Automotive News Canada - April 2018 - v2 - 1

SALES RACE: SILVERADO/SIERRA TOPPLE FORD F SERIES/P27

APRIL 2018 | VOL. 3, NO. 4 | AUTOMOTIVENEWS.CA FOR BREAKING NEWS AND DIGITAL EDITION

Growing EV market dogged by product shortage
In some cases
it's tough just to get
a test drive, let alone
actually buy a vehicle
By STEVE MERTL

VA N C O U V E R C O R R E S P O N D E N T

Volkswagen halted pre-orders
of the e-Golf last fall and is
still trying to fill them.

FOR PEOPLE IN THE MARKET
for an electric vehicle in
Canada, patience is a virtue.

Waits of up to a year are not
unusual, and availability of
demonstrators is spotty.
Ted Lightfoot of Langley,

a suburb of Vancouver, was
lucky, waiting just 14 weeks last
year for his 2017 Chevrolet Bolt,
notorious for its relative rarity
when it launched in late 2016.
"He's got a waiting list now
for them," Lightfoot said of his
dealer. "There's more demand
than there are vehicles available."
No such luck for Ottawa's

SEE AUTOMAKERS PAGE 27

Volkswagen Canada executives have been silent
since the diesel scandal broke in 2015, but new
CEO Daniel Weissland is also focused on the future

VW CATCH-UP
By JOHN IRWIN
TORONTO BUREAU

AJAX, ONT. - THE DIESEL
emissions scandal is "history" to
Volkswagen Canada CEO Daniel
Weissland. Now it's his job to help
repair the automaker's image in
Canada.
"Hopefully, people understand
what happened two and a half years
ago, yes, was bad, but we paid the
bill and we made sure that we take
care of our customers," Weissland
told Automotive News Canada in his
first interview since taking over as
VW Canada CEO in December.
The scandal still looms large
over VW in the public eye, even as
its sales in Canada surge.
Volkswagen was found in 2015
to have sold vehicles with software
that allowed them to pass emissions
tests despite emitting nitrous oxide
levels up to 35 times the legal limit
in Canada.
"To me, it's already history and
if you ask customers, it's already
history," Weissland said. "There
are some who still like to write
about it because it's a nice headline,
but for us it's history. We deal with
our customers, make sure they're
happy and that they stay with the
Volkswagen history, and the rest
will come."
Globally, Volkswagen
has been mired in lawsuits
and regulatory battles
in the wake of the scandal. In Canada, that has

resulted in settlements with customers who bought affected vehicles with 2.0-litre and 3.0-litre diesel
engines.
The 3.0-litre settlement has yet
to be ruled on by courts in Ontario
and Quebec, while the 2.0-litre settlement was approved in 2017.
About 70 per cent of those customers have been paid so far, more
than the company was expecting at
this point, Weissland said.
A majority of those customers have decided to stick with the
brand, he said.
"That's a really good sign."

TECH, UTILITY PRIORITIES
Weissland, who was previously the head of Audi Canada, said
Volkswagen plans to spend
heavily on technology and
increase its utility offerings to bolster its reputation, and to
move it away
VW Canada CEO Daniel Weissland said
the diesel scandal is "history," and
customers appear to agree. VW light-truck
sales - Tiguan pictured - were up 239
per cent in March compared with the same
month a year ago. ( P H O T O S : V O L K S W A G E N )

SEE WEISSLAND PAGE 27

CUSTOMER INTERFACE
DEALERS NEED TO MEET THEM
HEAD-ON, ONLINE

/P5

THE
MILLENNIAL
MYTH
(THEY'RE BUYING CARS AFTER ALL)
F&I SPECIAL FEATURE/P20,21

AutoCanada
dives in on
U.S. market
Acquisition of
a Chicago-based
dealer group is
just the beginning
By JOHN IRWIN
TORONTO BUREAU

AUTOCANADA HOPES
to use earnings from the
Illinois dealership group
it recently acquired to fuel
more growth in the United
States, CEO Steven Landry
said.
"The important thing
for us was to do an acquisition that was sizeable
enough that this dealership group would have its
own earnings, and those
earnings would stay in
the U.S. and be used to
purchase more stores in
the U.S.," Landry told
Automotive News Canada.
"It's really about biting the
bullet and getting in here
once and growing."
AutoCanada, Canada's
only publicly traded dealership group, agreed to
buy nine of the 10 stores in
the Grossinger Auto Group
of Chicago, Ill., in March,
establishing its presence
in the lucrative U.S. auto
retail market.
The deal, which was to
close in the second quarter, will add about $523
million (US $400 million)
in annual revenue to
AutoCanada and is one of
the largest acquisitions by
an international buyer of
a U.S. dealership group.
Terms were not disclosed.
Landry said further
growth in the United States
would likely occur close to
the Canadian border, cit-

ing proximity to Canada
and similarities in climate
as reasons for not venturing further south.
"Would we jump to a
place that's three hours
away in the United States
and start another group?
Probably not," he said.
"But is there other synergy
across the border between
Canada and the U.S. where
there are opportunities in
cities close to the border?
That makes more sense to
us."

PRODUCT DIVERSITY
The Grossinger acquisition comes as AutoCanada
looks to expand in Canada,
as well. AutoCanada,
which reported net earnings of $17.1 million in the
fourth quarter of 2017, will
look to expand its presence beyond
its traditional stronghold in western Canada,
Landry said.
The deal
gives the
Landry
Edmontonbased group its first
Toyota, Honda, Lincoln
and Volvo stores, which
Landry said is key to the
company's goal of diversifying its product offerings
as well as geographic footprint. Publicly held dealership groups are barred by
many automakers, including Toyota, Honda and
Ford, from fully owning
Canadian stores.
"While establishing
a new relationship with
these OEMs in the U.S.,
it does not necessarily

SEE LANDRY PAGE 27

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