Trade News

A Missouri Supreme Court verdict in a case that started with a dispute over a vehicle repossession could have far-reaching implications beyond the auto lending industry. Legal experts say the ruling could open the door for consumers from multiple states to form class-action lawsuits against any business, even if the laws from the various states differ from those in the state where the plaintiff resides. The Missouri high court affirmed a lower court's certification of a class in the dispute.

Ally Financial Inc., one of the largest U.S. auto lenders, filed a petition Aug. 14 to the U.S. Supreme Court to review Ally Financial vs. Alberta Haskins, et al., a conflict that began when Missouri residents Alberta Haskins and David Duncan defaulted on an auto loan with Ally for a used 2006 Chevrolet Colorado.

Ally repossessed the truck and sold it at auction in 2012. The lender sued for the couple's $4,000 deficiency on their finance contract in March 2…

Nikola Corp. is rescheduling its in-person Nikola World conference, where it was planning to show its electric pickup truck, as the company regroups in the wake of a stock sell-off and the departure of its chairman.

The postponement follows the startup’s efforts to pivot from denying allegations of deception to talking up its technology and partnerships to calm investors who have seen the stock price plunge 45 percent since the company went public in June.

Nikola said Wednesday its expects its first prototypes of another battery-powered truck, a semi called Nikola Tre, to be “substantially completed” in the next few weeks at a factory in Germany and reaffirmed its plan to start sales in late 2021.

The Phoenix-based company has a strategic partnership with General Motors to manufacture its pickup, known as the Badger, and provide other technology in return for an 11 percent stake. The startup had hoped to finalize that deal by Wednesday, but talks between…

Continental said its massive restructuring that will lead to the elimination or transfer of 30,000 jobs was spurred in part by Asian rivals piling into Europe and flooding the market with too many tires.

The supplier's plant in Aachen, Germany’s westernmost city, will be roughly the 10th tire factory in Western Europe to close or restructure in a five-year period, CEO Elmar Degenhart told reporters Wednesday. Asian companies have added production of about 50 million tires in Eastern Europe over the last decade, even as the market has stagnated.

“We had so far been able to withstand this development, but now reached a point where the overcapacity in Western Europe is between 13 and 15 million passenger-vehicle tires,” Degenhart said. Continental will shut down the Aachen factory at the end of next year, affecting as many as 2,000 jobs.

Degenhart, 61, spoke after Continental’s supervisory board approved a more drastic reorganization of the almost 150-year-…

BEIJING -- Tesla Inc. is poised to start selling some Model 3 vehicles made in China equipped with cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate batteries, two people familiar with the matter said.

Currently the Model 3 electric sedans made at the automaker's Chinese plant use nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries. The starting price for the vehicle is currently 271,550 yuan ($39,900) after factoring in government subsidies.

Tesla will announce the product change as early as Thursday, the two people said. They declined to be named as the matter is confidential.

Tesla was not immediately available for comment.

LFP batteries are cheaper to make and contain no cobalt, one of the most expensive metals used in electric-vehicle batteries. Tesla will use LFP batteries in all Model 3 vehicles made in China with standard driving ranges, according to the people.

In China, the world's biggest car market, Tesla sold more than 11,000 vehicles, mostly Model 3s, in Augu…

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.

Cardinale Automotive CEO Erich Gail explains how the dealership group is increasing showroom traffic and sales by using a simple formula the company adopted nearly a decade ago after being on the brink of bankruptcy following the Great Recession.

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BMW's redesigned 4 Series convertible receives more oomph under the hood and a smarter suite of safety and driver-assist technology.

The 2021 BMW 4 Series convertible arrives in U.S. stores in March with a starting price of $54,095, including a $995 destination fee.

Since BMW introduced the first 3 Series convertible in the 1980s, the four-passenger droptops have become staples among young, upper-middle class drivers, said Sam Fiorani, vice president with AutoForecast Solutions.

"As more and more of these buyers have shifted to crossovers, the choices for those who like to put the top down have been slowly dwindling," Fiorani said. "This generation of the 4 Series convertible could be among the last of the breed, closing the roof on upscale wind-in-your-hair four-passenger cars."

