Trade News

DETROIT — General Motors is appealing the dismissal of its racketeering lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals after a judge denied GM's motion to revive the case last week.

GM filed the notice of appeal late Monday.

U.S. District Judge Paul Borman said last week that new evidence GM presented as it asked the court to reinstate the case was "too speculative."

GM alleged that FCA and co-conspirators were guilty of "corporate espionage" that directly harmed GM. FCA and co-conspirators used a network of offshore bank accounts containing millions of dollars to harm GM, the automaker alleged in a proposed amended complaint this month. GM also named former UAW members as defendants in the amended complaint. Initially, only FCA and ex-FCA officials were defendants.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in November, GM said that FCA coordinated a yearslong bribery scheme with UAW leaders to g…

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.

Automotive News reporter Larry Vellequette explains where COVID-19 continues to hamper vehicle production and how dealers are navigating a ''touchy situation'' in showrooms.

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The Chevrolet Tahoe is nearly all new inside and out for 2021 and comes with a much bigger footprint because it is now 6.7 inches longer than the outgoing model. Two V-8 engines power the 2021 Tahoe but are now paired with a standard 10-speed automatic transmission. Four-wheel drive is optional, as is a planned 277-hp, 3.0-liter inline-6 turbodiesel engine. The 5.3-liter and 6.2-liter V-8 motors ride on a new independent rear suspension with available adaptive dampers and a four-corner air suspension. We've rounded up a selection of early 2021 Tahoe reviews.

"Most of the new SUV's improvements are below the surface, including an independent rear suspension that improves ride, and, more important, transforms the third row of seats from an automotive penalty box into a premium perch my passengers wouldn't vacate even after we measured. The independent rear suspension provides a remarkably smooth ride. Nicely tuned steering made the massive SUV easy to man…

Nissan will discontinue sales of its full-size Titan pickup in Canada, a struggling truck market this year.

Despite the fact that pickup sales have been a source of optimism in the U.S., Nissan's move is not surprising, given the Titan's anemic sales in Canada.

Canadian sales of the Titan last year cratered to 2,807, down nearly half from a year ago. Meanwhile, Nissan sold only 800 Titans in the first half of this year, accounting for just 0.5 percent market share in the segment.

"Based on our market objectives for Canada specifically, we have decided to focus our resources on current and future core models in our crossover and sedan portfolios," Nissan spokesman Dan Passe told Automotive News on Monday.

The pullback comes as financially stressed Nissan attempts a business pivot in the U.S. and orchestrates a product offensive that involves updating about 70 percent of its portfolio by mid-2021.

The automaker…

It’s not that car dealers don’t want to sell online; it’s just that most of them can’t.

Automotive e-commerce — a true start-to-finish transaction — requires a sophisticated digital platform that not only makes the vehicle look good, but links to inventory management systems, complex pricing models, trade-in valuations and third-party lenders. Of the 17,000 or so new-car dealerships in the U.S., as tracked by the National Automobile Dealers Association, the vast majority are relatively small businesses without the digital chops (or the capital) to build such an Internet engine.

Digital Motors Corp. says it can do it for them. The Irvine, Calif.-based startup says it has crafted a plug-and-play software package can give dealerships a seamless online experience for their customers.

CEO Andreas Hinrichs, who spent almost 20 years in various finance roles at Daimler, was planning on a July debut, but the pandemic forced his hand. Dealerships who had gotten w…

Ram put the truck world on notice in 2016 when it unwrapped a hulking TRX pickup concept that delivered 575 hp.

Now the off-road speedster is nearly here, and it has outdone the concept by raising the bar to 702 hp. The updated engine output leapfrogs the 450 hp of the Ford F-150 Raptor, giving Ram bragging rights in the hypercompetitive pickup market.

The 2021 Ram 1500 TRX, introduced as a concept at the State Fair of Texas four years ago, jets from 0 to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds and 0 to 100 mph in 10.5 seconds. It tops out at 118 mph and is rated at 650 pound-feet of torque.

Ram isn't being coy about its target with the TRX. The brand's North America head, Mike Koval Jr., described the pickup as an "apex predator" that "destroys" Raptors.

The idea for the TRX came from former Ram brand chief Mike Manley, now Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' CEO, who challenged designers and engineers to build a truck that could drive at sus…

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.

Arianne Walker, chief evangelist for Alexa Auto, discusses how e-commerce giant Amazon is improving functionality of the in-car version of its in-home virtual assistant.

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. 

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“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

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Police departments are under siege by twin crises: State and local coffers have been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic, and the Black Lives Matter movement is pressuring officials to target police budgets for cuts. That’s bad news for the automakers that supply law-enforcement vehicles, a niche business seen as a lucrative market not long ago.

Segment leader Ford Motor Co. and other police-vehicle manufacturers including Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and General Motors compete for contracts that have provided stable profits and image-related benefits. Most are gussied up versions of their mass-market cars and trucks, so they can be produced relatively cheaply but with lots of upgrades such as motion detectors and 12-inch touch screens.

And there’s been no better way to signal toughness and durability than by making the vehicle-of-choice for cops chasing suspects down gritty streets and unpaved roads.

“It’s a highly visible branding message to see first r…

The Swedish battery cell maker Northvolt has received a $525 million loan guarantee from the German government for a pilot plant.

Northvolt, set up by two former Tesla executives, has assembled more than $3 billion in debt and equity to finance production in its native Sweden, targeting battery-cell output equal to about 40 gigawatt-hours of capacity. 

The company said it is aiming for a 25 percent share of the European battery market, which has been dominated by Asian companies, including LG Chem, Samsung and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.

Last month Northvolt announced that it had raised $1.6 billion in debt financing from a group of banks, pension funds and other public institutions. It raised $1 billion in equity capital in 2019 from investors including BMW Group and Volkswagen Group. 

The guarantee from the German government is a stepping stone to Northvolt’s plan to operate with VW a “Northvolt Two” plant in Salzgitt…

Japanese government officials tried unsuccessfully to bring Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. together for merger talks earlier this year, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The idea, first put to the companies at the end of 2019, was rejected before it reached the boards of both sides.

Nissan, Honda and the prime minister’s office declined to comment.

Government officials feared Nissan's alliance with Renault might collapse, leaving the company exposed, people familiar with the matter told the paper.

SHANGHAI -- China's Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., a Tesla supplier, is developing a new type of electric-vehicle battery that contains no nickel or cobalt, a company executive said Saturday.

Nickel and cobalt are key ingredients in the batteries that power EVs. Battery makers from Japan's Panasonic Corp. to South Korea's LG Chem are lowering the use of expensive cobalt in their nickel-cobalt-aluminium  batteries or nickel-cobalt-manganese batteries.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk last month urged miners to produce more nickel, warning the current cost of batteries remained a big hurdle to the company's growth.

CATL makes NCM batteries and supplies lithium ion phosphate batteries to Tesla. It has partnerships with Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. and supplies Germany's Volkswagen Group and Daimler.

The new battery type will be different from existing NCA, NCM and LFP batteries and will have no expensive metals like nickel or cobalt, …