Trade News

LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. said it agreed to purchase four dealerships in three states.

The group plans to buy Cadillac and Nissan dealerships in Houston for $141 million, acquire a Kia dealership in Connecticut for more than $9 million and spend $19.2 million for a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership in New York.

The three transactions include dealership real estate.

The deals, announced since July 19 and each expected to close in the fourth quarter, are the latest planned acquisitions for the small public auto retailer that bought its first half-dozen franchised dealerships in the first quarter for $143.6 million. In May, it bought an 85 percent stake in a Subaru store in Mount Hope, W.Va., for $3.2 million.

LMP said the two Texas dealerships are expected to generate $250 million in annual revenue.

LMP and sellers David Peacock and partner Aldo Paret entered into an asset purchase agreement July 16, according to a regulatory filing, to…

DETROIT — General Motors has hired Omar Vargas, who has worked for 3M Company, PepsiCo and the U.S. Department of Justice, as its vice president of global public policy.

Vargas' role is effective Aug. 1, GM said in a statement Monday.

"Omar Vargas brings over 20 years of experience leading public policy teams and working collaboratively to find policy solutions to complex issues," Craig Glidden, GM executive vice president, global public policy, and general counsel, said in the statement. "His broad experience managing issues across multiple industries and working with governments, both within the U.S. and globally, make him the right person to advocate for policy solutions in support of GM's vision, including our commitment for an all-electric future."

Vargas will report to Glidden. He replaces Everett Eissenstat, who plans to leave the company on Aug. 1 to pursue other opportunities. Eissenstat had been vice president of global public policy since 2018…

Chinese electric vehicle maker Li Auto Inc. has received the green light from the Hong Kong stock exchange for a listing in the city, following in the steps of its rival XPeng Inc., which completed such a share sale last month.

U.S.-traded Li Auto could raise $1 billion to $2 billion in the listing, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Its updated listing documents were published on the HKEX website on Monday, indicating it has received approval from the bourse.

A spokeswoman said the company wouldn’t comment further beyond the prospectus.

Li Auto is pushing ahead with a share sale in the Asian financial hub at a time when Beijing is cracking down on overseas listings by Chinese companies. Shares of some of the biggest U.S.-listed Chinese firms have dropped recently as concerns about the regulatory onslaught deepen. Li Auto’s Nasdaq shares fell 8 percent on Friday, giving the company a market capitalization of $27.4 billion.

Earlier t…

Ford Motor Co. tapped Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao to tell the story of how its “electrified” classic cars are shaping the brand’s future in a new Olympics ad from Wieden+Kennedy New York.

Zhao, repped out of Caviar for commercials, captures scenes of how the electric versions of its most popular and famous vehicles -- the F150 Lightning, the Mustang Mach E and the ETransit -- are helping to improve the lives of everyday Americans in new ways.

As a farmer looks upon a dark house that brightens when connected to his truck, the voiceover announces, “Here’s an idea—take the familiar and make it revolutionary. Take the truck our parents used to build this country and make it so it can power our homes.”

Alongside nostalgic scenes of engineers hard at work designing the Mustang back in the day, the voice over reads, “Take the original zero-to-sixty head-turner—give it zero vehicle emissions … Take who we are and make it into where we’re going.”

A Lucid Air with its limited-edition metallic paint-job called “eureka gold” glints, parked outside of the Nasdaq.

The luxury car, a part of EV maker’s Dream lineup, is evocative of the path it took to public markets via blank-check.

Lucid Group Inc.’s debut listing on Monday comes after it completed a reverse-merger with financier Michael Klein’s special purpose acquisition company Churchill Capital Corp. IV. The stock, now trading under the symbol LCID, received a warm reception. Shares rose 5.9 percent to close at $24.25 on Monday.

When the deal was first announced in February, it was the largest proposed SPAC transaction at that time, referred by many in Wall Street as “peak SPAC” and Lucid was even compared with Tesla. Yet, for all of the institutional support the deal appears to have, the company’s fate will depend on the loyalty of shareholders, many of whom are new to investing and trading on apps.

“Retail investors are connected and act i…

Lordstown Motors Corp., the troubled Ohio automaker, said on Monday hedge fund YA II PN Ltd has committed to purchase up to $400 million of the company's shares, over a three-year period, coming at a crucial time when the electric-truck maker faces heightened regulatory scrutiny related to its SPAC merger and vehicle pre-orders.

Under the deal, YA can receive nearly 35 million Lordstown shares upon execution of the agreement, subject to the approval of Lordstown shareholders, as well as a small discount on the shares whenever purchased, according to a regulatory filing.

Lordstown's shares rose earlier in the day, but ultimately fell 2.5 percent to close at $7.29 on Monday.

Some industry observers called it a good deal for Lordstown.

"Existing shareholders are not taking $400 million worth of dilution. It's like a standby commitment on the part of YA to buy stock when Lordstown says it needs more money," said Erik Gordon, professor at the Universit…

Batteries are adding weight to vehicles in the emerging electric vehicle era. Henkel Corp. is developing weight-saving concepts to offset the addition, by introducing adhesive products to battery structures.

The German chemical, electronics assembly and consumer goods supplier says its Loctite- branded adhesives for constructing battery packs offer a reduction in weight, in addition to dispensing faster, curing in less time and costing less than earlier iterations of industry adhesive-bonding applications.

It's a critical opportunity as automakers switch from using old-fashioned nuts and bolts and welds to other bonding materials.

"Fasteners and rivets are painful to work with," said Pradyumna Goli, Henkel's business development manager for eMobility. "With adhesives and sealants — anything material-based — you get more homogeneous and consistent performance, and you know exactly what to expect."

But that puts new pressure on the supplier.

Microchip shortages have been felt heavily at auto plants in China, with several automakers trimming production schedules there.

Chinese plants reduced planned output by 355,000 vehicles in recent weeks, according to the most recent data from industry forecasting firm AutoForecast Solutions.

Volkswagen’s operations in China felt the shortage particularly hard, according to AFS’ running tally. And separately, VW told shareholders last week that it cut several hundred thousand vehicles from its schedule worldwide as a result of the supply shortage. 

Automakers in North America also felt an additional pinch. AFS estimates that plants there have cut another 106,000 cars and trucks from their production plans because of the chip shortage. AFS now estimates that the crisis has reduced worldwide production by 5.6 million vehicles so far, and it projects the number could climb to 6.9 million. 

Source: AutoForecast Solutions Inc. autoforecastso…

Alpine Cars' endurance racing unit in France has a precise way of forming a car seat. The vehicle's intended driver, fully dressed in racing attire, slips into the cockpit and sits on top of a plastic bag of liquid polyurethane foam. The ooze settles around the body contours, and over the course of about 15 minutes, hardens into a personalized foam seat capable of keeping the driver comfortable for three hours of speed, vibration, bumps, heat, noise and fatigue — all intended to improve focus on driving.

There are two schools of thought on how dealerships should approach advertising in a time of low inventory.

One, said Sariah Heaton, marketing director for Jerry Seiner Dealerships in Salt Lake City, is to pull back on spending while dealerships have so few cars to sell.

"A lot of dealerships are really, really slashing their budgets down because the demand is there either way," she said, "and we are subscribing to that for the most part."

The second: Keep a foot on the pedal and stay top of mind with consumers through brand awareness messaging until vehicle supply normalizes.

For a second year, dealership marketers are evaluating their advertising strategies in a challenging sales environment. But unlike last year, the point isn't to contain costs to survive showroom and factory closures and plunging demand. Instead, profitability is setting records, and demand for new models is so hot that vehicles are selling before…