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Volvo Cars and video game company Epic Games are partnering to improve the role of the human-machine interface for Volvo's next generation of electric vehicles.

According to a statement Wednesday, Epic Games will use a visualization tool known as Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine — used to power the popular video game Fortnite — will run on the HMI and provide "state of the art graphics" and other key features such as multi-user scalability and high-speed, two-way data communications systems.

In an email to Automotive News, Epic Games spokesperson Richard Gotch said that while other companies had been using Unreal Engine for several years, the partnership marked the first time Epic Games is collaborating with a European vehicle manufacturer on an HMI project.

"Unreal Engine is already used in some way by most of the world's major vehicle manufacturers, with applications ranging from sales configurators to styling, engineering and manufacturing planning," Got…

SHANGHAI -- China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group conducted its first successful satellite launch on Wednesday, sending nine units into low earth orbit as it builds out a satellite network to provide more accurate navigation for autonomous vehicles.

The self-designed and manufactured GeeSAT-1 satellites, were launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

Geely said it expects another 63 to be in orbit by 2025 and eventually plans to have a constellation of 240.

With the launch, Geely becomes the second major automaker to have an allied space business. SpaceX, owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has more than 2,000 satellites in orbit for its Starlink network that offers commercial internet services.

Starlink plans to have a first-generation network of 4,408 satellites.

While SpaceX uses its own rockets to launch its satellites, Geely used a Long March 2C rocket developed and operated by a Chinese stat…

WASHINGTON — Eight automakers have improved their emergency response guides for EVs and incorporated vehicle-specific details on extinguishing lithium ion battery fires following a recommendation last year by a federal safety agency.

The National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday said Honda, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Volvo — along with electric commercial vehicle maker Proterra and electric bus maker Van Hool — have completed the actions asked for in the recommendation issued in January 2021 to 22 vehicle manufacturers.

The agency asked those manufacturers to model their emergency response guides on international safety standards and to include vehicle-specific information on extinguishing electric vehicle battery fires as well as mitigating thermal runaway and the risk of battery reignition.

Twelve automakers, including Ford, General Motors, Tesla and Toyota, are making progress on the recommendation, the agency said. Two other…

DETROIT — Buick is giving customers and dealers a hint of its future design philosophy with the Wildcat electric vehicle concept unveiled Wednesday.

As the brand plans to launch an all-electric lineup in North America by the end of the decade, it will also revamp its design approach by giving vehicles a more sculptural look, wider stance and more spacious interior.

"We are on the cusp of true change, and this concept is a tangible vision of it," Sharon Gauci, executive director of global Buick-GMC design, said in a statement. "It inaugurates the next chapter in Buick's design heritage as we make the crucial transition to our all-electric future."

Every future production vehicle will be informed by the Wildcat concept in some way, Gauci told Automotive News.

The Wildcat shows Buick's new face for EVs, with a low-mounted mouth where a grille would typically be and high-mounted, check mark-shaped headlights and taillights. The windshield wraps arou…

U.S. light-vehicle sales fell by double digits for the third straight month at Hyundai and Kia as choked parts supply chains continue to batter automakers, leaving showrooms and lots nearly bare of new cars and light trucks.

Hyundai deliveries last month slid 34 percent to 59,432, with all of them retail, the company said Wednesday. It was Hyundai's biggest decline since the start of the pandemic when sales dropped 39 percent in April 2020 and 43 percent in March 2020.

Hyundai ended May with 18,641 vehicles in dealer stock, up from 15,809 at the end of April but off from 91,249 at the close of May 2021, a spokesperson said. The company recorded zero fleet shipments for the fifth straight month as it prioritizes more profitable retail business.

"There continues to be extraordinary consumer demand for Hyundai vehicles, with dealers selling every vehicle they get," Randy Parker, senior vice president for national sales at Hyundai Motor America, said in a s…

Buick plans to stop selling gasoline-powered vehicles in North America by the end of the decade after rolling out a full lineup of electric vehicles that will revive the Electra name from its heyday.

The brand will go all-EV in roughly the same time frame as Cadillac and push General Motors closer to its goal of having all light vehicles it sells be fully electric by 2035. Buick, which also updated its logo Wednesday to signal the coming overhaul of its lineup, does not plan to launch any new internal-combustion vehicles after 2024, when its first EV is scheduled to arrive.

The character of Buick's current crossover portfolio, along with its focus on a quiet, safe ride, position the brand to succeed as the industry transitions to EVs, Duncan Aldred, global vice president of Buick-GMC, told Automotive News.

"I feel Buick is more naturally placed to really win as the adoption hastens, probably more than any other brand I can think of,…

It was five years in the making and struggled at times to make it out of the engineering bay and development labs at one of the auto industry's most venerable and esteemed automakers.

