Trade News

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk unloaded $5 billion of stock in the electric-car maker, shortly after holding a poll on Twitter over whether he should sell 10 percent of his massive stake in the company. The world's richest person so far has disposed of more than 4.5 million shares this week, according to regulatory filings. Those were his first sales in more than five years.

Musk, who frequently stokes controversy on Twitter, created a firestorm over the weekend with a survey asking whether he should sell part of his Tesla stake. While he portrayed his proposal as having to do with debate over billionaires avoiding taxes, the filings released Wednesday show some of the transactions were pre-arranged in mid-September -- weeks before the poll. He also didn't mention in the tweets that he has millions of stock options that must be exercised before next August, when they expire.

The poll resulted in a decisive vote for Musk to sell and sent Tesla shar…

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story listed an incorrect day for the study’s release.

J.D. Power's latest survey of customer satisfaction with the vehicle purchase process indicates that online shopping is clearly the preferred method to buy at the moment.

Power's 2021 U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index, released Wednesday, found that satisfaction among online car shoppers was higher in both the premium and mass-market segments than among those buyers who visited a brick-and-mortar dealership.

"The 'Amazon effect' of seeing, buying and having a product delivered to your doorstep has made its way into vehicle buying and it is here to stay," Chris Sutton, vice president of automotive retail at J.D. Power, said in a statement.

But the study revealed that electric vehicle buyers were less satisfied with the sales experience than shoppers of internal combustion vehicles.

"BEV buyers are a unique challenge for dealers," Sutton said. "As m…

TOKYO — The Solterra, Subaru's first global electric vehicle, is pure Subaru on the inside, with its all-wheel-drive setup. But on the outside, it shares a lot with Toyota.

That is because the Solterra electric crossover, which made its global debut here Thursday, is the badge-sharing stablemate of the Toyota bZ4X — and is the spitting image of its sibling, from the oversized wheel cladding and beveled back fender to the funky wraparound taillight motif.

The Solterra stands apart from the bZ4X with an EV-inspired variant of the Subaru brand's hexagon grille as well as its bracket-shaped rear lamps. The headlights also get a Subaru vibe.

But the design differences between the Solterra and bZ4X, unveiled last month, cleave close, in the vein of the Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86, the sporty coupe combo that is also a joint product.

When the Solterra goes on sale in mid-2022 in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Europe and China, Subaru …

The driver of a Tesla Inc. car that burst into flames after striking a tree last September in Florida had applied maximum acceleration and was racing at several times the speed limit, investigators said Wednesday.

The car sped through a yellow light at an intersection, reaching a speed of 90 miles per hour, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report on the accident.

The battery burst into flames after the impact Sept. 13 in Coral Gables, Florida. Firefighters had difficulty trying to extinguish the blaze, which reignited at least once, according to NTSB. A 20-year-old man who was driving and a 19-year-old woman passenger died, according to police.

The report contained no indication that the car's automation systems, known as Autopilot, were involved.

The fiery fatal crash is the latest to draw scrutiny on the safety of Tesla's innovative electric vehicles. NTSB is also investigating a fatal crash and fire in Spring, Texa…

DETROIT — General Motors plans to restructure its information technology business into two divisions — digital business software and global IT — to help achieve a goal of generating $20 to $25 billion in software services revenue annually by the end of the decade.

GM named Fred Killeen, 61, vice president of global information technology and chief information officer, leading a team that will focus on how software enables the core business. It named Stacy Lynett, 48, vice president of digital business software to focus on the software business itself. She will be charged with developing technology strategy and software products to deliver services to customers.

"The new structure and dual operating model will enable GM to fully leverage its strong foundation in IT capability, talent and resources, as well as reduce complexity and improve speed," GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement Wednesday. "Stacy and Fred bring unique backgrounds and experiences to help us …

WASHINGTON -- The Biden administration will strengthen its proposed limits on auto and truck emissions, U.S. environmental chief Michael Regan said Wednesday, addressing complaints that the plan announced last summer is too weak.

“What we finalize will be much more aggressive and much more comprehensive,” the EPA administrator said in an interview while he was attending the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

That shift would likely be welcomed by environmentalists who have urged the administration toughen the greenhouse gas emissions standards. But it could be a blow for automakers that have counted on proposed credits and incentives to help them fulfill requirements set to take a big jump in stringency for the 2023 model year.

The White House this week is beginning an interagency review of the EPA’s drafted final rule governing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks, with a goal of imposing the new requirements in December.

