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DETROIT — Carlos Tavares on Wednesday said Stellantis has "zero problems with unions" as the company prepares to build several electric vehicle battery plants in North America.

Even if disagreements may arise at times, the CEO said, discussions with unions are necessary.

"Good dialogue with unions is part of the competitiveness of any company," Tavares said during a virtual media roundtable at the 2022 Detroit auto show.

Mark Stewart, Stellantis' North America COO, said having unionized battery plants would just be business as usual for the automaker.

"It's up to the people in the plant," Stewart told Automotive News. "All of our other facilities that we wholly own are unionized. We've got a great relationship with the union, and if those wind up being union, then that's great and wonderful, just like it is today. If it's not, then that's those folks' decision as well."

This positive view of organizers could be welcome news to the UAW as …

President Joe Biden, a self-titled "car guy," pushed his vision for an electric vehicle future that positions the U.S. as a leader, creates American jobs and transitions the country to a clean energy economy in remarks delivered Wednesday at the Detroit auto show.

"I believe we can own the future of the automobile market. I believe we can own the future of manufacturing," Biden said. "American manufacturing is back. Detroit is back."

Biden's presence at the event marks his first visit to the Detroit auto show since he was vice president during the Obama administration.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, UAW President Ray Curry, EPA chief Michael Regan, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell and Sen. Debbie Stabenow also delivered remarks.

Biden touted his administration's efforts to boost domestic EV manufacturing, investment and jobs to position the U.S. as a leader and reduc…

Tesla Inc. was sued on Wednesday in a proposed class action accusing Elon Musk's electric car company of misleading the public by falsely advertising its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features.

The complaint accused Tesla and Musk of having since 2016 deceptively advertised the technology as fully functioning or "just around the corner" despite knowing that the technology did not work or was nonexistent, and made vehicles unsafe.

Briggs Matsko, the named plaintiff, said Tesla did this to "generate excitement" about its vehicles, attract investments, boost sales, avoid bankruptcy, drive up its stock price and become a "dominant player" in electric vehicles.

"Tesla has yet to produce anything even remotely approaching a fully self-driving car," Matsko said.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco seeks unspecified damages for people who since 2016 bought or leased Tesla vehicles with Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving…

DETROIT — Magna International Inc. said Wednesday it is testing a last-mile autonomous delivery robot for use on public roads as the supplier giant looks to develop new businesses in the mobility space.

"The plan is to prove the technology — prove it has significantly lower costs than other use cases and other applications being offered — then scale it up into production," said Matteo Del Sorbo, global lead for Magna's new mobility unit, in an interview with Automotive News at the Detroit auto show.

The all-electric delivery robot was developed and built in Michigan and launched on a pilot basis in March 2022, according to Magna, the largest North American auto supplier. Since then, the robot has delivered hundreds of pizzas from a Detroit-area restaurant to residents and businesses.

It drives on public roads at speeds of up to 20 mph, according to the supplier. The robot utilizes an autonomous driving system developed by Magna that employs sensors, incl…

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday said it has approved more than two-thirds of electric vehicle charging infrastructure plans submitted by states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico ahead of schedule.

Thirty-five of the 52 EV infrastructure deployment plans submitted by states are now approved as part of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program. NEVI was created and funded by the $1 trillion infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden in November.

The program makes $5 billion available over the next five years to help states achieve Biden's goal of 500,000 EV charging stations across the U.S. by 2030.

States with plans now approved can gain access to more than $900 million in funding in 2022-23 to build EV chargers across roughly 53,000 miles of U.S. highway, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

"With the first set of approvals we are announcing today, 35 states across the country — wit…

Floor space at the Detroit auto show used to be at a premium. Declining participation by automakers in this show and others around the globe, exacerbated by the lingering pandemic that canceled the Detroit event in 2020 and 2021, has left organizers searching for creative ways to fill vast swaths of space. The new reality is evident in changes that the show floor has undergone since 2014.

» Move the slider to see the auto show change over time.

DETROIT — Chrysler is bringing a power rush to the 300 before the aging sedan says farewell.

The brand is closing out the 300's run by throwing in a 6.4-liter Hemi engine with 485 hp. Chrysler said the 300C variant it showed Tuesday ahead of the Detroit auto show will have a limited production run of only 2,000 units offered in the U.S. and another 200 in Canada. Consumers can reserve the car now.

The 300C will be offered in Gloss Black, Velvet Red and Bright White. It features a new 300C logo.

The 300 goes out of production after the 2023 model year along with the current generation of the Dodge Challenger and Charger, its line mates at the Brampton Assembly Plant in Ontario.