Powering the new 430i and 430i xDrive convertibles is an updated 2.0-liter four-cylinder TwinPower turbocharged engine delivering 255 hp — an…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is lowering the price of its Mustang Mach-E crossover between $1,000 and $3,000, depending on the trim, as it prepares to launch the vehicle later this year.

In a memo to dealers, Ford said the Premium trims will get a $3,000 price cut, with the all-wheel-drive version dropping to $50,800 and the rear-wheel-drive model falling to $48,100. The California Route 1 rwd trim price will decrease $2,000 to $50,900.

The most expensive Mach-E, the sold-out First Edition model, will get a $1,000 price cut to $59,400. The Select trim, the vehicle's least-expensive variant, will also see a $1,000 price cut, with awd model prices falling to $46,695 and rwd models falling to $43,995.

All prices include $1,100 in shipping fees. Customers also are eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit.

Ford, in the memo, said all price changes go into effect today but will apply to those who have placed orders or made a reservation since the vehicle wa…

Despite an expected decline in light-vehicle sales, the third quarter is slated to be the strongest in a year mired by the coronavirus pandemic, industry forecasters say.

Most automakers plan to release September and third-quarter U.S. sales results Thursday, and forecasters expect new-vehicle retail sales to continue recovering while leasing volume and fleet demand remain depressed.

U.S. light-vehicle sales fell 22 percent to nearly 9 million through August, according to J.D. Power and Cox Automotive.

J.D. Power and LMC Automotive expect 3.5 million retail sales in the third quarter, down 6.2 percent from the third quarter of 2019, but a smaller decline than in the first and second quarters, when sales fell 13 percent and 23 percent.

The seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of sales will hit 15.7 million in September, J.D. Power and LMC project, or about 200,000 vehicles higher than Cox's projection and about a million higher than ALG's.

…

WOLFSBURG -- Volkswagen Group is reviewing the future of its high-performance brands Lamborghini, Bugatti and Ducati as part of broader quest for more economies of scale as it shifts to mass producing electric cars, senior executives told Reuters.

VW's management board and directors will look at the automaker's strategy at a meeting in November and are working on a new "to do list" as the company tries to more than double its value to 200 billion euros ($235 billion), one executive said.

The review could result in technology partnerships for the Lamborghini, Bugatti high-performance sports cars brands and the Ducati superbike brand. Other options include restructuring, and a listing or sale, said two executives, who declined to be named.

Reports last month said VW is in talks to sell Bugatti to Croatian performance electric-car specialist Rimac. Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali is stepping down to join Formula One as CEO amid speculation about the bra…

Nikola Corp. wants to put allegations of deception behind it with a push to showcase its own innovations and detail how it plans to get its clean-powered trucks to market.

Executives at the embattled startup are talking to investors to rebut criticism it has no working prototypes and to clarify its business plans after the resignation of founder and former Chairman Trevor Milton. That effort includes highlighting technology with existing or pending patents, explaining the role partners will play and providing better milestones on efforts to start production.

“Our message is the same as it was before,” CEO Mark Russell said in an interview. “We have an ecosystem of partners that have validated what we’re doing. We believe we’re within three years of producing a fuel cell truck and one year of producing a battery-powered truck.”

Nikola executives will also use planned and direct communication to media and investors instead of the social media posts that Mi…

DETROIT -- General Motors and Nikola Corp. have not finalized their deal to jointly build electric pickup trucks and hydrogen fuel cell tractor-trailers, one day ahead of the date targeted, and are continuing discussions, GM and Nikola said on Tuesday.

"Our transaction with Nikola has not closed," GM spokeswoman Juli Huston-Rough said in a statement. "We are continuing our discussions with Nikola and will provide further updates when appropriate or required."

A statement by Nikola echoed GM's. Huston-Rough and a Nikola spokeswoman declined to comment further when asked if terms of the deal were being renegotiated.

Shares of Nikola fell 7.4 percent to close at $17.88 on Tuesday. GM shares dropped 2.4 percent to close at $28.74.

When the deal was announced, Nikola said it expected it to close before Sept. 30, adding either side could terminate the agreement if it wasn't finalized by Dec. 3.

The alliance, announced Sept. 8, included plans for …