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Tesla Inc. workers in New York state are launching a unionization campaign, teeing up a potential first for the electric-vehicle maker and the latest labor challenge for Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.

The employees, who label data for Tesla's Autopilot technology at the company's plant in Buffalo, New York, sent an email to Musk early Tuesday with their intent to unionize. Employees say they're seeking better pay and job security alongside a reduction in production pressures that they say have been harmful to their health.

Workers at the plant told Bloomberg News that Tesla monitors keystrokes to track how long employees spend per task and how much of the day they spend actively working. This leads some to avoid taking bathroom breaks, six employees said.

"People are tired of being treated like robots," said Al Celli, a member of the union's organizing committee.

If successful, the union would be a first for Tesla, which unlike other leading a…

TOKYO — Shoichiro Toyoda, the former Toyota Motor Corp. president who led the company his father founded into U.S. auto manufacturing and unprecedented overseas expansion, died Tuesday at age 97.

The cause was heart failure, according to Toyota, which announced his passing in a news release shortly thereafter. Funeral services will be held for close family members only, with a more public farewell ceremony planned for a later date.

Toyoda piloted his family's namesake company through the trade tensions of the 1980s. He also represented the Toyoda clan on the board for 57 years, making him the automaker's longest serving director. He was also the father of current Toyoda CEO Akio Toyoda.

His tenure as president of the automaker, from 1981 to 1992, was notable for Toyota's plunge into North American manufacturing and the rollout of the Lexus luxury brand.

The Japanese carmaker's move to start building vehicles in the U.S. was partly aimed at defusi…

Billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong has no plans to personally invest any more money in VinFast, the company's CEO said, even as the Vietnamese electric vehicle maker falls behind on factory construction plans in the U.S. and cuts staff.

Vuong, whose net worth is around $4.1 billion, is the chairman of Vingroup, a conglomerate whose operations include real estate, leisure parks and a university.

VinFast was founded by Vuong in 2017, and as of September, the EV maker's owners and lenders had invested about $7.5 billion to fund operating expenses and capital expenditures.

"Currently, Mr. Vuong has no plans" to personally invest further in VinFast, CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy said in response to questions from Bloomberg News.

VinFast lost $1.3 billion in 2021 and close to $1.5 billion in the nine months through Sept. 30, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of VinFast's planned initial public offering. The December filing als…

DETROIT — UAW President Ray Curry said restoring the cost-of-living adjustment for the Detroit 3 workers it represents will be among the union's top priorities in this year's contract negotiations.

Curry, speaking to reporters Monday at a Ford battery plant announcement, said bringing back the automatic COLA raises that the union gave up ahead of the Great Recession is one of the top requests from members in resolutions being sent to the International Executive Board as the UAW develops its bargaining priorities. UAW-represented John Deere workers were able to restore the COLA to their most recent contract in late 2021 after a strike.

"We keep hearing about it repeatedly," Curry said. "If we're in inflationary times, it adjusts and makes sure [workers] have some type of benefit that moves their base wage in conjunction with what's happening in the economy. It can be a good piece for us."

Curry said he doesn't believe General Motors, Ford or Stellantis in…

WASHINGTON - The White House said on Monday that President Joe Biden plans to nominate the acting head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to serve in the top job.

Ann Carlson, the agency's chief counsel, was named acting head of NHTSA in September. Since then, she has overseen the agency's safety investigations into Tesla TSLA.O as well as efforts to shrink traffic deaths and significantly boost vehicle fuel economy requirements.

Magna International Inc. will supply battery enclosures for the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV out of its new electric-vehicle parts plant in southeast Michigan, North America's largest parts supplier said today.

Magna will build the enclosures at its new factory in St. Clair, Mich., about 50 miles north of Detroit, where the supplier already builds enclosures for the GMC Hummer EV. Production on Silverado enclosures is expected to begin later in the year when Magna finishes adding 740,000 square feet to the plant.

The expansion is part of a $530 million investment in its metro Detroit footprint. Magna said last year that a coming addition to the plant would add 900 workers.

The new program is significant for the diversified Magna as it works to boost its electrification business. Last week, Magna blamed high costs related to its new EV business, as well as costs related to advanced driver assistance systems and other factors, for its disappointing fourth…

Tesla's Model 3 is sometimes referred to jokingly as the "California Camry" for its ubiquitous presence in the nation's biggest car market, where the Toyota sedan has been the top seller.

But that Tesla reference is no longer a joke.

