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TOKYO -- Honda will create a new division in a bid to strengthen and speed up its electrification business as part of an overhaul of its organizational structure.

The shake-up is part of the automaker's bid to catch up in the fast-growing market for full-electric vehicles, led by Tesla and China's BYD.

Japanese automakers have been at risk of falling behind their European and U.S. rivals in the EV market.

In changes effective April 1, the new division would consolidate Honda's electrification strategy and development of automobiles, motorcycles and power products such as generators, it said.

The automaker also said it would combine six regional operations to three, composed of North America, China and associated regions including Japan, the rest of Asia and Europe.

Integrating to the three was to "rapidly develop the implementation of resource shifts in accordance with the future lineup strategy in line with the electrification acceleration…

SAN FRANCISCO - Elon Musk told jurors on Monday he was sure he had locked up financial support from Saudi investors in 2018 to take his electric car maker Tesla Inc. private, and could even have used his stake in rocket company SpaceX to fund a buyout.

At the trial in San Francisco federal court, the billionaire, who said he was tired from a lack of sleep, spoke quietly and calmly during roughly five hours of testimony.

"With SpaceX stock alone, I felt funding was secured" for the buyout, he told a jury, referring to the aerospace company where he is also CEO. He added later that he chose not to take Tesla private due to a lack of support from some investors and a wish to avoid a lengthy process.

Musk is defending against claims that he defrauded investors by tweeting on Aug. 7, 2018, that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private at $420 per share, and that "investor support is confirmed."

The trial tests Musk's penchant for taking to Twitte…

Workers at Windsor, Ont., auto parts plant TRQSS Inc. have voted to join Unifor, notching a major organizing win for the union that President Lana Payne said gives Unifor added momentum in Canada's automotive sector.

"This is by far the largest auto parts facility that we've organized since the beginning of Unifor," Payne told Automotive News Canada.

"It's exciting that these workers have voted to have a say in their future working conditions."

TRQSS, which employs nearly 600 workers, makes seatbelts for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada and several other automakers in Canada and the United States. It is part of the TRAM Group, a North American subsidiary of Japan-based supplier Tokai Rika Company Ltd.

TRQSS also supplies General Motors, Mazda, Nissan and Subaru.

Payne said the unionization vote was the culmination of "many, many years" of discussions with staff at the plant. Workers cast their ballots over a 48-hour period in early Decembe…

Elon Musk testified that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund "unequivocally" wanted to take Tesla Inc. private in 2018, a core element of his defense to claims that his tweets about the take-private plan misled shareholders.

The shareholders contend in a class-action lawsuit that the tweets were lies that cost them big losses from wild stock price swings over a 10-day period before the plan was abandoned.

As he resumed testifying Monday after a brief appearance on the witness stand Friday, Musk told jurors that he had met on July 31, 2018, with representatives of Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, at Tesla's Fremont, California, factory, and discussed the transaction. He said the amount required for the fund was "potentially" less than $10 billion. Court filings indicate that Musk himself owned about 19 percent of Tesla at the time. The billionaire would have needed more than 50 percent to take the company private.

"The th…

An exclusive interview with Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida, who says EV growth is prompting his company to make another big investment in a U.S. plant. ZF Friedrichshafen and Wolfspeed plan to build a $3 billion factory in Germany to make chips for EV and other applications. And GM may be in the market for a new battery partner.

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WASHINGTON -- U.S. auto safety regulators on Monday closed a six-year-old investigation into 1.47 million Ford Explorers over reports of exhaust odors in vehicle compartments and exposure to carbon monoxide without seeking a recall.

NHTSA said it conducted an in-depth investigation that included review of more than 6,500 consumer complaints from 2011-2017 model year vehicles -- including police versions of the large crossover -- and found no evidence of a safety issue.

NHTSA said its investigation found "that the 2011-2017 Ford Explorer vehicles when accurately measured produce occupant compartment (carbon monoxide) levels which fall below current accepted health standards."

Ally Financial said its revenue rose 2.7 percent to a record $8.43 billion in 2022, and the lender also produced a record net interest margin for the year.

However, the Detroit bank on Friday said its net income still fell 44 percent to $1.71 billion last year as the bank set aside more money for potential losses on loans, paid out more in expenses outside of interest and brought in less revenue from channels outside of lending.

"In 2022 Ally continued its strategic evolution while navigating a fluid macroeconomic environment," CEO Jeffrey Brown said in a statement. "The optimization across our businesses was evident in our ability to generate record net interest margin and total revenue."

Ally's 2022 ended with its net income before taxes from its key auto finance business falling to $437 million in the fourth quarter, down 48 percent from a year earlier. Looking at the entirety of 2022, Ally's auto finance income fell 34 percent year-over-year to $2.25…

ZF Friedrichshafen and Wolfspeed plan to build a $3 billion wafer factory in Germany’s Saarland to make chips for electric vehicles and other applications, a boon for a region dependent on combustion-engine components, according to people familiar with the matter.

The go-ahead for the project is subject to commitments on subsidies amounting to a quarter of the total investment, the people said, declining to be named discussing private information.

ZF will hold a minority share in the factory with its U.S. chipmaking partner, located in Ensdorf near Saarbrücken.

ZF operates its largest factory nearby where 9,000 employees make transmissions.

The plan will see the site of a former coal-fired power plant converted into the world’s largest factory for silicon carbide semiconductors, used in EVs and photovoltaic converters.

The move will create hundreds of jobs, the people said, providing relief over concerns for Saarland state’s 40,000 auto i…

DAYTON, Ohio — When Reynolds and Reynolds Co. leaders head to Dallas this week for the annual NADA Show, they'll have a key goal in mind: Demonstrate to auto dealers that the company is shedding its inflexible and difficult past.

For two years, the dealership technology giant has been remaking itself under new leadership following the departure of longtime CEO Bob Brockman, whose tenure at the company ended in November 2020 after he was indicted in what the federal government has called the largest tax evasion case ever brought against an individual in the U.S.

Under Brockman, who died in August at age 81 while awaiting trial, Reynolds and Reynolds gained a reputation in the industry as a challenging business partner, with complicated contracts and rigid policies. Executives say the change at the top — Tommy Barras, the company's former president and COO, took over as CEO after Brockman stepped down — was the "inflection point" that prompted th…

The convention of franchised auto dealers, officially called the NADA Show, later this week in Dallas gives us a good opportunity to talk in this issue about the trends and pressures auto retailers everywhere are dealing with right now.

And there's a bucket of them.

There's the ongoing dance between dealers and factories to set agreeable ground rules on how electric vehicles will be sold and serviced. There's the issue of the languishing leasing market. There's the confusion over how tax credits are going to be doled out on EV purchases. And there's the likelihood that higher interest rates are going to turn store floorplanning back into a cost for retailers to contend with.

We delve into all that and much more this week.

These are new issues looking to be resolved. And the NADA Show is a yearly reminder that the car business is flush with resources and powerful in the wisdom of it…