Category: Auto News Today

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Sheey Auto Stores, DCD Automotive Among Buyers In 4 Dealership Acquisitions

4 dealership groups included shops in the mid-Atlantic, Midwest and New England in four transactions late in the 3rd quarter and early in the fourth quarter.

Here’s a glance at the discounts that included import and domestic brand names. One transaction involved a dealership team ranked on Automotive Information‘ prime 150 dealership teams centered in the U.S.

Sheehy grows in Virginia
Sheehy Auto Retailers of Fairfax, Va., has acquired import- and domestic-manufacturer shops in Fredericksburg, Va., about an hour’s travel south of its headquarters.

The Sheehy group, led by President Vince Sheehy, on Sept. 29 acquired Top Buick-GMC and Best Subaru from Randy Harris, president of Supreme Automotive. Sheehy by now experienced a Toyota retail outlet in Fredericksburg.

“Sheehy Automobile Retailers is thrilled to be expanding in the Fredericksburg current market,” Vince Sheehy reported in a assertion. “With the Toyota, Subaru and Buick-GMC brands, we will be in a fantastic position to have specifically the new and utilized autos our customers want.”

Sheehy has renamed the acquired dealerships Sheehy Buick-GMC Fredericksburg and Sheehy Subaru Fredericksburg.

The transaction marks the third Subaru keep and next Buick-GMC dealership for Sheehy, which has dealerships in Maryland and Virginia.

In January, Sheehy purchased a single of the previous CarMax Inc. franchised dealerships: CarMax Laurel Toyota in Maryland. It also marketed a Ford dealership in Marlow Heights, Md., in April.

Sheehy ranks No. 44 on Automotive Information‘ listing of the leading 150 dealership groups centered in the U.S., retailing 19,441 new autos in 2020.
Efficiency Brokerage Companies, an Irvine, Calif., invest in-sell agency, handled the Sheehy-Top transaction.

DCD enters new condition
Growing DCD Automotive Holdings Inc. has entered Rhode Island with the acquisition of two import dealerships.

DCD on Oct. 1 purchased Tarbox Toyota and Tarbox Hyundai, both of those in North Kingstown, R.I., from Ed Tarbox. Tarbox obtained the Toyota dealership in 1996 and experienced owned the Hyundai store since 2004. North Kingstown is south of Warwick, R.I.

The outlets have been renamed Nucar Tarbox Toyota and Nucar Tarbox Hyundai.

“The Tarbox dealerships have terrific histories, with even better groups, and we glimpse forward to making upon their already reliable foundations to provide buyers with a top quality vehicle-buying encounter, quality consumer assistance and a high-quality range of motor vehicles — manufactured even additional expansive with our company’s shared assets and stock,” DCD CEO Chris Dagesse explained in a assertion.

DCD, of Norwood, Mass., now has 18 dealerships during Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. In March, DCD bought two Boston-region Chevrolet dealerships.

Woody Woodward and John Hyland of DCG Acquisitions, a Dave Cantin Group firm, handled the DCD-Tarbox transaction.

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GM to open battery cell lab in Warren, Mich.

DETROIT — Normal Motors subsequent 12 months programs to open up a battery cell innovation lab at its World wide Technical Center campus in Warren, Mich., centralizing considerably of its battery functions and accelerating progress of a for a longer period-array battery, the automaker stated Tuesday.

The Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Middle, named right after the late GM battery engineer Bill Wallace, is slated to open in mid-2022 in the Detroit suburb. GM expects the center to triple in dimensions as EV demand will increase.

“To place most people in an EV, we need to make better batteries that charge a ton less. That’s why we are investing in this analysis center and growth center,” said Tim Grewe, director of international battery mobile engineering and technique.

GM did not disclose the actual investment amount, but Ken Morris, vice president of electric and autonomous autos, mentioned the automaker is expending hundreds of thousands and thousands on the venture.

The heart will mark GM’s newest improvement in battery growth at its Warren campus. GM’s Exploration and Enhancement Chemical and Materials’ Subsystems Lab sales opportunities battery progress, and the Estes Battery Programs Lab validates the mobile, modules and packs.

Enhancement, study and manufacturing engineers will perform throughout GM’s Tech Heart labs to acquire future-technology, substantial-density, low-price tag batteries, the automaker said.

