Automotive News Canada - January 2020 - v2 - 13

* J A N U A R Y 2 020

Milette, president of Nissan
Canada, Matt Girgis; managing director, Volvo Cars
Canada; and Dean Stoneley,
CEO of Ford of Canada. ■ ■ ■
It appeared to be an extreme
move for VW Canada, but
the company said it is merely
attempting to look after dealers and Canadian demand by
undertaking to stockpile about
a year's worth of 2019 Golf
SportWagen and Golf
Alltrack wagons to sell after
production ends at the end
of the year.

SEPTEMBER

tion" as cities consider limiting car ownership as a way
to deal with traffic congestion. Sidewalk Labs, which
is planning an eco-friendly
development in Toronto, says
despite its plan to encourage
use of autonomous vehicles,
private ownership of vehicles could worsen urban congestion. ■ ■ ■ There's a new
Jeep North America boss and
he's Canadian. In an interview with Automotive News
Canada, New Brunswick
native Jim Morrison said he
is "laser-focused" on rebuilding Jeep sales, a task made
slightly easier with the arrival of the new Gladiator pickup. The automaker was alone
among its big rivals in recording a double-digit (16 per cent)
sales decline in 2018, and 2019
was down 4.2 per cent through
June.

A sea change is coming in
how automotive sales are
reported, as analysts predict
more carmakers will abandon monthly sales reports in
favour of quarterly tallies.
Autotrader analyst Michelle
Krebs said quarterly numbers not only give carmakers
"a big splash," the format is
more meaningful, averaging
out what may in the end be
only minor bumps in the road,
or giving investment analysts
a better picture of a brand's
decline. General Motors, in
April 2018, was the first carmaker to abandon monthly sales reports, followed a
month later by Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles. "A month does
not show much. So, over the
course of a quarter those are
much more meaningful numbers," Krebs said. ■ ■ ■
A tight race in the Oct. 21 federal election means change
could be in store for auto policy regulating everything from
electric-vehicle incentives
to subsidies for automotive
investment. ■ ■ ■ GM Canada
announces that Jim Bell
replaces Travis Hester as president, the third such changing of the guard in 17 months.
Hester's biggest impact on
the Canadian auto industry
is announcing in November
2018 the closure of Oshawa
Assembly. Bell, a native of
Michigan, sought to establish
relations with dealers in the
first days of his job. Hester
moved into the newly created
position of global vice-president of customer experience.

AUGUST

The Canadian Automobile
Dealers Association (CADA)
releases a 50-page road map
outlining a way forward for
its more than 3,300 members.
Among the recommendations:
aligning with more than one
manufacturer, preparing for
automakers to offload more
costs of business to dealerships, diversifying into related businesses such as collision
repair and emphasizing usedcar sales as a profit centre. ■ ■ ■
Automotive News Canada presents its second annual list of
Canadians to Watch, which
highlights those in the executive suite as well as Canadians
taking leading roles in technological innovation, education
and business development.
Those cited include Oumar
Dicko, economist at CADA,
Greta Cutulenco, CEO Acerta
Analytics Solutions, Steve

OCTOBER

Canada's parts makers eagerly await implementation of
the new North American free
trade pact, saying it could
unleash up to $8 billion worth
of orders. Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts
Manufacturers' Association,
says new country-of-origin
requirements - that com-

over a nationwide parts shortage that has lasted for months.
The blame falls to a "planned
systems transformation" that
slowed the flow of replacement
parts needed for repairs. The
company declined to provide
any details, but said the process was nearly complete.

ponents of new cars must be
75 per cent sourced from one
of the three countries party
to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada
Agreement to cross borders
duty free - has the potential to add $6 billion to $8 billion in business to Canada's
parts industry. The deal had
yet to be ratified by a Congress
embroiled in impeachment
proceedings against U.S
President Donald Trump.
■ ■ ■ In a bid to address an
industry-wide labour shortage, Nova Scotia's Steele Auto
Group offers up to $7,500 to
expat Maritimers as incentives to return and join the
staff at one of its 39 dealerships across Atlantic Canada.
Hoping to fill as many as 100
jobs, Steele "wanted to think
outside the box" to fill the
large number of openings. ■ ■ ■
Automotive News Canada features the 25 Best Dealerships
To Work For with a series of
stories on their path to success, keying on employee
engagement. ■ ■ ■ Canadian
dealerships could be forced to
rewrite their franchise agreements with automakers over
who has the rights to the customer data that dealerships
collect. All sides want the
access to the treasure chest of
information, but many franchise agreements don't deal
with the issue.

