Trade News

Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay $300 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it improperly charged customers for unneeded auto-collision protection insurance -- and hid the practice from investors.

The deal was announced Tuesday by the law firm that sued the bank after a New York Times investigation revealed that about 274,000 customers were put into delinquency and almost 25,000 vehicles were wrongfully repossessed.

“While we disagree with the allegations in this case, we are pleased to have resolved this legacy issue,” a bank spokesperson said in a statement.

Wells Fargo stopped charging customers for the insurance but didn’t tell investors, according to a statement issued by Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP. The law firm filed a securities-fraud class action alleging that the bank’s stock traded at artificially inflated prices.

Wells Fargo disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had been aware of the problem since 2016, the year befor…

A white hat hacker breached Toyota's global supplier management web portal, gaining read-and-write access to 14,000 corporate email accounts, associated confidential documents, projects, supplier rankings, comments, and other information.

Eaton Zveare, a 29-year-old hacker-hobbyist in Sarasota, Fla., notified the automaker of the breach in November and it was quickly closed.

"Toyota takes cyber threats very seriously. We regularly test our systems and also run a coordinated disclosure program to allow security researchers to report vulnerabilities," Corey Proffitt, Toyota Connected North America's senior communication manager, said in an email to Automotive News.

"We appreciate the research performed by Eaton. We promptly remediated the reported vulnerability and confirmed that there was no evidence of malicious access to Toyota systems."

Toyota Motor Corp.'s employees and suppliers access the company's Global Supplier Preparation Information Man…

Penske Automotive Group Inc.'s fourth-quarter net income dipped as the auto retailer faced lower average gross profits for each new and used vehicle sold and hits by foreign currency exchange, though higher new vehicle sales helped it reach record fourth-quarter revenue.

Penske reported Wednesday that net income declined 4.3 percent to $299.3 million, while revenue for the quarter climbed 11 percent to $7 billion.

The company noted foreign currency exchange reduced net income by $6 million and revenue by $380.9 million in the quarter.

Penske CEO Roger Penske said in a statement that the fourth quarter was "driven by demand for new vehicles in both our automotive and commercial truck dealerships coupled with continued service and parts revenue growth and expense control."

Revenue for Penske's stand-alone used-vehicle CarShop division fell 15 percent to $336 million on sales of 14,028 vehicles in the fourth quarter, down 5 percent. For the full-year…

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The redesign of Honda's 11th-generation Accord likely started well before COVID-19 became a global business disruptor, but the sedan's launch could not be timelier.

Not only will it help boost Honda brand sales back over 1 million in 2023, company officials say, it will also help Honda hold onto would-be EV buyers while it prepares to transition to a more electric lineup.

Honda brand sales barely topped 880,000 last year, down from 1.3 million a year earlier. The automaker says the Accord will be critical in getting it back on track as it eyes a 25 percent sales lift this year.

"We're on a path to get back towards that larger volume," Lance Woelfer, assistant vice president of Honda national auto sales told Automotive News. "It's part of the 20 to 25 percent growth we've been communicating to the dealers, so we expect significant growth in the Accord."

Woelfer declined to confirm a specific figure for the redesigned nameplate, but a 25 percent in…

The U.S. is not investing enough money in its electric vehicle charging infrastructure and it's contributing to American drivers' "range anxiety," a major hindrance to consumers adopting EVs en masse, according to a report issued by UP.Labs, the transportation and mobility division of venture capital firm UP.Partners.

Historically, the cost of EVs has been the main reason many Americans have avoided them. However, internal combustion engine and full battery electric vehicles are reaching price parity but that could change because battery costs rose significantly in 2022, said UP. Partners, which has invested in companies that have partnerships with Toyota and Porsche.

The Santa Monica, Calif. venture capital firm's 123-page The Moving World Report: 2023 Macro and Micro Trends in Mobility covers the automotive, aviation, logistics, and e-bike sectors.

When it comes to EVs, a shortage of raw materials, ongoing global supply chain turmoil and an overloaded…

As General Motors puts its electric vehicles in Netflix shows, the automaker and streamer will pay close attention to context. So, for instance, jamming one into “Stranger Things” — set in the 1980s when mainstream EVs were unheard of — makes no sense. And squeezing another into the 1800s world of “Bridgerton” would be even more preposterous.

Will Ferrell makes these points in the automaker’s Super Bowl ad, which was released today and plugs the deal GM and Netflix announced last week. “Should they add EVs everywhere? They shallan’t,” he says in one scene, as he clumsily tries to fit into the Regency-era England set of “Bridgerton.” Similarly, “Stranger Things” character Erica Sinclair tells him in her sassy style that he is “ruining the show” when he shows up dressed as Dustin Henderson in a Chevy Silverado EV.

The ad goes for plenty of laughs, including one scene that shows Ferrell being attacked by zombies from “Army of the Dead.” But GM is using it f…

Electric vehicle charging company Flo plans to launch Flo Ultra, a fast charger designed for safety and accessibility with two charging ports per unit, next year.

"As new EV drivers hit the road, they will be looking for fast charging that is safe, accessible, convenient, intuitive and reliable," Nathan Yang, FLO chief product officer, said in a statement Tuesday. "This is why we designed FLO Ultra – to provide the ultimate EV charging experience."

Flo Ultra chargers will refuel most electric vehicles to 80 percent in 15 minutes, the company said. If the lineup of chargers is available when one driver pulls up, the charge will be faster than when multiple drivers charge at once.

The Flo Ultra fast chargers will not replace Flo's standard, utilitarian chargers. The company will continue selling both. The Flo Ultra chargers will meet the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program's minimum standards when they launch in 2024.

In a survey of abo…

Electrify America has tapped Robert Barrosa, who leads the charging company's infrastructure development and product planning, as its next president and CEO.

Current president and CEO Giovanni Palazzo will become chairman of Electrify America's board and global senior vice president of charging and energy for parent company Volkswagen Group.

Palazzo, 48, will take his chairman post Feb. 15 and begin his job at Volkswagen July 1. Barrosa, 48, will assume his role as Electrify America president and CEO June 1, the company said in a statement Monday.

Barrosa is the senior director of sales, business development and marketing for Electrify America. He leads business and infrastructure development, product planning, business partnerships, marketing and e-commerce.

Barrosa also manages Electrify America's home, commercial and energy services. He has been with the company since 2018, focusing on technology, energy management, product planning and infrast…

As the North American auto industry scrambles for local sources of battery minerals to meet ravenous electric-vehicle demand, the first in a series of Canadian lithium mines is scheduled to begin ramping up production.

Before the year is out, the North American Lithium mine in Val-d’Or, Que., is expected to be sending shipments of the highly sought battery metal to Tesla.

The milestone, which comes as similar projects in the United States sit in regulatory or legal limbo, illustrates how Canada’s resource-heavy history is giving the country a leg up over its neighbour to the south.

In fact, the Quebec mine’s tie-up with Tesla came at the direct expense of the United States.

Piedmont Lithium Inc., a co-developer of the Quebec project, struck an initial supply deal with Tesla in 2020. It had planned to ship lithium to the EV maker from another of its developments in North Carolina starting in mid-2022. But permitting issues at that project have led …

Jay Maxwell with the Costco Auto Program talks about how tight inventory at dealerships has the unit promoting service work. Renault and Nissan have signed a deal to reshape their alliance. Ford cuts bonuses for top executives after a frustrating year. And Stellantis buys Super Bowl ads for Jeep and Ram.

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