The new center will make it possible for GM to advance technological know-how, these as lithium-steel, silicon and good-state batteries and take a look at manufacturing strategies that the automaker can utilize at battery cell producing crops.

The Wallace Center will let GM to prototype large-format cells, which it truly is unable to do in its R&D facilities currently.

“We are also looking at how we manufacture cells as we go into the new resources and the new chemistry. It truly is opening up loads of possibilities of points that we never have in-residence capacity of appropriate now,” reported Morris.

Those people large-structure battery cells are virtually two times the measurement of the 1st-generation Ultium pouch cells and are packed with uniform stacked electrodes, stated Grewe. The stacked electrodes are the crucial manufacturing technologies to accomplish the strength density GM aims for in upcoming-era EVs, he mentioned.

“With this financial commitment we system to have the skill to go up to 1,200 watt-hrs per liter, and that implies that you can very easily have a 500- or 600-mile motor vehicle array on a single demand … producing a new truth for our buyers,” Grewe explained. “With these large-electricity-density, reduced-value autos, I genuinely feel we can have a much better package that’s fewer mass, superior for the auto, greater for the customer.”

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VW is planning to lease used EVs in strategy to keep control of batteries

MUNICH — Volkswagen options to crack an field barrier and supply made use of-car leases on its ID household of electric powered vehicles, which include people in North The united states, as a strategy to maintain command over their beneficial batteries, VW executives explained to Automotive Information Europe sister publication Automotive Information.

Speaking on Monday with journalists right here at the Munich automobile display, Volkswagen Team CEO Herbert Diess stated the secondary leases would make it possible for VW to recycle the useful battery packs into new uses, which includes house electric power facilities and fast chargers.

“In Europe, we are attempting to get a second lease and even a 3rd lease, and hold the motor vehicle in our palms,” Diess informed a group of American automotive journalists, adding later on that the exact same system would be rolled out in North The usa. “Battery lifestyle, we consider today is about 1,000 charging cycles and all-around 350,000 kilometers [about 215,000 miles], something like that. So, the battery would probably dwell lengthier than the automobile, and we want to get keep of the battery. We never want to give the battery away.”

Diess stated the battery’s value survives even as the value of the vehicle encompassing it depreciates more than time, and he said that worth could aid hold residual values large, making secondary leases much more cost-effective.

“There currently is an indication that residuals for electric powered automobiles could possibly be greater than for [internal combustion] cars and trucks for the reason that, even if the automobile is entirely worthless, even now there is a battery,” that may perhaps even now have 70 or 80 per cent of its first electrical power storage ability, Diess reported.

Due to the fact it started arriving in the U.S. in March, about 80 p.c of the 6,230 VW ID4s the brand name has marketed in the U.S. have been leased, explained Scott Keogh, CEO of VW Group of America.

“We will have the second lease merchandise we have preplanned it now,” Keogh explained, adding that the preset residual values would retain EVs in customers’ hands for up to eight yrs, at which time they would be returned, their batteries stripped out, and the car recycled back into uncooked components.

“The process for our organization is to genuinely try out to continue to keep maintain of the batteries, and likely get into a second or 3rd lease cycle for the car or truck and then reuse the batteries,” Diess described. “In the locations, it has to be labored out, it has to be agreed with the dealers, but we would like to maintain each one particular of the batteries endlessly.”

In other remarks Monday:

* VW brand name CEO Ralf Brandstaetter exposed that the U.S. is expected to sooner or later receive a 3rd EV design, a fastback-encouraged sedan identified as the ID Aero. The vehicle will be created on the automaker’s modular electric system, known as MEB, and need to have greater assortment than the ID4 compact crossover and the ID Excitement microbus, envisioned to get there in the U.S. late upcoming year.

* Keogh and Brandstaetter stated that the U.S. market place would also finally see an Atlas-sized a few-row EV crossover, however its timing and specific dimension stay beneath discussion.

* Keogh mentioned that in 2020, VW had recorded its very first yearly revenue in North The usa in approximately a decade, and its most lucrative 12 months in decades. He did not disclose the dimension of the financial gain in the area, but stated it was a “$700 million turnaround” from its functionality in 2019, when it dropped funds in the location. He credited powerful revenue of the superior-revenue Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport crossovers as driving the profitability.

