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TOKYO - Japan's Panasonic Holdings Corp said on Monday it will start building its new battery plant in Kansas in November and aims to begin mass production by March 2025, targeting North America's fast-growing EV market.

The conglomerate's energy unit said in July it had picked Kansas as the site for a new plant to supply batteries primarily to Tesla Inc, joining other battery producers planning massive U.S. investments to qualify for new EV tax credit rules and to tap that market's potentially massive demand.

Panasonic said in a statement it expects initial production capacity of 30 gigawatt hours per year at the new plant, equivalent to roughly 60 percent of the company's current annual EV battery production capacity in Japan and the United States.

Kansas state officials said in July the factory would create up to 4,000 jobs with investment of up to $4 billion, pending final approval by Panasonic's board, which came through on Monday.

Hirokazu U…

Automotive mirror supplier Gentex Corp. said Friday that supply chain challenges led to lower third-quarter profits, but also touted a sales increase compared with 2021.

The Zeeland, Mich., company, which primarily produces automatic-dimming rearview mirror and camera-based driver-assistance systems, said net income decreased 5 percent to $72.7 million.

Net sales climbed 24 percent to $493.6 million compared to $399.6 million in 2021. This coincides with a 22 percent increase in light-vehicle production in the company's primary markets of North America, Europe, Japan and Korea.

Despite the increase in sales and production, the company missed its beginning-of-quarter forecast by $70 million to $80 million.

Operating expenses continue to increase, with a 15 percent rise to $60.4 million. Gentex cites staffing and professional fees, plus freight and travel-related expenses as causes for the increase.

Gross margin fell 5.5 percentage points to …

BEIJING -- BeyonCa, a start-up founded by a group of former Volkswagen executives, plans to take on automakers including Audi and BMW in China from next year with a new premium electric vehicle, the GT Opus 1, which offers features such as health monitoring.

Led by current Renault China CEO Soh Weiming and backed by Renault and Dongfeng Motor, two-year-old BeyonCa plans to unveil its first production car in the first quarter of next year with deliveries from 2024, Soh told Reuters.

The company rolled out the GT Opus 1 concept car on Sunday with features such as sensors that can monitor a driver's blood pressure, alarms to alert doctors employed by BeyonCa of an emergency and an autonomous driving function to help park the car.

Soh, BeyonCa's chairman, said the company was targeting the high-end premium segment, where they would compete with models such as Audi's A8L, BMW's 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz's S-Class.

"We need to confront them," Soh said…

SHANGHAI -- Geely Automobile plans to spin off its high-end Zeekr electric-vehicle brand and list the unit.

The terms of the proposed spin-off, including listing venue, offering size and price range for Zeekr have not been finalized, the company said in a statement.

Geely Automobile and its parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group launched Zeekr in April 2021 as a premium brand targeting young and trendy customers.

In August last year, Zeekr raised $500 million in its first external funding from investors that included Intel Capital, battery maker CATL and online entertainment firm Bilibili.

An Conghui, Geely's president and Zeekr's CEO, has said Zeekr is confident of hitting its sales target of 70,000 units this year. The brand aims to sell 650,000 vehicles a year by 2025.

Besides Zeekr, the Geely group owns other brands such as Polestar, Volvo Car, Lynk & CO, Lotus, London Electric Vehicle Company and Geometry.

ECARX Holdings, a Chi…

Automakers are already beginning to alter production plans for 2023 because of the microchip shortage as the industry braces for millions more lost vehicles next year.

Stellantis, for example, has begun to taper back planned production of the Jeep Cherokee in 2023 because of the semiconductor shortage, said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Sol-utions.

A spokesman for Stellantis declined to comment on future production plans.

The automotive industry can expect to lose between 2 million and 3 million units of planned production in 2023, on top of the 10.5 million lost in 2021 and the 3.6 million lost so far this year, Fiorani said.

"Slowly, more chips are being filtered into the auto industry," he said. "But when we see production of high-margin vehicles still being affected, we know that the answers still aren't here — and we're still seeing that."

Chipmakers are pouring billions of dollars into new…

TOKYO — On the surface, the negotiations over the Renault-Nissan alliance reboot are about preparing for the future by creating a next-generation electric vehicle spinoff that both partners will invest in.

But dig deeper, and the delicate talks involve another technology that is seemingly oh-so-yesterday: Old-school internal combustion engines are front and center in this bold EV overhaul.

After 20 years of working together on common technologies, partner Renault intends to cleave its internal combustion assets into a separate company that would stand alongside its newfangled EV business. And to do that, Renault and Nissan face the task of divvying up their shared intellectual property. One important question is how to handle key internal combustion systems.

It matters because — despite the promise of EVs — gasoline- and diesel-burning vehicles are still expected to account for huge swaths of global auto sales for a long time.

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The hybrid powertrain on Toyota's 2023 Crown, a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter inline-four engine paired with a continuously variable transmission, will deliver up to 41 mpg combined. It is tuned to maximize fuel savings in base XLE and midrange Limited models. A second hybrid in the Platinum, powered by a turbocharged 2.4-liter inline-four engine mated to a six-speed automatic gearbox, engineered to maximize performance with 340 hp, will get an estimated 30 mpg combined, Toyota said. The mileage figures are higher than Toyota's initial forecasts.

Record heat waves in California and severe hurricanes in Florida point to a weakness in electric vehicle adoption: How do people charge during extreme weather events when power may be lost?

It's not a theoretical question. California leads the nation in EVs. During a record Labor Day heat wave, state officials asked EV owners to avoid charging during peak electricity use times to avert power outages.

Three weeks later, Hurricane Ian landed as a Category 4 storm on Florida's southwest coast and knocked out power for weeks in the hardest hit areas.

As EV adoption grows, charging before, during and after natural disasters presents a challenge, especially given a shortage of public chargers, lack of access to home charging and the increasing regularity of such events.

"We're starting to see the impacts of climate change more and more frequently," said Katherine Stainken, vice president of policy for the Washington, D.C., …

WASHINGTON — After the current session of Congress created seismic change in the automotive industry, a power shift in the nation's legislative branch appears imminent.

However, with sweeping legislation tied to vehicle electrification already signed into law, automotive and policy experts say they are expecting few, if any, major disruptions in the near term if Republicans regain control of one or both chambers after the Nov. 8 midterm elections.While a congressional shake-up could put the brakes on additional legislative efforts to advance President Joe Biden's climate and economic agenda, future actions to grow a domestic supply chain for electric vehicles and batteries and reduce reliance on foreign nations such as China could be something both parties agree on.

"Both Democrats and Republicans recognize the need for a domestic supply chain, and so I think that there is some agreement between parties that it is in the U.S.'s best interest to e…

Automotive political donations flow in as November's midterm elections near

WASHINGTON — In nine days, voters will decide on 470 congressional seats, potentially shaking up the balance of power in Congress for the next two years.

With sweeping legislation tied to vehicle electrification already signed into law, the outcome of the Nov. 8 midterm elections is likely to be less disruptive to the auto industry than the forthcoming presidential election in 2024.

Still, the industry needs policy certainty to inform major investment decisions, especially with a revolutionary — and costly — transition to electrification underway.

"It's hard to make significant investments if there's uncertainty that the policies could change and that you won't get a return on that investment," said Andy Buczek, government policy adviser at Dykema law firm's office here.

We'll break down what's at stake for the industry in the upcoming election on Monday, includin…