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Nikola Corp. said on Friday it was recalling all the battery-powered electric trucks that it has delivered to date and is suspending sales after an investigation into recent fires found a coolant leak inside a battery pack as the cause.

There are a total of 209 battery-powered electric trucks in the marketplace between dealers and customers and the company is recalling those vehicles and is in the process of contacting all parties, a spokesperson for Nikola told Reuters.

The preliminary findings of the probe by a third-party investigator were corroborated on Thursday by a "minor thermal incident" on one pack on a parked engineering-validation truck, the company said, adding that no one was injured.

"Foul play or other external factors were unlikely to have caused the incident," Nikola said in a statement, adding efforts were underway to provide a remedy.

The company originally said it suspected foul play when it started an investigation in June a…

BEIJING -- Tesla Inc. said it cut prices in China for its Model Y long-range and performance versions starting Monday.

The automaker dropped the starting prices of both models by 14,000 yuan ($1,934.58). The Model Y Long Range's starting price drops 4.5 percent to 299,900 yuan and the starting price of the Model Y Performance is now 349,900 yuan, down 3.8 percent.

In the same announcement, Tesla also said it would offer insurance subsidies in China of 8,000 yuan for Model 3 buyers of entry-level, rear-wheel-drive versions of the Model 3 inventory vehicle between Aug. 14 and Sept. 30.

Last month Tesla CEO Elon Musk said further price cuts were a possibility, even if it squeezed the automaker's margins.

Tesla has slashed prices several times in the U.S., China and other markets since late last year, and increased discounts and given other incentives to reduce inventory, trying to shield itself against competition and economic uncertainty.

Sal…

CDK Global has launched CDK Dealership Xperience, a megaplatform that it says will incorporate multiple dealership workflows, boost customer service capacity and eliminate the need for extra software systems.The software company said the new platform addresses longstanding dealer complaints about extra costs and time wasted trying to create technology workarounds with existing dealership management systems.

"It enables a dealer to operate their entire business on one platform," CDK Global CMO Barb Edson told Automotive News.

Existing dealership management system customers in their CDK renewals will be signed up for the platform's Foundations Suite at no extra cost, said Edson, who added that the platform will be marketed actively to both existing and potential new customers.

"We're spending millions to implement this for our valued customers because we believe so strongly that we have pieces of the technology puzzle that they've b…

Competition is driving new innovations like a rocket

This week we give you the names of the finalists for the 2023 Automotive News PACE Award.

There are 34 of them, from 28 companies in 11 countries, including Australia, China, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland.

Automotive News started the PACE Award 29 years ago. It is a way to identify the technical innovations developed by suppliers — in components, materials, functionality, manufacturability, cost and efficiency in both product and process — that have made the journey from the brainstorm stage into the commercial market.

To be honest, we are as astonished as you are every year that companies keep coming up with brilliant innovations to wow their automaker customers and help advance the auto industry.

It's not easy.

What hasn't been thought of already? Drawing board ideas hit roadblocks that cause them to be pushed off into the R&D center trash bin. The mechanics won't work.…

This week we give you the names of the finalists for the 2023 Automotive News PACE Award.

There are 34 of them, from 28 companies in 11 countries, including Australia, China, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland.

Automotive News started the PACE Award 29 years ago. It is a way to identify the technical innovations developed by suppliers — in components, materials, functionality, manufacturability, cost and efficiency in both product and process — that have made the journey from the brainstorm stage into the commercial market.

To be honest, we are as astonished as you are every year that companies keep coming up with brilliant innovations to wow their automaker customers and help advance the auto industry.

It's not easy.

What hasn't been thought of already? Drawing board ideas hit roadblocks that cause them to be pushed off into the R&D center trash bin. The mechanics won't work. It adds unwanted weight. It costs too much. The automaker isn…

SBD Automotive’s EV principal discusses to what extent vehicle owners view their brands as leaders in sustainability, why software is a stronger motivator for an EV purchase in China and how increasing awareness about the environmental costs of battery production might impact adoption.

How do I subscribe?

Apple Podcasts: “Shift: A podcast about mobility” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe.

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NEW YORK — Cadillac's electric Escalade was barely a day old, but Will Churchill already had more than 30 emails from clients and friends wanting to buy one.

Since General Motors' luxury brand unveiled the 2025 Escalade IQ last week at an event here, it has generated some of the biggest response the Texas dealer said he has received for a new model.

"Escalade's become its own brand, and I think this continues that narrative," said Churchill, who has Cadillac stores in Fort Worth and Arlington. "It delivers on what you expect from an Escalade."

Staying true to that brand as an electric vehicle will be key for Cadillac's top-selling franchise. The Escalade IQ is, on one hand, a clean-sheet EV designed from the ground up on GM's Ultium battery platform, rather than a gasoline vehicle architecture retrofitted with batteries and an electric motor.

But unlike Cadillac's first two EVs — the Lyriq midsize crossover and upcomin…

With a lineup of only SUVs and crossovers, Land Rover must move into electrification with surgical precision.

Vehicles such as the Defender are engineered for off-road use, and many are used for overlanding. The $100,000 Range Rover already has a gross vehicle weight of nearly 7,400 pounds, and the upcoming battery-electric model won't weigh any less. Somehow, it must perform as well as the combustion-powered Rover and deliver a decent driving range between charges.

JLR, parent company of Jaguar and Land Rover, is investing $19 billion in new products and facility upgrades through 2028 to transform most of its vehicles to full electric power.

"By 2030, all nameplates will offer pure-electric options that are expected to account for 60 percent of our retail sales," the company said.

Range Rover: An electric version, using the MLA platform, arrives late in 2024. The Range Rover will have two motors, one for each axle. The estimated range is 300 mi…

Volvo Cars and its Geelycontrolled affiliate Polestar are on a battery-powered juggernaut. JLR, meanwhile, is charting its own path toward electrification.

Polestar launched in 2017 as a Volvo-affiliated all-electric performance brand. But that distinction is blurring as Volvo vows to go all-electric by the next decade.

"Volvo will not sell a single car that is not full-electric after 2030, regardless of market," the brand's chief commercial officer, Björn Annwall, told Automotive News in June. "There's no ifs, no buts."

Volvo said all new models will be electron-powered only. The Swedish automaker has told dealers that it expects to launch seven new and redesigned electrified models, including five battery- electric vehicles.

The fossil-fueled lineup will, however, hang around but don't expect new engines or model redesigns.

According to Annwall, the combustion engine models "will get a bit of love."

"We're not inv…

The best part about attending this month's Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Mich., was picking up the industry buzz.

Every year, smart people take the stage a few hours' drive north of Detroit to give presentations during the dayslong MBS, which has been hosted for years by the Center for Automotive Research.

But if you're a regular attendee, you know it's really the buzz in the hallways and coffee breaks and evening receptions that provide a barometer of what auto industry executives think, what they know, what they want and sometimes even what they quietly fear about the business' near-term future.

This year — no surprise — the biggest buzz around the gathering was the worldwide shift to electric vehicles. EV sales outlooks, EV battery technologies, EV charging networks and the technical challenges entwined in all of it.

The chatter fell into three camps.

Camp No. 1 was a segment of people w…