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Authenticom, a data integration service provider that works with dealerships, says it is working to restore systems it took offline in response to what may have been a ransomware attack.

The company said it has worked with forensic experts and discovered no evidence that any customers' data was compromised after the Oct. 31 incident, CEO Steve Cottrell said in a letter sent Monday to dealerships and software providers that Authenticom provided to Automotive News.

The company took its systems offline after discovering the security threat, Cottrell said in the letter.

"Our automated security systems and people that responded to the initial alerts did exactly what they were supposed to do to protect your data," Cottrell wrote. "Based on our investigation to date, it appears that we were the subject of a ransomware attack that we were able to interrupt with our response."

He added that "the attack was in the process of disrupting our system operatio…

Two dealership groups expanded in the fourth quarter — including publicly traded Canadian retailer AutoCanada Inc. buying a dealership in Illinois — while a couple bought another upstate New York dealership late in the third quarter.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic- and import-brand stores. One of the transactions involved a dealership group ranked on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S.

AutoCanada adds Stellantis store in Illinois

Publicly traded AutoCanada has purchased its first Stellantis dealership in the U.S.

AutoCanada, of Edmonton, Alberta, on Thursday bought Crystal Lake Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in Illinois from Gary Rosenberg. Crystal Lake is northwest of Chicago.

AutoCanada, which has dealerships in the U.S. in Illinois under Leader Automotive Group, said the store would add about $72 million in annual revenues in "an attractive growth market."

"We see strong potential for …

DETROIT — General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Stellantis and Honda received the highest marks in the Rainbow PUSH Coalition's 2020 Automotive Diversity Scorecard.

The organization, founded by civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, lauded automakers for hiring African American ad agencies, appointing more chief diversity officers and reevaluating where they stood on diversity and inclusion after the 2020 death of George Floyd sparked a social justice movement.

The scorecard is being released Wednesday during the 22nd Rainbow PUSH Coalition Global Automotive Summit. This summit's theme is "Expanding Minority Opportunities During Global Electrification."

GM, for example, created an inclusion advisory board in June 2020 and appointed Telva McGruder as its first chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. Hyundai, on the other hand, brought on Culture Brands, an African American-owned marketing agency — marking the first time Hyundai has partnered with an agency …

Governors from nine states, led by Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, have sent a letter to top congressional leaders urging them to advance legislation that would provide $52 billion in aid to semiconductor producers and ease a shortage for manufacturers.

The letter, prepared for delivery on Wednesday, to House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and their counterparts in the Senate, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, asks for swift approval of the CHIPS Act, intended to expand U.S. semiconductor production.

The governors, largely from auto-producing states, made a case that the shortage has taken a brutal toll on the automobile industry, leading to lost production and jobs.

“There is no question that our nation’s automotive manufacturing industry -- more than any other sector -- has been hit hardest by the global semiconductor shortage,” Whitmer wrote. “Production at auto plants across the country has been idled, impacting more than…

NEW YORK -- Shares of Rivian Automotive Inc. will start trading Wednesday in New York after the electric vehicle-maker raised about $11.9 billion in the biggest initial public offering of the year.

The Irvine, Calif.-based company sold 153 million shares in an upsized offering, according to a Tuesday statement that confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report. It priced them at $78 each, higher than the top end of the marketed range, making the haul the sixth-largest ever on a U.S. exchange, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Based on the share count, Rivian is valued at about $76.4 billion on a fully diluted basis that accounts for stock options. That compares with a valuation of $27.6 billion after a $2.65 billion funding round in January, Bloomberg News previously reported.

Backed by deep pocketed companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Ford Motor Co., Rivian is making its debut as it looks to make a dent in the EV market led by Tesla Inc.

Just a cou…

DETROIT -- Toyota Motor Corp. has committed to investing $6 million over the next five years to expand vehicle testing at the American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti.

The Japanese automaker will invest $3.5 million to build out and lease new vehicle labs and office space, as well as $2.5 million in additional usage of the test track, Toyota said Wednesday.

It marks the first new construction at the proving grounds since it opened in 2018. Toyota became a "founder-level sponsor" for the center with a $5 million investment in 2017. Other founding sponsors include AT&T, Ford Motor Co., Hyundai America Technical Center Inc. and Visteon Corp.

Toyota will expand from 7,000 square feet to around 13,000 square feet, with construction expected to be complete by next summer. The automaker, whose North American research and development headquarters is in nearby Saline, plans to station up to a dozen engineers at the center, where they will develop automated a…