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Today in Retail: Amazon Adds New Gifting Tool

In today’s top rated retail information, Amazon is earning it simpler for purchasers to give presents without the need of realizing the recipient’s handle, and the months-very long semiconductor chip scarcity proceeds to damage motor vehicle sales. Also, gasoline shipping and delivery could be the next services to be a part of the on-demand economic system, and Greenback Tree’s selling price improves could suggest that retailers’ supply chain issues could stick all around for a whilst lengthier.

Amazon Adds Tackle-Absolutely free Gifting Characteristic Ahead of Vacations

Amazon has released a new function that allows Prime subscribers in the U.S. to send items with out being aware of the recipient’s deal with, allowing shoppers to depend on cell mobile phone numbers or email addresses to aid with shipping and delivery. In its place of selecting the shipping handle, senders can send out a reward message by electronic mail or text that will allow anyone to acknowledge the gift and incorporate their own most well-liked shipping and delivery tackle.

Semiconductor Chip Shortage Limits Car Sales in Q3

New motor vehicle gross sales dropped in the 3rd quarter thanks to ongoing supply chain issues and a lack of semiconductor chips, with General Motors dropping a third and Stellantis product sales dropping 19{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} as opposed to the exact same quarter last 12 months. Toyota Motor product sales inched up 1.4{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} in the quarter, but its September profits slipped 22{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}. Automakers attributed the declines to offer chain troubles and the chip scarcity that has been plaguing the business for additional than a year.

Gasoline Delivery Appears to be to Sign up for Takeout Food stuff, Groceries in Developing on-Need Overall economy

Mike McConnell, CEO of cell fuel firm EzFill, reported that even as purchasing groceries, buying and transportation have transitioned to an on-demand structure, putting gasoline in the auto has lagged guiding in spite of in the same way becoming an activity that shoppers do just about every day. McConnell informed PYMNTS, even though, that he expects retail fueling to be the upcoming significant consumable domino to tumble, in particular as genuine estate prices continue on to rise, and cities appear at other employs for web sites.

Dollar Tree Will increase Price Position Owing to Extended Offer Chain Issues

Greenback Tree’s announcement that it will begin rolling out selling price points higher than $1 in its merchants has been interpreted by some as an indication that the buck is not strong plenty of to beat the price cut retailer’s provide and labor issues. Analysts have claimed the improved costs also have broad significance further than the price cut retail sector as they signal how rigorous the pressures of increased wages and unreliable provide traces are on shops.

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NEW PYMNTS Info: TODAY’S SELF-Services Searching JOURNEY – SEPTEMBER 2021

About: Eighty {cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of customers are interested in using nontraditional checkout alternatives like self-services, still only 35 percent were able to use them for their most recent purchases. Today’s Self-Services Browsing Journey, a PYMNTS and Toshiba collaboration, analyzes about 2,500 responses to understand how retailers can tackle availability and notion issues to fulfill need for self-support kiosks.

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Nutson’s Weekly Auto News Wrap-up: Sept 26


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AUTO CENTRAL CHICAGO – October 3, 2021: Every Sunday Larry Nutson, The Chicago Car Guy and Executive Producer, with able assistance from senior editor Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Michigan Bureau, compile The Auto Channel’s
“take” on this past week’s automotive news, condensed into easy to digest news Nuggets.

LEARN MORE: Links to full versions of today’s news nuggets along with a million pages of the past 25 year’s automotive news, articles, reviews and archived stories residing in
The Auto Channel Automotive News Library can be found by just copying and then inserting the main headline into the News Library Search Box.

Nutson’s Automotive News Wrap-up – Week Ending October 2, 2021 ; Below are the past week’s important, relevant, semi-secret, or snappy automotive news, opinions and insider back stories presented as
expertly crafted easy-to-digest news nuggets.

* September U.S. auto sales continued to be significantly hampered by an ongoing lack of new-vehicle inventory. According to a forecast released by Cox Automotive, the pace of auto sales, or seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR), is expected to finish near 12.1 million, the slowest pace since May 2020, when much of the country was closed during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The September 2021 sales pace will be down from August’s 13.1 million pace and down from the September 2020 pace of 16.3 million. Sales volume is forecast by Cox Automotive to come in near a notably low 1.0 million units. The low volume expectations for September 2021 put the month on course to be among the worst in the past decade. Sales volume is expected to be down nearly 26{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} from last September and down 8.5{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} from last month.

