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Electric vehicle owners report more problems with new technology than owners of gasoline vehicles, according to a J.D. Power study issued Thursday.

The findings come as automakers launch an assortment of high-tech features on new EVs.

Battery-electric vehicle owners reported 4.2 more problems per 100 vehicles than owners of internal combustion vehicles that — besides powertrain — contain the same technology, according to J.D. Power's 2023 U.S. Tech Experience Index Study.

Interior gesture control proved problematic. EV owners reported 18.4 more problems per 100 vehicles, said Kathleen Rizk, senior director of user experience benchmarking and technology at J.D. Power. The function lets drivers use hand gestures to control vehicle features. For example, drivers can increase radio volume by turning their fingers clockwise or lower it by turning them counterclockwise.

Advanced technologies are more difficult for consumers to use, no matter the vehic…

After years of public and private maneuvering, Illinois finally is close to reeling in a big electric vehicle battery manufacturer.

A crucial step came Tuesday when, according to local officials, the Kankakee County Board approved a property tax abatement needed to lure a battery maker to a 160-acre site in Manteno, a village about 50 miles southwest of Chicago's Loop.

Officials declined to name the company, but sources close to the situation believe it to be Gotion, a Chinese company which also has announced plans for a factory in Michigan.

Manteno Mayor Tim Nugent said his board and other local taxing bodies approved the abatement earlier this month, after being told by the state and a company agent that the facility will create 2,600 jobs and involve more than $2 billion in investment.

No final decision has been made but, “I’m told we’re on the short list,” Nugent said. “I’m hopeful.” 

Manteno is located a little over an hour’s dr…

General Motors is eliminating more than 900 salaried jobs by closing an information technology facility in Arizona this fall.

The IT Innovation Center in Chandler, which opened in 2014, will shut down in October, company spokesperson Kevin Kelly said Wednesday. It's one of four such operations the automaker operates around the country.

Most of the roughly 940 workers at the center are on GM's corporate IT support team. Some employees will continue to work in Arizona on software-defined vehicle technology, Kelly told Automotive News. Employees whose positions are terminated can apply for open positions until the end of October, he said.

GM also has innovation centers in Warren, Mich.; Roswell, Ga.; and Austin, Texas. Employees at the Arizona location focus on web technologies, end-user applications, dealership and factory systems and vehicle technology, according to the automaker.

The news comes after GM last week said it planned to eliminate abo…

Privately held steel company Esmark said on Wednesday it would not participate in the purchase process for U.S. Steel Corp and respect the position of the United Steel Workers union, which is supporting Cleveland-Cliffs' offer.

Last week, Esmark made an offer to buy U.S. Steel for $35 per share, or an equity value of $7.8 billion.

Esmark's exit leaves Arcelor-Mittal as the only known potential challenger to Cleveland-Cliffs, which went public with its bid for U.S. Steel earlier in August.

"The U.S. Steel board must go through their process that they previously announced (adding) we will evaluate any opportunities in connection with that process, subject to support from the USW," Esmark CEO Jim Bouchard said in a statement.

The union, which has asserted itself aggressively in the bidding battle, had said it would not endorse any buyers other than Cleveland-Cliffs.

However, U.S. Steel last week said its labor agreement with does not afford …

An Arizona dealership executive died after being injured in a crash involving an electric scooter and a pickup on the store's property.

Andrew Kimmerle, business manager at Sanderson Ford in Glendale, Ariz., was riding an electric scooter on the dealership's lot the morning of Aug. 15 when he collided with a Ford pickup, which was being driven by an unidentified dealership employee, according to the Glendale Police Department.

Glendale Police said Kimmerle, according to witnesses, was riding the scooter at what appeared to be a high rate of speed.

"The driver of the truck made a left turn just as Kimmerle was in the area and Kimmerle's scooter collided with the truck," Gina Winn, public information officer for Glendale Police, wrote in an email to Automotive News. "The driver of the truck was not speeding and remained on the scene. The driver did not see Kimmerle heading in their direction until the impact took place."

Kimmerle was transported t…

A study says leasing an EV is the cheapest way to get a new car. Stellantis weighs an EV tie-up to expand in China. A theft impacts the U.S. launch of Nissan’s next-generation Kicks. Plus, automakers are making the move to USB-C in their vehicles.

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Operations have been restored at Ultium Cells LLC's battery plant in Warren, Ohio, after a chemical leak temporarily halted activity in the cathode mixing area, the company confirmed Wednesday.