Model 3 registrations in the Golden State in 2022 surpassed those of the Camry — along with every other passenger car, according to the California New Car Dealers Association. In 2021, the Camry was the best-selling car.

There's more evidence that Toyota's No. 1 sales spot in the state is threatened by No. 2 Tesla: The EV maker's Model Y crossover was the top light truck in California new-vehicle registrations last year, beating Toyota's RAV4 for a second year in a row.

To be sure, the Toyota brand is still strong in California with a 17 percent share last year with 289,304 registrations. Tesla had 11 percent with 186,711 registrations.

But the sales trend is moving in Tesla's direction as it nearly doubled it…

With Cruise and Waymo already operating extensive robotaxi fleets in San Francisco, it can be easy to forget there's a third self-driving company with plans to launch in the city.

Amazon-owned Zoox took a "big step" toward that goal over the weekend, according to CEO Aicha Evans.

A Zoox robotaxi carried dozens of employees on multiple trips via public roads linking two of the company's offices in Foster City, Calif., on Saturday. The vehicle reached speeds of 35 mph on its two-mile, round-trip route.

Last week, the California Department of Motor Vehicles granted Zoox a permit to deploy its purpose-built robotaxi on the public roads along the route. The specially designed robotaxi does not contain traditional controls like a steering wheel or brake pedal. It's not meant for human drivers.

Evans hailed the moment as a major milestone for the company, founded in 2014.

"Putting the vehicle on an open public road, and validating our approach to …

TOKYO – Toyota’s next CEO, Koji Sato, is pledging to “drastically” revamp the carmaker’s slow-going electric vehicle strategy with a new leadership team he just unveiled to reinvent the world’s largest automaker as a mobility company in a challenging new era of industry upheaval.

While announcing the new roster Monday, Sato said the accelerated EV rollout would center around a next-generation platform, which is expected to arrive around 2026.

The ramp up comes amid mounting criticism among some investors, environmental activists and EV enthusiasts, that Toyota Motor Corp. is falling behind in the global race for battery-powered cars. Sato appointed a new top executive to steer the push, starting from Lexus.

“Lexus is going to have a leading role for that,” Sato said.

Toyota’s new management lineup keeps some executives in place and elevates younger ones as the 85-year-old automaker taps fresh blood and flexible thinking. Sato, 53, said he is prio…

For the want of a reliable EV charger

Electric vehicle detractors are often quick to point out perceived faults: EVs are too expensive, they don't have enough range for long trips, they're not truly "green," they're a hassle to charge.

It's hard to argue against that final point — if you have to rely on public charging. If the automotive industry wants to sell EVs to American consumers who aren't able to plug in at home or who need to drive long distances, it has to overcome this significant obstacle.

This week's issue of Automotive News examines a number of problems with the nation's charging network.

■ Richard Truett takes a deep dive into how consumers are navigating the charging network and its quirks. As newer EV drivers become acquainted with the network, they are learning that all charging experiences aren't created equal — different chargers refuel at different speeds, the charging companies' smartphone apps and payment software don't al…

The nation's public charging network, with its steep learning curve and fussy technology, is proving to be a challenge for an auto industry working hard to sell consumers on electric vehicles.

While some early EV adopters are figuring out ways to navigate around broken stations, slow charging, tacked-on fees, unreliable software and myriad other hassles, these pain points are giving prospective EV buyers some pause.

Kurt Lammon, president of a Rainsville, Ala., company that supplies products to body shops to repair plastic components, is interested in EVs. He commutes around 120 miles per day, but he's not convinced that public chargers work well enough yet to make an EV practical for him.

"Time is the most valuable thing I've got. I'm not going to waste it charging an EV. But once they get charging figured out, maybe I'll consider it," Lammon said.

Pete Pryce, a program coordinator at a suburban Detroit automotive eng…

Electric vehicle detractors are often quick to point out perceived faults: EVs are too expensive, they don't have enough range for long trips, they're not truly "green," they're a hassle to charge.

It's hard to argue against that final point — if you have to rely on public charging. If the automotive industry wants to sell EVs to American consumers who aren't able to plug in at home or who need to drive long distances, it has to overcome this significant obstacle.

This week's issue of Automotive News examines a number of problems with the nation's charging network.

Richard Truett takes a deep dive into how consumers are navigating the charging network and its quirks. As newer EV drivers become acquainted with the network, they are learning that all charging experiences aren't created equal — different chargers refuel at different speeds, the charging companies' smartphone apps and payment software don't always work as advertised, and some chargers have surp…