Musk meets Pope Francis, breaks 10-day silence on Twitter

Elon Musk and four of his sons met with Pope Francis at the Vatican last week and the Tesla Inc. CEO then broke 10 days of silence on Twitter to share a photo of the audience.

Musk, the world's richest individual, who is in the midst of a $44 billion takeover of Twitter Inc., wrote Friday: "Honored to meet @Pontifex yesterday."

The Vatican did not issue a public statement about the meeting, according to The Associated Press. Pope Francis often meets with corporate leaders to urge them to use their wealth and technology to aid the poor, the AP reported.

Over the years, the Holy See has made public appearances with auto executives to take delivery of popemobiles. Last year Pope Francis met with Fisker Inc. CEO Henrik Fisker to see the design for an all-electric papal vehicle. Fisker said it will covert its all-electric Ocean SUV for use by the pope, providing a retractable glass cupola and sustainable interior materials, such as the carpets.

Pope …

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The long, winding road to an EV industry in 2030 and beyond

A quarter of the way through the '20s, it seemed like a good time to step back and look at the efforts to shift the U.S. auto industry to half zero-emission vehicles by 2030.

At this stage of the road trip, the team at Automotive News took a company-by-company look at the transition to electric vehicles as well as key government efforts on the matter. Check out the coverage on Pages 16-21.

The destination is pretty clear: Replacing millions of gasoline-burning vehicles with battery-powered ones every year. If half of the market is electric, it will be a big proof point that the industry is doing its part to address global warming and leave a livable planet for future generations. (Reducing pollution in the manufacturing process is also important, but separate, and harder to measure.)

EV share needs to grow tenfold by the end of the decade, and challenges abound: cost, quality, charging infrastructure.

Mining and mineral refining operations — suc…

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For ADAS to reach its safety potential, industry must get consumers to buy in

Advanced driver-assistance systems are touted as today's answer to road safety. The technology is mandated across Europe, as "technical progress in the area of advanced vehicle safety systems [like ADAS] offers new possibilities for reducing [pedestrian and driver] casualty numbers." Meanwhile, regulators in the U.S. plan to address road safety issues with similar advances that prevent distracted driving in privately owned vehicles.

Such regulation could be met with resistance from the average driver. A report assessing drivers' attitudes toward advanced driver-assistance systems found that 70 percent of drivers disable "bothersome" lane-keeping assist and lane-centering systems. Furthermore, a staggering 84 percent of drivers feel that driver-assistance features don't promote safe driving at all and could actually lead to a preventable collision.

Though regulators understand the potential of this technology, drivers haven't bought in — yet. I…

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Highlights from the latest Daily Drive podcasts, June 27-29

Here are highlights from the latest episodes of 'Daily Drive', Automotive News' weekday podcast, June 20-23, hosted by Jamie Butters with Kellen Walker.

“It’ll be interesting to see if we can use this inflationary moment as an inflection point to start to argue more effectively for what it is that trade agreements like USMCA and others that lower tariffs provide for all of us.” -- Kellie Meiman Hock, managing partner at McLarty Associates, on the impact of USMCA and other trade agreements on the industry

“We put value on the experience that people can bring to the roles that we have available. And that will be articulated through their opportunity to compete for these roles.” -- Tammy Golden, GM’s executive director of DE&I and head of the automaker’s work force strategy, on removing four-year degree requirements for many positions

“The punchline is that even if we were to see a recession, we’d probably sell the number of vehicles that we e…

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Automotive News’ 40 Under 40 build careers, help others

After 11 years of running our 40 Under 40 recognition program honoring talented young people working in dealerships — and asking them about their early careers — we had some questions of a different sort.

What are they seeking from their employers in the area of professional development? What factors are most important to them in creating job satisfaction? How important is diversity, equity and inclusion to them and their employers?

And how good is the auto retail sector in general in laying out defined career paths and offering professional development opportunities for younger employees working in dealerships?

We'll be writing about our findings in the next week and talking about these topics Wednesday, July 6, with a couple of past 40 Under 40 honorees in a LinkedIn Live session in advance of next week's announcement of the 2022 honorees.

The vast majority of respondents to our survey so far are still working in dealerships.

And most o…

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Quality setbacks warrant closer industry scrutiny

New-vehicle quality this year plunged to the worst score J.D. Power has recorded in the 36 years of its closely watched study. The results provide serious feedback that automakers — and their franchised dealers — need to tighten up their practices or risk sending more shoppers to upstart brands.

Customers paying record-high prices for scarce new models probably didn't expect to find 11 percent more problems than vehicle buyers a year earlier did — as reported in the 2022 Initial Quality Study — though perhaps sky-high prices may have made them more demanding of their purchases. On average, 180 problems per 100 vehicles were tracked industrywide, and 24 of the 33 brands surveyed tallied more vehicle problems than a year earlier.

