The Korean brands -- Hyundai, Genesis and Kia -- took most of the spotlight at the New York International Auto show. Hyundai debuted freshened versions of the Tucson compact crossover and Santa Cruz compact pickup while Kia introduced the K4, previously badged the Forte.
Earlier in the week Genesis unveiled the EV concepts GV60 Magma and Neolun crossover.
You can watch a replay of our live talk with Hyundai Motor America CEO Randy Parker.
Below is a recap of all the news.
New York Power Authority: EV targets are doable as battery prices fall, affordability increases
Wed, Mar 27, 7:39 pm
New York is optimistic about EV adoption and infrastructure, despite the state’s size and doom-and-gloom headlines about the state of EV consumer sentiment.
EVs will naturally become more affordable as battery prices keep falling, said John Markowitz, the lead engineer in the energy services product development group at the New York Power Authority. He said that once batteries reach the price of $100 per kilowatt hour, electric vehicles will cost the same as internal combustion engine vehicles to produce.
He said New York has issued 132,000 electric vehicle rebates worth $135 million, and the state is building out its own fast-charging network.
“We needed to fill up these interstates with fast chargers that are reliable, that are close to each other,†he said at the New York International Auto Show’s auto industry EV press conference. “We’re solving that pain point for the customer.â€
-Molly Boigon
Kia Forte rebadged K4 in fourth-gen redesign
Wed, Mar 27, 1:41 pm
The fourth generation of Kia's popular compact sedan has bolder styling proportions, technology upgrades, two GT-Line variants and a new name: the K4.
2025 Hyundai Tucson, Santa Cruz get big, bold updates
Wed, Mar 27, 1:41 pm
Hyundai Motor America debuted freshened versions of the Tucson compact crossover and Santa Cruz compact pickup with exterior and interior styling enhancements, new safety and convenience technology and updates to the XRT trim packages.
Kia EV9 wins World Car of the Year
Wed, Mar 27, 1:27 pm
The Kia EV9 was named World Car of the Year, the highest honor at the 2024 World Car Awards on Wednesday.
It beat out the BYD Seal and Volvo EX30 during the awards, distributed at the New York International Auto Show.
The EV9 also won the award for World Electric Vehicle.
“In the EV9 you can see our dedication to quality. It is a near perfect representation of Kia’s mission,†said Sean Yoon, Kia America CEO. Winning the EV award and the World Car of the Year award was “really, really incredible.â€
Electric vehicles and hybrids cleaned up at the awards, with the Volvo EX30 winning the World Urban Car award, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N winning World Performance Car and the Toyota Prius – beating out the Ford Bronco and the Ferrari Purosangue – winning World Car Design of the Year.
“Can you imagine a world where a Ferrari and a Toyota Prius are up for the same award?†said Chad Deutsch, the general manager for Toyota for the New York region.
A jury of more than 100 automotive journalists from 29 countries chose the finalists and scored them on different parameters to find the winners.
-Molly Boigon
EPA still pushing too hard for EVs, Toyota says
Tue, Mar 26, 9:21 pm
The head of sales for Toyota Motor North America says the EPA is still pushing too hard for electric vehicles before consumers are ready.
“If you stretch it out a bit further [to] 2035, 2040 –probably 2040, really – is you have a consistent approach where the customer can come along with you for the journey,†said Toyota’s Jack Hollis. “I think that would make the marketplace work and also make it more profitable for both the OEMs and the dealers.â€
Hollis said the outcome of the presidential election in November won’t likely affect the company’s product plans, because it aims to match its lineups with consumer appetites – not regulatory statutes.
“Our plans are long term,†he said.
-Jamie Butters
Amazon sales move fast
Tue, Mar 26, 8:09 pm
Hyundai’s partnership with Amazon to sell its vehicle via the retail giant platform is helping to speed up the car-buying process.
“In a normal transaction, the customers take about three hours to get the car through the entire process. So far transaction times are coming down from three hours down 15 minutes,†Jose Munoz, COO of Hyundai Motor Co. said during a fireside chat at the Automotive Forum New York ahead of the auto show this week.
