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STAVANGER, Norway -- Tesla CEO Elon Musk aims to get the automaker's self-driving technology ready by year-end and hopes it could be in wide release in the U.S. and possibly in Europe, depending on regulatory approval.

Speaking at an energy conference in Norway on Monday, Musk said his attention was currently focused on his SpaceX Starship spacecraft and self-driving Tesla cars.

"The two technologies I am focused on, trying to ideally get done before the end of the year, are getting our Starship into orbit ... and then having Tesla cars to be able to do self-driving."

"Have self-driving in wide release at least in the U.S., and ... potentially in Europe, depending on regulatory approval," Musk told the audience.

Oil, gas needed

Earlier, Musk said the world must continue to extract oil and gas in order to sustain civilization, while also developing sustainable sources of energy.

"Realistically I think we need to use oil and gas in the…

Honda Motor Co. is plugging its range of products — from motorcycles to jets — in a major new campaign that points to its future, including investments in electric vehicles and a longer-term vision for reusable space rockets and avatar robots.

A new “Forever Determined” ad, which comes from agency-of-record RPA, is the second spot in Honda's “Origin of Determination” campaign that debuted in October.

While the campaign’s first ad focused on the brand’s legacy, the new spot is geared toward showing how the company is “embarking on new initiatives,” and to “highlight and tease future products,” said Senior Manager for Honda Marketing Jessika Laudermilk. Along with reaching its existing consumer base, Honda is targeting Gen Z and millennials “who may not be as familiar with Honda’s past,” she said.

The ad was filmed from the perspective of drivers of various Honda vehicles, including the brand’s Type A motorized bicycle, the aircraft HondaJet Elite S, as w…

TOKYO – Honda Motor Co. and South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution said they will invest $4.4 billion to build lithium ion batteries in the U.S. for Honda and Acura brand electric vehicles.

The move, announced on Monday in a statement, will establish a joint venture battery plant with annual capacity for about 40 gigawatt hours of pouch-type lithium ion batteries.

The power packs will be supplied exclusively to Honda in North America, though LG Energy Solution and Honda said the location of the plant has not yet been finalized.

Construction is slated to start in early 2023 with mass production beginning by the end of 2025.

The ramp up comes as Honda plans to build about 800,000 electric vehicles in North America by 2030. By that time, EV production should account for 40 to 50 percent of the company's total output in North America, underscoring Honda’s need for a big increase in battery supply.

North American production of batteries …

MUNICH — Audi has teased a potential full-electric coupe for the brand with the activesphere concept.

The concept could preview a battery-powered successor to Audi's TT Coupe, reports say.

Audi did not give details about the activesphere except to say the full concept will be revealed next year.

The EV is the fourth model in a family of full-electric concepts Audi has been introducing since 2021. The others — skysphere, grandsphere and urbansphere — were displayed together for the first time during Monterey Car Week this month.

The concepts are designed to be capable of autonomous driving, Audi said, adding that battery power and self-driving technology will give rise to entirely new designs, with future car interiors offering features that allow occupants to use their time productively —or simply relax, Audi said.

The activesphere concept "will offer maximum variability for an active lifestyle, both on and off-road," the company said in …

In July 2021, when retail giant Lithia Motors was on the cusp of entering Canada, its first international market, CEO Bryan DeBoer pointed to the United Kingdom and Australia as additional possibilities for expansion but with a caveat: Those markets were probably two to five years out.

"So nothing urgent," DeBoer told analysts at that time.

But Lithia's chief appears to have sped up his interest.

A Sky News report this month named Lithia as the unidentified bidder in a failed deal to buy Pendragon, one of the largest auto retailers in the U.K. Pendragon, in an Aug. 5 regulatory filing, said a "large international corporate" presented "a board-approved non-binding offer" for the dealership group that was later withdrawn. The bid was valued at $558.35 million, according to a Reuters report.

A spokesman for publicly traded Pendragon, in an email, referred Automotive News to the Aug. 5 filing and declined to comment on the…

New Apple CarPlay sets up dashboard showdown

Automakers have long struggled at infotainment, MyFord Touch being a prime example from the previous decade. So when Apple CarPlay and Google's Android Auto debuted in 2014, they put most automakers' infotainment systems to shame.

The features replicate their respective smartphone apps for phoning, messaging, navigation and more on a car's in-dash screen. And they also include third-party apps such as Waze, Pandora and others that are controlled the via a car's touchscreen and voice control.