* The ongoing global shortage of semiconductor chips will hit carmakers harder than experts had initially forecast in May as COVID-19 continues to disrupt chip production. A report released by consulting firm AlixPartners said the chips crisis will cost the global auto industry $210 billion in revenues this year. That’s almost double its estimate in May of $110 billion. AlixPartners forecasts that automakers will lose production of 7.7 million vehicles this year. In May, it had forecast a production loss of 3.9 million. Thanks to the Detroit Free Press for this news item.

* More technology comes with every new vehicle model year. The 2022 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban will offer more. A cool new feature is Google Assistant functionality that allows drivers to adjust HVAC, control media and more with their voice. A new standard feature that surely will bring out opinions is Buckle to Drive to help remind drivers to buckle up before driving. The feature does not allow a shift out of park until the driver and front passenger, if detected, have their seat belts fastened. So when you need to back out of your garage to get the lawn mower out, remember to buckle up.

* Automotive News reports a group of 21 state attorneys general, the District of Columbia, and several major U.S. cities has urged the Biden administration to finalize stricter vehicle emissions rules than it has proposed. The Environmental Protection Agency in August called for reversing the Trump-era loosening of vehicle emissions rules with a new plan to boost efficiency 10 percent in the 2023 model year and aiming for a fleet average of 52 miles per gallon by 2026. But the states and cities want more stringent rules.

* Ford is very serious about EVs. Ford Motor Company announced plans to bring electric vehicles at scale to American customers with two new massive, environmentally and technologically advanced campuses in Tennessee and Kentucky that will produce the next generation of electric F-Series trucks and the batteries to power future electric Ford and Lincoln vehicles. Ford, together with its South Korean battery partner, SK Innovation, plans to invest $11.4 billion and create nearly 11,000 new jobs at the Tennessee and Kentucky mega-sites, strengthening local communities and building on Ford’s position as America’s leading employer of hourly autoworkers. An all-new $5.6 billion mega campus in Stanton, TN, called Blue Oval City, will create approximately 6,000 new jobs and reimagine how vehicles and batteries are manufactured. The plants will be up and running in 2025.

* The two-row 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee was unveiled online and will add a plug-in hybrid electric version to its lineup. The Grand Cherokee 4xe will join a 4xe version of the Jeep Wrangler as the brand’s first two plug-in hybrids available in the United States.

* OPEC’s annual World Energy Outlook acknowledges that more electric vehicles will be on the road and the push for alternative and renewable energy will usher in a decline in the demand for oil in rich countries. However, growth in countries of expanding economies will mean oil will be the world’s No. 1 source of energy through 2045. OPEC forecasts global vehicle population to grow by 1.1 billion to 2.6 billion by 2045 with 500 million being electric powered.

* A new consumer survey carried out by MINI USA finds that American consumers are increasingly looking to electrify their daily on-road travel. Survey results say that half of all consumers expect the American automotive market to be mostly electric within just 15 years. Driving range concerns are balanced by 78{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of respondents saying they do not travel more than 50 miles per day on average. Younger consumers hold an especially positive attitude toward EVs, with Gen Z and Millennial consumers, indicating they are more likely to consider purchasing an EV in five years at 39{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} and 41{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}, respectively.

* ABB is launching an innovative all-in-one Electric Vehicle (EV) charger, which provides the fastest charging experience on the market. ABB’s new Terra 360 is a modular charger which can simultaneously charge up to four vehicles with dynamic power distribution. This means that drivers will not have to wait if somebody else is already charging ahead of them. They simply pull up to another plug. The new charger has a maximum output of 360 kW and is capable of fully charging any electric car in 15 minutes or less, meeting the needs of a variety of EV users, whether they need a fast charge or to top their battery up while grocery shopping. We are getting closer to the refueling time of a gasoline pump!

* Hyundai and Kia are recalling more than 550,000 cars and minivans in the U.S. because the turn signals can flash in the opposite direction of what the driver intended. The recall covers the Hyundai Sonata midsize sedan from the 2015 through 2017 model years, and Sonata Hybrid from 2016 and 2017. The Kia Sedona minivan from 2015 through 2017 also is affected.