An Ultium spokesperson did not provide details on when cathode mixing operations resumed or whether an internal investigation of the leak is still underway.

The company said it took "immediate steps" to contain a cathode mixing slurry leak that occurred over the weekend at its Ohio production plant. Area mixing operations had been paused while Ultium assessed the situation and worked with a third-party company on the cleanup. Operations at other parts of the plant were not affected.

No employees were exposed or injured in the spill, the company said.

Ultium — a joint venture between General Motors and South Korea's LG Energy Solution to produce battery cells for the automaker's electric vehicles — reported the incident Monday to the U.S. Labor Department'…

HONG KONG - Zeekr, Chinese automaker Geely's premium EV brand, will meet global investors to test appetite for a $1 billion U.S initial public offering, said people with direct knowledge of the matter.

It is hoping the share sale will yield a valuation of more than $13 billion, as achieved during a private $750 million funding round in February, two people said.

Hangzhou-based Zeekr will meet investors over two weeks in Hong Kong, Singapore, London, New York, Boston, California and the Middle East, the people said. They said the final deal size would depend on financial market conditions later this year.

The people declined to be identified as the information has not yet been made public. Geely, which handles media queries for Zeekr, declined to comment.

Geely in December said Zeekr had confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO, without detailing size or listing date.

If successful, a $1 billion IPO would be the largest U.S. listing by a Chines…

For months, a battle over EV charging has taken place across the auto industry, playing out in headline after headline and pitting one type of connector against another to gain dominance and win consolidation into a single standard.

But set aside electric vehicles for a moment: There's another charging connector transition underway that affects far more vehicles and exponentially more consumers. And it's coming to an instrument panel and rear seat near you — if it hasn't already arrived.

The Universal Serial Bus-A connector — the thin, rectangular hole with the plastic tongue that's been a part of automotive equipment since 2006 — is being replaced by the smaller, more efficient USB-C. The USB upgrade has been ongoing in the larger world since 2014, with computer, cellphone and electronics manufacturers migrating steadily to the new standard.

In the auto industry, the transition remains a work in progress.

Just how widespread is the switch to USB…

A theft of tooling from a supplier in Mexico has forced Nissan Motor Co. to delay the U.S. launch of the next-generation Kicks, people briefed on the matter told Automotive News.

Production of the subcompact crossover in Aguascalientes, Mexico, now will start next June, with U.S. deliveries following shortly, one of the people said.

This is the second delay of the redesigned Kicks, originally scheduled to begin production in December. The vehicle's failure to pass crash safety tests set the schedule back a month and a half, a source said.

The latest delay — which tacks on about five additional months — is related to tooling that was stolen from a supplier factory in Mexico, the sources said. They did not reveal the supplier's identity or say which Kicks part is affected.

Nissan confirmed the launch delay this week but did not say why.

"The arrival of the next-generation Kicks is delayed slightly due to an unexpected factor outside the com…

BERLIN -- Tesla Inc. lowered the production target of its German plant to 4,350 a week in July and August after hitting 5,000 a week in March and plans to reduce it further, according to a Business Insider report citing internal documents and anonymous sources.

The U.S. automaker had posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, in late March that it hit 5,000 cars per week at the plant in Gruenheide near Berlin, but workers who declined to be named told Business Insider that this was a one-off, and average output since then had been much lower, the article said.

Tesla said in June it was hiring fewer temporary workers than it did in the beginning because they were no longer needed but that its production targets were on track.

Business Insider said pictures showing Tesla's internal workflow software indicated that the U.S. EV maker had lowered its target for July and August to 870 cars per day.

Even this goal was not always …

Stellantis is considering a tie-up with a Chinese electric vehicle company as Europe’s second-largest automaker by sales seeks to bolster its presence in the world’s biggest auto market, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The parent company of Chrysler, Ram, Jeep and several global brands has explored potentially working with Chinese EV makers such as Zhejiang Leapmotor Technologies Ltd., the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Following in the footsteps of its rivals, Stellantis is weighing options such as investing in a local EV firm and a business partnership that would help it grow in China, the people said.

Considerations are ongoing and no final decisions have been made, the people said. Other global automakers including Volkswagen Group have also expressed interest in a potential tie-up with Leapmotor, one of the people said. Reuters reported VW's talks with Leapmotor this month.

Spokespeople…