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Join Automotive News for our daily podcast series. We speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about events and trends impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

The chief strategy officer at Unite Digital and former Hyundai U.S. CEO explains why dealers must continue to embrace digital retailing and not fall back into their comfort zones.

How do I subscribe?Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

iPhone / iPad“Daily Drive” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Android“Daily Drive” is available on the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

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WASHINGTON -- A group of 17 U.S. House Democrats on Monday are introducing legislation that would award $6 billion to the U.S. Postal Service to buy tens of thousands of additional electric delivery vehicles.

The bill sponsored by Rep. Jared Huffman and seen by Reuters would require at least 75% of the new fleet be electric or zero-emission vehicles.

Last month, the USPS said it was committed to having electric vehicles make up 10% of its next-generation fleet as part of its multibillion-dollar plan to retire its 30-year-old delivery vehicles, but could boost that if it received billions of dollars in government assistance.

The legislation is backed by some key Democrats, including Rep. Peter DeFazio, who chairs the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the Oversight and Reform committee that oversees USPS.

The bill would also require no less than 50% of medium/heavy-duty vehicle purc…

DETROIT — GMC plans to unveil and begin taking reservations next month for the electric Hummer SUV, a sibling of the 2022 Hummer pickup.

GMC will show the SUV on April 3 at 5 p.m. Eastern time during the NCAA Final Four men's basketball tournament, the brand said in a statement Monday.

General Motors is expected to begin building the SUV at Factory Zero in Detroit in early 2023, with an annual volume target of 50,000 vehicles, according to AutoForecast Solutions. GM has not confirmed production details.

AutoForecast Solutions expects the SUV to be the same size as the pickup with a unique roofline and a possible third row of seating. It will be powered by GM's proprietary Ultium batteries, which have a maximum range of 450 miles.

GM has committed to spend $27 billion on electric and autonomous vehicle development and to launch 30 EVs globally through 2025. The automaker said it plans to have a zero-emissions, light-duty portfolio by 2035.

Join Automotive News for our daily podcast series. We speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about events and trends impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

The new CEO of KAR Global talks about the state of the wholesale used-vehicle market, the company's shift to digital auctions and its focus on scaling vehicle-trading platforms.

How do I subscribe?Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

iPhone / iPad“Daily Drive” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Android“Daily Drive” is available on the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Spotify"Daily Drive" is available on Spotify. Click here to subsc…

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s first venture capital fund is investing in startups that help the Japanese automaker refine everyday processes by bringing sharper supply-chain management and robotics to the factory floor, a fund executive said.

The Silicon Valley-based Toyota AI Ventures fund, with $200 million under management, has so far invested in 36 early-stage startups, including self-driving car software firm Nauto, factory video analytics company Drishti and air mobility firm Joby Aviation.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker by vehicle sales, and many car companies such as Volkswagen Group are funnelling money into startups to help gain an edge in artificial intelligence as investor interest shifts to self-driving cars.

For instance Toyota, which has dozens of factories around the world, wants to be able to quickly share the lessons learned at one plant across other plants so that efficiencies are maximized, Jim Adler, the founding managing dir…

Elon Musk is getting into the Texas power market, with previously unrevealed construction of a gigantic battery connected to an ailing electric grid that nearly collapsed last month. The move marks Tesla Inc.’s first major foray into the epicenter of the U.S. energy economy.

A Tesla subsidiary registered as Gambit Energy Storage LLC is quietly building a more than 100 megawatt energy storage project in Angleton, Texas, a town roughly 40 miles south of Houston. A battery that size could power about 20,000 homes on a hot summer day. Workers at the site kept equipment under cover and discouraged onlookers, but a Tesla logo could be seen on a worker’s hard hat and public documents helped confirm the company’s role.

