Inside Automotive
How AI is helping dealers engage with car buyers — Kevin Pitts | BMW of Reading
As today’s car buyers evolve, so must the technology within the dealership, which is why it is critical for managers to choose the right vendors. On this episode of Inside Automotive, host Jim Fitzpatrick is joined by Kevin Pitts, the general manager at BMW of Reading, owned by the Tom Masano Auto Group, to learn more about DriveCentric, a customer relations management platform that has helped improve response times, engagement, customer experience and the overall bottom line for his storefront. Watch full segment here.
Top Stories
Electric vehicle startup Lucid has revealed its production and delivery numbers for the second quarter as it prepares to take shareholder questions during the release of its financial results. From April through June, the electric vehicle brand built 2,173 Lucid Air sedans at its Arizona factory, of which 1,404 were sold to customers. The company’s production output decreased slightly from Q1 when it made 2,314 units. Read More
SAE International, the engineering organization behind the development of guidelines for the Combined Charging System (CCS), has formed a team that it says will help it release guidelines for Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) ahead of schedule. SAE says it will be able to publish NACS-based standards before 2024, with the team’s chair, Rodney McGee, telling Electrek that the organization was better equipped to accomplish the task in a timely manner than other international engineering groups. Read More
Inflation continued to show signs of stalling in June, as the annual rate slowed to just 3% under the influence of volatile food and energy prices. This number not only means that inflation has inched within one percentage point of the Federal Reserve’s growth target of 2%, but it also represents the lowest increase since early 2021. Compared to May, the rate rose only 0.2%, slightly below expectations of 0.3%. While these are encouraging signs for the U.S. economy, there are some caveats. Read More
Electric vehicle discounts caused rising new car prices to stall in June, with transaction totals rising only 1.6% from the prior year. This growth is the smallest jump prices have taken since early 2020 and suggests that the new car market may be normalizing after the pandemic. Cox Automotive reports that the average transaction total in June was $48,808, a month-over-month increase of 0.3% but a six-month decline of 1.7% from January. Read More
For Dealers
Fostering a culture of creativity to drive innovation in your dealership
As with most sectors, the automotive industry must continue to come up with creative solutions and groundbreaking innovations to keep consumers happy. Professionals in the automotive retail industry have to keep up with a tremendous amount of new technologies that include but are not limited to new products, new safety and mobility measures, and new artificial intelligence advancements. Overall, organizations need to embrace a culture of creativity and adapt in order to stay competitive. Read More
Remove risk from out-of-state sales and make money faster
Out-of-state auto sales give dealerships a great revenue stream – but if you don’t manage them correctly, they can also make you pace up and down the halls like an expecting parent. Why? Because until the title clears, the dealership doesn’t see the money on the deal: even if your customer is already happily down the road in their new (or new to them) car. Read More
