Trade News

Elon Musk briefed a European battery conference on Tesla's efforts to bring longer-range electric cars to market in the coming years, though he broke little new ground with regard to timing or other specifics.

The factory Tesla is building near Berlin will make cars tailored for European buyers, including smaller models that can park in dense urban environments, Musk said. He hinted earlier this year that the company might engineer a hatchback from Germany.

"In Europe, it would make sense to do a compact car, perhaps a hatchback," Musk said during the event hosted by Germany as part of its European Union Council presidency. "I'm sure there will be others as well."

Tesla will debut improved versions of existing models that approach 700 km (435 miles) of range and has cars under development for the long term that could reach 1,000 km, the CEO said Tuesday. Musk has tweeted before that the revived Roadster model will cross that threshold, but the car is ye…

Join Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein for a daily podcast series about the coronavirus crisis. He’ll speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about how the virus is impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

Dealership buy-sell expert Mark Johnson says the outcome of January's U.S. Senate runoff races in Georgia could accelerate acquisitions and have significant tax implications for retailers. 

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Ford Motor Co. reached outside the auto industry for its next global chief marketing officer, installing former eBay North American CMO Suzy Deering in the position. 

Deering, 51, left eBay in mid-October after five years. She joined the online marketplace after being CEO of Atlanta ad agency Moxie. Before that, she logged time in marketing roles at Home Depot and Verizon. Deering lacks significant experience in automotive, according to her LinkedIn page, making her selection unusual for an industry that tends to hire top marketing leaders from within. 

Her selection signals that Ford wants to continue to bolster its tech chops as it increasingly competes with Silicon Valley companies such as Tesla, Uber and Lyft. In a Tuesday statement, Ford described Deering as “accomplished at using technology, data and analytics to anticipate customer needs and fulfill them with human-centered products and services.”

“Technology will be a powerful part…

BRUSSELS -- The European Union could produce enough automotive batteries by 2025 to power its fast-growing fleet of EVs without relying on imported cells, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said on Tuesday.

"I am confident that by 2025, the EU will be able to produce enough battery cells to meet the needs of the European automotive industry, and even to build our export capacity," Sefcovic told the online European Conference on Batteries.

Today, China hosts roughly 80 percent of the world's lithium ion cell production, but Europe's capacity is set to expand fast.

Europe has 15 large-scale battery cell factories under construction, including Swedish company Northvolt's plants in Sweden and Germany, Chinese battery maker CATL's German facility, and South Korean company SK Innovation's second plant in Hungary.

Sefcovic said by 2025 planned European facilities would produce enough cells to power at least 6 million electric vehicles.

WASHINGTON -- General Motors said Monday it is reversing course and will no longer back the Trump administration's effort to bar California from setting its own emissions rules in an ongoing court fight.

GM CEO Mary Barra said in a letter to environmental groups it is "immediately withdrawing from the preemption litigation and inviting other automakers to join us."

The dramatic rejection of Trump came as GM sought to work with President-elect Joe Biden, who has made boosting electric vehicles a top priority. GM has laid out an ambitious strategy to boost EV sales and last week said it will increase spending on EVs and autonomous vehicles by 35 percent from previous disclosed plans.

The announcement reflects corporate America's move to engage quickly with the incoming Democratic administration.

Barra said she believes "the ambitious electrification goals of the president-elect, California, and General Motors are aligned, to address climate change b…

Plug-in hybrid cars emit far more CO2 than advertised, according to tests commissioned by European campaign group Transport and Environment, which on Monday called on governments to end subsidies and tax breaks for such models.

The tests were conducted by Emissions Analytics on three plug-in hybrid SUV models -- BMW's X5, Volvo's XC60 and Mitsubishi's Outlander -- and found that even under optimal conditions they emitted far more CO2 than advertised.

"Plug-in hybrids are fake electric cars, built for lab tests and tax breaks, not real driving," Julia Poliscanova, T&E's senior director for clean vehicles said in a statement. "Governments should stop subsidizing these cars with billions in taxpayers' money."

In response to requests for comment, a Volvo spokesperson in an email said all Volvo cars are certified and fully comply with existing emissions legislation.

Mitsubishi spokeswoman Amanda Gibson said, also by email, that independent tests ca…

McLaren Automotive will call its upcoming plug-in hybrid the Artura, the latest detail to be revealed about the supercar.

The electrified vehicle was previously referred to as the P16, its code-name.

A McLaren spokesman said Artura is a newly created name that "represents the art of design and future technology."

McLaren released an image of the vehicle's name badge, which is placed between the exhaust tips.

The Artura is a pivotal vehicle as McLaren transitions to a 100 percent electrified portfolio. By 2025, McLaren's whole lineup will be hybridized, CEO Mike Flewitt told Automotive News in August.

The Artura will be built on a new architecture, called the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture, which was specifically developed to accommodate hybrid powertrains.

While McLaren hasn't disclosed the Artura's power output, the British automaker has said it will have a twin-turbo V-6 engine along wi…

WASHINGTON -- General Motors must recall 5.9 million vehicles with Takata airbag inflators after a U.S. safety agency said Monday it had rejected the automaker's petition to avoid the callback.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said GM must recall the 2007-2014 trucks and SUVs because the inflators "are at risk of the same type of explosion after long-term exposure to high heat and humidity as other recalled Takata inflators." GM has it could cost it $1.2 billion if it were required to replace airbag inflators it had sought to avoid fixing.

The recall will cover about 7 million vehicles globally, GM said, including 544,000 units in Canada.

GM said it would comply with the order.

"Although we believe a recall of these vehicles is not warranted based on the factual and scientific record, NHTSA has directed that we replace the airbag inflators in the vehicles in question," GM said in a statement. "Based on data generated through inde…

Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. have been awarded a federal contract worth up to $810 million to offer their ride-hail services to public agencies and their more than 4 million employees and contractors across the country.

The General Services Administration, which manages services for federal agencies, issued its final five-year award on Monday, said Veronica Juarez, Lyft's vice president of social enterprise and government.

While individual federal employees have previously been able to use ride-hail services for travel, the new contract allows the companies to formally launch their services within agencies and directly work with officials to promote the service.

Juarez said the award capped a nearly four-year negotiation process. She declined to say how much revenue Lyft expected from the contract, but said the U.S. government spends around $200 million on ground transportation each year.

Lyft also hopes the government contract will open d…