Trade News

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio on Tuesday asked the Biden administration to review Ford Motor Co.'s deal to use technology from Chinese battery company CATL as part of the automaker's plan to spend $3.5 billion to build a battery plant in Michigan.

Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg calling for an immediate Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. review of the licensing agreement between Ford and CATL.

Rubio said the deal "will only deepen U.S. reliance on the Chinese Communist Party for battery tech, and is likely designed to make the factory eligible for Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tax credits," in a statement posted on his website.

The $430 billion IRA imposes restrictions on battery sourcing and is designed to wean the U.S. off the Chinese supply chain for EVs. The IRA will eventually bar c…

Legacy automakers launched exciting new electric vehicles last year, including the Ford F-150 Lightning and Kia EV6, but they barely dented Tesla's outsized market share as battery-electric vehicles surged to 5.6 percent of U.S. light-vehicle registrations from 3.1 percent a year earlier.

New EV registrations numbered 756,534 in 2022, for a 57 percent increase, Experian data showed. That dramatic growth occurred as the overall market slumped 11 percent in registrations to 13.6 million, according to the Experian data.

Tesla had 484,351 of the total — a 41 percent jump over its 2021 performance. The Tesla Model Y was the most popular EV in America last year with 228,312 new registrations, for a 35 percent increase.

While Tesla's EV share fell to 64 percent last year from 71 percent in 2021, the big takeaway from the data is that the automaker barely suffered in what was expected to be a big year for its legacy and startup rivals.

New models such as…

Tesla Inc. terminated dozens of employees Wednesday at its plant in Buffalo, New York, one day after Autopilot workers at the facility announced a union campaign, organizers said in a complaint.

In a filing with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, the union Workers United accused Tesla of illegally terminating the employees "in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity." The union asked the labor board to seek a federal court injunction "to prevent irreparable destruction of employee rights resulting from Tesla's unlawful conduct."

Several of the terminated employees had been involved in labor discussions, according to the union, including at least one who was a member of the organizing committee.

"This is a form of collective retaliation against the group of workers that started this organizing effort," said Jaz Brisack, a Workers United organizer who is helping spearhead the Tesla union drive. The terminations are "designed t…

Tesla Inc. easily captured the U.S. luxury-vehicle sales crown for 2022, new data shows, crushing reigning champion BMW.

Among all luxury players and regardless of fuel type, Tesla had 484,351 new vehicle registrations, for a 41 percent increase over 2021, Experian data shows. BMW had 327,929 new registrations, a 5.3-percent drop, and Mercedes-Benz had 269,511 — nearly identical to its 2021 number.

Because Tesla does not break out its U.S. sales results, new vehicle registration data serves as the closest thing to an apples-to-apples market comparison. Previous 2022 estimates had suggested Tesla had won the sales crown, but the Experian data provides greater detail of the gulf between Tesla and its legacy rivals.

Total new vehicle registrations among 15 luxury brands fell 3.5 percent in the U.S. last year to 2.18 million, the data showed. Excluding Tesla, luxury registrations slumped 11 percent.

Tesla's results represent the first time it has top…

Renault SA may team up with AutoNation Inc., the largest U.S. auto dealer group, to start sales of Alpine sports cars in the country, part of a plan to build out the brand that currently sells just a few thousand vehicles.

The French carmaker is also pursuing some other options for Alpine to move into North America, CEO Luca de Meo said Thursday. Renault has made Alpine, which was restarted in 2017 and makes only the A110 sports coupe, one of the pillars of its new strategy.

“It’s not easy because we are not present in the U.S. and we have to start from scratch,” de Meo said on the sidelines of Renault’s earnings presentation. Working with AutoNation, helmed by former Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley, could take the form of a partnership that goes beyond placing cars in dealerships, he said.

The automaker is embarking on a sweeping overhaul after a tough twelve months marked by a costly withdrawal from Russia and a landmark deal to reshape its troubled al…

Technician Joshua Taylor has a suggestion for his peers on how to communicate better with service advisers. This includes when an adviser asks a question at an inopportune time or poses it in an unprofessional way.

Taylor, who coaches techs in addition to turning wrenches in Ontario, Canada, said don't react in the moment, but instead bring up any concerns with the adviser at the end of the day. He reminds techs that advisers are under time pressure, too.

"That means it's inappropriate to cuss them out, ignore them or be belligerent — no matter how much you want to be," he said. "Take a breath, take a minute, be professional and respond well. It helps everyone."

