- ASOTU Daily Pushback
- Posts
- 🚗 Lithia Confident Despite Tariffs
🚗 Lithia Confident Despite Tariffs
🚙 Ride Smart, Market Movers, and Fast-Tracks
TOGETHER WITH
I (Chris) am bringing my chessboard to ASOTU CON.
I am not good at chess, but I do own a chessboard.
Who wants to play one?
Keep Pushing Back,
-Paul, Kyle, Chris & Kristi
Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here!
Reading time: 3 min and 06 sec
Lithia, April, Nissan, and Tesla
Lithia CEO Confident Despite Tariffs, Q1 Earnings Surge 28%
Lithia Motors CEO Bryan DeBoer says 45% of inventory is tariff-free, and service/parts are price-competitive, keeping the group well-positioned.
Q1 2025 revenue hit $9.2B (up 7.2%), and net income surged 28% to $211.2M. Lithia sold 91,990 new (+7.4%) and 107,326 used (+4.8%) vehicles, despite lower gross profits per unit.
DeBoer anticipates a strong 2025 SAAR (16–17M), citing affordability focus and diverse sourcing. He also sees minimal impact to aftersales.
COO Adam Chamberlain confirmed OEMs are holding prices steady through May, easing near-term pressure. Lithia stock slipped ~3% post-call.
Tariffs and Inventory: April’s Real Market Movers
Cox Automotive says April SAAR will land around 16.4M — a solid gain from last year’s 16M, but well below March’s 17.8M burst. Pre-tariff buying cooled off fast, dragging sales volume down 12% from March.
Inventory dropped from 3M to 2.7M units
Days’ supply shrank from 89 to ~60
Cox: “Market is being steered by headlines from the White House.”
Consumer confidence is dipping, prices are rising, and dealerships are bracing. Still, April is on pace for its best finish since 2021.
Nissan Hits Record $5.3B Loss
New CEO Ivan Espinosa inherits a rough hand: failed Honda merger, $3.5B in global impairments, and razor-thin U.S. dealer margins. Sales rose 5.4% in the U.S., but with models selling at a loss.
Tesla: Still Profitable, Barely
Q1 income scraped in at $409M thanks to $595M in regulatory credits. Revenue dropped 9%, auto sales down 20%, and margins sank to 2.1%. Musk says “not the ragged edge of death,” but his attention is split — between Tesla, SpaceX, and DOGE-ing the government.
March sales fell 28.2% YOY, shrinking Tesla’s EU market share to 2%. Meanwhile, BEV sales surged 23.6% with VW (+10.3%) and Renault (+13%) climbing. The competition? Hot. The sentiment? Chilly.
➕ More
You know the deal. Read more in the Daily Digest on LinkedIn.
Shift Gears with Smarter Rides
Whether you're giving customers a ride or catching one yourself, Uber’s got you covered.
Swing by the Uber for Business booth at ASOTU CON this May and see just how easy it is to level up your dealership experience with perks like:
🚗 Streamlined Courtesy Rides: Offer customers seamless transportation during service appointments—no shuttle fleet required.
🧠 Centralized Dashboard: Schedule, track, and report all rides in one place. Easy for teams, insightful for leadership.
⚙️ Efficient Parts Delivery: Need to move parts between rooftops fast? Uber's on it—keeping your ops smooth and service running strong.
Stop by, say hey, and make moves the Uber way. Learn more here!
🥊 Quick Hits
Fast-Track Your Sales
Almost every vehicle purchase starts with a click, whether from an email, advertisement, or vehicle listing. Dealers can capture a shopper’s attention at the very first click—the gateway to the vehicle shopping journey.
Despite recent changes, old and new methods are emerging to capture this attention. More specifically, what today’s consumer wants to do versus what you’re trying to make them do.
Our friends at Cox Automotive will share how to fast-track a close by selling the way buyers want to buy versus the way you want to sell.
🔁 Today in History
1901: New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates. 🗽
1953: Francis Crick and James Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" describing the double helix structure of DNA. 🧬
1954: The first practical solar cell is publicly demonstrated by Bell Telephone Laboratories. 🌻
Reply