News

Baidu Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp.-backed startup Pony. ai said on Friday they been granted the first licences to test fully autonomous vehicles without safety operators as a backup in Beijing.

Baidu and Pony.ai said they would begin testing 10 driverless vehicles each in a technology park developed by the Beijing government as a step toward commercial robotaxi services in China’s capital.

Beijing-headquartered Baidu, which generates most of its revenue from its internet search engine, has focused on self-driving technologies over the last five years as it looks to diversify.

It started to charge fees for its robotaxi service Apollo Go last year. It has predicted a robotaxi ride would eventually cost about half as much as one in a commercial car with a driver. The company said it would add another 200 robotaxis to its network across China in the coming year.

Apollo Go, which operates in Wuhan and Chongqing without a safety driver, delivered a tota…

China Evergrande Group's electric vehicle unit said on Friday it was laying off workers and cutting the salaries of some employees as a part of cost-reduction measures.

The unit, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group, also said it was arranging for some employees to take a break from work.

The statement comes after Reuters reported that the unit was planning to lay off 10 percent of its workers and suspend salary payments to 25 percent of workers for between one and three months. 

The unit also said that it is continuing mass production of the Hengchi 5 electric crossover and has delivered 324 units to customers.

Reuters reported earlier this month that the company had suspended mass production of the model because of a lack of new orders.

The EV unit is key for the transformation plans of Evergrande, once China's top-selling property developer and now at the center of a deepening debt crisis.

A year-end conversation about the biggest stories in 2022 for auto dealers with Automotive News director of retail coverage Amy Wilson.

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. 

iPhone / iPad

“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

"Daily Drive" is available on Spotify. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Lidar company Cepton is headed to CES in Las Vegas to demonstrate it's not just a speculative Silicon Valley play but rather a company with technology and contracts that offer sustainable value.

Cepton's value proposition comes from the fact General Motors is a customer and will put lidar sensors in nine of the automaker's vehicles starting in 2023. The GM contract prompted the San Jose, Calif., company to open an office in suburban Detroit to serve as its automotive business hub.

Lidar, which stands for "light detection and ranging," is a sensor technology that creates a map of the environment around it. The technology is considered an important component for automated driving and fully autonomous vehicles.

Over the past two years, when the cost of capital was cheap, Cepton and other lidar companies went public through a special purpose acquisition company. But the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes and geopolitical tensions hav…

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday said that electric vehicles leased by consumers starting Jan. 1 can qualify for up to $7,500 in commercial clean vehicle tax credits, a decision that makes those assembled outside North America eligible.

The announcement is a win for some automakers that earlier this month sought approval to use the commercial electric vehicle tax credit to boost consumer EV access. Automakers said the credit could be used to reduce leasing prices.

The $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act passed in August ended $7,500 consumer tax credits for purchases of electric vehicles assembled outside North America, angering South Korea, the European Union, Japan and others. The new Treasury guidance does not change the definition of what constitutes North American final assembly to make more vehicles eligible for EV purchases.

Treasury said it was using "longstanding tax principles" to determine consumer leasing could qualify for the EV ta…

Automotive News Editor Lindsay Chappell unpacks the biggest stories and trends affecting auto industry suppliers in 2022.

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. 

iPhone / iPad

“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

"Daily Drive" is available on Spotify. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

The United States will introduce incentives on Jan. 1 for delivery firms and other companies to switch to electric trucks as part of a broad push to get gasoline and diesel powered vehicles off roads and out of neighborhoods.

The first-of-its-kind incentives, established under President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), will offer tax credits of $7,500 or $40,000 depending on the size of the electric vehicle. Delivery companies like FedEx and Amazon.com would qualify at the $7,500 level for many of their electric trucks.

Those tax credits can be combined with voucher programs in California, New York and other states that are spending billions of dollars to convince companies to switch to zero-emissions vehicles. The IRA's commercial EV credits do not have the made in the USA rules that apply to passenger cars.

The U.S. transportation sector, including large and small trucks, buses and airplanes, accounts for more than one-third of the greenhouse…

SHANGHAI -- Honda will recall just over 200,000 hybrid vehicles because of issues with brake pedal sensors in some models, China's State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement on Thursday.

A total of 105,608 hybrid vehicles produced between Oct. 8, 2018, and Sept. 7, 2020, by the Japanese carmaker's venture with Dongfeng Motor Group Co. will be recalled, along with another 95,081 units from Honda's manufacturing partnership with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. made between August 27, 2018, and August 6, 2020.

Lubricating oil introduced into brake pedal sensors during the manufacturing process can cause issues with the sensors over time, and the recall would begin from March 31, 2023, the statement added.

Much has changed for auto suppliers in the three years since they last converged at a fully in-person CES in Las Vegas.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the seemingly endless list of sourcing challenges the industry has dealt with and the accelerating shift to electric vehicles have forced suppliers to reexamine their supply chains and contemplate what role they should play in this new world.

And CES provides a broad venue for suppliers to lay out their visions of what they'll look like moving forward.

CES "has been a major focus point for innovations and the latest technologies for many years, and its importance has long since extended beyond consumer electronics," Yves Andres, a member of the Hella management board, said in a statement.

Major suppliers at CES this year, including Robert Bosch, ZF Group, Continental and Valeo, will hold press conferences detailing future endeavors.

Others will also be on the show floor and at nearby …

Exports of electric vehicles from China more than doubled in November, creating a monthly record, mostly fueled by European automakers that farmed out the production to the country.  

Car manufacturers in China exported $3.2 billion worth of electric vehicles in November, up 165 percent from a year ago to reach the highest-ever monthly total, data from the nation's customs authority showed.

European countries such as Belgium and England were the biggest importers, taking up nearly 70 percent of the shipments.

Exports of electric passenger vehicles accounted for more than half of the total car shipments for two months in a row, with November registering a record high of $6 billion in exports.

The numbers come at a time when European automakers, including Volkswagen Group and BMW Group aim to make parts and cars inside China due to limited production capacity at their home markets.

SAIC Motor, the Chinese owner of MG Motors, which has …