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Musk could continue the goal of prioritizing sales over profits

By on July 24, 2023

Elon Musk is prioritizing sales over profits in hopes that Tesla’s elusive full self-driving software would eventually burnish margins, a plan that could deepen an already fierce price war in the electric-vehicle industry. Shares of the automaker fell 3.5 percent in premarket trading on Thursday after Musk signaled there might not be any let-up in cuts that have already sent gross margins to a four-year low. Getting more cars on the road would help Tesla maintain its dominant EV market share in “turbulent times” and give it access to the precious usage data needed to train the artificial intelligence models…

Car quality is getting worse, JD Power finds

By on June 27, 2023

New-vehicle quality improved at 12 of 33 brands ranked in the study: Dodge, Ram, Alfa Romeo, Porsche, Maserati, Jaguar, Subaru, Jeep, Mitsubishi, Audi, Chrysler and Volvo. “It’s not one thing that’s detrimental in the industry,” said Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at JD Power. “There’s just a lot of little things going wrong, and it’s adding up to big problems for customers.” The number of problems tracked per 100 vehicles rose 6.5 percent from 2022 to 2023, following an 11 percent rise from 2021 to 2022, Hanley said. Before then, the largest increase in problems in a given…

Mullen Automotive Inc (MULN) Stock Is Down -42.86% This Week: Buy, Hold, or Sell?

By on June 12, 2023

News Home Monday, June 12, 2023 12:11 PM | Investors Observer Analysts Mentioned in this article Mullen Automotive Inc (MULN) stock has fallen -98.48% over the last 12 months. InvestorsObserver’s proprietary ranking system, gives MULN stock a score of 5 out of a possible 100. That rank is mainly influenced by a short-term technical score of 0. MULN’s rank also includes a long-term technical score of 16. MULN has an Overall Score of 5. Find out what this means to you and get the rest of the rankings on MULN! What’s Happening with MULN Stock Today Mullen Automotive Inc (MULN)…

Franchise Equity Partners invests $55M in Parks Automotive Group

By on June 5, 2023

“We remain a passive partner,” Romanoff said. “Adam and team continue to fully run operations, but we’ve provided them the intellectual and equity capital that they need to further their objectives.” Family-run Parks Automotive is the second auto retailer investment for Franchise Equity Partners, following its $70 million October investment in Georgica Auto Holdings. Shortly after that partnership was announced, Georgica Auto bought three dealerships in Connecticut. Launched by Romanoff and Michael Esposito in November 2021, the firm received $1 billion in funding from HPS Investment Partners. It was tasked with investing in five sectors, including automotive dealerships, with about…

Ford to alter China strategy, Farley says

By on May 7, 2023

Farley said the region remains key to Ford. “We believe that not only is it the biggest EV market in the world, but customers digitally are ahead of the rest of the world, and so it’s a really important market for us,” he said. “And what we really see in our presence there is battery technology, digital experiences for the customer and advanced products, both software and hardware integrated.” Earlier this year Ford shook up its China leadership team, promoting Sam Wu to CEO following the retirement of Anning Chen. Wu previously served as managing director and COO. Chen became…

Nissan revs up fleet sales as production returns

By on April 18, 2023

Nissan’s average pre-pandemic fleet mix hovered at about 30 percent, a TrueCar spokesman said, declining to disclose specific volumes. During the pandemic and subsequent supply chain shortages, which dramatically cut fleet sales across the industry, that share dropped to 18-to-20 percent. In recent months, the fleet share increased to about 25%. Nissan, which in the past decade relied on aggressive sales to fleets to boost its North American volumes, has been on a multiyear effort to kick that habit, acknowledging that high fleet sales can hurt a brand’s residual values and dealer profitability. Nissan said it isn’t wavering on that…

China dealers struggle as price war, emissions rules upend market

By on March 30, 2023

Chinese new-vehicle dealers are struggling to stay afloat after efforts to clear gasoline-fueled cars before tougher emissions standards taking effect later this year are upended by a bruising price war. Auto sales — especially of internal combustion engine light vehicles — haven’t bounced back from pandemic restrictions even with hefty discounts done out by major carmakers including BYD Co., Chery Auto, Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co. New-vehicle sales fell 20 percent in the first two months of the year, with deliveries of gasoline-fueled cars dropping 30 percent. With the next phase of China’s emissions standards to be implemented…

Ford recalls: 1.3M Fusions, Lincoln MKZs called back for brakes

By on March 25, 2023

Ford is also recalling about 280,000 F-150 pickups globally from the 2021 model year, according to a separate recall report made public Thursday. The recall covers about 222,000 vehicles in the US, 50,000 in Canada and 2,000 in Mexico, Ford said. The windshield wiper arms on those vehicles may break, reducing visibility in certain conditions and increasing the risk of a crash. Potential indicators of the issue include erratic or slow wiper speed. Ford told NHTSA that as of Jan. 25, it was aware of 576 global reports of inoperative or detached windshield wiper arms related to this condition. Trico…