Trade News

Automakers are starting to team up with electric utilities to accelerate the push to build out the infrastructure needed to make electric vehicles a viable option for more U.S. consumers.

One of the biggest questions surrounding the mass adoption of EVs is whether U.S. power grids will be able to power the batteries of vehicles that are charged at businesses and homes.

More than 530,000 new battery-electric vehicles were registered in the U.S. through September. Recognizing that the demand is coming, traditional automakers are setting up new business units to tackle the issue.

This week, Toyota said it will collaborate with Oncor, a Dallas electric transmission and distribution company, on a pilot project testing out its vehicle-to-grid technology. V2G allows EVs to send energy from their batteries back onto the electric grid.

This marks the first partnership between the Toyota Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions team and a U.S. public utility foc…

Ford Motor Co. has raised the price of the cheapest variant of its F-150 Lightning electric truck 9 percent to $55,974, the company's website showed on Thursday.

The automaker has raised prices for its electric pickup trucks twice in three months, as it navigates higher costs and supply chain snags.

Automakers across the globe, including Tesla and Rivian are also struggling with higher prices of raw materials such as lithium and have warned high costs were here to stay.

Ford, which previously said it was targeting annual production of 150,000 Lightning pickups by the fall of 2023, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for a comment on the price hike.

The company's shares were down about 3.5 percent in afternoon trade amid declines in the broader market.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sold a big chunk of the EV maker’s stock for the fourth time this year. Toyota, Denso, and IBM team up to boost Japan’s chip supply. Plus, a conversation with Aurora Innovation CEO Chris Urmson, one of the pioneers of autonomous driving technology.

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Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton asked for a new trial on charges he misled investors about the electric truck maker's prospects, arguing the jury convicted him due to bad instructions from the judge and because one juror lied to get on the panel.

Milton was found guilty in October of securities and wire fraud following a monthlong trial, a remarkable downfall for the door-to-door salesman turned billionaire who promised to revolutionize the auto industry. In court filings late Wednesday, his lawyers argued the jurors mistakenly believed that to convict their client of three of the four counts against him, they weren't required to find that he intended to deceive investors, when in fact they were.

"The extraordinary facts giving rise to this motion establish a disturbing reality: defendant Trevor Milton was found guilty on three counts even though the jury believed Mr. Milton lacked criminal intent and, if properly instructed, would have acquitted him on all …

A shooting Wednesday at an automotive supplier plant near Detroit left one man dead, according to police.

An argument among employees began Wednesday morning inside the Forvia plant in Highland Park, Mich., before spilling out into the gated parking lot where shots were fired, said Deputy Chief Darrell Patterson of the Highland Park Police Department.

A 40-year-old man was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead, Patterson said. A 29-year-old suspect was apprehended at the scene.

"It was some fight over tools and use of tools," Patterson said. "Several males got into a physical altercation. The fight was broken up by the security members, and those employees were sent home."

Forvia spokeswoman Misty Matthews said the plant was continuing to operate but some employees opted to go home after the shooting.

"Our priority is the safety of our team and supporting them in any way we can," Matthews said in a statement. "We are working closely…

Bosch North America Executive Vice President Paul Thomas talks about the world's largest supplier's decision to continue investing in traditional technologies while also spinning up its businesses around EVs and fuel cells. Plus, Redwood Materials announces a new $3.5 billion plant in South Carolina.

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Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

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“Daily Drive” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Android

“Daily Drive” is available on the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Spotify

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Canadian electric vehicle maker Lion Electric Co. plans a $50 million stock offering to strengthen its balance sheet and expand factories.

The Montreal company said the expansion will focus on factories in Joliet, Ill., and Mirabel, Quebec. Lion Electric manufactures electric buses and medium-size urban cargo trucks.

Lion Electric said in a Securities and Exchange filing that it expects to net roughly $47 million from the offering after U.S. and Canadian underwriters B. Riley Securities and National Bank Financial take their fee of $3.25 million. The underwriters are floating 19.7 million shares for $2.54 each.

If the offering on the New York and Toronto Stock Exchanges sells out, both companies will have the option to buy an additional 2.9 million shares at $2.54. Lion Electric shares were trading at just over $2 at midday on the NYSE on Wednesday.

The largest investor in Lion Electric is financial services conglomerate Power Corporation of Canad…

The Federal Reserve downshifted its rapid pace of interest-rate hikes while signaling that borrowing costs, now the highest since 2007, will rise more than investors anticipate as central bankers seek to ensure inflation keeps cooling.

The Federal Open Market Committee raised its benchmark rate by 50 basis points to a 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent target range. Policymakers projected rates would end next year at 5.1 percent, according to their median forecast, before being cut to 4.1 percent in 2024 -- a higher level than previously indicated.

The hawkish projections have the potential to jolt financial markets, where speculation that the Fed would soon pause its hikes has contributed to easier financial conditions.

It also raises the prospect of higher borrowing costs for new and used vehicles, and other forms of credit, notably mortgages. The rapid rise in interest rates this year has already slowed the housing and construction markets, key drivers of li…

BRUSSELS — In a major makeover, the Audi E-tron is getting a new name, a new look and substantial improvements that address what was considered its major drawback when it launched in 2018 as Volkswagen Group's first modern electric vehicle: uncompetitive range.

The first salable 2023 Audi Q8 E-tron rolled off its assembly line here Wednesday, driven by Plant Manager Volker Germann and now sporting an estimated range of up to 600 kilometers (373 miles) under the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure used in Europe.

The now Q8 E-tron, in both crossover and sportback versions, is expected to head to dealerships in the U.S. in mid-2023. Audi didn't release an expected range under EPA testing, but it would roughly translate to as much as 330 miles. By comparison, when the original E-tron arrived in the U.S. in 2019, it was rated at just 212 miles.

The Q8 E-tron's 600-kilometer maximum range will be available in the more aerodynamic sportback ver…

What had been a felony grand larceny and forgery case against a former Fuccillo Automotive Group executive has become a misdemeanor petty theft affair.

Joseph Pompo, 33, who had once been accused of stealing more than $1 million from the group, entered an Alford plea to a single count of petit larceny on Oct. 24. Sentencing is set for Feb. 15, 2023.

Jefferson County, N.Y., Assistant District Attorney Cheryl Nielsen said she couldn't comment on the case until sentencing.

Under an Alford plea, a defendant officially declares themselves to be not guilty while pleading guilty, according to Syracuse University law professor Todd Berger. The prosecution must present some evidence supporting its case before the judge can accept such a plea, Berger said.

Pompo, Fuccillo Automotive's former corporate director of finance, tax, finance-and-insurance operations and reinsurance, was arrested in February 2021 on suspicion of first-deg…