And now that this hypercar has finally arrived, it is being billed as a street-legal monster for the ages.

The production version of the Mercedes-AMG One hypercar packs a Formula 1 inspired hybrid drivetrain to produce 1,049 hp (1,063 PS) from a 1.6-liter gasoline engine paired with four electric motors. 

The One was first shown as a concept called the Project One at the 2017 Frankfurt auto show, and since then Mercedes has reportedly sold all 275 units planned for production at a price of $2.7 million. 

Mercedes said it faced daunting technical challenges to bring the midengine, all-wheel-drive One to production, and hinted that the project was not certain to be completed.

"The immense technical challenges of making a modern Formula 1 powertrain s…

Rimac Group has raised another 500 million euros ($536.6 million) to help it build future Porsches, Bugattis, and Koenigseggs.

SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Goldman Sachs Asset Management led the latest round of funding, which also included Rimac shareholders Investindustrial and Porsche.

Mate Rimac, who founded his eponymous company in a garage in 2009, remains the largest shareholder.

“It’s great to have Porsche on board, but also, you know, we do not want to be fully dependent on them,” Rimac said during a call with reporters on May 31. Porsche holds a 45 percent stake in Bugatti Rimac, the company formed in 2021 between Bugatti, Porsche, and Rimac.

Formed in January, Rimac Group is an umbrella company holding a 55 percent stake in Bugatti Rimac and 100 percent of Rimac Technology, an independent subsidiary formed in January. (Bugatti Rimac owns 100 percent of Rimac Automobili, the group’s hypercar division.) Porsche owns the remaining 45 percen…

TOKYO — The next-generation Lexus RX, the top-selling family hauler that crushes the midsize premium crossover segment, leads Lexus deeper into electrification with a complete redesign that brings the nameplate's first plug-in as well as a fire-breathing F Sport turbocharged hybrid.

The fifth-generation overhaul, unveiled in Japan and at Toyota Motor North America's headquarters in Plano, Texas, repackages the nameplate on a new platform with new drivetrains that Lexus says will make the RX as fun as it is practical to drive.

For starters, the new GA-K architecture delivers a lower center of gravity for more nimble handling while providing a longer wheelbase and tread for more legroom and cargo space.

And when it lands in the U.S. this year, the 2023 Lexus RX will debut with four new powertrains as well as a new direction for Lexus design, deemphasizing the spindle grille.

"Nothing exemplifies our commitment to the tr…

Data integration service provider Authenticom's antitrust lawsuit against dealership management system company Reynolds and Reynolds Co. was dismissed Friday after the parties settled their differences.

The dismissal came five years after Authenticom accused Reynolds and CDK Global, another DMS giant, of creating a duopoly in the dealership data integration market. A countersuit filed in 2018 by Reynolds was also dismissed, according to a May 27 filing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

That filing said Authenticom and Reynolds had "settled their claims and counterclaims against each other." Details of the settlement weren't available, but the court document said both parties would be responsible for their own legal fees.

Both the Authenticom suit and Reynolds' counterclaim were dismissed with prejudice, which means the cases are over and can't be refiled.

Last week's dismissals are the final step in yearslong litigati…

BMW's most petite crossover is getting a plus-size upgrade.

The redesigned X1 is roomier and features updated technology and a beefier powertrain.

The 2023 BMW X1 arrives at U.S. stores in the fourth quarter. Pricing starts at $39,595, including shipping.

Launched in 2009, the entry-level crossover opened the door to a new vehicle category in the premium segment. Last year, BMW sold 18,253 X1 models. It was last redesigned in 2016.

Previously among the smallest in the class, the larger X1 will be better positioned against the competition, which includes the Audi Q3, Mercedes-Benz GLA and Volvo XC40.

BMW's focus has always been the pleasure of driving, and the X1 is the brand's chance to lure young buyers into the family, said Sam Fiorani, vice president at AutoForecast Solutions.

"While most vehicles provide transportation, BMW wants buyers looking to be entertained by the vehicle," Fiorani said.…

A defective battery pack caught fire over the weekend at the Rivian Automotive Inc. plant in Normal, Ill., leading to the evacuation of the portion of the plant where battery packs are tested for the automaker's electric vehicles, Electrek reported Tuesday. The cause was under investigation.

According to the Normal Fire Department, firefighters arrived at the plant at 10:38 a.m. Saturday, where they found a battery pack in thermal runaway — meaning it had overheated and caught fire.

"Firefighters connected hoses to standpipes inside the building and extinguished the battery pack fire and then continued to flow water on the pack to keep it cool to prevent further thermal runaway from occurring," the department said in a statement.

In an email to Automotive News, a Rivian spokesperson wrote that the battery pack was already identified as faulty prior to the fire and that Rivian was actively investigating the cause of the defect.

"No injuries occurre…