Trade News

Thanks to strong government stimulus, the automotive industry emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic in better shape than expected, but it's now facing profitability problems stemming from raw material price increases and shortages, according to consultancy AlixPartners.

Low U.S. inventories will limit sales in the next several months, the firm said in its Global Automotive Outlook released Wednesday. Inventories are down 70 percent since the start of the year but should begin to recover by the fourth quarter, assuming no other disruptions crop up.

U.S. sales will rise to 16.4 million vehicles this year, up from 14.6 million in pandemic-scarred 2020, the group said, adding the figure will climb to 17.2 million in 2022 and remain above 17 million through 2025.

The ongoing semiconductor chip shortage will cost the industry 3.9 million vehicles of lost production globally this year — worth $110 billion, the group said, maintaining a forecast made last month. Read more about AlixPartners: U.S. auto sales to hit 16.4 million in 2021

KKR & Co. is considering a sale of Marelli Corp.’s suspension systems business as the private equity firm shifts the focus of the auto supplier toward more profitable products, according to people familiar with the matter.

The buyout firm is working with an adviser on the potential disposal, which has drawn preliminary interest from private equity and strategic suitors, the people said. Marelli’s suspension arm generates annual revenue of about 900 million euros ($1.1 billion), the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.

Marelli manufactures everything from advanced driver-assistance systems to cabin temperature components. While the financial performance of its suspension business has recovered this year, KKR is seeking to streamline Marelli’s portfolio and concentrate on higher-end technology products, such as electrification and lighting, the people said.

Deliberations are in the early stages, and KKR could …

We've spent the past couple of months planning our fourth annual Fixed Ops Journal Forum, scheduled for the five Tuesdays from July 13 to August 10.

And as we've made these plans, in the back of my head I'd have this small worry whether we were putting together a program interesting enough that people would want to attend. Luckily, Mike Weldon quickly eased my concerns.

Weldon, fixed ops director at Hansel Auto Group in the Sonoma Valley region of Northern California, was the first registrant for the FOJ Forum.

"I'm more proactive than I thought," Weldon, 66, quips when I tell him he was the first one in the door.

Weldon has spent most of his life involved in the auto industry, starting as a young boy sweeping the showroom floors at his father's car business. His father would add after-market items such as a radio or air conditioning for new cars sold by local dealerships. For the past 10 years he's been at Hansel, which has eight rooftops across …

Another day, another industry survey of U.S. dealerships that indicates offering finance-and-insurance products online has proved profitable amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic period.

Dealerships believe a more diverse lineup of F&I products with different coverage tiers helps sell those products to digital retailing customers, according to a new study from F&I provider Protective Asset Protection. The survey comes in the wake of numerous auto lender, F&I product provider and automotive finance software company studies that claim the exact same thing: offering educational and transactional tools for the F&I office online increases sales and profitability of those products.

In a survey of 500 F&I and dealership executives across the U.S. in March, dealership respondents indicated customers are looking for more customization with F&I product coverage. Forty-four percent of respondents said the ability to adjust products…

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Advocates Rana Abbas Taylor and Ken Snyder believe advanced driver-assist systems are key to preventing alcohol-related traffic deaths.

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Self-driving truck technology company TuSimple Holdings Inc. said on Wednesday it will open a new Texas facility that will enable it to put trucks to work hauling freight on the roads of southeastern U.S. states within six months.

The company, which outfits its trucks with self-driving technology, is opening a new terminal in Alliance, Texas, to serve the "Texas Triangle," an area that includes Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin, adding 3,000 miles to its network. Lee White, TuSimple vice president for strategy, told Reuters the company is also talking to new customers as part of that expansion.

The company's network began in Arizona and is currently testing its system by hauling freight. It plans a to roll out a national U.S. autonomous freight network by 2024.

White said the facility in Alliance, a major logistics hub in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, will enable TuSimple to extend its reach across the Gulf Coast states to Florida, up to Georgia and …

McLaren Americas President Tony Joseph is leaving the British sports car maker.

Nicolas Brown, vice president of sales for the Americas, will take over in the interim while a permanent successor is identified, McLaren told U.S. dealers on Tuesday.

Joseph, 53, had been with the brand since it set up shop in the U.S. 12 years ago, leading its growth from a fledgling operation to a profitable automaker with a growing retail base.

Before joining McLaren Automotive, the road-car unit of the British race-car builder, the Michigan native spent time at Ferrari, Porsche and Subaru.

In a letter to dealers, McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt said: "Tony . . . has played an enormous role in growing the region to become the leading global market for McLaren. Tony's passion for the brand and commitment to our shared success has been inspirational. He will be greatly missed by the entire McLaren team and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors."

McLa…

DETROIT -- Lordstown Motors Corp has "firm" and "binding" orders for the first two years of production of its electric pickup truck, the startup's president said on Tuesday, sending shares up a week after saying it had no binding orders for the vehicle.

"Currently, we have enough orders for production for '21 and '22," President Rich Schmidt said at an Automotive Press Association event in Detroit. "Those are firm orders we have for those two years."

"I don't know the exact facts of the legal aspect of that, but they are basically binding orders that are committed here in the last two weeks, reconfirmed orders," he added, when asked if they were binding orders. "They're pretty solid, and I think that's on the light side or conservative side."

In March, Lordstown's shares slumped after investment research firm Hindenburg Research disclosed it had taken a short position on the stock, saying the company had misled consumers and investors about its pre-ord…