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Leasing an electric vehicle is the most affordable way to get a new car of any kind, considering favorable government EV incentives amid high interest rates, according to a new study from a nonpartisan energy and environmental policy firm.

The study, released by Energy Innovation on Wednesday, said leasing an EV can save drivers more than $400 per month compared to leasing a comparable gasoline vehicle or buying an EV or combustion engine vehicle.

"The financials work out quite a bit in favor of electric vehicles many of the times, especially when there's a fairly close MSRP between the gas vehicle and its electric vehicle counterpart," said Rachel Goldstein, a research and modeling manager at Energy Innovation and report co-author. "Those operations and maintenance costs, those fueling costs of the EVs, are just going to win out."

As EVs remain more expensive upfront than their gasoline-powered counterparts, leasing could present an attractive option …

Kia America's Rio subcompact car will not return for the 2024 model year, the company confirmed. It follows the demise of its small Hyundai counterpart, the Accent, discontinued after the 2022 model year.

Though Kia said it will remain in the sedan business, Americans are leaning toward larger, higher-riding crossovers. Light trucks, a category that includes minivans, crossovers, SUVs and pickups, accounted for 79 percent of all new U.S. vehicle sales for the first six months of 2023 .

That trend was reflected in Rio sales. The Rio ended 2022 with sales of just 26,996, a 14-percent decline, according to the Automotive News Data & Research Center. Through July of this year, Rio sales are down 2 percent.

The automaker's smallest vehicle is built at its factory in Monterrey, Mexico, where Kia appears to be planning to produce two small electric vehicles after the plant is retooled for electrification.

Also assembled in Mexico is the Forte compa…

VinFast's shares more than doubled Tuesday to the highest since Vietnamese electric vehicle maker's blowout Wall Street debut after Reuters reported that South Korea's Star Group Industrial plans to open factory in Vietnam.

In the latest volatile session since its backdoor listing last week, VinFast's stock was last up 127 percent at $40.24, giving it a market capitalization of $95 billion. The stock traded as high as $46.98 earlier in the session. The stock finished up 108.87 percent at $36.72 when the market closed Tuesday.

Last Tuesday, the cash-burning company soared as it started trading on the U.S. stock market with an opening price of $22 following its tie-up with SPAC partner Black Spade Acquisition.

With 99 percent of the EV firm controlled by founder Pham Nhat Vuong, the tiny amount of publicly available shares has made the stock prone to volatility. It has jumped or slumped 14 percent or more every day over the past six sessions.

The …

U.S auto safety regulators said Tuesday that major automakers could comply with a Massachusetts vehicle data law that seeks to allow car owners to get repairs completed by independent shops.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told nearly two dozen major automakers in June not to comply, saying it poses significant safety concerns because it required open remote access to vehicle telematics and vehicle-generated data.

The agency said Tuesday in a letter to the Massachusetts attorney general's office that the agency believes automakers can comply by providing repair shops "wireless access to a vehicle from within close physical proximity to the vehicle, without providing long-range remote access."

NHTSA proposes a rule that would require automakers to equip vehicles with seat belt warning systems. EV battery producer Northvolt raises $1.2 billion. And a fire creates a parts shortage impacting Toyota. Plus, a look at key issues in UAW negotiations.

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When searching for used-vehicle inventory through wholesale avenues, Ricart Automotive Group would typically cast a net about 200 miles in any direction from its Columbus, Ohio, base. That meant finding cars as far away as Pittsburgh, Indianapolis or Detroit.

But the scarcity of attractive used vehicles has caused the group to use a bigger net. Its search area now has a radius of 400 miles — stretching potentially to Philadelphia; Raleigh, N.C.; Nashville; and St. Louis.

"That's what you've got to do to find the vehicles that you know your customers like to buy," said CEO Rhett Ricart.

When the pandemic and the ensuing chip shortage reduced new-vehicle supply, many consumers switched from new to used models and snapped up the best inventory. Now, the supply of used models remains constrained, both by the loss of production in recent years and by the reduction in leasing as a share of that smaller market.

In response, dealers are getting creative …

A Detroit-based electric vehicle charging startup centered on streamlining the installation process has raised $10 million to help scale up operations.

