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"We have your back."

That is the message from Hyundai Motor America and Culture Brands, the automaker's first Black marketing agency.

The automaker and agency began working together in 2021, producing ad campaigns with uplifting overtones that depict everyday Black people living their lives.

For example, "Dad's Precious Cargo" shows a father chauffeuring his daughter and her friends to a dance in a Palisade, highlighting the large crossover's spacious second and third rows and intercom. Another spot, "Leading by Example," shows a boy being picked up from school by his uncle in an Ioniq 5 for a "guys night." They stop for snacks while recharging the electric vehicle from 10 to 80 percent in 18 minutes, and when they get home they plug a video game console into the vehicle, demonstrating its reverse charging capability.

Culture Brands has also produced campaigns for the Santa Fe and Tucson crossovers.

Hyundai's search for an agency to help a…

Gotion Inc.'s multibillion-dollar electric vehicle battery factory proposal in Michigan has swelled by 1 million square feet and 200-300 additional jobs despite lingering uncertainty that the project will even happen.

The Chinese battery parts manufacturer has presented a revised plan to local officials that would increase its initial footprint by a third, calling for the addition of two 500,000-square-foot plants on the site near Big Rapids, Mich., according to township Supervisor Jim Chapman.

That would expand its footprint to roughly 3 million square feet across six buildings in Mecosta County in western Michigan. How much that would increase the originally planned $2.4 billion investment is not clear. The company had originally announced 2,350 jobs with the plant.

Chuck Thelen, vice president of North American operations for Gotion, said he "cannot confirm at this time" the new details.

The company shared its revised plans with township offi…

For some in Marshall, Mich., an hour and a half West of Detroit, the $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery factory planned by Ford Motor Co. is seen as a business boon. But for others, it is a threat.

Work is ramping up on the automaker's lithium iron phosphate battery plant with Chinese giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., which promises to create 2,500 jobs in Calhoun County and secure Michigan a spot in the automotive future, according to officials.

Workers with Detroit-based general contractor Walbridge Group were seen this week shuttling to and from a large barn at the center of the 2,000-acre megasite that appears to be serving as a command center for the gargantuan construction project at hand.

While the long-term economic impact of the project remains to be seen, it has longtime Marshall resident Michael Kelley, 56, wondering what sort of future his small business has in the quiet town.

"It's bittersweet with an emphasis on bitter,…

GMC is expanding the charging capability of its Hummer EVs so that they can act as generators and send a charge to other electric vehicles.

The 2024 GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV will be upgraded with standard 19.2-kilowatt Level 2 onboard charging capability on certain trims. The Hummer EV Edition 1 pickup available before the 2024 model year has 11.5-kW AC charging capacity.

The boost will give the Hummer EVs the ability to not only charge faster, but also offboard power for the first time through the Power Station generator — including the ability to send 6 kW of charge to other EVs, GMC says.

The capability and the 19.2-kW onboard charger will come standard on the 2024 vehicles in trims 2X and above, GMC said. The brand has said that includes the SUV's Edition 1, 3X and 2X trims and the pickup's 3X and 2X trims. A plug accessory to enable vehicle-to-vehicle charging will be an option, GMC said.

Before, "you could not effectively take power fr…

James Collins Ford is more than a source of income for some of its workers.

The Louisville, Ky., store has served as a lighthouse during stormy periods for staffers who have been incarcerated and battled addiction as they work to turn their lives around.

It has employed more than 50 men from the Beacon House, a Louisville transitional living facility founded in 1997.

The dealership has worked with the Beacon House for nearly a decade to support men during their recoveries and allow them to flourish, with some becoming master service technicians and leading salespeople. It starts them off in lower-level positions such as porters and gives them a chance to prove their reliability before moving them up the ladder, said Daniel Mekuria, the store's managing partner.

About 40 percent of the staff today came from the Beacon House. Workers say having colleagues they know from the facility has proved invaluable because they understa…

VinFast's bold ambitions to sell electric cars to consumers in the US have suffered another setback with production at its as-yet-unbuilt facility in North Carolina now not expected to start until 2025.

