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DETROIT — Even as Ford Motor Co. faces litigation over its electric-vehicle certification program for dealers, roughly two-thirds of its U.S. retail network has bought in to the plans, and some are finding that costs could be lower than advertised.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, speaking last week at the Automotive News Congress here, said 1,920 dealers had agreed to follow the rigorous new sales standards and invest heavily in EV chargers and training. He said 1,659 dealers chose the Certified Elite track, which requires investing as much as $1.2 million, while 261 chose the Certified status, which requires up to a $500,000 investment but caps their EV sales at 25 a year.

The automaker, which has about 3,000 dealers in the U.S., views the upgrades as critical to challenging Tesla's leadership in EV sales. Ford is the nation's second-largest EV brand this year, according to Experian registration data.

"The future of the franchise system hangs in the balance here…

WASHINGTON — Subaru is recalling more than 287,000 Ascent large crossovers globally for a potential defect that could increase the risk of fire.

The recall covers vehicles from 2019-22 model years and affects a total of 271,694 vehicles in the U.S.

Subaru is advising owners of these Ascent models to park their vehicles away from structures such as garages and avoid leaving their vehicles unattended with the engine running.

The Japanese automaker on Friday said a ground bolt that secures the ground terminal of the Positive Temperature Coefficient heater may have been improperly fastened during vehicle production.

"This potential condition may result in the melting of the ground terminal and surrounding components, increasing the risk of fire when the PTC heater is in operation," the automaker said.

There have been no crashes or injuries related to the issue.

To fix the issue, Subaru dealers will replace the ground bolts. They also wil…

WASHINGTON — U.S. auto safety regulators again issued an urgent warning Friday for the public to check for open recalls after confirming another death linked to a defective Takata airbag inflator.

NHTSA said one person died in a crash in a 2002 Honda Accord after the driver's side airbag inflator ruptured.

In a statement Friday, American Honda Motor Co. also confirmed the death, which occurred Feb. 2 in Bowling Green, Ky.

"The driver of the vehicle sustained injuries from the ruptured inflator and subsequently died. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the family of the driver," the automaker said.

Honda said the Accord had been under recall since April 2011 for replacement of the original Takata driver's side airbag inflator.

"Honda made more than 300 attempts to reach the owner of this vehicle, who purchased the car in 2008. This included more than 40 mailed notices to the registered address, over …

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Battery recycling crucial to EV transition, execs say

SAN DIEGO — The auto industry must find ways to recycle electric vehicle batteries as the transition from internal combustion engines accelerates toward the end of this decade, executives from automakers and major battery suppliers said at the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference.

Automakers such as Ford Motor Co. have agreements with lithium, nickel and other material suppliers to meet EV production targets for 2025 and into the latter half of the decade, said Ted Miller, senior manager of battery cell research and advanced engineering at Ford.

But the industry faces "bigger risks" starting in 2030, and he said companies are "working feverishly" to manage those threats.

"There's never been this much demand for lithium on Earth, ever," Miller said at the conference Wednesday.

While companies are pouring billions of dollars into new mining and processing facil…

WASHINGTON — With Republicans gaining control of the House and Democrats securing a slim majority in the Senate, the shifted balance of power come January likely will mean no major overhauls of existing policy affecting the auto industry, but it could change command of deciding votes.

In a Georgia runoff election Tuesday, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock narrowly defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker, expanding the Democrats' majority next year to 51-49 in the upper chamber. In the House, Republicans will have a 221-213 majority.

The congressional shakeup could diminish the swing-vote influence of dissenting Democrats such as Sen. Joe Manchin — the West Virginia lawmaker who wielded the power of a single vote to shape major legislation in an evenly split Senate — while boosting the profile of members such as Warnock, whose state has landed multibillion-dollar investments from the electric vehicle industry.

