Trade News

LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. said Monday that it plans to buy an 85 percent stake in 10 new-vehicle franchised stores in Florida and separately buy five import dealerships in Texas.

The two deals, if completed, would add a combined $937 million in annual revenue to the growing publicly traded group that has just more than a half-dozen franchised dealerships currently, with several deals under contract. The company said it would spend $211.6 million on the two acquisitions, including real estate.

LMP said it would buy an 85 percent stake in the Alan Jay Automotive Network of Sebring, Fla., paying $50 million for the dealerships' goodwill and about $44.1 million for real estate. LMP said in addition to cash and debt it could finance the deal with as much as $25 million of common stock.

The retailer said the deal includes 21 franchises including mainly domestic brands, plus Kia, Nissan, Toyota, Maserati and Alfa Romeo.

The transaction includes 10 ne…

Stellantis is poised to roll out a new strategy for China, with the first major step being to take control of its struggling Jeep joint venture from a domestic partner, according to people familiar with the matter.

The automaker formed from the merger between Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group is in advanced discussions with state-owned partner Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. on raising its stake in the 50-50 venture overseeing its Jeep operations in China, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions aren’t public.

The change could take effect as early as next year, when Chinese rules on JVs are set to be loosened, the people said. In the coming years, Stellantis plans to promote brands including Jeep and DS in the world’s biggest car market, and also push an electric Opel model, one of the people said.

Stellantis is trying to align its production with disappointing levels of demand in China, outlining in a statement last week a plan to i…

Automotive News' Lindsay VanHulle examines the latest developments in the federal tax evasion case against former Reynolds and Reynolds CEO Bob Brockman.

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General Motors is taking a more direct role with South Korea's LG Corp., its longtime electric vehicle partner, in tracking down and fixing problems linked to battery fires in Chevrolet Bolts that threaten the strategic plans of both companies.

At an investor conference on Friday, GM CFO Paul Jacobson said LG is working with GM engineers to "clean up the manufacturing process" at LG battery plants and implement some "GM quality metrics."

Battery plants in South Korea and Michigan operated by LG Energy Solution have been identified by GM as the source of defects behind a rash of battery-related fires in the Bolt that have triggered three recalls and $1.8 billion in warranty set-asides by GM since last November -- recalls for which GM still has not implemented a hardware fix.

LGES and sister company LG Electronics on Friday reiterated their "close relationship" with GM and said the three companies are "actively cooperating to come up with a final recall p…

Volkswagen's aggressive electrification plans may take awhile to fully form in the U.S., as the ID4 remains the brand's only EV offering in the region until 2023, with a third all-electric model, a sedan, due by 2024.

Meanwhile, product planners will continue to work on the German mass-market brand's crossover lineup, which now includes the Taos, introduced this year. But they will have to decide whether to convert the Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport from their current powertrains to electric ones. The brand is also likely to trim its sedan lineup further, with the Arteon expected to sunset in the U.S., while the Jetta could see a planned redesign turn into a less expensive freshening if sedan sales continue to fall.

Golf GTI/Golf R: The eighth-generation Volkswagen Golf arrives in the U.S. in the fourth quarter, but only in the form of the higher-end GTI and R. The redesigned GTI sports a retuned version of the current car's turbocharged 2.0-liter direct-injectio…

DETROIT — The Chevrolet Silverado's upcoming electric propulsion system allows the vehicle to have a different design than the gasoline version, a top General Motors executive said last week.

The Silverado EV, which forecasters expect to go on sale in 2023, won't necessarily be a derivative of today's pickup, GM North America President Steve Carlisle told Automotive News when announcing a freshened version of the gasoline-powered Silverado.

"With the freedom and the latitude that we have to do something that's ground-up, we see it as more of a white-space opportunity than we see it as an extension of the current lineup," he said.

The flexibility of the Ultium battery platform removes the architectural limits that internal combustion vehicles have, Carlisle said.

"You should expect different dimensions and different packaging, for instance," he said. "We're not constrained to the same kind of constructions as we are today."

For now, Chevy …

Genesis marked a significant milestone in May after five long years of struggling to establish itself in the U.S. The luxury upstart sold the first of its eagerly awaited GV70 compact crossovers.

The brand had suffered with a sedan-only lineup since its launch in late 2015. But it finally had a rounded portfolio, with the GV70 joining the recently introduced GV80 midsize crossover. And as a result, in August, sales more than tripled to 4,975 from a year earlier.

But now an even bigger product strategy has been announced for Genesis: It will start phasing out all those vehicles beginning in 2025 and instead launch eight new battery-electric and fuel cell electric replacements that will make Genesis an all-EV brand by 2030.

"Genesis is now a truly global brand, with a complete portfolio of desirable and sophisticated products," Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Euisun Chung said during a video presentation this month. "And now Genesis is once again at the star…