Amazon and Hyundai are midway through their testing phase with 18 dealers in major markets including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, New York and Denver. Amazon is using its own employees as beta site guinea pigs.
“These are customers who are currently Amazon employees, but they have been normal dealer customers. As long as it's efficient, they love it,†Munoz said.
Even though Amazon’s platform is enabling the sale, he said, dealers are crucial to untangling the complex transaction process.
“Unlike Amazon products, the dealers decide the business they want to put into the system – the prices, the incentives, the version. It’s all up to the dealer, so it's much more complicated to master,†Munoz said.
The process is still planned to open to the public in the second half of the year, Munoz said.
--Carly Schaffner
A sense of urgency and concern about final EPA EV rule
Tue, Mar 26, 7:37 pm
The EPA's final rule on multi-pollutant emissions standards is a source of stress and a call to action for the automotive industry, according to the “Challenges As The Industry Transitions To Electric†panel at the Automotive Forum ahead of the New York International Auto Show.
The rule sets targets that are “a little bit more modest†than the initial proposal, “especially in the early years where uncertainty is greatest,†said John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. He added that the industry will still have to work together to achieve the targets.
Mike Stanton, CEO of the National Automobile Dealers Association, voiced more skepticism, saying the rule creates an adoption expectation that “outpaces consumer demand.â€
“It’s hard to see this path,†he said. “We’re concerned about this. It does not match what we’re seeing in the showrooms.â€
The panel covered the growing share of buyers who are not interested in purchasing EVs, the difficult task of crossing the chasm from early adopters to the majority of Americans, a dearth of charging infrastructure and growing interest in plug-in hybrids.
We bought EVs, and “we want to sell them. My main concern is what happens if†we can’t, Stanton said. “We’ve got to look at the big picture, and I think we’ve got a lot of complicated problems to solve.â€
-Molly Boigon
GM North America President: Investments are part of business
Tue, Mar 26, 6:09 pm
Among the ways that electric vehicles give heartburn to auto dealers is cost of upgrading facilities with chargers and heavy duty lifts.
Marissa West, president of General Motors North America, it just goes with the territory of participating in an evolving industry.
“We at GM continue to make massive investments in our product portfolio and ensuring that we have really the best product lineup we’ve ever had for all the brands,†she said today at the Automotive Forum in New York. “And we intend to do that for another 100 years.â€
By the same token, franchisees need to invest in facilities that match those lineups.
“We try to be reasonable,†she said. “But with any business, you tend to have to reinvest.â€
-Jamie Butters
Genesis debuts EV concepts: performance GV60 Magma, full-size Neolun crossover
Tue, Mar 26, 6:07 pm
Genesis debuted a pair of electric vehicle crossover concepts Monday night ahead of this week's New York auto show that will come to production in the near future.
Ford mobile service success
Tue, Mar 26, 6:02 pm
More Ford dealers are offering remote service work and pickup and dropoff for service – and it’s improving their reputations, said Elena Ford, the company’s chief dealer engagement officer.
Those that perform remote service improve their net promoter score – which measures how many customers would recommend the store – by 11 points.
Last year at NADA, the brand set out a goal to get 1,000 dealers signed up and deploying about 1,400 vans and trucks for repairs. Now there are about 2,000 dealers in the program operating about 3,300 or 3,500 service vehicles.
Ford said the brand with which she shares a name is the only full-line brand to offer complimentary remote service. It’s popular with fleets, but also with individual consumers, she said.
-Jamie Butters
CDK Global launches Automotive Commerce Collab
Tue, Mar 26, 4:40 pm
CDK Global CEO Brian MacDonald used the J.D. Power Auto Forum to announce its Automotive Commerce Collab.
The new initiative is designed to rely on open and universal technology and application programming interfaces to better connect manufacturer and dealer software and streamline dealer documentation.
MacDonald described the idea as leveraging CDK’s APIs to integrate dealers with manufacturer websites so a sales process produces one set of documents. The initiative works regardless of what software dealerships use to operate their businesses, MacDonald said.