"The Warnock victory was a huge,…

DETROIT — General Motors is working to build a resilient battery supply chain as it moves into the next phase of electric vehicle development, drawing on lessons learned during the ongoing semiconductor shortage, CEO Mary Barra said Thursday.

The automaker wants battery suppliers, many of which are new to working with GM, to source from multiple locations as it begins to secure materials for EV production starting in 2026, Barra said at an Automotive Press Association event in Detroit. GM learned from its approach to securing microchips for future production so the company is not as reliant on any one factory, she said.

Adding redundancy in the supply chain would help to prevent production stoppages created by issues at a single supplier, such as the COVID-19 outbreak that took a Malaysian chip factory offline last year. It also will be crucial as vehicles require more chips to power the software and technology built into them, she said.

GM says it has …

Mexico and Canada won a trade dispute with the U.S. over cars shipped across regional borders, potentially giving manufacturers more incentive to make auto parts in those nations.

The dispute-resolution panel set up under the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada Agreement made a preliminary ruling on Nov. 14, according to people familiar with the decision who declined to be identified because the report hasn't yet been made public. The nations have an opportunity to give feedback on the report before a final version is issued within 30 days.

Mexico first sought the panel's help in resolving the conflict in January. The dispute focuses on the nations' differences over how to calculate the percentage of a vehicle that comes collectively from the three countries under the USMCA, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement, also known as Nafta.

The ruling could potentially benefit consumers and carmakers alike because it would allow the manufacturers to build mo…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has lifted the upstart automaker to impressive heights as the top-selling EV brand and industry loyalty leader. But the tech billionaire is undermining that goodwill with his recent dive into electoral politics and divisive social issues as the new owner of Twitter, analysts say.

While Musk has long been quick to defend Tesla and attack the media, his promotion of political candidates in the midterm elections and his tolerance of hateful speech on Twitter is a significant shift that threatens to estrange Tesla owners and alienate car shoppers, according to marketing experts.

"If you think about the halo of Musk and the halo of Tesla, they definitely intersect," said Mario Natarelli, managing partner at MBLM, an agency that studies brand intimacy, the emotional connection between consumers and companies. "You can't argue with his success. He's operating on a different plane than many of us can comprehend."

But Musk's swerve into Twitt…

Canada's Knight Automotive Group expanded in the U.S. for the third time in a year with its Tuesday purchase of four dealerships in Elk Grove, Calif., from Lasher Auto Group.

Knight Automotive bought Elk Grove Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram, Elk Grove Subaru, Elk Grove Acura and Elk Grove Audi-Volkswagen. The Audi store was renamed Audi Elk Grove, while the other dealerships retained their names. The Volkswagen-Audi dealership has separate showrooms. Elk Grove is south of Sacramento.

Braeden Mueller, Knight Automotive vice president, told Automotive News that the group loves the Sacramento market.

"We think it's a great place to live and a great place to do business," Mueller said. "We really like the brands and the synergy of having the five stores together in a row. It fit our business model."

Mueller said Knight also bought some property as part of the deal and plans to work with Subaru and Audi in the coming months to design new buildings for those s…

Lithia Motors Inc. on Monday expanded its exotic and ultraluxury vehicle footprint with the purchase of a Colorado dealership selling multiple high-end brands including Ferrari, Bentley and Lotus.

Lithia bought the dealership, located in Highlands Ranch, south of Denver, from Aleks Vekselberg, according to Bill Scrivner, CEO of Pinnacle Mergers & Acquisitions, a Frisco, Texas, buy-sell firm that represented Lithia in the transaction.

Lithia, in a LinkedIn post, said this is its first Ferrari store.

"We're thrilled to welcome this Denver team into the Lithia & Driveway family," said Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer in a statement, noting the location will become "a centrally located hub for premium luxury vehicles in the country."

While it was not immediately clear if Lithia has owned Colorado dealerships in the past, the Highlands Ranch dealership appears to be the auto retail giant's only store in the state, according to the group's website.

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