Trade News

WASHINGTON -- Getaround Inc. will pay $950,000 to Washington, D.C., and revise its business practices after allegedly misrepresenting the benefits and nature of its car sharing services and failed to pay city sales taxes, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine said Friday.

The San Francisco-based company had operated without a license in DC, Racine said in a statement, adding Getaround will pay restitution to car owners who experienced theft or damage to vehicles listed on the platform.

Customers can use Getaround to rent vehicles by the hour or day from individual owners who make vehicles available through the Getaround platform. Getaround did not immediately comment.

Car-sharing services in Washington are subject to a 10.25 percent sales tax.

"Gig economy companies must abide by the same rules as their brick-and-mortar counterparts. They must provide clear and accurate information to consumers, especially about the safety of their ser…

Lithia Motors Inc., the second-largest U.S. dealership group, is expected to purchase Ontario-based Pfaff Automotive Partners, according to a dealership buy-sell adviser who is familiar with the deal.

The transaction would mark Lithia's first foray out of the U.S. and into Canada. Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer confirmed to Automotive News on Wednesday that the publicly traded retailer has acquisitions of Canadian dealerships, among others, under contract and slated to close within the next 90 days. Those deals under contract are expected to add $2 billion in annual revenue to Lithia.

"Canada is our No. 1 target," DeBoer told analysts Wednesday after the Medford, Ore., retailer reported second-quarter earnings. "We've spent the last five years getting to know the dealer body there and have pretty good relationships with most of the large groups and believe that something is imminent in that country."

The acquisition of Pfaff would make Lithia the second public…

Canadian auto supplier Magna International Inc. said on Thursday it will buy Swedish rival Veoneer Inc. for about $3.8 billion in cash, in a deal that would help expand its driver assistance technologies business.

Magna will buy out Veoneer's outstanding shares for $31.25 each, and the acquisition represents an enterprise value of $3.3 billion including debt, the companies said in a joint statement.

Veoneer's market value was $2.23 billion based on its latest closing price, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. The shares closed at $19.93 on Thursday.

The acquisition will help Magna achieve about $100 million in annual cost savings by 2024, according to the statement.

Stockholm-based Veoneer -- which spun off from longtime safety equipment supplier Autoliv Inc. in 2018 -- will be combined with Magna's existing advanced driver assistance systems business.

The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close by t…

The Biden administration is laying the groundwork to spend roughly $52 billion on semiconductor research and manufacturing even as it’s awaiting congressional approval of the funding, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

“We’re putting plans in place right now already on the team to invest the $52 billion,” she said Thursday during a White House press briefing. “We need to incentivize the manufacturing of chips in America and so we are very focused on putting the pieces in place so that can happen.”

She added that she’s engaging with industry daily and doing “a lot” to address the shortage.

Raimondo told Bloomberg News in an interview that she’s hearing signs of improvements from automakers who told her the supply crunch is getting “a little bit better” amid a global semiconductor shortage. Despite the uptick in chips allocation to the autos sector, many continue to see manufacturing delays.

Chips industry representatives expect implementation o…

The blank-check company seeking to buy electric-car startup Lucid Motors Inc. made a last-minute appeal for retail shareholders to vote for the deal amid signs that it’s struggling to win their approval.

Churchill Capital Corp. IV, the special purpose acquisition company started by investment banker Michael Klein, adjourned its Thursday shareholder meeting that was to determine the fate of the merger, pushing the decision back to the following day.

It also appealed again in a new statement for shareholders to sign off on the deal. Churchill’s shares fell as much as 4.8 percent before retracing more than half the loss.

“The company still needs additional votes to obtain approval for that proposal by a majority of its outstanding shares,” according to the statement. “As a result, the meeting has been adjourned to obtain the required votes.”

The two companies are trying to woo the very investors who pushed Churchill’s shares up more than 130 percent…

German auto supplier ZF Friedrichshafen is hiring for 250 jobs at its plant in Marysville after landing a nearly $6 billion contract to make axles for an automaker.

The supplier, which houses its North American headquarters near Detroit in Livonia, Mich., on Thursday said it will produce solid beam axles for pickups, SUVs and performance sedans until 2027.

The contract will secure the jobs of 800 employees until 2027, ZF spokeswoman Ashley Van Horn said in an email. Around 550 of the positions are filled.

ZF declined to name its customer. Van Horn said the contract was signed two weeks ago. It wasn't immediately clear if the contract will replace another supplier.

No additional investments are planned for the plant, where 10 million axle drive units and rear beam axles have been produced since it launched in 2009, according to the company.

