Trade News

Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein and Autoflyte vice president of marketing Randy Berlin discuss retail marketing.

Jaguar Land Rover expects to reduce its global salaried workforce by about 2,000 people in the next financial year as the U.K. automaker cuts costs under new CEO Thierry Bollore.

The Tata Motors-owned company has started briefing employees about plans for a reorganization, it said in an emailed statement Wednesday.

JLR announced a 2.5 billion pound ($3.5 billion) annual budget for investment in electrification and related technologies earlier this week and said the Jaguar brand will go entirely electric by 2025.

Ditching internal combustion engines will be a tall order for Bollore, the former CEO of Renault who joined JLR in September.

The company’s only full-electric vehicle is the Jaguar I-Pace crossover, and sales have been disappointing. JLR failed to comply with Europe’s carbon dioxide emissions rules last year and set aside 35 million pounds for expected fines.

JLR has 37,000 employees, including about 30,000 in the U.K. The company s…

WASHINGTON -- An American father and son accused of helping former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn flee while awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges have asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to halt their impending extradition to Japan.

On Saturday, the Supreme Court denied an emergency request by lawyers for U.S. Army Special Forces veteran Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, to put on hold a lower court order that cleared the way for them to be extradited.

A Feb. 3 letter to Blinken seen by Reuters Wednesday from the Taylors' lawyers said "we do not believe there is any good reason to surrender these two American citizens."

The Justice Department declined to comment. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter suggested the charges "are explained by the government of Japan’s desire to save face, or at least to be perceived to be doing something to address their embarrassment." The…

KAR Global is shifting all of its U.S. TradeRev customers to BacklotCars, the company said Wednesday as it reported a fourth-quarter loss of $17.1 million.

CEO Jim Hallett said in an earnings call that dealers seem to favor BacklotCars' 24/7 bid-ask marketplace, vs. the timed auction of TradeRev, and that the inspection process used by BacklotCars is expected to lower costs for the company and give greater consistency on condition reports.

"And most important, we believe the price realization on the BacklotCars platform in the U.S. outperforms the competition in the U.S. market," Hallett said.

The TradeRev brand name will live on in Canada. KAR bought 50 percent of TradeRev in 2014 and acquired the rest of the company in 2017. The rollout hit speed bumps thereafter. KAR said at the beginning of last year that the rollout of TradeRev weighed on its results for 2019. Hitting the reset button, the company adjusted its ADESA auction and TradeRev sales force…

A venture capital firm co-headquartered in Detroit and Berlin is hoping to use its proximity to traditional automotive powerhouses to compete with Silicon Valley VC firms in the hot space for mobility-focused startups.

Assembly Ventures, co-founded by a former partner at a VC firm closely associated with Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Co., has enlisted some Motown muscle to help steer mobility startups from concept to reality. That includes Ford’s former automotive president, Joe Hinrichs, who left the automaker last year in an executive shakeup, and Tony Posawatz, former chief executive officer of Fisker Automotive and ex-vehicle line director of the electric Chevrolet Volt at General Motors.

Mobility startups, especially those producing electric and self-driving vehicles, have become darlings of Wall Street, as investors have awarded many with frothy valuations on expectations of following in the tire tracks of Tesla Inc., the world’s most valua…

GM Financial more than doubled fourth-quarter profits and boosted loan and lease originations as General Motors' sales and average transaction prices rose.

GM Financial's net income surged to $776 million during the latest period, GM's captive finance company said in a statement last week.

"We realized larger availability of off-lease vehicles. Credit was much better year over year, and we had less interest expense because of declining lease interest rates," CEO Dan Berce told Automotive News.

Retail loan originations swelled 39 percent to $7.6 billion, and lease originations increased 10 percent to $6 billion, largely on higher GM sales and increased loan and lease amounts.

GM's U.S. light-vehicle sales rose 4.8 percent in the fourth quarter, as retail sales began to reach pre-pandemic levels and redesigned full-size SUVs hit the market. It was GM's strongest fourth quarter on a retail basis since 2007. Retail deliverie…

Apple Inc.’s self-driving car team lost one of its longest-serving leaders, a potential setback to the technology giant’s efforts to compete in the auto industry.

Benjamin Lyon helped form Apple’s original autonomous electric car team in 2014 as its most senior manager working on sensors. He remained on the team through its various reboots over the past several years, and most recently led a self-driving car sensors team reporting directly to Doug Field, Apple’s vice president in charge of the car project.

Bloomberg News identified Lyon as one of 11 managers reporting to Field and leading Apple’s work on a self-driving car last month. Lyon is leaving to join space and satellite startup Astra, the Alameda, Calif.-based company said Wednesday in a statement. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lyon’s departure from the iPhone giant comes as the company is seeking potential car and manufacturing partners to eventually launch its vehic…

Cox Automotive's finance platform Dealertrack is rolling out new features that allow local auto lenders to connect digitally with dealerships even if they aren't outfitted with paperless software tools.

Dealertrack Digital Contracting Choice, launched this month, allows a dealership to submit contracts digitally to lenders that rely on paper documents.

Most major auto lenders have the capacity for digital contracting, though smaller lenders may not have invested in software to support the capability, said Cheryl Miller, vice president of operations for Dealertrack F&I Solutions. The new program allows those lenders to securely access digital deals without shelling out for the software that enables it.

"The most important point is it allows the dealer to stay in a digital contracting workflow," Miller said.

Once a digital contract is finalized at the dealership, an employee submits the contract and ancillary docume…

The fourth generation of Mitsubishi's Outlander crossover features a major redesign inside and out, keeping some of the striking exterior styling cues from the Engelberg Tourer concept shown in 2019.

The latest Outlander, which goes on sale in April, is built on a new platform with a more powerful standard engine and new interior technology, Mitsubishi said Tuesday during the vehicle's virtual launch.

Pricing will start at $26,990 including shipping. That's only slightly higher than the 2020 version of the Outlander, which starts at $26,235, with shipping. Mitsubishi skipped the 2021 model year for the Outlander.

"Based on the product concept 'I-Fu-Do-Do,' which means authentic and majestic in Japanese, the all-new Outlander has been crafted into a reliable SUV with significantly upgraded styling, road performance and a high-quality feel to satisfy the needs of customers," said Takao Kato, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. "With the la…

LOS ANGELES — Hyundai's Kona subcompact crossover is receiving a moderate makeover for the 2022 model year, arriving in the spring with redesigned styling at both ends along with a sporty N Line variant.

The Kona, introduced for the 2018 model year, has been a major hit for the Korean automaker. U.S. sales tallied 76,253 last year, an increase over the 73,326 in 2019.

For 2022, there are also interior updates for the Kona, Hyundai said Tuesday.

"A new console is disconnected from the instrument panel to stress the horizontal layout," the company said. "An optional electronic parking brake is now available on premium trims as a convenience feature. New ambient lighting illuminates the cup holder and foot wells."

The biggest change for the freshened Kona is the addition of an N Line sport model that deletes the black cladding around the wheel arches in favor of body color. Overall, the N Line has a more "road-oriented" l…