Trade News

Jaguar Land Rover will look outside the company to find a platform for new full-electric Jaguar models, CEO Thierry Bollore said.

The UK automaker plans to make its Jaguar brand all-electric starting in 2025, dropping combustion engines as the marque’s sedans and crossovers reach the end of their life cycles. Land Rover will get its first battery-powered vehicle in 2024 but will not be electric-only in the new future.

The plan includes giving Jaguar its own standalone electric platform, which would be expensive to produce in-house for a brand that is expected to remain low-volume, below even the 103,000 vehicles it sold worldwide last year. 

Bollore said the automaker has started the process to find a company willing to partner with Jaguar on the architecture. “Naturally there is massive appetite to work with us,” he told financial analysts during an investor day on Friday.

The decision to work with a partner “was a matter of scale and speed …

Join Automotive News for our daily podcast series. We speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about events and trends impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

He didn't plan on becoming a car dealer, but his stores helped build AutoNation. Maroone USA CEO Mike Maroone reflects on the legacy of his father, who died last week at the age of 98.

How do I subscribe?Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

iPhone / iPad“Daily Drive” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Android“Daily Drive” is available on the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Spotify"Daily Drive" is available on Spotify. Click here to subscribe to "Dail…

FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen Group expects deliveries, revenues and margins to rebound strongly this year as the coronavirus pandemic eases, after an almost halving in profits in 2020 that was still better than the German carmaker originally expected.

The global No. 2 after Toyota Motor Corp. by cars sold, Volkswagen is spending tens of billions of euros to reinvent itself as a leader in the market for electric vehicles, where Tesla has stolen a march on established rivals.

"Last year, the Volkswagen Group succeeded in containing the effects of the pandemic on its business and laying important strategic foundations for its transformation at the same time," CFO Frank Witter said on Friday.

Deliveries and sales, which were both hit by the pandemic in 2020, are seen up significantly this year, the company said, without being more specific. In 2020, sales fell 11.8 percent to 222.9 billion euros ($270.2 billion), while deliveries dropped 15.2 …

SEOUL -- Hyundai Motor Co. has so far avoided a chip shortage that has plagued global automakers, largely maintaining its stockpile of chips last year and even accelerating purchases towards the end, three people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The shortage has forced production cuts worldwide, including at Volkswagen Group and General Motors, prompting Germany and the U.S. to ramp up efforts to resolve the shortage.

Other than Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., which said this month it had enough chip inventory to last it about four months, Hyundai and its sister firm Kia Corp. are the only global automakers to have maintained a stockpile of low-tech chips that helped them keep up production.

If it doesn't ease soon, though, the shortage could hit Hyundai too, as tight capacity on factory floors starts pressuring production of even high-tech auto chips, said two of the people, who are familiar with the company's purchases.

The South Korean au…

Ford Motor Co.'s production in Europe will continue to be affected by the global semiconductor shortage until late in the second quarter, said the automaker's regional boss, Stuart Rowley.

The shortage will stop production at Ford's factory in Saarlouis, Germany, where it builds the Focus compact car, for five weeks Rowley told Automotive News Europe. "That is a huge impact on our operations," he said.

Ford's plant in Valencia, Spain, is the second worst hit, he said.

"We have taken significant downtime and lost production," Rowley said. He did not specify how much production has been lost.

Microchip shortages at Valencia affected production of the Kuga crossover, Mondeo midsize model and Galaxy minivan, he said.

Ford's factory in Cologne, Germany, home of the Fiesta small hatchback, was also impacted but to a "relatively minor" extent, Rowley said.

Ford has extended short-time work in the Cologne and Valencia plants, as well as in…

Carvana Co.'s fourth-quarter revenue soared amid higher unit sales, though a large outlay to restructure debt led to a higher netloss.

The online used-vehicle retailer said Thursday it posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $154.6 million, compared with a net loss of $125.7 million in the year-earlier period. Carvana said the net loss included $34 million in costs to refinance senior unsecured notes.

Revenue surged 65 percent to $1.83 billion. Retail sales jumped 43 percent to 72,172 units.

The company said gross profit increased 71 percent to $243.9 million, while gross profit per unit rose $549 to $3,379.

Carvana purchased 72,200 vehicles from customers during the latest period, more than double the amount in fourth quarter of 2019.

"Growth in vehicles acquired from customers also fed our retail inventory, diversifying our selection and improving acquisition prices," Carvana said in a letter to shareholders. "In Q4, we sourced 65 percent of …

Online used-vehicle startup Gettacar has landed $25 million in new funding and plans to focus on developing products and expanding into new markets.

The suburban Philadelphia company, whose business model is comparable to those of used-vehicle sellers Carvana and Vroom, said it has raised a total of $48 million over three funding rounds in more than two years.

Yossi Levi, Gettacar's founder, did not disclose what markets the company plans to enter next, but told Automotive News that additional locations have been identified for expansion later this year and in early 2022. Gettacar currently operates in seven markets, including Philadelphia, eastern Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Levi said Gettacar eventually could operate nationally.

Levi, who grew up in Philadelphia and worked at his father's used-car dealership before starting Gettacar in 2018, said the idea for the company came while ob…

Stellantis is cutting 150 employees from the work force at its assembly plant in Belvidere, Ill., where the Jeep Cherokee is produced.

The layoffs are part of efforts to rebalance staffing levels and realign production "to meet global demand" for the Jeep Cherokee, according to the company.

Stellantis is the corporate parent created by the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France's PSA Group.

"Following a review of its operations, 150 people will be indefinitely laid off, starting Feb. 20, 2021," a Stellantis spokeswoman said in a statement. "The company will make every effort to place indefinitely laid-off hourly employees in open full-time positions as they become available based on seniority."

Jeep Cherokee production at Belvidere was idled from Feb. 8 to 15 because of the global microchip shortage.

U.S. sales of the Cherokee slipped 10 percent in the fourth quarter to 37,936 vehicles. Stellantis' to…

WASHINGTON -- Jennifer Granholm was confirmed as Secretary of Energy, putting the former Michigan governor at the head of agency that will play a key role in implementing President Joe Biden’s ambitious climate agenda.

The Senate voted 64-35 to confirm Granholm to run the sprawling agency, which has an annual budget of $35 billion and national research laboratories spread across 17 states. The department has a wide-ranging mission, including helping to build the nation’s arsenal of nuclear warheads, safe-guarding its emergency supply of oil, and spending billions researching energy technologies.

Under former President Donald Trump the department focused on ways to save the dwindling coal industry and sell U.S. natural gas abroad. Granholm is expected to refocus the agency into a climate fighting powerhouse as the Biden administration makes that a top priority. The agency is sure to play a role in helping Biden fulfill campaign promises to decarbonize the electr…