Trade News

South Korea's Hyundai Motor and its Kia affiliate said they plan to invest $7.4 billion in the U.S. by 2025 to produce electric vehicles, enhance production facilities and develop smart mobility technologies.

A statement released Thursday by parent Hyundai Motor Group did not name specific U.S. facilities slated to get those investments.

Hyundai and Kia said they will monitor market conditions "and U.S. government EV policy" to finalize their plans for U.S. production facilities and gradually expand local EV production.

"This investment demonstrates our deep commitment to the U.S. market, our dealers and customers," Hyundai Motor North America CEO José Muñoz said in the statement. "Hyundai will lead the future of mobility in the United States and around the world. Our efforts are proof-positive that Hyundai will continue to pursue excellence in our current and future product lineup."

Sean Yoon, CEO of Kia North America said in the statement: "One …

DETROIT — A fifth generation of the Ford family has joined the company's board of directors.

Alexandra Ford English, daughter of Executive Chairman Bill Ford, and Henry Ford III, son of Edsel Ford II, on Thursday were voted into two open board positions vacated by the retiring Edsel Ford and John Lechleiter at the company's 66th annual meeting of shareholders.

The company said each of the 14 director nominees received at least 91.5 percent "yes" votes.

"Ford is not a nameless, faceless corporation," Bill Ford said in response to a shareholder question about his daughter and nephew. "I think having the family involved gives humanity and a sense of accountability that we're going to be here through thick and thin, through the best of times and the worst of times. Throughout just about every imaginable challenge over the last 118 years — we've had world wars, depressions, recessions, pandemics — the one constant has been our family."

Ford English, 33…

Tobias Moers discusses the British luxury automaker's turnaround strategy and the rollout of the DBX as well as Formula One's impact on the company's revival efforts.

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Online used-vehicle retailer Shift Technologies Inc. was able to source the bulk of its vehicles from consumers as it reported a large rise in sales and a wider net loss for the first quarter.

The company's retail sales in the quarter more than tripled to 4,452 units.

Shift said it sourced 87 percent of its retail units from customers in the period, with co-CEO Toby Russell calling it "one of the core differentiators of our business model that allowed us to grow despite significant lack of supply" in an earnings call Wednesday.

Shift grew its sellable inventory 93 percent from the beginning of the first quarter to the start of the current period, thanks to improvements in its in-house reconditioning levels.

Those reconditioning gains also drove its improved gross profit per unit from the fourth quarter. GPU was $1,655 in the first quarter of this year, compared with $466 in the fourth quarter of 2020 and $2,353 in the first quarter of 2020.

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. said Thursday that it is bringing in-vehicle Amazon Alexa voice capability to roughly 700,000 Ford vehicles in the U.S. and Canada this year through over-the-air updates as part of a new six-year deal with the tech giant.

The automaker, which announced a separate six-year deal with Google earlier this year, billed the partnership as the industry's "broadest rollout of the embedded Alexa hands-free experience to date." The update will allow customers to use in-vehicle voice commands to place a phone call or find parking, as well control things such as lighting or temperature in their home from within their car.

Ford said the Alexa capabilities will expand to millions of additional vehicles over the coming years. In addition, Ford and Amazon will develop Alexa skills for commercial vehicles and use artificial intelligence to help business owners better organize fleets.

"We believe in the power of teaming up with other innovators,"…

The new-vehicle inventory shortage resulting from the microchip crisis is challenging the finance and insurance process at U.S. dealerships, changing which products are selling and how best to navigate customers' financial situations.

F&I product companies say dealership sales of service contracts and guaranteed asset protection products are rising, though products such as key fob protection and tire-and-wheel are falling by the wayside. Here's what experts are seeing.

David Adcock, executive vice president of Binary Automotive Solutions:

"Now is a good time to make sure we're paying attention to processes in the store. Things as simple as reordering the menu. There are some products doing better than others. With pre-owned-heavy inventory, maintenance becomes more important, even a paint protectant. We're hearing that people are buying these cars with the intention of being a stopgap between now and the time the inventory comes back. Customers are…

GM Financial reported first-quarter net income of $878 million, a surge from the pandemic-impacted first quarter of 2020, driven in part by used-vehicle prices that continue to climb during the global semiconductor shortage.

"GM Financial has provided a significant offset to some of the semiconductor headwinds. Strong used-vehicle prices combined with consumer credit strength helped to drive" first-quarter profit, General Motors CFO Paul Jacobson told analysts last week. "The used-vehicle prices that GM Financial is clearly benefiting from [are] likely to stay in place as long as new-car inventories remain low. That's an example of ... a variable that's sort of hedged directly against the challenges of the semiconductor."

Since Jan. 1, GM Financial's used-vehicle prices have climbed about 30 percent, Dan Berce, CEO at GM Financial, told Automotive News. Used-vehicle values rose 11 percent from the first quarter of 2020.

The share of…

DETROIT — U.S. District Judge David Lawson appointed lawyer Neil Barofsky on Wednesday as an independent monitor to oversee the UAW as part of its six-year corruption case settlement with the federal government.

In a motion approving the government's request to appoint Barofsky, which was supported by the UAW, Lawson wrote that the court "finds that Neil Barofsky is qualified to serve in the role of Monitor, has sufficient knowledge and experience to do so effectively, and is free from any apparent conflict of interest."

Barofsky, a partner at law firm Jenner & Block, previously was appointed to oversee Credit Suisse Securities and Credit Suisse AG following billion-dollar settlements, prosecutors said. He also was an attorney in the Southern District of New York and was appointed inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program instituted by the U.S. Treasury after the Great Recession.

Barofsky and the UAW did not immediately respond to separ…

China’s new-vehicle sales continued to grow in April on demand for sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses, but a top trade group warned a growing chip shortage will undermine second quarter output and possibly sales.

Overall, deliveries have now climbed 13 straight months year over year as the industry moves beyond the pandemic.

Deliveries of new light vehicles -- sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses – advanced 11 percent to top 1.7 million, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Wednesday.

Behind a 77 percent rebound in the first quarter compared with the same coronavirus-battered early months of 2020, new light-vehicle deliveries through April have jumped 53 percent to 6.79 million. 

April sales of new commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks gained 2.3 percent to about 548,000. 

Through April, deliveries of new commercial vehicles rose 47 percent to 1.96 millio…

Wells Fargo named Cynthia Caine to lead the lender's commercial auto finance group. Caine, 53, replaces Jerry Bowen, who retired this month.

Caine joined Wells Fargo in 2016 as part of the G.E. Capital acquisition and has worked in financial services for 30 years, Wells Fargo said in a statement.

Caine most recently led the diversified industries group within distribution finance, which provides finance programs to manufacturers in the material handling, technology, industrial and health care markets. These verticals represent $1.2 billion in annual volume for the lender and made up an overall portfolio of more than $3 billion.

Caine told Automotive News that her vast experience in equipment finance will be an asset as she moves into this role.

"That's an area I feel that maybe hasn't been as much of a focus or a discussion with the dealers but is a great source of capital," she said.

Wells Fargo is one of …