Auto sales dipped 1.3 percent in October
DETROIT >> Increased demand from rental car companies, strong truck and SUV sales, and recovery from hurricanes in Florida and Texas weren’t enough to push U.S. auto sales into positive territory for October.
Sales for the month fell 1.3 percent compared with a year ago as slowing demand made it almost certain that 2017 will be the first year with declining sales in seven years. Full-year sales almost certainly will fall below last year’s record of more than 17.5 million, although most analysts say demand is still healthy. Automakers reported selling 1.35 million vehicles for the month, according to Autodata Corp.
Ford, Honda, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen all reported gains for October on Wednesday, but Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Hyundai and others posted declines.
Tesla posts record loss of $619 million
DETROIT >> Tesla Inc.’s first attempt at high-volume production isn’t going as well as it hoped — and the company has a record quarterly loss to show for it.
Tesla posted a $619 million loss in the third quarter as it spent heavily to clear up production bottlenecks and bring its hotly anticipated Model 3 sedan to market.
The loss, of $3.70 per share, compared to a profit of 15 cents per share in the July-September period a year ago. That was a far bigger decline than Wall Street had predicted. Analysts polled by FactSet forecast a loss of $2.85 per share.
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ON THE MOVE
ProService Hawaii has promoted two employees to the company’s management level:
>> Casey Graves is the new development manager. He joined the HR management company in 2010 and served as an application support specialist. Prior to that, Graves was an IT contractor in Silicon Valley, Calif., and served in IT support capacity with ALCiS Health and AOptix Technologies.
>> Jonathan Ito is the new benefit services manager. Ito joined ProService in 2010 as a human resources associate and benefit services lead.
>> Max Sword has retired from the Outrigger Enterprises Group after 30 years as its Industry Affairs vice president. His main duty was to handle the hotel’s community and government affairs. Sword will continue to serve the company as a consultant on government affairs. Over the years, Sword also has served on numerous boards and commissions, and currently is the chairman of the Honolulu Police Commission.
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