Trade News

Tesla Inc. shares are set to mark their best-ever start to a year, buoyed by price cuts across the electric-vehicle maker’s lineup in a bid to boost sales. Investors will soon discover if all the enthusiasm was justified.

The Elon Musk-led carmaker is expected to announce quarterly delivery and production figures in early April, providing an initial glimpse into how well the company’s strategy of chasing volume over profit margins worked. 

Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect the Austin, Texas-based company to deliver a record 421,164 cars globally in the first quarter of 2023, up from the 405,278 it delivered last quarter.

“In recent months Tesla has pivoted from being supply constrained to being demand constrained,” Barclays analyst Dan Levy wrote in a note to clients, adding that while concerns about demand “temporarily halted when Tesla cut prices in early January, questions have resumed of late.”

The company missed delivery estimates i…

TOKYO -- Nissan and Renault are working well together to sign a final agreement about the reshaping of their alliance and are confident that a deal will be reached soon, Nissan said in a statement on Friday.

The automaker was responding to an earlier report by Japanese news agency Jiji which said that the final contract on the reboot of the alliance may be delayed until after April due to extended discussion on electric vehicles and intellectual property.

The companies plan to reshape their troubled alliance to ease longstanding tensions. Nissan wants to reduce the influence of Renault in its business.

The companies said in January that Renault will reduce its stake in Nissan to 15 percent from about 43 percent now. Renault will transfer 28.4 percent of Nissan shares into a French trust, making the two more equal partn…

Canoo Inc. agreed to pay $1.5 million as part of a settlement of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the electric-vehicle startup’s blank-check merger.

The resolution was disclosed Thursday in a statement that also detailed the company’s fourth-quarter earnings. Canoo lost $80.2 million in the final three months of 2022 and finished the year with $36.6 million in cash and equivalents.

The SEC opened the probe into Canoo in early 2021 in part to look into the startup’s merger with a special purpose acquisition company.

The agency told Canoo it was also investigating its “operations, business model, revenues, revenue strategy, customer agreements, earnings and other related topics, along with the recent departures of certain of the company’s officers.”

Canoo’s shares were up 5 percent as of midday trading on Friday.

Electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive is trying to scale up its Illinois factory to turn out 50,000 vehicles this year, but Cox Automotive estimates first-quarter deliveries of just 8,145 units, for a 1.1 percent gain over the previous quarter.

Luxury EV maker Lucid Motors is growing at a faster clip, but Cox projects deliveries of 1,344 vehicles in the January to March period. That represents a 27 percent increase vs. fourth-quarter 2022, but it's a slow start for Lucid to meet its 2023 guidance of 14,000 Air sedans.

The two startups are cutting costs and laying off workers a year and a half after their first deliveries in fall 2021. Both have seen their stock prices drop by about 70 percent in the last 12 months.

Rivian says it has enough demand, but has been unable to solve manufacturing issues at its Illinois plant, which has a 150,000-unit annual capacity. Lucid says it needs to raise brand awareness to grow its order backlog.

Meanwhile, …

Ford signs a deal with partners for a $4.5 billion EV battery material plant in Asia. Kia stores have become a hot ticket for retail M&A. Polestar sees its leasing business growing, thanks to U.S. tax credits. Jeep rolls out its Easter Safari concepts. Plus, a conversation about the UAW’s new president and its bargaining convention.

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Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc. announced that it’s started producing electric vehicles following years of turmoil and more than $3 billion spent.

The company celebrated the milestone with a live-streamed event where it showed off a vehicle body built by a supplier outside its Hanford, California, plant. Faraday started assembling the rest of the vehicle after the stream ended and is still planning to make its first deliveries late next month, according to a spokesman.

Faraday still has hurdles to clear before shipping its first FF 91 electric crossovers, including certifying some key safety components such as the seat belts and airbags. It’s been a long time coming for the vehicle — founder Jia Yueting first showed a prototype of it in January 2017.

The company, which went public in July 2021 through a reverse merger, is coming off a power struggle for control over the board of directors. A shareholder group associated with the founder, who go…

You’ve been hearing it for years — the electric vehicle (EV) revolution is coming, get ready. Today, we’re well past that point, and suppliers are coming face to face with the enormity of the changes. The question is no longer “How will you get ready?” but rather “How are you incorporating this new EV reality into your strategic plans and business operations?”

A more competitive business environment is the new normal for automotive dealers in 2023. Inventory levels are stabilizing while direct sales and online-only competitors are encroaching on dealership turf.

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Develop meaningful local lender partnerships to help customers find the financing they need. Win the retail touchpoint with an outstanding physical experience that 75 percent of customers still want and demand. Use digital lending platforms to speed funding and free-up cash flow to buy more inventory and sell more cars. Prepare for “high-touch” electronic vehicle (EV) sales by establishing relationships with EV-knowledgeable lenders. A great “in-person” experience wins in a competitive market.

The electric vehicle revolution isn’t coming—it’s already here. Now’s a critical time for auto suppliers who need to adapt. The challenge? Maintaining utilization and profitability for their existing ICE plants at the same time. Our latest white paper outlines expert analysis and insights for navigating these competing aims, exploring key considerations such as: The speed and sequence of EV adoptionThe shift from powertrain components to EV technologiesThe lithium-ion battery supply chainThe crucial questions suppliers must ask themselves

Automotive supplier Magna Seating is planning a 300,000-square-foot plant and 500 new jobs in suburban Detroit near the Orion Assembly Plant of customer General Motors.

The $100 million just-in-time seating plant is expected to be built on 40 acres at 1700 Brown Road, according to an Auburn Hills, Mich., planning commission document.

Magna confirmed the project investment and size as well as the number of jobs spurred by new business from GM. The jobs will be UAW-represented.

"We are working with the city of Auburn Hills and the State of Michigan on a potential new facility that would ultimately supply GM's Lake Orion Assembly Plant and Factory Zero," spokeswoman Tracy Fuerst said in an email to Crain's Detroit Business, an affiliate of Automotive News.

The Canadian company, which has a large presence in metro Detroit, will operate the plant as the "exclusive supplier" to "all the electric SUVs and trucks" produced at Orion Assembly, the project…

Ford is again increasing the price of some models of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup, with the base model now starting at $61,869, including shipping— up about 50 percent over the initial starting price when the truck launched in April 2022.

The price hikes come as the automaker reopens retail order banks for current reservation holders, resumes vehicle shipments and returns to full production at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center following a February battery fire.

The automaker said the price for the Lariat standard range model will jump from $76,369 to $77,869, while the Platinum model will jump from $98,769 to $99,969. All prices include a $1,895 shipping charge.

The Lightning Pro remains sold out for retail customers, Ford said, and order banks for commercial buyers will open in mid-April.

Ford said the price changes are a result of "current material costs, market factors and supply chain constraints."

The company restarted Lightnin…

WASHINGTON — Ford Motor Co. has withdrawn its petition to deploy a limited number of self-driving vehicles without traditional driving controls or features on U.S. roads, an unpublished federal document shows.

In the notice, which is scheduled to be published Friday, NHTSA said Ford has withdrawn its July 2021 request for a temporary exemption from certain federal safety standards for a vehicle equipped with an automated driving system.

Ford sought an exemption from seven safety standards to deploy vehicles that would be used to support mobility services such as ride-sharing and package delivery, according to the petition.

Ford notified NHTSA in February of its decision to withdraw the petition.

If it had been approved, it would have allowed Ford to deploy up to 2,500 self-driving vehicles annually.

In a statement to Automotive News, Ford spokesman Alan Hall said it withdrew the petition as part of a strategic decision announced in late 202…