of customers needs to be a top concern.

J.C. CONWAY, St. Augustine, Fla.

The Biden administration has dropped, for now, a plan that would have awarded automakers such as Tesla Inc. credits for using renewable natural gas to power EVs.

That proposal was excluded from drafted regulation setting biofuel-blending quotas for the next three years that is undergoing final review at the White House, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the decision isn’t public. 

Under the proposal, carmakers would be folded into the 18-year-old Renewable Fuel Standard that requires refiners to blend biofuels into gasoline and diesel. EV manufacturers would be able to claim new, tradeable credits in exchange for using electricity generated from natural gas harvested from landfills or farms.

EPA spokeswoman Maria Michalos declined to comment, citing the proposed rule’s ongoing interagency review. The draft regulation could still change before its formal, final release.

EPA officials were concerned…

The percentage of "cash deals" has grown over the past year, a trend that can eat into auto dealership finance-and-insurance revenue.

Dealerships earn money from arranging indirect loans between lenders and consumers, revenue they can't collect when a consumer has cash, a cashier's check or a personal check in hand. Cash deals might also jeopardize finance-and-insurance product sales because consumers typically finance F&I coverage within auto loans. If a customer is paying cash, the finance manager must persuade the consumer to pay those premiums out-of-pocket or take out a loan for the coverage.

G.P. Anderson, finance manager at Thielen Motors in Park Rapids, Minn., recalled a run of 38 deals in 2022 that either involved either cash or outside financing.

"It's like you're losing your brain because you don't get paid on a cash deal in your brain," he said. "And what happens is 99 percent of the finance people, they just get absolutely hellbent for…

A car accident involving a Robert Bosch engineer sparked an idea that could cut down on the severity of similar crashes.

In 2019, Rameez Ahmad, an engineering manager at Bosch USA, was traveling in Pakistan with friends from college when a motorcycle hit the passenger side of their vehicle. No one was hurt, but the accident drove home to Ahmad how serious, dangerous and common such collisions are.

"Off-zone" side collisions, as they are referred to, often occur corner-to-corner as vehicles change lanes or pass through intersections, according to Bosch, the world's largest parts supplier. They can occur with little warning, and the impact can be catastrophic depending on the size and speed of the vehicles.

"Even though I had a minor accident, I could imagine if it was a major accident with more speed or a bigger vehicle, the impact could be devastating," Ahmad told Automotive News. "That triggered to me and the team to rethink how to …

Used-vehicle-only retailers and some of the six publicly traded dealership groups in their latest quarters said they favored boosting gross profit per used vehicle they retailed and not necessarily growing sales volume.

For used-retail giant CarMax Inc., keeping gross profit per vehicle stable was a priority, CEO Bill Nash said last month. Online used-vehicle retailers Carvana Co. and Vroom Inc. also said they swapped sales volume growth — which they chased as the e-commerce used-vehicle market heated up in 2020 and 2021 — to work on improving per-vehicle gross profit.

One of the public groups, Asbury Automotive Group Inc., said it focused on profitability in its used-vehicle side of the business.

"We just determined that it didn't make sense to chase volume," CEO David Hult said during Asbury's earnings call on April 25.

The retailers and dealership groups also said they grappled in their latest quarters with other …

McLaren’s new 750S coupe may not appear radically different from the 720S it replaces for 2024. But look closer at those wheels.

McLaren engineers wanted the 750S to be more powerful and faster, with a 0 to 60 mph time of under three seconds, and that meant the new model needed to be lighter.

The project eliminated more than 30 pounds from the wheels alone — with no compromise to structural integrity — by milling out parts of the nonload-bearing section of the 10-spoke forged alloy rims. The results are the lightest wheels ever fitted as standard equipment on a series production model McLaren.

AutoNation Inc. opened three used-vehicle-only AutoNation USA stores this year with more in the works, moving the country's second-largest dealership group closer to its goal of 130-plus outlets by the end of 2026.

"The expansion of AutoNation USA remains a core tenet of our expansion and densification efforts," AutoNation CEO Mike Manley said on the company's April 20 earnings call.

AutoNation USA stores opened in the first quarter in Austin, Texas, and Albuquerque, N.M., CFO Joe Lower said on the call. A Colorado Springs, Colo., location had a grand opening Tuesday, May 16.

Under then-CEO Mike Jackson, AutoNation in 2016 revived the AutoNation USA brand, years after Jackson had closed most of the group's used-only stores. He then called for as many as 20 possible stores. The effort continued, initially, until 2018, when AutoNation said it would pause those expansion plans. It again revamped growth efforts in 2020 for the brand a…

Prosecutors have charged 11 men with stealing 86 vehicles worth more than $5 million from Ohio dealerships.

The suspects are accused of taking expensive, high-powered models such as Dodge Charger SRT Hellcats and Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawks from 26 dealerships over five months. One showroom was robbed three times.

A 142-count indictment unsealed last week includes charges of racketeering, conspiracy, grand theft, felonious assault and aggravated robbery. Ninety of the charges were filed against one man, 20-year-old Makilin Wilson, who was arrested in February after police said he led them on a high-speed chase in a stolen Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat. He and eight other defendants, ages 18 to 22, were in custody last week, according to The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.

Prosecutors said the men scoped out the dealerships during the day to locate security cameras and key fobs before going back overnight to steal the vehicles. Police belie…

Tesla Inc. is offering discounts of more than $1,300 on some Model 3 cars in its U.S. inventory following even heavier discounts in Europe, according to a Reuters' review of its website, even as the electric carmaker has raised U.S. prices on most newly ordered cars this month.

Facing economic headwinds and mounting competition, Tesla this year has aggressively cut vehicle prices in several regions and is resorting to the traditional automakers' tactic of offering incentives to clear inventory, analysts said.

On Tuesday, CEO Elon Musk told shareholders Tesla will try advertising for the first time, a move analysts said could drum up demand. Musk warned Tesla was not immune to the global economy, predicting it will be difficult for the next 12 months.

Tesla slightly raised prices of some new models twice this month in the U.S., although prices remain much lower than they were before the price cuts began this year.

Tesla now offers discounts of mor…

A former AutoNation Honda Miami Lakes finance manager has been arrested after allegedly collecting more than $100,000 in deals for vehicles he never produced.

Carlos Ravelo, 51, was charged with one count of an organized scheme to defraud $50,000 or more; two counts of second-degree grand theft; one count of organized fraud of $50,000 or more; eight counts of third-degree grand theft; one count of theft from the elderly; and four counts of writing a worthless check, according to the Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Department.

Miami-Dade Police Department reports contain multiple instances of consumers reporting they had bought vehicles for cash from Ravelo but never received the models or a full refund.

AutoNation Honda general manager Armando Ibanez said the dealership has been investigating customer complaints as well, according to police.

Ibanez "made it clear that [Ravelo] was selling vehicles that belong to [the] Honda deale…