Because CarPlay and Android Auto are uniform across all vehicles, automakers lose any brand differentiation on in-dash displays. And perhaps more importantly, data from, say, a navigation search or Pandora playlist go to the tech giants, not automakers.

Early on German automakers Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen expressed concerns about Apple's incursion into the dashboard. Toyota even resisted adding CarPlay an…

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. and its president, Akio Toyoda, have spent much of the past year fending off criticism that they are dragging their feet on environmentally friendly electric vehicles. Now, a new emissions scandal is blowing up in Toyoda's backyard.

Emissions and fuel efficiency improprieties have come to light at Hino Motors, Toyota's truckmaking subsidiary, that date back as far as 2003. Hino employees fudged the tests on engines used in 643,635 vehicles over the years, with 66,817 of the trucks now subject to recall.

The misconduct, which surfaced in March, snowballed last week when Hino said new problems were discovered in the testing of a light-duty engine, after earlier revelations in other powerplants.

The scandal has forced Hino to suspend most of its shipments in Japan.

But the problem is also driving a wedge between Hino and Toyota, the truckmaker's biggest shareholder with a 50.1 percent stake. La…

President Joe Biden drove his classic 1967 C2 Corvette Stingray and talked cars with Jay Leno on Friday as the two filmed a segment for the comedian’s CNBC show.

“It was really good. It was even more fun driving my old Corvette,” Biden told reporters after taping the clip for “Jay Leno’s Garage” at the James J. Rowley Training Center, a Secret Service facility, in Beltsville, Md.

“We talked about how electric cars are going to change the nature of our environment in the United States,” he added.

Biden throughout his presidency has sought to promote sales of EVs, and a climate and tax bill he signed earlier this month includes tax credits for EVs and incentives for clean-energy projects.

Biden said he also had another opportunity to drive a Ford Motor Co. F-150 Lightning, the electric version of the company’s top-selling pickup truck.

“And they had that Ford Lightning vehicle, got to drive that again too. That was a fast SOB,” he said.

…

The consultant and transportation strategist argues in favor of creating a “czar” position to oversee AV and EV policy efforts across the federal government, and underscores the importance of pushing beyond one-size-fits-all transportation technology.

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Elon Musk doesn't want to hear complaints from customers trying out the driver-assistance system that Tesla plans to start charging $15,000 for in the coming weeks.

The CEO scolded a Tesla owner who posted videos on Twitter last week showing that a new beta version of the system marketed as Full Self-Driving at times struggles with right turns and other basic tasks.

The customer wrote that he's spent more than $32,000 paying for the system multiple times.

"10.69 is in limited release for a reason," Musk replied, referring to the latest version of the system rolled out to select customers this month. "Please do not ask to be included in early beta releases and then complain."

The comments came days after Musk said Tesla would start charging $3,000 more for Full Self-Driving, which still requires active supervision and doesn't make the company's vehicles autonomous. The California Department of Motor Vehicles has accuse…

The U.S. Postal Service is getting some extra horsepower with a new set of stamps honoring five iconic American sports cars.

The Pony Cars Commemorative Forever stamps feature oil paintings of the 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302, 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T, 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, 1967 Mercury Cougar XR-7 GT and 1969 AMC Javelin SST.

The stamps, which cost $12 for a panel of 20, were released last week at the Great American Stamp Show.

"My challenge was to create five jewel-like, descriptive portrayals that every person who fell in love with this era can appreciate," Tom Fritz, the stamps' artist, said in a statement. "The adventure isn't just painting the cars' details but capturing their emotion and power. Cars don't just 'sit there.' They hunker down, they lurch, they shake, they shimmy and skitter. Those are the thrilling moments I look for."

Other new Forever stamps released this summer include former First Lady Nancy Reagan, elephants, marine …

NEWARK, Calif. — Lucid Motors is moving upmarket with the $249,000 Sapphire edition of its Air sedan, leveraging its in-house technology to take on Tesla and legacy rivals such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW at the high end.

Electric vehicle maker Lucid launched last year with the limited-run Air Dream Edition at $169,000, excluding shipping, and quickly sold out. That laid the groundwork for the Sapphire subbrand as a performance-oriented next step.

"We're certainly taking the brand even further upmarket from a price-point and positioning perspective," Jeff Curry, vice president of marketing, told Automotive News at company headquarters. "We're going after those folks who might be in a Mercedes AMG product or BMW M product and want to go electric but need a place to go. This is our representation of the pinnacle of electric performance."

The Air Sapphire launches next year.

Lucid, with just one model so far, says it's still on track to deliver the $87…