The current generation of the 300, introduced in 2005, marked a return to rear-wheel drive for the nameplate that debuted in 1955. The 300C at that time offered a 5.7-liter Hemi engine with 345 hp.

The sedan was named the 2005 North American Car of the Year. Chrysle…

MARANELLO, Italy -- Ferrari is refusing to call its first four-door vehicle, the Purosangue, an SUV or a crossover, despite its higher stance and all-wheel drive.

Instead, CEO Benedetto Vigna says, "The Purosangue is a sports car, something unique and distinctive, which is uncompromised on design and engineering."

At starting price of 390,000 euros ($391,000) in Italy, the V-12 Purosangue will be the second-most expensive normal production Ferrari, below the SF90 range, which starts at 440,000 euros. (Limited production models cost more than 1 million euros, with the latest Daytona SP3 at 2 million euros.)

Ferrari plans to begin Purosangue deliveries in the second quarter of 2023 in Europe, in the third quarter in the U.S. and by year’s end in other markets.

To protect the exclusivity of the brand as well as sales of its core range of coupes, roadsters and convertibles, Ferrari will cap Purosangue output at no more than 20 percent of annual…

MARANELLO, Italy -- Ferrari could soon close the order book for its first four-door production model, the Purosangue, because of overwhelming demand, executives said.

"We risk not being able to satisfy demand, and maybe we will need to close the order intake very soon," Ferrari’s chief commercial and marketing officer, Enrico Galliera, said at a media preview of the Purosangue at company headquarters in here on Sept. 8.

Galliera declined to say how many pre-orders Ferrari had received ahead of the Purosangue’s public debut on Tuesday, when orders officially open. 

He said that demand for the 390,000 euro ($397,000) Purosangue went beyond Ferrari’s expectations. Limited-edition models are normally sold out before they are publicly unveiled, but those models have total runs of a few hundred units rather than the thousands a year planned for the Purosangue.

To protect the exclusivity of the brand as well as sales of its core range of coup…

This is not going to be your father's Detroit auto show, nor is it going to be your grandfather's auto show.

Apologies for any misapplied generational assumptions, but you get the gist. The long-awaited return of the Detroit auto show — with a painfully convoluted new name — is sadly nothing like the sometimes awe-inspiring North American International Auto Show events from 1989 to (generously) 2019.

Nor is 2022 a return to the semicomic/semitragic, fully sexist past, when pretty women in skimpy attire lured attendees to display stands hoping their distracted brains would associate the brand or vehicle with the good feelings they had about the talent on stage.

This year's North American International Detroit Auto Show, like its peers around the world, is now a regional event — designed for consumers to come see lots of cars and make them want to buy these cars and feel good about it all.

Once again and for the record, I am sad about this. The au…

Autonomous vehicle software supplier Aptiv plc has agreed to acquire Intercable Automotive Solutions for around $600 million.

The bolt on of the Bruneck, Italy-based manufacturer of busbar and battery cell technology would bolster Aptiv's high voltage power portfolio and strengthen its standing in Europe.

The deal, expected to close before the end of the year, is for an 85 percent equity stake in the company, according to a Tuesday statement. The Mutschlechner family will retain 15 percent ownership in the company they founded in 1972.

"The combination strengthens our position as a full system supplier for electric vehicle manufacturers," Aptiv CEO Kevin Clark said in the release. "In addition, Intercable's differentiated technology design and manufacturing capabilities enable a more efficient and cost-effective vehicle assembly operation for our customers."

Intercable Automotive Solutions will operate as a standalone unit of Aptiv. The company's …

AutoNation Inc., the nation's largest new-vehicle retailer, on Aug. 30 sold its BMW dealership in Mount Kisco, N.Y., north of New York City, to DARCARS Automotive Group, DARCARS confirmed.

BMW Mount Kisco is the second luxury vehicle dealership sold by AutoNation in August. On Aug. 15 AutoNation sold Audi Owings Mills in Maryland to publicly traded auto retailer Sonic Automotive Inc. AutoNation purchased that dealership in November 2021 as part of a nine-store acquisition from Priority 1 Automotive Group.

This marks the first BMW store for the DARCARS group. The store was renamed DARCARS BMW of Mt. Kisco. DARCARS also has a Lexus dealership in Mount Kisco, astore it acquired in 2020.

"Since we opened our Lexus dealership in Mount Kisco in 2020, we've looked for an opportunity to become a bigger part of this incredible community," DARCARS CEO John Darvish said in a statement. "We want to better serve our employees, customers and supporters in the New Yor…