Trade News

Nikola Corp. entered this year with ambitions to start full production of a battery-powered semi-truck, make progress on a fuel-cell big rig and break ground on a network of hydrogen fueling stations.

It's going into 2022 with those and other objectives incomplete -- and a shrinking cash pile to make them happen.

One of the first of a series of electric vehicle startups to gain a public listing by merging with a blank-check company, the once high-flying stock is mired at less than the SPAC's $10-a-share offering price three years ago.

Nikola's been stuck in neutral since last year, when its founder resigned under a cloud of fraud allegations, General Motors Co. pulled away from a partnership and it lost a key truck supply contract. Repeated production delays have hurt efforts to rebuild trust with investors.

While the company says it has access to plenty of funds -- including an obscure financing tool to raise more money if needed -- Nikola has bu…

BERLIN -- Tesla and relevant authorities have submitted all the documents necessary for the approval process for the automaker's planned factory near Berlin, the environment ministry of the German state of Brandenburg said.

The approval process is still ongoing, the ministry said on Wednesday.

Due to environmental objections and red tape, it remained unclear when the first vehicles will roll off the production line at the site.

Brandenburg premier Dietmar Woidke had recently suggested a decision might come in early 2022.

Tesla has repeatedly had to push back the expected opening of the factory and CEO Elon Musk has regularly traveled to Germany to check on the plant's progress, criticizing German bureaucracy for slowing down construction.

Since Tesla expanded its original proposal to include a battery factory, the construction plans had to undergo a renewed process of public consultation which ended on Nov. 22.

The response to all ob…

Customers expect a great experience.

In F&I, products are only 25 percent of what you sell. The remainder is an intangible feeling tied to that product. That requires helping the customer experience the benefit of each product on a personal level.

Multiple product presentations are no longer a satisfactory sales process for customers. Instead, customers today are looking to reduce or eliminate unexpected and unforeseen risks. In the F&I office, they want to know why a particular product is important in their unique situation.

While online shopping offers more convenience, it eliminates the personal interaction necessary to make an informed purchase. Customers have made it clear the impersonal efforts of the past will no longer be rewarded with their participation.

When an F&I professional makes a genuine effort to understand their concerns, it results in an open discussion that focuses on product benefits v…

The Federal Reserve's more aggressive credit tightening plan announced last week could mean auto loan interest rates will begin to rise in the spring, Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke wrote in a post.

"From a historical perspective, rates would still be low and attractive," Smoke wrote Dec. 15. "However, that would mean an end to the 2021 financing trend that helped mitigate some of the vehicle price inflation."

The Fed had kept rates steady and low and made monthly purchases of $80 billion in Treasury bonds and $40 billion in home loans to stimulate the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting in November, it began to buy $10 billion fewer bonds and $5 billion fewer mortgage bundles each month, which would have wound down the practice completely in June. The federal funds rate was to remain at 0 to 0.25 percent indefinitely until certain inflation and employment conditions existed.

But on Dec. 15, the Fed anno…

Market conditions, finance and insurance pricing and customers' auto loan terms are factors dealerships might take into account when establishing a reinsurance strategy for 2022, an executive at a leading F&I provider and administrator said.

David DeCredico, senior vice president of wealth building and strategic accounts at APCO Holdings, offered suggestions for dealerships evaluating their F&I product reinsurance position during an interview with Automotive News last month.

"Take a very critical look at what you have currently," he advised. Reinsurance "should become part of your 2022 planning process."

Reinsurance programs take a dealership beyond simply being a retailer of vehicle protection products to having an added stake in the underwriting results for those contracts. DeCredico called such participation extremely common and said offering reinsurance was the "price of entry" for an F&I products provider trying to win a dealership's bu…

An Ohio BMW dealership has agreed to pay $390,000 in damages and back pay and beef up anti-discrimination practices to settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The EEOC alleged that Davis Automotive Group's BMW Cleveland location had fired two employees because of their age. BMW Cleveland also allegedly retracted an offer to rehire another former employee for a new position, awarding the job to a younger and less qualified person.

These actions represented unlawful age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the EEOC said.

Davis Automotive Group admitted no wrongdoing under the terms of the consent decree signed Dec. 13. It previously denied the government's charges in a 2019 court filing.

Theresa Matrisciano, Davis Automotive's director of human capital, on Tuesday declined to comment.

"This settlement provides an important reminder to employers: From beginning to end, employment…

The coronavirus pandemic continued into a second year. A shortage of microchips led to a shortage of new vehicles on dealership lots. Some of the nation's largest dealership groups became even larger through an unprecedented surge in buy-sell activity.

Each of those events that came to define auto retail in 2021 also played a role in the digital transformation underway inside dealerships. The arrival of the pandemic last year sped up dealerships' shift toward e-commerce, and the industry collectively dipped its toes into the water to try out digital sales tools, remote e-signing, home deliveries and concierge services.

The pandemic's continued presence has forced the industry to get creative to sell cars, as has the dearth of new vehicles. Digital retailing is maturing beyond the placement of a checkout button on a website into a broader examination of a dealership's processes, with a greater emphasis on omnichannel capabilities, which are aimed at enabling sea…

The MX-30, Mazda's first mass-market electric vehicle, packs quirky design touches with a one-size-fits-all approach.

It is engineered on a versatile platform used for a variety of electrified drivetrains, including a mild-hybrid version and a full-electric variant.

But the MX-30 is also a compromise car, or for some, a niche player.

The front-wheel-drive baby crossover is powered by a new Skyactiv powertrain that Mazda calls e-Skyactiv. It runs on a 35.5-kilowatt-hour lithium ion prismatic battery. Mazda says the motor delivers 105 kilowatts of power with maximum torque of 195 pound-feet. But it delivers just 100 miles of range and availability is limited to California for the 2022 model year.

Still, Mazda has adopted some novelty flourishes inside the cabin, including cork inlays for trim detailing. It is a nod to Mazda's roots as a cork maker — the company was founded in 1920 as Toyo Cork Kogyo.

The well…