Drive Technologies Inc., doing business as Treehouse, raised the funds from a group of venture capital firms, which was led by Montage Ventures and Trucks Venture Capital and included Invest Detroit and Detroit Venture Partners.

The funding will help the company expand operations and build on its staff of 18, which includes software engineers, electricians and customer service professionals, said Eric Owski, CEO and co-founder of Treehouse who lives in Detroit. The fundraising round marks a breakthrough for the 2-year-old startup.

"What's unique about our vision and approach to the market … we are delivering the jobs ourselves," Owski said. "We own the customer experience end to end, and we deliver the job through licensed electricians who work for Treehouse."

The company's value proposition is …

STOCKHOLM/LONDON — Swedish lithium-ion battery producer Northvolt has raised $1.2 billion from investors including BlackRock and several Canadian pension plans as it prepares to build new factories in Europe and North America, its finance chief told Reuters.

The fresh funding, through a convertible note, comes as investor demand for companies set to benefit from the move to a low-carbon economy picks up pace, aided by policy initiatives in both regions to accelerate the transition.

"It's a very capital intensive industry... finding the right mix is always hard in this new greenfield kind of transitional projects," Chief Financial Officer Alexander Hartman said in an interview.

Leading the round alongside BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, were Canada Pension Plan, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and, as previously reported, pension investor Investment Management Corporation of Ontario.

"The battery manufacturing sector h…

Fast-growing Anderson Automotive Group completed its second multi-dealership acquisition in South Carolina this year with a seven-store purchase Monday.

Anderson Automotive, of Raleigh, N.C., bought Toyota of Greer, Hyundai of Greer, Genesis of Greer, Nissan of Greer, Kia of Greer, Kia of Greenville and Mike Hovart Chevrolet in Easley, from Mark Escude, president of MCE Automotive Inc., according to Michael Anderson, the group's CEO. Escude still owns one dealership, Terry Lambert Hyundai in North Augusta, S.C.

The stores were renamed Fred Anderson Toyota of Greer, Fred Anderson Hyundai of Greer, Fred Anderson Nissan of Greer, Fred Anderson Kia of Greer, Fred Anderson Kia of Greenville and Fred Anderson Chevrolet of Easley. The Genesis store's name remains. Fred Anderson, Michael's father, is the group's chairman.

Hyundai and Genesis are new brands for the group, Anderson, a 2017 Automotive News 40 Under 40 honoree, noted. Genesis of Greer was one of t…

WASHINGTON — The nation's top auto safety agency proposed a rule Monday that would require automakers to equip vehicles with seat belt warning systems for front and rear passenger seats in an effort to establish consistency and improve seat belt use.

NHTSA's proposed rule would amend a federal regulation for occupant crash protection known as Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208, which mandates visual and audible alerts to encourage seat belt use for the driver's seat but does not require a warning for other seating positions.

For rear seats, the proposal would require automakers to add a visual warning once a vehicle is started that lasts at least 60 seconds and an audiovisual "change of status" warning that lasts at least 30 seconds if a rear seat belt is unbuckled while the vehicle is in operation.

For front seats, the proposal would require an audiovisual seat belt use warning for both the driver and front passenger seats that remains active un…

Few global auto shows can compete with the quality of new car debuts during Monterey Car Week in Carmel, California. The annual multi-day festival of all things automotive — classic car concours, product launches, races, auctions, rallies and plenty of posturing — has replaced the traditional auto show as among the best places to be for car brands and enthusiasts alike.

This year, more than 20 automakers showed their best efforts to attract elite car buyers: There were electric crossover concepts with doors that open in reverse, and one-of-one supercars covered in gold and intricate hand-painted pictures of other cars. Elsewhere, 3D-printed hypercars and an SUV that runs on hydrogen attracted prospective clients.

And while the traditional status symbols of horsepower and torque still held sway (Exhibit A: The 1,877-hp Pininfarina B95, above), these days the best new cars are using technology, rather than brawn, to seduce buyers with promises of how they can im…

GM plans to cut about 200 engineering jobs. A Tesla data breach is blamed on "insider wrongdoing." And Hyundai makes a deal to put its name on Georgia Tech's football field. Plus, a look at how San Francisco is bracing for more robotaxis on the street.

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