Trade News

Lucid Motors won't be the first luxury automaker with a sleek electric sedan. But the company debuts this fall with a lot of promise and hype — and in the large shadow of Tesla Inc.

Lucid CEO and Chief Technology Officer Peter Rawlinson — an engineer with major stints at Tesla, Corus, Lotus and Jaguar — was the brains behind the Tesla Model S.

Under Rawlinson, the Silicon Valley startup has already claimed the honor of marketing and selling the first EV with an EPA-estimated range of more than 500 miles.

The $169,000 Lucid Air Dream Edition R, a 933-hp version of the Air sedan, when fitted with 19-inch wheels, is rated at 520 miles. And it is already a sellout.

But Lucid is readying several other, less expensive versions of the Air. The Dream Edition Performance and Grand Touring models have a range of 469 to 516 miles, depending on specific wheels.

The Air will be followed by an SUV, the Gravity.

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Qualcomm Inc on Tuesday said that German automaker BMW will use its chips in its next-generation driver-assistance and self-driving systems.

San Diego-based Qualcomm is the world's biggest supplier of chips for mobile phones but has been diversifying its business, with more than a third of its chip sales coming from sources other than handsets.

Qualcomm's announcement of the BMW win came before an investor presentation where it was expected to give new details about its strategy.

A spokesperson for BMW said the new chips would be used for its 'Neue Klasse' series of electric vehicles set to begin production in 2025.

Automotive chips are a key growth area for Qualcomm, which supplies chips for infotainment systems to companies such as General Motors. But the company has also been working to challenge its chip industry rivals Nvidia Corp and Intel Corp in supplying the chips powering driver-assistance computers for tasks such as automated lane-keepi…

NEW YORK -- A U.S. judge on Monday refused to dismiss a federal indictment charging Nikola Corp.'s billionaire founder Trevor Milton with defrauding investors about the electric- and hydrogen-powered truck maker's technology.

U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos rejected Milton's claim that he should not have been indicted in New York for securities fraud and wire fraud because his alleged lies were in Arizona and Utah, where he lives, and the case belonged there if at all.

The Manhattan-based judge said Milton, 39, could be tried in New York if he traded Nikola stock on the Nasdaq and communicated false statements to that state.

Ramos said other factors also supported keeping the case in New York despite Milton's wish to care at home for his wife, who according to court papers has an autoimmune disorder and other "severe" health issues.

Lawyers for Milton did not immediately respond to requests for comment. They have called the indictment "legally d…

As Michigan Democrats propose $4,500 tax credit for union-built EVs, they may need to give up on the provision in order to get President Biden’s social spending plan over the goal line.

Epsilon Automotive President Cathy Lang explains why women in the auto sector need to 'be confident' and how going to the 'dark side' made her a better marketing chief.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest person, directed a series of insults at Bernie Sanders on Twitter after the U.S. senator repeated his call for billionaires to pay more in taxes.

Musk even raised the notion of selling more of his Tesla Inc. shares, which would require him to pay capital gains taxes.

Sanders, 80, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, on Saturday tweeted that "we must demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share." He didn't mention Musk by name.

Musk, whose $286 billion fortune has made him a target for supporters of a wealth tax, tweeted: "I keep forgetting that you're still alive."

In a subsequent tweet early Sunday, Musk asked: "Want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Just say the word…"

Musk was still firing off tweets 11 hours later, saying Sanders "is a taker, not a maker."

Musk offloaded almost $7 billion worth of Tesla stock last week, helping…

DETROIT — Dodge will begin calling some dealerships "Power Brokers," a designation indicating that a store's sales, service and parts operations meet the brand's standard for customer service and that it has staffers with comprehensive knowledge of vehicle features, performance parts and installation.

Building a network of certified retailers and resurrecting its Direct Connection performance parts brand are among the first steps in a two-year business plan Dodge began rolling out last week. The brand says it will release at least one new step of the plan, which it's calling "Never Lift," every three months.

