Trade News

NASHVILLE -- General Motors believes having a full portfolio of electric vehicles on sale at the same time will allow each of them to succeed more than previous, singular efforts have.

After selling the EV1 by itself in the late 1990s, followed by the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid in 2010 and the Chevy Bolt in 2016, "we have learned a lot from ourselves," GM President Mark Reuss said Wednesday at the Automotive News Congress in Nashville. In each case, having no other electrified offerings in the lineup made it hard for the automaker to promote that one model at the expense of its profitable, gasoline-powered vehicles.

"The company, at that time when we launched the original Bolt, was afraid and didn't really get behind it," Reuss said. "We would have liked to have had a portfolio of electric vehicles to go to market with. It's hard to put one car in market and have anybody get behind it in a sales network."

Now, GM is preparing to launch a slew of EVs…

NASHVILLE — A host of startups and newcomers to the auto industry are shaking up the automotive supply chain, but established companies aren't standing pat.

Indeed, the supply chain is in for a major overhaul as longtime suppliers look to maintain their positions in the electric vehicle era, manufacturing executives said during a panel at the Automotive News Congress here.

Take, for example, Denso Corp., the world's second-largest auto supplier by annual global sales to automakers. As the supplier giant looks to become "more agile and more flexible" in the EV era, it is investing in 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, to help it to build spare parts and cooling systems, for instance. 

"Materials and manufacturing processes continue to evolve to help us to do things lighter and faster," said Andrew Clemence, Denso International America's electrification business unit leader. "We really believe this is going to unlock a new era of product design…

NASHVILLE — Nissan Motor Co. will announce a U.S. battery supplier for its next-generation electric vehicles "in a few weeks," the automaker's Americas chief Jeremie Papin said at the Automotive News Congress here Wednesday.

This year, Nissan said it would invest $500 million to turn its Canton, Miss., assembly plant into a "center for EV manufacturing and technology." Under that overhaul, Canton will produce two new EVs, one for the Nissan brand, the other for Infiniti, starting in 2025.

"There is a need to have a very close connection between the battery supplier and the car manufacturer," Papin said. "The knowledge that is being shared between the two is very much at the heart of a battery-electric vehicle."

Nissan currently sources batteries for the U.S.-made Leaf hatchback from the Smyrna, Tenn., battery plant majority-owned by Chinese energy company Envision Group. That battery factory was originally built and owned by Nissan at the outset of the…

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Wednesday it has opened a special crash investigation into a fatal Tesla crash this month in California that resulted in three deaths.

The crash, involving a 2022 model Tesla Model S, is one of more than 30 under investigation by the NHTSA involving Tesla vehicles in which advanced driver assistance systems like Autopilot were suspected of use.

A total of 14 crash deaths have been reported in those Tesla investigations, including the most recent three.

Of the 35 special crash investigations by the NHTSA into Tesla since 2016 involving advanced driver assistance systems, Autopilot use has been ruled out in three.

NHTSA separately said on Wednesday that in April it had opened another special crash investigation involving a 2016 Tesla Model X in Florida that resulted in a minor injury.

NHTSA did not immediately identify the crash that killed three in the new probe …

Executive Editor Jamie Butters gives you the top headlines and talks about the ACT Expo, a clean transportation gathering that focused on solutions like battery-electric trucks and renewable diesel with Automotive News Reporter John Irwin.

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Twitter Inc.’s board said it plans to enforce its $44 billion agreement to be bought by Elon Musk, saying the transaction is in the best interest of all shareholders.

“We intend to close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement,” the board said Tuesday in a statement to Bloomberg News. Directors voted earlier to unanimously recommended that shareholders approve Musk’s $54.20-a-share offer.

The proposed takeover includes a $1 billion breakup fee for each party, which the Tesla CEO will have to pay if the deal falls apart due to financing issues. But Musk can’t just walk away by paying the charge.

The merger agreement includes a specific performance provision that allows Twitter to force Musk to consummate the deal, according to the filing. That could mean that, should the deal end up in court, Twitter might secure an order obligating Musk to complete the merger rather than winning monetary compensation for any violations of it.

The board’…

An accident involving two vehicles at Manheim Auctions' location in West Palm Beach, Fla., last week left three people injured.

According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, a man driving a Tesla lost control of the vehicle in the Manheim parking lot and struck the passenger side of a 2010 Hyundai and a concrete wall, pinning one pedestrian between the two cars and another pedestrian between a car and a wall. The accident took place Thursday, May 12.

The sheriff's department said one of the pedestrians had critical injuries and was airlifted to Delray Medical Center in Delray Beach, Fla. The press release said the other pedestrian had minor injuries and was transported to HCA Florida JFK Hospital in Atlantis.

In a statement to Automotive News, Manheim spokeswoman Lois Rossi confirmed three people were sent to the hospital and wrote that Manheim was cooperating with law enforcement and had no further comment on the cause of the accident.

"Ou…

Hyundai Motor Co. and its Kia affiliate plan to invest $16.5 billion to boost electric vehicle production in South Korea, including building a new factory that would ultimately have the capacity to produce around 150,000 cars a year.

Under the plan, the two automakers aim to increase annual EV production in the nation to 1.44 million units by 2030, up from an expected 350,000 units this year, Hyundai said in a statement Wednesday. That forecast would account for about 45 percent of Hyundai and Kia's planned global EV production volume by then.

The new factory will be located within Kia's existing Hwaseong manufacturing site, Kia said in a separate statement. Construction is expected to begin in the first half of 2023, with commercial production starting in the second half of 2025.

Hyundai Motor Group, including Kia, Hyundai Motor and Genesis, aims to sell 3.23 million EVs a year globally by 2030, shooting for a 12 percent share of the global EV market.

Ten out of 18 midsize light vehicles earned "good" ratings in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's new side-impact evaluation.

IIHS updated the side test to "address higher-speed crashes that continue to cause fatalities." The new test also uses a 4,200-pound barrier striking the vehicle at 37 mph, instead of the previous 3,300-pound barrier that struck the vehicle at 31 mph. According to a news release, these changes mean the simulated crash "produces 82 percent more energy."

IIHS gave ratings of "good," "acceptable," "marginal" and "poor" to vehicles it classified as midsize.

To earn a "good" rating in both versions of the side test, the occupant compartment of the vehicle must hold its shape, the crash-test dummies must not show signs of severe injuries, and the side airbags and seat belts must "prevent the dummies' heads from making hard contact with the interior of the vehicle."

The 10 vehicles to receive a "good" rating were the For…

NEW DELHI -- Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares expects India to be a profitable market and a bigger growth opportunity than the automaker previously expected as it faces challenges in countries such as China and Russia.

India, where Stellantis sells its Jeep and Citroen brands, makes up a fraction of the automaker's global sales, but Tavares said he expects revenues in the South Asian nation to more than double by 2030 and operating profit margins to be in double-digits within the next couple of years.

Western automakers for years have struggled to make money in India, a market dominated by Asia's Suzuki and Hyundai with their small, low-cost cars.

"Being profitable in India is possible if you do things the India way," Tavares said on Tuesday.

He said this includes sourcing parts locally and vertically integrating the supply chain to keep costs low, and engineering cars locally with features Indian consumers want and are willing to pay for.

S…