Dealers Do Good Friday
AIADA’s #DealersDoGood campaign is spreading the word about the great things dealers are doing in their local communities. Read about some of the Hyundai dealers who are doing good across America in April. If you know of a dealer doing good, let us know here, or tag us on Facebook or Twitter with the #DealersDoGood hashtag.
Gary Rome, owner of Gary Rome Hyundai in Holyoke, Massachusetts, kicked off The Drive to Change Lives fundraising campaign with a $10,000 donation aimed at supporting students at Holyoke Community College. He partnered with the HCC Foundation for this one-day campaign on Tuesday. "We hear that these are unprecedented times, and they certainly are, and now more than ever we need the support," Rome said. Read more here (Source: Western Mass News).
South Charlotte Hyundai and fellow Charlotte-area Hyundai dealers recently presented brand new Hyundai Santa Fe to Hyundai Hometown Hero Tijua Robinson, who is director of the Grier Heights Community Center. Robinson has overseen the center during the pandemic, ensuring the students it serves have access to food, mentoring services, and rides to and from the center. Read more here (Source: WCNC).
Hyundai Motor America joined its Texas dealers this week to present $50,000 of donations aimed at addressing food insecurity in Austin and Houston.
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On Monday, Hyundai and its local dealers presented Kids Meals Inc. with a $25,000 donation to address shortcomings in critical resources for families in Houston following February’s winter storms. While families have continued to struggle, local organizations like Kids’ Meals Inc. were also hard hit and left without sufficient food to serve more than 3,000 preschool-aged children. Hyundai’s donation will help provide 12,500 free healthy meals over the next four weeks.
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On Thursday, the automaker also presented the Central Texas Food Bank with a $25,000 donation – which is expected to provide 100,000 meals for an estimated 8,000 Central Texans in need of food assistance. On average, the Central Texas Food Bank has seen an increase of 25% or more clients seeking food assistance, and it anticipates a sustained and increased need across its service area as many of Austin’s most vulnerable communities deal with the economic impact of home repair costs, lost wages due to business closures, and persisting supply chain issues with food retailers.
Nissan N.A. Factories Tripped by Chip Shortage
Nissan will trim North American production in May because of the semiconductor shortage, the automaker said Thursday. Automotive News reports that Frontier and Titan pickup production in Canton, Miss., will be cut for four days, and Altima sedan assembly will be reduced for eight days in May. In Smyrna, Tenn., production of the Rogue crossover, Maxima sedan and Leaf electric vehicle will be trimmed two days next month. Murano crossover production will be cut one day next week. In Mexico, production at a factory in Aguascalientes, where Nissan builds the subcompact Versa sedan and compact Kicks crossover, will be halted for seven days in May. "We continue to work closely with our supplier partners to assess the impact of supply chain issues and minimize disruption for vehicle deliveries to our dealers and customers," Nissan spokeswoman Lloryn Love-Carter said in an email. Read more here (Source: Automotive News).
U.S. SEC Probes VW 'Voltswagen' Marketing Stunt, According to Source
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an inquiry into the U.S. unit of Volkswagen’s AG over a marketing stunt in which it falsely said it was changing its name in the United States to “Voltswagen,” a person briefed on the matter confirmed. According to Reuters, Spiegel first reported the inquiry and the SEC's request for information about the issue made in early April and quoted VW as confirming the investigation. Volkswagen declined to comment on the matter to Reuters. The SEC did not respond to a request for comment. The company in March apologized after a false statement it issued about a phony name change was widely slammed on social media. The stunt, which came just ahead of April Fool’s Day on the first of the month, when companies often release prank statements, was meant to call attention to its electric vehicle efforts, the carmaker said. Read more here (Source: Reuters).
Group 1 Profit Leaps to Q1 Record as Market Rebounds
Despite a storm in the U.S. and mandated pandemic-related shutdowns in the U.K., Group 1 Automotive Inc. was able to boost sales and report record profit for the first quarter, reports Automotive News. The dealership group reported Thursday that net profit more than tripled to a record $101.9 million in the quarter as revenue rose 12 percent to a record $3.01 billion, driven by new- and used-vehicle revenue growth of more than 20 percent in the U.S. The first quarter presented the first comparison with a year-earlier period affected by the coronavirus pandemic. In March in the U.S., customers returned to Group 1's dealerships "in droves," Daryl Kenningham, Group 1's president of U.S. and Brazil operations, said in a statement. Customer lead traffic rose 43 percent year over year in March, service appointments increased 25 percent and customer-pay repair order count jumped 23 percent, Kenningham said. It's a stark change from March 2020, when traffic dried up early in the pandemic. Read more here (Source: Automotive News).
Global Chip Shortage Set to Worsen for Carmakers
Global auto makers who had expected the semiconductor supply crisis to subside in the spring are now warning that chips will remain scarce for months while a second-half recovery is fraught with uncertainty, reports The Wall Street Journal. The main causes of the worsening shortage are the widespread chip manufacturing disruption in Texas from the severe weather in February and a fire at Japan’s Renesas Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. on March 19 that halted production, ripping a hole in the global supply. That has left car makers searching for chips needed for on-board electronics, safety systems such as automatic braking, and infotainment consoles. The disruptions in Texas and Japan have exacerbated a shortage that began last year when strong demand from the consumer-electronics industry left car makers unable to accelerate chip orders to keep pace with a stronger-than-expected post-lockdown rebound in auto sales. Car makers had to stall or stop production and ration chips for the best-earning models. Read more here (Source: The Wall Street Journal).
Around the Web
AIADA is Working for You This Spring [Watch]
Toyota Shows How Hydrogen Technology Could Save the Exhaust Note [Autoblog]
What Should You Drive for a Summer Road Trip? [USA Today]
Global Electric Vehicle Numbers Set to Hit 145M by End of the Decade [CNBC]