NOVEMBER

As the Canadian International
AutoShow works to stem a
tide of automaker defections
from its February event, a
debate heats up on the value
of auto shows in general.
Volvo and Mercedes-Benz both
announced their withdrawal
from the 2020 Toronto show,
continuing a trend that has
seen even signature events
such as the North American
International Auto Show in
Detroit make drastic changes in the name of relevancy. Hyundai Auto Canada,
however, is continuing its
multi-million-dollar investment in the Toronto Show.
CEO Don Romano said the
show remains an effective
marketing tool. ■ ■ ■ Another
debate centres around commission-based versus salary-based compensation at
dealerships. Proponents of
salary compensation say
it helps reduce turnover
rates and makes it easier
to recruit staff, especially
risk-averse millennials.
■ ■ ■ Canadian Toyota dealers are on a slow boil
having to deal with customers who are angry

TRANS-CANADA NEWS
5,000 KILOMETRES OF STORIES
CONTINUED FROM PA GE 3

encourage the transition
to EVs.
Porsche said the
charging stations, to be
located in cities, on highways and at some Porsche
dealerships, will enable
Taycans to recharge to
80 per cent capacity from
five per cent in 22.5 minutes. Taycan prices range
from $119,400 to $219,000 in
Canada.
Electrify Canada
expects to open 32 stations
through 2020 in British
Columbia, Alberta, Ontario
and Quebec. - Steve Mertl

China-built Solo cars
arrive for evaluation

DECEMBER

Fallout from U.S. President
Donald Trump's protectionism continues to hit Canada's
automotive industry, as an
Ontario-based plastics parts
supplier decides to open a
$20 million plant in Ohio.
Axiom Group Inc. says it
chose to expand across the
border because of government incentives, logistics and
U.S. economic and trade policies. Axiom supplies injection-moulded plastic parts for
Jeep models built in Michigan.
States are pulling out all the
stops, and writing massive
cheques in the process, to
attract manufacturers.
■ ■ ■ General Motors' Oshawa,
Ont. Assembly ends more
than a century of vehicle manufacturing, throwing about
2,300 hourly employees out
of work. Aided by a $170-million company investment,
the plant begins a new mandate as a stamping and aftermarket parts manufacturer, retaining about 300 workers. ■ ■ ■ The University of
Guelph and biomaterials
company Competitive Green
Technologies enable Ford
Motor Co. and McDonald's
to brew up lightweight parts
from the waste of processing coffee beans. For the truly
Canadian bio-plastic invention, the skins of coffee beans
- called chaff - can formed
into various shapes. In Ford's
case, headlight housings.
- ANC
- With files from
Jeff Melnychuk

VANCOUVER - HAVING
taken delivery of 50
pilot-production Solo
electric vehicles from its
assembly plant in China
for road evaluation and
testing in the United
States and Canada, Electra
Meccanica (EM) said it
expects to begin delivering the single-seat threewheel commuter EV in
early 2020. It also expects
to ramp up production and
delivery throughout the
year.
CEO Paul Rivera said
the company is concluding
final engineering validation and is fine-tuning production with the manufacturing facility in China.
- Steve Mertl

First Nation takes
electric initiative

KANANASKIS, ALTA. -
The Stoney Nakoda First
Nation opened two EV
charging stations along the
Trans-Canada Highway in
early November at the new
Bearspaw First Nation
travel centre, about 75 kilometres west of Calgary.
The units - one
direct-current Level 3 fast
charger and one 240-volt
Level 2 unit - mark the
latest additions to the Peak
to Prairies Project (PPP),
a two-year, $2.2-million
collaborative initiative to
develop a series of "electric
highways" across southern
Alberta, from Canmore in
the west to Medicine Hat
in the east. The Bearspaw
travel-centre additions to
the network join a variety of new charger units
opened days earlier in
Pincher Creek, Nanton
and Longview, all south
of Calgary. Bearspaw has
the distinction of being
the first indigenous-people-owned enterprise to
join the network. As of
Nov. 21, the project had 10
operational fast-charge stations, all installed by energy company Atco through
a competitive bid process.
The project is on track to
have 20 stations throughout Southern Alberta by
spring. - Joe Knycha
- ANC

Automotive News Canada - January 2020 - v2

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