Hyundai Motor America is an early partner in the collaboration.
MacDonald said that CDK is a logical part of the initiative because its software is the “system of record for over 55 percent of the vehicles sold in America.†In one year, its dealership management system technology processed $540 billion of “automotive commerce,†he said.
“If we don’t do this who will?†MacDonald said.
- Mark Hollmer
Tech exec: Introduce AI in ‘a very specific way’
Tue, Mar 26, 4:01 pm
Auto retailers wanting to add artificial intelligence to their operations should start small, according to Rich Sands, CEO of STELLA Automotive AI, which makes an AI-driven digital voice assistant that can answer an unlimited number of calls.
“If you’re going to introduce AI, then do it in a very specific way, which is crawl, walk run,†Sands said.
The idea, he said, is to test and finesse its use as it is gradually expanded into other parts of the business.
-Mark Hollmer
First hybrids, then EVs
Tue, Mar 26, 3:54 pm
Mercedes-Benz just announced mild-hybrid versions of the iconic G-Wagen but Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Dmitris Psillakis couldn’t help talking about the all-electric version expected in coming years.
He said he’s driven an early version with an electric motor on each wheel, noting that it has superior off-road capabilities.
While battery-powered cars are the future of the industry, there are a number of hurdles to significant adoption, including the charging network and the need for better battery capabilities. He’d like to see cars have a 400-mile range and be able to recharge in 15 minutes.
“It’s not far away,†he said.
By the end of this summer, for instance, he said Mercedes customers will be able to use all chargers throughout the U.S.
--Jamie Butters
NADA chief economist: Economy is in a ‘very good place’
Tue, Mar 26, 3:30 pm
A combination of job gains, consumer spending, manufacturing construction and other factors has created healthy economic conditions in the U.S., according to an economic outlook presentation from Patrick Manzi, the chief economist at the National Automobile Dealers Association.
“The U.S. economy is in a very good place right now,†he said during a presentation at the Automotive Forum ahead of the New York International Auto Show. “I expect that we’re going to continue to see growth this year.â€
Leisure and hospitality jobs have largely recovered from pandemic-era declines, and franchise dealership employment has just about returned to pre-pandemic levels. While the nation still has a lot of job openings – 1.4 job openings per unemployed person – that rate has dropped from COVID-driven highs.
Immigration has played a role in filling labor demand, and the quits rate has declined, an indication that workers are less certain they will be able to get new jobs if they give notice. Wage growth has cooled to the 5- to 6-percent range after a period of larger gains across the wealth spectrum.
Still, some economic headwinds may impact the automotive world, said Manzi. Rising auto loan debt, especially among younger buyers and those in low-income areas, could pose a “problem for the industry.â€
Car insurance costs are rising, partly the result of more extreme weather impacts and technological features that “cost a lot more to fix.â€
-Molly Boigon
Live chat at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday with Hyundai Motor America CEO Randy Parker
Tue, Mar 26, 3:07 pm
Join us at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday for an Automotive News live talk from the New York auto show with Hyundai Motor America CEO Randy Parker.
Executive Editor Jamie Butters and Reporter Carly Schaffner, who covers Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, Honda, Acura and Mazda, will take your questions and discuss the happenings at the show with Parker.
The show will air on Automotive News’ pages on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. You can ask a question in advance in the LinkedIn comment section.
Guest commentary: Auto shows' big shift to the consumer is a trend that never ended
Tue, Mar 26, 3:05 pm
Auto shows may be losing grandiose press conferences to TikTok and YouTube, but that has zero impact on the core of why auto shows exist in the first place, says Jennifer Morand, general manager of the Chicago Auto Show and chairwoman for Auto Shows of North America.
Hyundai, Genesis, Kia take center stage at New York auto show
Tue, Mar 26, 2:21 pm
Hyundai, Kia and Genesis will be center stage at the 2024 New York auto show, and they are determined to take the industry spotlight.
That should be no surprise. The three brands have been dominating headlines with new products, announcements and awards in New York for the past two years.
