Welcome to the Daily 5 report for Tuesday, Feb. 4.
Asbury Automotive Group Inc. CEO David Hult said the company is "encouraged" by staff feedback about its four-store Tekion pilot, saying the dealership management system trial has not only increased productivity but is making employee training easier in the locations.
"Our productivity numbers, even in the pilot in the first few months where you expect things to be a little bit rocky, our productivity per employee went up in all the stores," Hult said on a fourth-quarter earnings call Jan. 30. "Some slight, some more than others — but a positive sign."
He also said that it used to take a dealership "five days to onboard a service adviser; we can do it in a day now." Hult told Automotive News on Jan. 31 that Tekion and Asbury's primary DMS provider, CDK Global, have similar pricing, but Tekion has more capabilities, so Asbury can do more in the DMS and rely less on third-party software to do business, he said. Asbury has spent more than a decade with CDK and started piloting Tekion at four Georgia stores in October. The group said it plans to convert more dealerships to the new DMS in 2025 and 2026 and switch completely to Tekion by 2027.
General Motors is cutting almost half of the workforce in the Cruise driverless car unit, according to an internal memo and people familiar with the matter, part of a previously announced plan to halt robotaxi service and absorb the operations into its broader business. Several of Cruise's leaders, including CEO Marc Whitten, will leave this week in the overhaul, the company revealed Tuesday in an email to employees sent by President Craig Glidden. The total staff reductions will total about 1,000 positions.
Meanwhile, Ferrari said its revenues and core earnings would rise at least 5 percent this year, supported by strong product delivery and demand for personal touches to vehicles, having met targets for 2024. The company said it saw its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization growing this year to at least $2.77 billion, versus a $2.65 billion result in full-year 2024. Last year's EBITDA result compares with Ferrari's forecast of at least $2.59 billion.
Also today, be sure to check out the Jeep Cherokee replacement spy photographers caught testing and the news that a self-driving AI company is partnering with Volvo to scale the production of autonomous trucks.
That's it for now. Have a great rest of your day.
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— Wes Raynal, assistant web editor
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