The Vietnamese company had most recently said it planned to start trial production at the plant by 2024. Earlier this week a company spokesperson said VinFast had "received the air permit and we are preparing for sub-contractors bidding and will start the construction soon."

An updated filing for VinFast's planned U.S. initial public offering released Friday however said that commissioning of the facility is targeted for 2025.

"Pre-construction work for phase one commenced in the third quarter of 2022, with commissioning targeted for 2025," the filing said. "Phase one of the facility is expected to have an initial capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year" rising to 250,000 cars upon completion of phase two.

Tesla Inc.'s factory in China, by way of compa…

Great Wall Motor Co., the maker of Haval SUVs and pickup trucks, unveiled a new energy vehicle strategy late Friday, pledging to double down on plug-in hybrid electric technology and becoming the latest traditional Chinese auto company to play catchup as the shift toward cleaner vehicles accelerates.

The Chinese automaker said new technology can bring the fuel efficiency of a two-wheel drive to its four-wheel SUVs. It does that by placing one motor at the front of the car and one at the back, and employing intelligent torque control.

For the so-called Hi4 technlogy, “H represents hybrid, i for intelligent, while 4 means 4 wheel drive,” the company said in a statement. “All EVs of Great Wall brand will carry the 4WD tech in 2024, while in future the company intends to make it open source.”

The realignment comes as Great Wall posted a 17 percent sales decline in 2022, the first time a drop has occurred since 2018. Its lineup is light on electric vehicles, …

Lordstown Motors began the year with a big setback: An electrical issue was leading its debut model, the Endurance pickup, to lose propulsion while driving, forcing the company to stop production and deliveries. The manufacturer recalled 19 trucks that were with customers or in internal use.

Its woes got worse this week. Chief Executive Officer Ed Hightower warned that while Lordstown Motors has a "clear line of sight" to fixing quality issues and resuming production, ramping up will require finding a larger automaker that's willing to partner up and help with purchasing and sales.

The Endurance simply doesn't pencil out and is costing the company more to build than it can charge.Lordstown Motors stock understandably didn't fare well from this one-two punch, plunging 31 percent in the last two weeks. The company is learning along with Rivian, Lucid, Nikola and others that it's much easier to sell investors slide decks modeling out how quickly electric vehicle …

Tasca Automotive Group of Cranston, R.I., entered two states and added a brand to its portfolio with two fourth-quarter and two first-quarter deals.

In its most recent acquisition, the group bought a Stellantis store in New York.

Tasca Automotive on Feb. 28 bought Central Avenue Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram in Yonkers, north of New York City, said Carl Tasca Jr., one of the group's owners.

Jonathan Grant and Daniel Oliveri, both dealer principals of the store, and managing partner Jim Ingenito all stayed on with Tasca Automotive as partners, Tasca Jr. said in an email to Automotive News.

He said the auto retailer bought a majority stake in the dealership, while Grant, Oliveri and Ingenito retained ownership stakes. Specific percentages weren't disclosed.

The dealership's name remains.

Grant, along with two different partners, sold a majority stake in a Stellantis store in nearby White Plains, N.Y., to LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. in Oct…

The year-end earnings reports filed by major parts suppliers over the past several weeks show that for many companies, revenue has returned to — and in some cases even surpassed — levels seen in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic threw the global supply chain into a tailspin.

That's good news for a supply sector that has been ravaged by production shutdowns, high materials costs, a tight labor market, geopolitical uncertainty and other problems for more than three years.

But it doesn't tell the whole story.

While revenue figures are returning to pre-pandemic levels, profits at many suppliers remain well below where they were in 2019. Earnings continue to be weighed down by higher labor, logistics and energy costs, in addition to persistent factory interruptions due to the global microchip shortage and the massive costs of investing in electrification, software and advanced driver-assist systems.

"Even if a supplier has the same revenue or is gett…