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Partners expanded their General Motors store counts by two, including buying a dealership from public auto retailer Lithia Motors Inc., while other dealers and groups expanded their dealership holdings in separate third-quarter and fourth-quarter deals.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic and import dealerships and stores in Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Iowa and Virginia.

One transaction involved an auto retailer ranked on the Automotive News list of the top 150 dealership groups.

Partners buy two Midwest Chevy stores, including one from Lithia Motors

Stephen Shane, Seth Severin and Kevin Chernikoff purchased two Chevrolet stores in the last five months — one in Ohio and another in Michigan that was owned by Lithia Motors for just over a year.

The three partners on July 26 purchased Mathews Chevrolet-Buick in Bucyrus, Ohio. The store, renamed Chevrolet of Bucyrus, was purchased from Tim Mathews, Tom Weston, Dave Columber and Doug Mo…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ GM trails in effort to make most vehicles with automatic emergency braking

Although General Motors signed on to a voluntary agreement to make automatic emergency braking a standard feature in almost all of its new vehicles by the 2023 model year, it has not met the goal and lags the rest of the industry, according to data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Just 73 percent of GM's light-duty vehicles were produced with automatic braking systems in the 2022 model year.

In 2016, GM and 190 automakers pledged to make automatic emergency braking a standard feature on more than 95 percent of the light-duty vehicles they produce by the 2023 model year, according to an agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation and IIHS. Light-duty vehicles are those 8,500 pounds and under.

GM is well below its American-based counterparts, all of which have met the 95 percent goal.

The Detroit automaker is one of f…

Tesla Inc. and the Mexican border state of Nuevo Leon are firming up plans for a factory site in an automotive corridor that is home to assembly plants for Kia and General Motors, according to sources quoted by the Milenio newspaper.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the state government are "fine-tuning the final details," Milenio said this week, "in order to announce the installation of a factory in the state, which is expected to be made public in early 2023."

Tesla, which has disbanded its press office, didn't respond to an email seeking comment. The media office for the state of Nuevo Leon, which borders Texas, didn't respond to a phone call seeking comment.

Milenio said land near Monterrey, the Nuevo Leon capital, had been chosen for the plant. "The sources said the land for the plant had already been acquired and there is a commitment to finalize the investment in early January," the newspaper said. Nonetheless, Milenio said it couldn't find records of a l…

Automakers are starting to team up with electric utilities to accelerate the push to build out the infrastructure needed to make electric vehicles a viable option for more U.S. consumers.

One of the biggest questions surrounding the mass adoption of EVs is whether U.S. power grids will be able to power the batteries of vehicles that are charged at businesses and homes.

More than 530,000 new battery-electric vehicles were registered in the U.S. through September. Recognizing that the demand is coming, traditional automakers are setting up new business units to tackle the issue.

This week, Toyota said it will collaborate with Oncor, a Dallas electric transmission and distribution company, on a pilot project testing out its vehicle-to-grid technology. V2G allows EVs to send energy from their batteries back onto the electric grid.

This marks the first partnership between the Toyota Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions team and a U.S. public utility foc…

Ford Motor Co. has raised the price of the cheapest variant of its F-150 Lightning electric truck 9 percent to $55,974, the company's website showed on Thursday.

The automaker has raised prices for its electric pickup trucks twice in three months, as it navigates higher costs and supply chain snags.

Automakers across the globe, including Tesla and Rivian are also struggling with higher prices of raw materials such as lithium and have warned high costs were here to stay.

Ford, which previously said it was targeting annual production of 150,000 Lightning pickups by the fall of 2023, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for a comment on the price hike.

The company's shares were down about 3.5 percent in afternoon trade amid declines in the broader market.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sold a big chunk of the EV maker’s stock for the fourth time this year. Toyota, Denso, and IBM team up to boost Japan’s chip supply. Plus, a conversation with Aurora Innovation CEO Chris Urmson, one of the pioneers of autonomous driving technology.

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Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton asked for a new trial on charges he misled investors about the electric truck maker's prospects, arguing the jury convicted him due to bad instructions from the judge and because one juror lied to get on the panel.

Milton was found guilty in October of securities and wire fraud following a monthlong trial, a remarkable downfall for the door-to-door salesman turned billionaire who promised to revolutionize the auto industry. In court filings late Wednesday, his lawyers argued the jurors mistakenly believed that to convict their client of three of the four counts against him, they weren't required to find that he intended to deceive investors, when in fact they were.

"The extraordinary facts giving rise to this motion establish a disturbing reality: defendant Trevor Milton was found guilty on three counts even though the jury believed Mr. Milton lacked criminal intent and, if properly instructed, would have acquitted him on all …

A shooting Wednesday at an automotive supplier plant near Detroit left one man dead, according to police.

An argument among employees began Wednesday morning inside the Forvia plant in Highland Park, Mich., before spilling out into the gated parking lot where shots were fired, said Deputy Chief Darrell Patterson of the Highland Park Police Department.

A 40-year-old man was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead, Patterson said. A 29-year-old suspect was apprehended at the scene.

"It was some fight over tools and use of tools," Patterson said. "Several males got into a physical altercation. The fight was broken up by the security members, and those employees were sent home."

Forvia spokeswoman Misty Matthews said the plant was continuing to operate but some employees opted to go home after the shooting.

"Our priority is the safety of our team and supporting them in any way we can," Matthews said in a statement. "We are working closely…

Bosch North America Executive Vice President Paul Thomas talks about the world's largest supplier's decision to continue investing in traditional technologies while also spinning up its businesses around EVs and fuel cells. Plus, Redwood Materials announces a new $3.5 billion plant in South Carolina.

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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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Android

“Daily Drive” is available on the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Spotify

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Canadian electric vehicle maker Lion Electric Co. plans a $50 million stock offering to strengthen its balance sheet and expand factories.

The Montreal company said the expansion will focus on factories in Joliet, Ill., and Mirabel, Quebec. Lion Electric manufactures electric buses and medium-size urban cargo trucks.

Lion Electric said in a Securities and Exchange filing that it expects to net roughly $47 million from the offering after U.S. and Canadian underwriters B. Riley Securities and National Bank Financial take their fee of $3.25 million. The underwriters are floating 19.7 million shares for $2.54 each.

If the offering on the New York and Toronto Stock Exchanges sells out, both companies will have the option to buy an additional 2.9 million shares at $2.54. Lion Electric shares were trading at just over $2 at midday on the NYSE on Wednesday.

The largest investor in Lion Electric is financial services conglomerate Power Corporation of Canad…

The Federal Reserve downshifted its rapid pace of interest-rate hikes while signaling that borrowing costs, now the highest since 2007, will rise more than investors anticipate as central bankers seek to ensure inflation keeps cooling.

The Federal Open Market Committee raised its benchmark rate by 50 basis points to a 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent target range. Policymakers projected rates would end next year at 5.1 percent, according to their median forecast, before being cut to 4.1 percent in 2024 -- a higher level than previously indicated.

The hawkish projections have the potential to jolt financial markets, where speculation that the Fed would soon pause its hikes has contributed to easier financial conditions.

It also raises the prospect of higher borrowing costs for new and used vehicles, and other forms of credit, notably mortgages. The rapid rise in interest rates this year has already slowed the housing and construction markets, key drivers of li…