Hyundai to Turn Ioniq Name Into Global EV Brand
According to Automotive News, Hyundai Motor Co. is launching a global battery-electric brand using the Ioniq name from its current hybrid and EV hatchbacks. It plans to release three electric vehicles from the new brand in the next four years, starting in early 2021 with a midsize crossover. Hyundai Motor Group, which includes Kia and Genesis, has said it aims to sell 1 million battery-electric vehicles and take 10 percent market share to become a leader in the global EV field by 2025. Hyundai Motor plans to become the third-largest maker of eco- friendly vehicles, including fuel cell EVs. The Ioniq 5 coming next year is based on the concept 45 vehicle from the 2019 Frankfurt auto show, the automaker said in a statement. The Ioniq 6 — to be launched in 2022 — is a sedan that takes its inspiration from the Prophecy concept shown in March. It will be followed in early 2024 by a large SUV, the Ioniq 7. The naming of the vehicles is based partially on body style. Crossovers and SUVs will use odd numbers and sedans will use even numbers, Hyundai said in a press release. The current Ioniq vehicles will be known simply as Hybrid, Plug-In Hybrid, and Electric. Read more here.
China's Strong July Auto Sales Fuel Hopes for Growth
Chinese consumers flocked back to auto dealerships in July, boosting carmakers’ hopes of returning to growth in the second half of the year and signaling a broader rebound in the world’s second-largest economy, reports The Wall Street Journal. Retail passenger-car sales increased 7.7% in July from a year earlier, to 1.6 million units, the China Passenger Car Association said Tuesday, marking the strongest month of sales growth by percentage in more than two years. While automakers’ sales to dealerships had bounced back in the second quarter of the year, rising 10.4% year over year, sales to individual customers had remained weak, declining 3.4% in the April-to-June period compared with a year earlier as consumers only slowly began to spend again after the coronavirus brought China to a standstill in the first three months of the year. The Chinese auto market now looks to be picking up, thanks to a combination of government incentives and bargain prices from dealerships eager to move vehicles off the lot. Read more here.
Fiat Chrysler Blasts GM's Attempt to Revive Racketeering Lawsuit, Calls It 'Despicable'
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles pushed back Monday against General Motors' attempt to revive its racketeering lawsuit, two days after FCA's former lead labor negotiator, convicted in the United Auto Workers corruption scandal, compared GM's tactics to those of disgraced Sen. Joe McCarthy's anti-communist witch hunts. According to USA Today, the legal drama pitting the two automakers against one another is now in its ninth month despite U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman's dismissal of the case in July. Perhaps instructive was a new order Monday from Borman noting that he is not seeking another reply from GM. GM had ratcheted up the allegations last week, saying it had found new evidence of offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and other countries designed to fuel a bribery scheme to harm GM and claiming that ex-GM board member Joe Ashton, who is awaiting sentencing in the federal probe, was actually a paid mole. Read more here.
Virus Takes Financial Toll on Legacy OEMs
WardsAuto reports that established automakers and suppliers are reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, looking ahead to years of depressed sales and are burning through cash in pursuit of electrification, two industry analysts say. Startup companies in the sector, meanwhile, are mostly committed to battery-electric and hybrid vehicles, have ready access to capital and don’t need to shore up their finances by selling internal-combustion-engine vehicles, John Casesa and Rod Lache said during a presentation at the Center for Automotive Research’s online Management Briefing Seminars. “Technology is making the automobile into something different” from what is on the road today, said Casesa, a partner in Guggenheim Investments and a former General Motors and Ford executive. “(EV maker) Tesla is the closest thing to a preview of the automotive industry.” Casesa and Lache, of Wolfe Research, both sid capital is flowing toward new technologies while legacy OEMs struggle with their bottom line, both now and in the future. Current light-vehicle sales have been crippled by COVID-19 and likely won’t exceed 15 million units annually over the next five years, compared with 17 million in the prosperous 2016-2017 period, Lache says. Read more here.
Incentivizing Salespeople Key During Crisis
When it became clear that COVID-19 would spark months of uncertainty across the auto industry, Boris Lopez knew he would need to get creative to weather the storm, reports Automotive News. After all, Lopez, director at South Dade Toyota of Homestead, Fla., and South Dade Kia of Miami, said he has been thinking of contingency plans for major hits to the automotive business since the Great Recession. "I always have in the back of my mind, what happens if we go back to 2008, 2009? What would be the worst-case scenario for us?" Lopez told Automotive News. "I always prepare for how fast can I reduce 30 percent of my expenses, because my expectation would be sales would drop 30 percent." In March, Lopez began thinking of ways to tighten up spending, motivate and assure his employees and keep his stores afloat. To help cope with the pandemic, South Dade Kia of Miami and South Dade Toyota of Homestead reduced spending on Google, Facebook, and data-mining vendors and created a bonus program for sales staff. Lopez decided to decrease vendor spend and divert that money to incentivize his salespeople to take on new roles. Read more here.
This Week: Join Webinars Featuring an Economic Update & How to Handle COVID-19 at Your Dealership
Don’t miss out on AIADA’s back-to-back AutoTalk webinars this week, starting today. Together, they’ll help you understand where our industry stands, and what you can do to handle COVID-19 at your own dealership.
-
Tuesday, August 11: An Update on COVID-19’s Impact on U.S. Auto Sales
Join Cox Automotive Senior Economist Charlie Chesbrough for a review of our industry’s most recent economic data. -
Thursday, August 13: What If My Employee Tests Positive for COVID-19?
Learn critical steps you can take to protect your employees, steps to take if an employee contracts COVID-19, and how to return employees to work after they recover.
Register for both sessions by clicking here.
Around the Web
Meet the World's Oldest Volkswagen Bus [MotorAuthority]
Maserati Now Offers a Trio of Trofeos [The Detroit Bureau]
Chevy Trailblazer Scores a Hit as Fastest-Selling New Vehicle in U.S. [Detroit Free Press]
Brian Benstock Calls DeBlasio's Remarks on Autos 'Completely Irresponsible' [CBT Automotive Network]
