Inside Automotive
Bloomberg’s Kevin Tynan on Monterey Car Week, EV trends, and UAW negotiations
On this episode of Inside Automotive, anchor Shyann Malone sits down with Kevin Tynan, senior automotive analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, to dive into the hard-hitting headlines that are rippling throughout the industry. From Monterey Car Week to the looming United Auto Workers (UAW) strike, their discussion provides a glimpse into the automotive sector today. Watch full segment here.
Top Stories
Negotiations between United Auto Workers (UAW) and Detroit-Three automakers returned to a standstill as union chief Shawn Fain and President Biden clashed over the organization’s impending strike. United Auto Workers rebuffed Ford’s contract proposal over Labor Day weekend for failing to meet the union’s demands, pushing talks back to square one. President Fain addressed auto workers in a live-streamed event on Saturday, September 2, where he criticized the car manufacturer for attempting to implement new rules around temporary workers and offering a wage increase of 9%, substantially lower than the 46% sought by UAW members. Read More
Mercedes Benz unveiled a new concept car for the upcoming CLA Class lineup at the 2023 IAA Mobility conference in Munich. The CLA lineup is a compact car series containing four models built on the new Mercedes Modular Architecture (MMA). When it enters production, the new battery-powered CLA four-door coupe showcased at the IAA summit will see the first application of the MMA platform, which is designed to support both ICE and electric vehicle manufacturing. Read More
Hyundai and LG Energy Solutions announced plans to invest an additional $2 billion and hire 400 more employees to produce batteries at the automaker’s massive U.S. electric vehicle plant in Georgia, which is currently under construction. The South Korean companies’ announcement builds on a three-month-old partnership to produce batteries at the same location west of Savannah, where Hyundai intends to begin EV production in 2025. Read More
The Detroit automaker has filed for the trademark “F-200” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, according to the automaker of the all-electric F-150 Lightening Pickup Truck, Ford. On August 28, the federal office reported the trademark application is specifically for “Motor vehicles such as gas, EVs, pickup trucks, sports utility vehicles, and their structural parts.” Although there is no way to know for sure what the new trademark will be used for, we can assume that it has something to do with Project T3, Ford’s brand-new all-electric pickup truck that will be unveiled in 2025 and manufactured at the company’s Tennessee site in BlueOval City. Read More
For Dealers
Flexible pricing can help make payments more affordable for younger car buyers
As if the post-pandemic and supply chain issues weren’t enough the last few years…now financial experts are still banging the drum that a recession could still be just around the corner and inflation is still a looming concern. Everything costs more and the sky is falling. Unfortunately, delinquencies are on the rise, and this presents an opportunity for F&I staff to not only be aware of this trend but to find creative ways to help younger borrowers be able to protect themselves financially from unexpected out-of-pocket expenses. Read More
5 things automotive sales professionals can do to plan for a potential recession
Since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the automotive industry, specifically new and used retail dealerships, has experienced an uncanny boom in sales revenues and profits. The COVID-19 pandemic spurred dramatic declines in the use of public transportation. Supply chain issues across the globe caused significant physical inventory shortages. Government stimulus released free cash into the economy at never-before-seen levels. These factors and more combined lead to record-breaking commission checks for the individuals who toughed it out wearing masks to the dealership every day. Read More
