Trade News

Walmart Inc.'s deal backing an electric-vehicle startup has some strings, including a provision preventing sales to rival Amazon.

The retail giant's agreement to purchase as many as 10,000 battery-powered vans from Canoo Inc. provides a lifeline for the fledging auto manufacturer, and Canoo shares surged more than 50 percent on the news Tuesday. The caveat blocking sales to Amazon was disclosed in a securities filing on Wednesday.

The language says that for the duration of the pact, Canoo "will not enter into any agreement for any services involving the design, manufacture, consult, advice, lease, or sale of EVs to, or issue any equity, equity-linked or debt securities of any type, or enter into any agreement for the purpose of transferring control of the Company to, Amazon.com, Inc., its subsidiaries, or affiliates." The document also indicated that Walmart's purchase order is non-binding.

Amazon already has an agreement with another EV startup, Rivian …

Polestar increased sales of its electric vehicles by 125 percent to 21,200 during the first half, nearly matching its full-year volume from last year.

The Volvo Cars EV subsidiary, which joined the Nasdaq last month in an $890 million deal, sold 29,000 vehicles last year and aims to increase that total to 290,000 by 2025.

Despite the strong first-half numbers, the Tesla Inc. rival still expects to fall 15,000 units short of its sales target of 65,000 this year, blaming the hit on COVID-19 lockdowns in China, where it produces its only model, the Polestar 2.

“I am very confident that the strong momentum we have seen this year in brand awareness and sales figures will accelerate powerfully in the coming years as more ground-breaking cars are revealed,” Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath, who will speak at the Automotive News Europe Congress on Thursday, said in a statement.

Without providing specifics, the company said that its order book its getting a …

Twitter Inc. responded to billionaire Elon Musk’s decision to withdraw from his proposed $44 billion takeover of the company with a 62-page lawsuit. In it, the social network operator alleges Musk materially breached the original agreement and displays direct examples of him doing so -- in the form of his own tweets.

Twitter’s suit cites no fewer than 13 Musk tweets in setting out the arc of the billionaire’s infatuation with the service, which started with the pun of “love me tender” before his bid in April.

It later devolved to Musk posting a poop emoji in response to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal’s explanation of how the company estimates the number of bot accounts on the platform.

Lawyers for Twitter told a Delaware judge that the Tesla Inc. CEO should be forced to honor his agreement to pay $54.20 a share for the San Francisco-based social-media platform. Musk abandoned the deal Friday, citing in part concerns about the number of fake accounts among u…

Panasonic, a major Tesla Inc. supplier, is working on new technology to increase battery energy density by a fifth by 2030, the Japanese company's chief technology officer, Shoichiro Watanabe, told Reuters.

That gain, if achieved, could boost the driving range of a Model Y, for example, by more than 60 miles with the same size battery pack.

Alternatively, it could allow manufacturers to create roomier and possibly lighter EVs while keeping driving range unchanged.

As more automakers roll out EV models, investors are looking for evidence that Tesla and established battery suppliers such as Panasonic can keep their lead in the industry.

The battery system is the most expensive element of an EV and improved performance and lower costs are seen as key to sustaining gains in global sales. 

Panasonic Energy, a core Panasonic Holdings unit, plans to achieve those gains by using a new mix of additives to allow individual cells to run at a hi…

Bosch plans to invest more than $3 billion in its growing semiconductor business by 2026 in a bid to power its way clear of the world's gnarled supply chain of chips.

The investment will address a range of semiconductor industry needs, including the addition of testing centers, research into new kinds of chips and, most important, new chip-production capacity in Germany.

Over the past 18 months, a shortage of microchips has caused automakers around the world to cancel 13 million vehicles from production schedules, according to AutoForecast Solutions LLC.

But the bad news inside Bosch's aggressive plan: The investment won't all go to automobiles.

Bosch, the world's biggest auto parts supplier, has hundreds of mouths to feed in its sprawling global portfolio of electronic products, ranging from coffee makers and toasters to home security systems, power tools, video surveillance products and air conditioning units — on top of $49.14 billion in sales…

WASHINGTON — Regulatory uncertainty is delaying the widespread deployment in the U.S. of a technology that could improve road safety and provide environmental and efficiency benefits, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.

In a webinar Tuesday, John Bozzella, CEO of the alliance, said the private sector is "heavily investing" in vehicle-to-everything — or V2X — technology but that the U.S. also needs "a regulatory and policy environment that supports and facilitates V2X adoption and use."

V2X allows vehicles on the road to communicate wirelessly with other vehicles and infrastructure such as traffic signals, but the technology has not yet been widely adopted by automakers and other stakeholders in U.S.

When connected, vehicles can transmit data such as GPS location, acceleration, predicted path and driver controls to other vehicles, and infrastructure can transmit data to those vehicles about upcoming hazards and road conditions, according…

Self-driving tech startup May Mobility has added to its Series C investment round and now raised funding totaling $111 million. The money will enable the company to add engineers and incorporate its system on a new vehicle platform.

The fresh funds will underpin the company's ongoing work with Toyota Motor Corp., which has been a longtime backer of the Ann Arbor, Mich.- based organization. May Mobility's work on autonomous Toyota Sienna minivans, called the Autono-MaaS will continue, with a commercial launch of service expected this year.

Further, May Mobility says it will begin preliminary work integrating its self-driving systems on the Toyota e-Palette, a battery-electric vehicle expected to someday operate in Toyota's Woven City — a prototype city of the future — and beyond.

New funding comes from State Farm Ventures, a subsidiary of the auto insurance company of the same name. Terms of its participation were not disclosed. May Mobility had said…

SHANGHAI -- Zhejiang Geely Holding Geely on Tuesday unveiled a new electric pickup truck, targeting growing demand from city residents as coronavirus curbs fuel an interest in outdoor activities such as camping.

The Volvo owner also launched a new brand, Radar, at an online event on Tuesday where it showcased the first pickup, the RD6. It did not disclose the selling price but said it would have a driving range of more than 600 kilometers per charge.

"In an optimistic estimation, the annual sales of pickup trucks can reach 3 million units in China by 2030," Radar CEO Ling Shiquan told Reuters in an interview.

"More people are pursing a healthy lifestyle with more outdoor activities while the governments are also relaxing restrictions for pickups in cities. Those changes are supporting the growth of pickup trucks," Ling added.

Pickups are considered a niche segment in China where they are mostly used by farmers. They are still banned from most urb…

CDK Global Inc. CEO Brian Krzanich has resigned from the company following the completion of its sale last week to investment firm Brookfield Business Partners.

CDK said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that Krzanich, 62, notified the company last Wednesday that he would step down from his roles as president and CEO of the dealership technology giant based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., as of Monday, July 11. CDK said former CEO Brian MacDonald, who led the company from January 2016 to November 2018, took over the CEO role on an acting basis as of Monday.

"CDK is a mission-critical software platform for automotive commerce with a bright future, and I am excited about our path forward and accelerated growth," MacDonald, 57, said in a statement Tuesday.

The change is among several executive-level changes CDK disclosed Tuesday in the regulatory filing.

As of Monday, Joe Tautges, 46, no longer serves as COO but remains with the company as a special adviser t…