Trade News

WILMINGTON, Del - Lawyers for Elon Musk and a Tesla Inc. investor will make closing arguments on Tuesday in a trial over his $55 billion pay package and whether it fueled the EV maker's growth or improperly subsidized Musk's dream of one day traveling to Mars.

The arguments follow a five-day trial in November that featured testimony from the Tesla chief executive about the origins of the 2018 pay package and whether its performance goals were difficult to achieve and accurately described to investors.

Richard Tornetta, a small Tesla investor, sued Musk and the board in 2018 and hopes to prove Musk coerced compliant directors into providing a package of his design, which is many times larger than the combined pay of the next 200 highest-paid CEOs. It contributes to Musk's fortune, the world's second largest.

The package allows Musk to buy 1 percent of Tesla's stock at a deep discount each time escalating performance and financial targets are met, otherwi…

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asked Tesla Inc. for more information about one of its vehicles colliding with a fire truck in a fatal crash in the San Francisco Bay area.

The agency reached out to the manufacturer after the incident in Contra Costa County during the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. The county fire department said in a Feb. 18 tweet that a Tesla struck one of its trucks that was blocking lanes while responding to an earlier accident.

NHTSA has spent the last 18 months investigating how Tesla’s driver-assistance system Autopilot handles crash scenes involving fire trucks and other first-responder vehicles. It’s unclear whether the driver in the Contra Costa County incident — who was pronounced dead at the scene — was using Autopilot. A passenger in the Tesla and four firefighters also were transported to the hospital.

NHTSA opened the first of two active investigations into possible Autopilot defects in August 20…

SHANGHAI -- Chinese electric-vehicle maker Nio plans to build a factory to produce budget EVs under a new brand for export to Europe from as early as next year, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

The plan to broaden the company's lineup and expand overseas sales comes as EV sales sharply weaken in China, the world's largest auto market, following an end in state subsidies for EV purchases.

Nio has been planning to launch more affordable EV products under new brand names after 2024 as part of projects codenamed "Firefly" and "Alps," according to the people, who declined to be named as the discussions are private.

The new factory will be built in Chuzhou city in eastern China's Anhui province, they said, adding that the plant will make cars, developed under project "Firefly," which Nio wants to export to Europe where customers prefer small-sized vehicles.

Nio already has two car assembly plants in Anhui's provincial capital, Hefei city…

LONDON -- Jaguar Land Rover said on Tuesday it is opening three new engineering hubs in Europe to develop autonomous vehicle technologies as part of its partnership with Silicon Valley artificial intelligence company Nvidia.

The hubs in Munich, Bologna and Madrid will develop self-driving systems for JLR's next generation of luxury vehicles. JLR already has six global tech hubs in the U.S., China and Europe.

JLR, a unit of India's Tata Motors, said the locations were chosen because of the local availability of digital engineering specialists and will create almost 100 engineering jobs focused "on developing driver assistance systems and artificial intelligence for self-driving cars of the future."

JLR and Nvidia announced a multiyear agreement last year under which they will jointly develop the computer brains and AI systems for Jaguars and Land Rovers launching in 2025 and beyond.

The partnership with Nvidia gives JLR a well-funded ally as it tri…

DETROIT — Cadillac is freshening its XT4 compact crossover with an updated look and touch screen display and a longer list of standard safety features.

The brand's smallest crossover will continue to be built at General Motors' Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas and go on sale as a 2024 model this summer, Cadillac said Monday. Pricing was not disclosed. The 2023 XT4 starts at $37,490, including shipping.

"The XT4 continues to be a top-selling vehicle in its class, year over year," Rory Harvey, vice president of global Cadillac, said in a statement. "Its balance of dynamic style, drivability and luxury has made it a favorite for many new Cadillac customers."

The XT4 — which was introduced in 2018 as a 2019 model — will be offered in Luxury, Premium Luxury and Sport trims and feature updated grilles, refined vertical LED headlights and three new exterior color options. The Premium Luxury and Sport trims each have unique wheels, fascia and other design elem…

Three milestones say loads about the auto business

We bring three very noteworthy milestones to your attention in this week's issue.

First is the milestone that Lithia Motors just skipped past AutoNation to become the biggest auto retailer in America.

That's a landmark moment.

AutoNation pioneered the notion of a publicly held auto dealer group, and it proved to the business world that car dealers were not merely lucky and crafty. AutoNation made it clear that success in auto selling comes from a systematic and repeatable equation of strategic planning and business fundamentals. And that approach paid off by making AutoNation king of the industry year after year until — well, until now.

Second, please note that the official count is in on U.S. new-vehicle registrations for the full 2022 year, and it reveals that Tesla — the opaque, unpredictable and often second-guessed automaker — is officially a force majeure in the market. Tesla regist…

The CEO and founder of the financing and loan startup discusses the attributes of EVs not often considered by traditional lenders and how recent Tesla and Ford price cuts alter the cost competitiveness of electric vehicles.

How do I subscribe?

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I have little doubt that Koji Sato, the next CEO of Toyota Motor Corp., will move the automaker in a different direction — or at the very least, at a slightly different pace — than his predecessor, Akio Toyoda, when it comes to battery electric vehicles.

The question is: Should he? The investor community and EV promoters (whom some call EVangelists, which is a fabulously rich descriptor) certainly believe so. I'm not so sure, however — let me tell you why.

During a conversation onstage at the J.D. Power Auto Summit at the NADA Show in Dallas last month, Toyota sales head Jack Hollis leaned forward, cupped his outstretched hands together as though he were capturing rainwater and explained his company's somewhat controversial EV strategy in a different way.

"Imagine," the former professional baseball player said softly, that his hands contained enough lithium to build one battery for one BEV. With this amount of the mineral, "I can build one $68,000 EV. …

DETROIT — Jim Farley has grand ambitions to transform Ford Motor Co., but the third-year CEO finds himself hampered by a problem that has vexed Ford leaders for decades: managing a massive company with a notoriously siloed — and sometimes dysfunctional — culture.

Next week marks one year since Farley split the automaker into separate divisions to accelerate what he calls a “dual transformation” of its traditional internal combustion business and its development of connected electric vehicles. 

A year in, some parts of his plan are progressing faster than others. 

“These huge transformations are not linear, perfectly predictable things,” Farley said last week.

He said he’s pleased by the reception to Ford’s first wave of EVs and connected-vehicle software but frustrated by long-standing cost and quality issues weighing down its business. He recently blamed dismal earnings in 2022 on poor operational execution. 

Executive Chai…