"Some will be minor, but there will be a few that will be game-changers," Dodge brand CEO Tim Kuniskis said in an online video, "so we're going to give you a calendar, and we're going to tell you the time frames, but we're not going to tell you which ones are major and which ones are minor."

The steady rollout of news comes as Do…

Introducing an additional step to the login process can help protect dealerships from the threat of cyberattacks.

The technique, known as multifactor authentication or two-factor authentication, increases the challenge for a criminal seeking to breach the system. A hacker would need to obtain each of the required inputs to impersonate the user, in contrast with a system that could be accessed with, say, a stolen password alone.

"It's essential," Helion Technologies President Erik Nachbahr said during an Automotive News Retail Forum: Dealer Discussions panel on Nov. 4.

Nachbahr said some insurers are requiring dealerships to adopt such a precaution before granting coverage. Panelist Erik Day, CFO of Warren Henry Auto Group, said his North Miami, Fla., dealership group couldn't take out cybersecurity insurance without it.

"In our business, we are big targets," Day said of dealerships. This was particularly the case of larger groups and small or me…

AAA, Consumer Reports, J.D. Power, the National Safety Council, Partners for Automated Vehicle Education and SAE International have come together to offer "common naming" recommendations for advanced driver-assistance systems. Here are the recommended names and definitions of 20 technologies, divided into 5 categories.

Blind Spot Warning: Detects vehicles in the blind spot while driving and notifies the driver to their presence. Some systems provide an additional warning if the driver activates the turn signal.

Forward Collision Warning: Detects a potential collision with a vehicle ahead and alerts the driver. Some systems also provide alerts for pedestrians or other objects

Lane Departure Warning: Monitors vehicle's position within the driving lane and alerts driver as the vehicle approaches or crosses lane markers.

Parking Collision Warning: Detects objects close to the vehicle during parking maneuvers and notifies the dri…

New-vehicle production issues and steady demand fueled by continued population growth have created unprecedented profit margins on historically low volumes. The past 18 months have raised many pressing issues about the sector's ability to sustain this high-octane dynamic.

Intuitively, most leaders understand that the current trends are not indefinitely sustainable. The question is: When will market conditions shift in a new direction?

According to the ALG natural demand metric, a potential inflection point for the relationship between supply and demand to flip could come as soon as 2024, barring any other major disruptions in the market. While manufacturers and dealers can leverage ongoing supply and natural demand imbalances to support higher transaction prices, it will be necessary for the industry to be prepared for swift adjustments when natural demand is eventually met.

Natural demand addresses pent-up demand from deferred sales during economic dis…

At Dodge, it's time to make the donuts.

The "Brotherhood of Muscle" brand said it's seeking an enthusiast "who embodies the spirit of the founding Dodge brothers" to serve as an ambassador. The job comes with a Hellcat to drive, $150,000 salary, a wardrobe and business cards with the title "chief donut maker."

(To be clear, the name is a reference to the kind of donuts that Dodge owners are notorious for making with their cars, not the edible variety.)

"The Dodge brothers were scrappy go-getters," Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis said in a statement last week. "Never content to follow the trends, they were the seekers of a better, faster, more outrageous way of doing things."

Dodge plans to provide more details of the program in January. It's part of the brand's new "Never Lift" effort to grow excitement and sales for the brand over the next two years.

General Motors would have scored big in Rivian's public stock offering last week if not for Joe Hinrichs, who persuaded the electric vehicle startup to instead make a deal with Ford Motor Co. during a secretive cross-country flight.

Over a steakhouse dinner in March 2019, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told Hinrichs that he was planning to move forward with GM, according to The Wall Street Journal. Hinrichs, who was running Ford's automotive operations at the time, asked Scaringe to reconsider and to talk again in a few weeks if the deal hadn't been sealed.

Hinrichs, in an interview with the Journal, recalled telling Scaringe, "Just because you got engaged to someone doesn't mean you need to marry them."

Scaringe later met up with Hinrichs in Seattle and began negotiating terms of a deal while the two men flew to Detroit on Ford's Gulfstream jet.

After landing, they spotted a GM plane flanked by Cadillac Escalades outside a hang…