Fiat Chrysler has agreed to supply thousands of Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to Waymo to support the launch of the world’s first driverless ride-hailing service.
Waymo is set to open its autonomous ride-hailing service to the public beginning in Phoenix this year. The additional Pacifica Hybrid minivans will be used to support Waymo as it expands its service to more cities. It has officially tested its technology in 25 cities including Atlanta, San Francisco, Metro Detroit, Phoenix and Kirkland, Washington.
When you add in the sales from recently acquired Mitsubishi, Renault-Nissan became the world’s biggest seller of light vehicles in 2017. The VW group had held the top spot. Toyota came in third.
Oil and filter changes are the most common auto repair followed by wiper blade replacement, according to a survey by IMR Inc., an auto research company. Air filter replacement finished third followed by scheduled maintenance and new tires.
Some interesting stats from a new report from J.D. Power on January new vehicle sales.
The average new-vehicle retail transaction price to date in January is $32,169, a record for the month, surpassing the previous high for the month of $31,422 set in January 2017.
Consumers are on pace to spend $28.8 billion on new vehicles in January, an increase of just over $1 billion from last year’s level.
Trucks account for 67% of new-vehicle retail sales through Jan. 21—the highest level ever for the month of January—making it the 19th consecutive month above 60%.
Power is predicting new vehicle retail sales this month will be 1.5 percent lower when compared to January 2017.
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