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Mixed sales results, but automaker stocks rise on need for cars in Houston

DETROIT — The Big Three Detroit automakers on Friday reported better-than-expected August sales and issued optimistic outlooks for demand as residents of the Houston area replace flood-damaged cars and trucks after Hurricane Harvey, sending their stocks higher. General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler posted mixed August U.S. sales, with GM up 7.5 percent and Ford and Fiat Chrysler down. Japanese automaker Toyota improved sales by nearly 7 percent, while Honda fell 2.4 percent. Still, analysts focused on the potential for Detroit automakers to cut inventories and stabilize used vehicle prices as residents of Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, are forced to replace tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of vehicles after the devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Mark LaNeve, Ford's U.S. sales chief, told analysts on Friday that following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 "we saw a very dramatic snapback" in demand. That said, Ford sales fell 2.1 percent in August. It sold 209,897 vehicles in the United States, compared with 214,482 a year earlier. Sales were down 1.9 percent in the Ford division and off 5.8 percent at Lincoln. Demand was down for cars, crossovers and SUVs. It was not clear how many vehicles in the Houston area will be scrapped, LaNeve said, saying he had seen estimates ranging from 200,000 to 400,000 to 1 million. Ford's Houston dealers may have lost fewer than 5,000 vehicles in inventory, he said. Ford is the No. 1 automaker in the Houston market, with 18 percent share, according to IHS Markit. The company plans to ship used vehicles to Houston dealers and has "every indication we would have to add some production" of new vehicles to meet demand, LaNeve said. Investor concerns about inventories of unsold vehicles and falling used car prices have weighed on Detroit automakers' shares most of this year. Now, automakers can anticipate a jolt of demand from a big market that is a stronghold for Detroit brand trucks and SUVs. "It's got to be a positive for the industry," LaNeve said. Investors appeared to agree. GM shares rose as much as 3.3 percent to their highest since early March. Ford increased 2.8 percent at $11.34, and Fiat Chrysler's U.S.-traded shares were up 5.2 percent $15.91, hitting their highest in more than five years. GM reported a 7.5 percent increase in U.S. auto sales in August, helped by robust sales of crossovers across its four brands.

Cadillac will kill the plug-in ELR

Johan de Nysschen, president of General Motors' Cadillac division, says Caddy's ELR extended-range plug-in won't have any future generations, Automotive News (subs. req.) says. The publication previously reported that the car would be around for another couple of years, but even that's questionable, and the model could be yanked even sooner. Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell confirmed that there won't be a second-generation ELR. "Subsequent generations of the car will not be developed," he wrote in an e-mail to Autoblog. "It's available currently as a 2016 model, and there's no change to that status." The model debuted in late 2013 and used a version of the powertrain in the Chevrolet Volt. The main problem, of course, was that the car had a $76,000 price tag that proved too much for most automobile buyers to stomach. Last year, GM sold 1,024 ELRs, down 22 percent from 2014's totals. By comparison, the Chevy Volt moved more than 15,000 units, and that itself was still down 18 percent from year-earlier figures. The merciful end to the ELR shouldn't be much of a surprise, as Cadillac Chief Marketing Officer Uwe Ellinghaus went on the record in December of essentially calling the model a dud. It's a far cry from the excitement, though, that the concept model of what was then called the Converj was unveiled to the public at the Detroit Auto Show in 2009. For those feeling misty-eyed or nostalgic, though, check here for Autoblog's First Drive impressions of the extended-range plug-in. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2014 Cadillac ELR Review View 48 Photos News Source: Automotive News-sub.req. Green Cadillac GM Hybrid elr extended-range plug-in

Cadillac CT5 spied with quad exhaust, could signal a hotter version is coming

The 2020 Cadillac CT5 just broke cover at the NY Auto Show this year, but one of our spy shooters caught one decked out in camouflage looking a bit different than the versions we've already seen. Instead of the dual exhaust on both the turbocharged four-cylinder and twin-turbo V6, this one has a quad exhaust outlet. We'll note that the placement of the quad outlets is one and the same with the two larger outlets on the CT5 already revealed. Also, the rest of the car looks relatively ho-hum. It has the wheels from the CT5 Sport trim, and the front end appears to most closely represent the Luxury trim. Some of the coverings appear to be opened up on that front end, possibly in an attempt to increase airflow. The most obvious change of them all is the quad exhaust, though, which brings us back to a conversation we had with a Cadillac representative at the car's initial media launch. As we were standing around gawking at the new CT5 in Sport trim, a brand representative told us all the "Sport" models (four-cylinders and V6s) would be getting quad exhaust, while the "Luxury" trims would get dual exhaust. We pointed at the CT5 Sport right in front of us and noted that it just had a dual exhaust setup. This ended up causing more confusion, as the Cadillac representative was adamant that they had seen the CT5 Sport with quad exhaust. When all was said and done, there wasn't exactly a clear explanation given for what was up with this mysterious CT5 model with quad exhaust, so we left it at that. We can guess, though. Perhaps the Cadillac rep had seen a Sport model with quad exhaust, but it was a future "V-Sport" variant we weren't allowed to know of yet. Cadillac hasn't revealed its future plans for the CT5 fully, but it did hint that at least one performance variant would be on the way. This camo'd up car here does not look anything like a full-on V model, but it could be the beginnings of a slightly more powerful version of the sport sedan. The 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 makes 335 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque. Of course, there's always room for more power in this class, and a V-Sport model would slot in nicely to the new sedan's range. Keep in mind this all remains speculative in nature. However, our curious conversation with Cadillac combined with these spy shots signal that something could be afoot.