Property records on file with Brazoria County show Gambit shares the same address as a Tesla facility near the company’s auto plant in Fremont, California. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lists Gambit as a Tesla subsidiary. Exec…

Chinese electric-vehicle maker XPeng Inc. reported a narrowing loss in the fourth quarter and deliveries that beat its own expectations by 30 percent, a sign the startup is building a solid footing in the world’s largest market for cleaner cars.

Guangzhou-based Xpeng posted a net loss of 787.4 million yuan ($121 million), compared with a loss of 997.1 million yuan the same period a year ago, according to a statement Monday. Revenue for the three months ended Dec. 31 soared almost 350 percent to 2.85 billion yuan ($437 million).

“We closed 2020 on a strong note,” Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng said. “Our relentless focus on providing highly differentiated smart EV products to our customers and expanding our sales and service network supported our achievements and empowers our sustainable future growth.”

The figures round out a robust 2020 for Xpeng, whose New York-listed shares are up 87 percent over the past 12 months even after taking a battering in rece…

Self-driving truck startup Plus is in advanced talks with a few special purpose acquisition companies for a merger, as it seeks to bankroll its expansion in the autonomous driving industry, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Sequoia Capital-backed company has received several letters of intent from U.S.-listed SPACs and is weeks away from a deal announcement, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. The SPACs range in size from $300 million to $500 million, and Plus is planning to set its valuation range later this month, one of the people said.

Plus is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and will start a roadshow for additional financing via a private investment in public equity, or PIPE, transaction after it chooses a SPAC, the people added. Representatives for Plus and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

The Cupertino, California-based firm is among a handful of startups that are trying to upend …

PARIS -- Stellantis has halted a plan to bring back the Peugeot brand to the U.S. market, saying it wants to concentrate on “existing brands” in North America after the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles gave the new group a broader geographical reach.

The plan for a comeback for Peugeot, last sold in the U.S. in the early 1990s, was thrown into question after the merger was announced in December 2019. Larry Dominique, the executive who had been leading PSA’s U.S. efforts since 2017, on Friday was named head of North America for the Stellantis brand Alfa Romeo. 

A Stellantis spokesman said on Saturday that the "new context of Stellantis with a strong presence on U.S. market leads us to focus on existing brands.” 

“This is why Larry will develop Alfa Romeo in this market,” the spokesman added.

Dominique had been preparing for the Peugeot brand’s U.S. comeback for more than four years, with a focus on creating a distributio…

Robert Bosch has started a critical testing phase at its new semiconductor plant in Dresden, Germany, as the automotive industry struggles with a shortage of essential chips that has led to widespread production halts.

The 1 billion euro ($1.2 billion) factory is expected to start production at the end of this year, with a main focus on automotive microchips. Bosch has an existing semiconductor fabrication plant – known as a wafer fab -- in Reutlingen, Germany, near the supplier’s headquarters in Stuttgart.

At the Dresden plant, prototype silicon wafers have passed through the fully automated production process for the first time, Bosch said in a news release Monday. The wafers take about six weeks to process, with 250 fabrication steps. 

The wafers will be used as part of power semiconductors for applications such as DC-to-DC converters for electrified vehicles. Bosch said it takes about 10 weeks to make a wafer into a finished semiconductor c…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Lessons learned, forgotten from '3-11'

The date is seared in the minds of the Japanese, much like Nov. 22 and Sept. 11 are for Americans. March 11, this Thursday, marks the 10-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated much of Japan.

And, in a bizarre coincidence, that same date in 2020 was for Americans an unforgettable marker in the life of the coronavirus pandemic.

That evening alone, President Donald Trump banned travel from Europe, the NBA canceled its season and actor Tom Hanks revealed he had COVID-19.

The day was "the pivot point on which weeks of winter unease about the looming novel coronavirus turned in a matter of hours into a sudden, wrenching, nation-altering halt to daily life and routine," Wired magazine wrote.

Both events, nine years apart, had dramatic impacts on the auto industry.

And we explore them in Monday's issue. Namely:

■ The lessons that the Japanese …