* The all-women’s 2021 Rebelle Rally, the longest off-road rally in the United States, features eight days of fierce competition across more than 1,500 miles of Nevada, Arizona and California desert. It begins Oct. 7 at the Hoover Dam in Nevada and culminates Oct. 16 in California’s Imperial Sand Dunes. Nissan unveiled its red, white and blue one-off 2022 Frontier PRO-4X features a range of new NISMO Off Road parts, including NISMO Off Road 4-inch Lights, NISMO Off Road Performance Exhaust, NISMO Off Road Suspension Kit and NISMO Off Road AXIS Wheels – which appeared recently at the 2021 Overland Expo West. The rally team is Team Wild Grace with co-captains Sedona Blinson and Lyn Woodward.

* Lewis Hamilton claimed an historic 100th F1 career victory for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team in a pulsating Russian Grand Prix. This marked Lewis’s 79th victory with the Mercedes works team, extending its 100{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} win record in Russia which began with victories for Mercedes in 1913 and 1914. In claiming his 25 points, Lewis surpassed 4000 points in F1, the first driver to reach that milestone. Lewis Hamilton (246.5 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship from Max Verstappen (244.5), while Valtteri Bottas is in third position (151 points). The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team (397.5 points) lead Red Bull (364.5 points) by 33 points in the Constructors’ Championship.

* Alex Palou clinched his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship with a composed drive to fourth place in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, a race won by Colton Herta. Palou became the first Spaniard to win an INDYCAR SERIES championship and is Chip Ganassi Racing’s second consecutive title winner and 14th INDYCAR SERIES champion overall. This is his first season with the powerhouse team in the No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, joining CGR after his rookie season in 2020, when he finished 16th in the standings.

Stay safe. Be Well.

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Tesla co-founder turned Ford partner: EVs past ‘critical-mass threshold’

Can we get to a place wherever we can quit mining for EV battery supplies altogether?

It seems virtually science-fiction in some methods, but it just isn’t that far absent. If you picture a foreseeable future where by the transportation fleet is almost totally electrified and it really is a minimal bit extra continual state, in that scenario, we will not have to have to mine lots of new supplies. If we can recycle 95, 98 per cent of the metals in a battery, you can do that 100 situations in advance of you have to get new products. Search at the direct-acid battery market currently, and it is a good illustration of where by this can go. These metals will not get consumed. They get constructed into the product and they just kind of sit there for the everyday living of the merchandise. We can get better them and reuse them at the stop of it.

What’s the major menace to the electric revolution? Is it feasible EVs could in no way catch on?

I believe we have crossed a essential-mass threshold on this. The revolution is likely to take place I’m confident of that. Some of the biggest threats, although, are the smoothness with which it takes place, how disruptive it is to the OEMs, the customers. We’ve explained it right before, but some of the source chain troubles are some of the major threats. This is a large shift in the entire offer foundation and the way automobiles are developed. It’s not a foregone conclusion that can happen easily.

How will the industry respond to the wave of EVs coming?

Not all of these designs will be very prosperous. We’re likely to go through this changeover where it is not more than enough to just be electric. It really most likely hardly ever was adequate. It requires to be a terrific item that is also electric powered. That, I imagine, is not the circumstance with all people coming out above the following number of a long time. It was diverse when it was pushed by regulatory pressures. Then it was sufficient to just be electrical. You’d get rid of cash on a car and it didn’t have to be fantastic. This is a distinctive cycle, a distinctive wave where consumers have a choice and they are going to pick the ideal products and solutions that have selection, efficiency, value, all the unique attributes.

What probability do some of the new EV startups have at surviving?

My perspective is that the window could have shut, I consider, on the ability for brand new startup producers to kind of come in as a result of the EV changeover. It is phenomenally challenging to make a motor vehicle business that essentially can manufacture. No 1 appreciates just how tricky that definitely is, other than probably the current OEMs. I imagine a great deal of folks experienced some exuberance to search at what Tesla did and want to replicate that.

Normally, it will make feeling. But it could be critical to bear in mind that Tesla experienced a multi-calendar year head get started to experienced the engineering and work on this at a time when it was in its utter infancy and there was extremely minimal levels of competition — in reality there was anti-competitiveness, people actively saying it was the wrong direction. This is a very different sector. Now a startup coming into this is competing head to head with $11 billion investments from key OEMs and substantial commitments and major merchandise. It’s a distinctive market place.