A bipartisan right-to-repair bill was reintroduced by a Florida congressman requiring vehicle owners and independent repair shops the same access to repair and maintenance tools and data as franchised dealerships.

The legislation — titled the Right to Equitable and Professional Auto Industry Repair Act — would mandate all tools and equipment, wireless transmission of repair and diagnostic data and telematics systems needed for vehicle repairs be made available to independent repair facilities. The bill was introduced in 2022, but no action was taken before Congress adjourned for the year.

The REPAIR Act is supported by influential automotive aftermarket and repair industry representatives, including MEMA Aftermarket, Auto Care Association and Specialty Equipment Market Association.

In addition to U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn, a Florida Republican, the bill is co-sponsored by an Ohio Republican and Democrats from Pennsylvania and Washington. Dunn said "consumers…

Tesla Inc. will halt some production at its Shanghai factory until the end of February, as it upgrades the facility to start rolling out a revamped version of the Model 3 sedan in the competitive Chinese market.

The plant has two sections for vehicle manufacturing, and some workers on the first phase won’t be allowed on production lines as soon as Sunday as work on improving them is undertaken, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified as the information isn’t public.

Tesla has been upgrading the lines in stages over the past two months, with deliveries of the new Model 3 sedan — which the company is yet to publicly confirm — expected to begin later this year, the people said. The section of the factory currently being worked on makes Model 3s and Model Y crossovers.

The revamp comes as Tesla faces increased competition in the world’s biggest electric-vehicle market. Model 3 sales in China have been declining, with about 125,000 o…

Dealerships today need all the available tools they can access to stay ahead of the competition. One solution often overlooked, or not considered valuable, is dealership reporting. Dealerships create volumes of data every day. With the proper reporting parameters and output, monitoring your own numbers is a powerful way to keep tabs on employee productivity and aftermarket product penetration. Quality reporting will allow you to track successes and see where there’s room for improvement.

Why does your dealership need a reporting tool?

It used to be that agents were the only individuals in the industry who needed and relied on reports to better their business. Now, more and more dealerships are seeking tools and insights into various data sets to watch and interpret trends that will help with better decision-making.

It’s hard to set and achieve goals if you don’t know where you’re starting from with sales and performance. Reporting can help you see where you a…

Battery materials startup NanoGraf Corp. raised $65 million to scale up the domestic production of silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

NanoGraf's series B capital raise comes on the heels of the company winning a $10 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense in November to build the nation's first large advanced silicon oxide factory, a 17,000-square-foot facility in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood.

NanoGraf previously raised $27 million in funding from a mix of venture capital and angel investors.

Silicon anodes are a material that can add energy density to lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles. However, silicon metal is difficult to incorporate into electric vehicle batteries because the metal can swell and cause damage to the cells during the charging process.

The silicon anodes produced by Chicago's NanoGraf will be incorporated into its 18650 battery cell, which the company bills as "the world's most energy-dens…

SAN FRANCISCO - Tesla will open part of its U.S. charging network to EVs made by rivals as part of a $7.5 billion federal program to electrify the nation's highways to cut carbon emissions, the Biden administration said on Wednesday.

Such a move could help turn Tesla into the universal filling station of the EV era - and risk eroding a competitive edge for vehicles made by the company, which has exclusive access to the biggest network of high-speed 'superchargers' in the United States.

By the end of next year, Tesla will open 3,500 new and existing superchargers along highway corridors, as well as 4,000 slower chargers at locations like hotels and restaurants, to non-Tesla customers, the administration said.

A White House official said at a briefing that Tesla would be eligible for a subsidy - including retrofitting its existing fleet - as long as its chargers would allow other vehicles with a federally backed charging standard called CCS to charge.

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The Biden administration on Wednesday issued long-awaited final rules on its national electric vehicle charger network that require the chargers to be built in the U.S. immediately, and with 55 percent of their cost coming from U.S.-made components by 2024.

The Biden administration hopes the new rules, issued after nearly eight months of debate, will jump-start the biggest transformation of the U.S. driving landscape in generations. It seeks to give consumers unfettered access to a growing coast-to-coast network of EV charging stations, including Tesla Inc.'s SuperChargers.

Companies that hope to tap $7.5 billion in federal funding for this network must also adopt the dominant U.S. standard for charging connectors, known as "Combined Charging System" or CCS, and use standardized payment options that are smartphone-friendly.

Tesla, the nation's largest EV maker and charging company, plans to adopt the CCS standard and expand beyond its proprietary connec…