"This contract signifies a bright future for our plant, employees and community," Wolfgang Moenig, vic…

Volkswagen of America has commissioned a one-off GT concept of its two-row Atlas Cross Sport that employs the more powerful 2.0-liter engine from the Golf R, two rows of Recaro racing seats and color-matched performance calipers and wheel inserts to match the vehicle's striking "Kingfisher Blue" paint scheme.

The build was done by VW enthusiast Jamie Orr, owner of Orchid Euro, as a way to "inject some of that VW magic into our SUVs," Scott Keogh, CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, said in a statement. "This concept is proof that it's possible to build SUVs that could appeal to our performance enthusiast base."

Hand-painted at VW's Chattanooga assembly plant, the Atlas Cross Sport GT concept is built on the vehicle's top trim line, with 22-inch ABT Sport HR Aerowheels, wrapped in Yokohama Advan Sport V105 UHP 285/35R22 tires. The vehicle features ST Suspension XTA Plus 3 coilovers with color-matched and GT Concept-branded springs and TAROX eigh…

FRANKFURT -- Shareholders in Volkswagen, Europe's largest carmaker, on Thursday approved a deal to settle claims against four former executives, including longtime CEO Martin Winterkorn, related to the company's emissions scandal.

The initial deal, which was announced last month and which will see Volkswagen receive 288 million euros ($339 million) in compensation, required shareholder approval and 99.9 percent of investors agreed to the proposal at the group's annual general meeting.

Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to cheating U.S. diesel engine tests, sparking the biggest business crisis in its history.

The settlement marks a major milestone in the carmaker's efforts to turn a page on the scandal, which has cost it more than 32 billion euros in vehicle refits, fines and legal costs so far.

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Scooter app adds feature to discourage riding under the influence

In addition to the dangers of driving under the influence, we should consider the dangers of scooting under the influence.

Shared electric scooter services are an alternative for those who do not own a car and do not wish to hire a Lyft or Uber. But along with the convenience comes a potential problem: people using scooters while intoxicated.

Scooter company Bird, which has more than 250 partner cities throughout the world, has taken note of this concern and is launching a "checkpoint" within its app called Safe Start. It's designed to discourage people from riding scooters under the influence.

Riders attempting to use a Bird scooter between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. will have to verify they can safely use the scooter by correctly entering a keyword into the app.

Bird says the app feature is a way to encourage those who might be under the influence to choo…

Amazon-backed EV startup Rivian Automotive plans to build a second U.S. assembly plant that will also include battery cell production, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

"While it's early in an evolving process, Rivian is exploring locations for a second U.S. manufacturing facility," Rivian spokeswoman Amy Mast said on Thursday. She declined to provide further details.

Multiple U.S. states have bid for the plant -- dubbed "Project Tera" in documents -- which will be announced in a couple of months and break ground early next year, said the sources, who asked not to be identified. The timing could still change given the coronavirus pandemic, which has already delayed the planned announcement from the summer, the sources said.

"We look forward to working with a supportive, technology-forward community in order to create a partnership as strong as the one we have with Normal," Mast said.

Rivian's existing U.S. plant is in Normal, Il…

LOS ANGELES — The founder and CEO of HAAH Automotive Holdings, Duke Hale, has formed a new company that intends to make a bid for ailing Korean automaker SsangYong Motor Co., Hale told Automotive News.

HAAH this week announced that it had abandoned plans to import Chinese cars to the U.S. and would file for bankruptcy liquidation. Hale said he could not provide further information on the bankruptcy filing, including the filing date, on advice of legal counsel.

Should Hale's new investor group be successful in its bid for SsangYong, Hale said that bringing its vehicles to the U.S. and Canadian markets from Korea would likely be part of the business plan for the automaker.

"If we were successful in our acquisition of SsangYong globally, that obviously means we would have the [right to] the U.S. and Canada markets," Hale said.

Hale's new Delaware-based company, Cardinal One Motors, will take over HAAH's yearlong interest in the court process to fin…

General Motors said Wednesday it will cut some truck production in North America because of the ongoing global semiconductor shortage.

The automaker said its Flint Assembly plant in Michigan that builds the Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD trucks will operate on one production shift the week of July 26.

GM said its Ft. Wayne Assembly plant in Indiana that builds the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 model trucks will be idled next week. GM's Silao Assembly plant in Mexico that also builds the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, Cheyenne and GMC Sierra 1500 will also suspend production next week.

All three plants are expected to resume regular production the week of Aug.2