Trade News

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…

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.

Ford, General Motors and a number of parts makers are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into their Missouri operations. But Missouri Partnership CEO Subash Alias says the state must continue to develop a strong workforce and provide attractive incentives to secure future mobility investments. 

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Workers at Tesla Inc.'s California vehicle factory are deemed essential and are not impacted by the state's latest restrictions to curb a new surge in coronavirus infections, the California health department said on Friday.

Tesla and local California officials in March engaged in a heated months-long standoff over restrictions imposed to curb the first wave of infections, which culminated in the company's chief executive, Elon Musk, defying health orders, suing local officials and threatening to leave the state.

California's governor on Thursday imposed a curfew on social gatherings and other nonessential activities.

Beginning on Saturday, the stay-at-home order prohibits non-essential business from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m. each day and applies in the majority of the state's counties, including Alameda County, where Tesla's factory is located.

Asked whether the order applied to workers at Tesla's Fremont factory, the California Department of Public He…

Carlos Ghosn’s detention for almost 130 days in a Japanese jail was neither necessary nor reasonable and violated the former Nissan Motor Co. chairman’s human rights, a UN panel concluded in a harsh critique of Tokyo prosecutors who led the case against him.

The decision to arrest Ghosn four times in a row so as to extend his detention was “fundamentally unfair,” the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in a report Monday posted on its website. The panel said that it would refer the case to the UN’s rapporteur on torture, cruel and other inhuman or degrading treatment.

“The repeated arrest of Mr. Ghosn appears to be an abuse of process intended to ensure that he remained in custody,” the panel said, pointing out that on at least two occasions he was arrested for the same alleged crime, only for a different time period. “This revolving pattern of detention was an extrajudicial abuse of process that can have no legal basis under int…

50 with Honda

Lori Manly, founder of Manly Honda in Santa Rosa, Calif., and Brian Manly, right, dealer principal, receive a 50-year award from Doug Pacos, district sales manager for American Honda Motor Co.

25 with FCA

Nils Peterson, left, vice president of Peterson Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in Nampa, Idaho, and Brady Peterson, president, received a 25-year award from FCA US for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram.

Beginning in 1959 with its transversely mounted engine, Mini has always been clever with space. With the battery-powered Urbanaut Vision Concept, the brand is going green and semiautonomous at the same time. Designers used augmented reality to create the digital-only concept.

Interior space is maximized for lounging or social gatherings, with a footprint small enough for tight urban parking spaces. When the Urbanaut is stationary, the dashboard lowers and the driver's area becomes a comfortable seating corner — or the "daybed." Leather and chrome are replaced with knitted textiles, and the vehicle has a cork steering wheel. It would be the biggest Mini ever at nearly 176 inches in length — or 8 inches longer than the Clubman.

Mini wants to be an "enabler of and companion for unforgettable times," so expect some of the Urbanaut's design cues to appear on future models.

A set of elevated railroad tracks adjacent to the abandoned Detroit train station that Ford Motor Co. is bringing back to life will become a "first-of-its-kind mobility platform" for testing and showcasing emerging technologies, the automaker said.

Ford released more details last week about its plans for Michigan Central Station, which is under renovation to become the heart of a 30-acre campus dedicated to autonomous and electric vehicles. Work on the project, which started about two years ago after Ford bought the dilapidated 13-story station for $90 million, remains on schedule despite the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. The revived station is expected to be finished by the end of 2022.

The elevated tracks, which saw their last passenger train depart in 1988, will be turned into "an open, versatile landscape" for Ford and its partners to work on self-driving vehicles and micromobility initiatives such as e-bikes or e-scooters, the co…