Supply chain snags and remote work environments contributed to the jump in vehicle problems. But many of the quality issues stem from poor communication with consumers. Automakers have been shipping vehicles to dealerships without certa…

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Author Jessie Singer rebuffs our notion of ‘accidents’ (Episode 155)

The journalist and author delves into the details of her new book, There Are No Accidents, and explains how the word protects the status quo and hinders us in taking pragmatic steps to thwart preventable crashes.

How do I subscribe?

Apple Podcasts: “Shift: A podcast about mobility” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe.

Spotify: "Shift: A podcast about mobility" can be streamed through Spotify on your desktop, tablet or mobile device. Click here to subscribe.

Google Play: "Shift: A podcast about mobility" is available on Android devices through the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe.

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The latest numbers on the microchip shortage: Forecast worsens

European auto plants are cutting 68,000 vehicles from their production schedules this week and North American factories 36,000 because of the ongoing microchip shortage, according to the latest report from AutoForecast Solutions.

Those plan changes and others around the world have caused AFS to raise its projection for total lost 2022 auto production related to chip shortages by almost 167,000 vehicles. AFS now forecasts that automakers will cut a total of 3.3 million vehicles from their schedules worldwide by year end.

But trimmed factory plans do not tell the whole story of the chip shortage at the moment. Last week, General Motors said in a regulatory filing that it had built 95,000 vehicles in the second quarter that were incomplete because of missing components. Most of the incomplete GM vehicles were produced in June.

The filing said that GM expects to get the vehicles finished and delivered to retailers by the end of this year.

Source: Au…

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Automotive News LinkedIn Live: Retail career advancement

Bring your questions to a conversation with past 40 Under 40 honorees about professional development, mentorship and employee satisfaction.

Ashlee Church, general manager of Volkswagen of Marion in southern Illinois, and Erikka Wells, the store's sales manager, will share insights with Automotive News reporter Lindsay VanHulle and Executive Editor Jamie Butters on a video chat. Audience questions are encouraged.

Church was a 40 Under 40 honoree in 2020; Wells in 2021. They bring different experience sets to the discussion.

Church came from an auto retail family and earned an MBA before opening the VW store — right before the Dieselgate scandal blew up. Wells got into the industry as a young, single mom taking on a second job to get her transmission fixed. She went on to help found WOCAN, the Women of Color Automotive Network.

The conversation will be Wednesday, July 6, at noon Eastern.

Go to the Automotive News LinkedIn page or autonews.com…

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Tesla’s Q2 global sales slide in wake of COVID shutdowns in China

Tesla Inc. said on Saturday its global deliveries fell to 254,695 in the second quarter, snapping a two-year streak of gains, as a COVID-related shutdown in Shanghai hit production and supply lines.

In the preceding quarter, the U.S. electric vehicle maker delivered 310,048 vehicles globally. Sales totaled 201,250 in the second quarter a year ago.

Analysts expected Tesla to report deliveries of 295,078 vehicles during the April-June period, according to Refinitiv data. Several analysts had slashed their estimates further to about 250,000 due to China's prolonged lockdown.

Tesla said it delivered 238,533 Model 3 compact cars and Model Y crossovers, as well as 16,162 Model S and Model X vehicles to customers in the quarter.

Total production fell 15 percent to 258,580 vehicles from the first quarter. Still, June 2022 marked a monthly high for vehicle production in Tesla's history, the company said Saturday.

Deliveries are one of the most clos…

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Toyota exhausts U.S. tax credits for EV purchasers

Toyota Motor Corp. has used up a key U.S. tax credit for hybrid and electric vehicles, a milestone that the automaker says will raise its costs and hinder adoption of climate-friendly cars.

The company said Friday that it sold 3,876 plug-in hybrid and electric cars in June. The U.S. allows automakers to offer a $7,500 tax credit to buyers of fully or partly electric cars, but only up to 200,000 per company. Toyota’s cumulative sales of eligible vehicles have now surpassed that threshold, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and confirmed with the company.

The Japanese manufacturer becomes the third automaker to hit the limit, joining General Motors and Tesla Inc. Demand for EVs has steadily grown in the U.S. over the last few years.

Toyota and its rivals have lobbied Congress for an extension of the tax credits, but they disagree on who should be eligible. Toyota and Tesla oppose a proposal by the Biden administration to offer an additional $4,500 in …

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Tesla target of new lawsuit that claims racial abuse against Black workers

SAN FRANCISCO -- Fifteen Black former or current employees at Tesla Inc. filed a lawsuit against the electric vehicle maker on Thursday, alleging they were subjected to racial abuse and harassment at its factories.

The workers said they were subjected to offensive racist comments and behavior by colleagues, managers and human resources employees on a regular basis, according to the lawsuit filed in a California state court.

The harassment, which occurred mostly at Tesla's Fremont, Calif., factory, included using the n-word and such terms as "slavery" or "plantation" or making sexual comments such as "likes booty," the lawsuit said, adding that the automaker's "standard operating procedures include blatant, open and unmitigated race discrimination."

The filing described one plaintiff, Teri Mitchell, as being regularly harassed by co-workers and managers who used racial slurs and made statements including, "It is rare for Blacks to work here. I don't know…

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