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SHANGHAI — CATL, the world's largest electric vehicle battery manufacturer, reported a 24 percent drop in first-quarter profit on Friday, the supplier's first decline in two years, as it battles soaring raw material costs and a resurgence of COVID-19 in China.

CATL, whose customers include Tesla, Volkswagen Group and BMW Group, booked a net profit of 1.49 billion yuan ($226.69 million), a filing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange showed.

That was down from 1.95 billion yuan profit a year earlier despite revenue rising sharply to 48.68 billion yuan from 19.17 billion yuan a year earlier.

Prices of key metals such as lithium nearly doubled in the first three months, weighing on CATL's profit margins and prompting it to raise battery prices in March.

Other battery makers have also reported lower earnings for the latest quarter, hit by rising raw material costs and supply chain disruptions. South Korea's LG Energy Solution reported a 24 precent quarterly…

Elon Musk sold about $4 billion worth of Tesla Inc. stock days after reaching a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter Inc.

The Tesla chief executive officer offloaded 4.4 million shares April 26 and April 27, according to regulatory filings. Musk has now disposed of more than $20 billion worth of stock in the electric-car maker during the last six months.

Musk reached an agreement on April 25 to acquire Twitter using a financing plan that's alarmed some Tesla investors. In addition to pledging tens of billions of dollars worth of his Tesla shares to support margin loans, Musk has vowed to line up some $21 billion worth of equity. It's been unclear how much of that would come from selling a portion of his Tesla stake.

Tesla shares rose 3.2 percent as of 6:30 a.m. Friday in New York, before the start of regular trading. The company has shed about $275 billion in market value since Musk first disclosed having taken a stake in Twitter early this month.

"It'…

Pricing for Acura's 2023 Integra compact sport sedan will start at $31,894, including delivery, when the nameplate returns to the market in early June.

The price puts the fifth-generation Integra into competition with the Audi A3, Mercedes-Benz CLA and BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe. All three German offerings demand a base price more than $33,000. The CLA's cost of entry is $39,250, including delivery.

Acrura also is including two years or 24,000 miles of scheduled maintenance as part of a new program called Acura Maintenance.

The complementary service is part of a customer retention initiative that Honda and Acura and its dealers are focused on during times of uncertainty, said Dave Gardner, American Honda executive vice president of national operations.

"We're going to include two years of prepaid maintenance on our 2023 vehicles, the idea being to keep the customers in the dealer network for as long as we can," Gardner told Automotive News. The maint…

PARIS -- Plastic Omnium has agreed to buy the European and North American lighting units of Varroc Engineering, a Tier 1 Indian supplier, for 600 million euros ($631). The French supplier said Friday that it will create a new lighting business unit with expected revenue of 1 billion euros, including sales from Osram Automotive Lighting Systems, which it bought last year for 65 million euros. Plastic Omnium had also sought to acquire the German lighting supplier Hella, its partner on front-end modules, but lost out to French rival Faurecia. Varroc Engineering, based in Aurangabad, India, will retain its four-wheeler lighting operations in Asia and said it will continue to operate its China joint venture and its other businesses in countries such as Italy, Vietnam, Poland and Romania. 

Varroc’s lighting activities operate as Varroc Lighting Systems, and are based near Detroit in Plymouth, Mich. The company's roots date to the 19th century, and it&nb…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Recent updates are reminder of China’s big role in AV world

Sometimes it's easy to be lulled into the belief that San Francisco ranks as the first major robotaxi battleground, with Waymo and Cruise providing service there and Zoox ostensibly not far behind.

But it's a provincial view of the industry. Don't discount developments on the streets of Beijing, where Baidu and Pony.ai both received permits from regulators to expand the scope of their service in the city.

Starting Thursday, Baidu was authorized to operate driverless service open to the public in the city during certain daytime hours. The company says 10 AVs will begin offering rides within a designated 60-square-kilometer section of the city. They join a fleet already operating as part of Apollo Go, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service.

Meanwhile, Toyota-backed Pony.ai, which has been testing in Beijing since October, received a permit for public robotaxi ope…

Asbury Automotive Group Inc. now seeks to produce $32 billion in revenue by 2025 — including $6.2 billion that would come from buying more companies.

The revised 2025 revenue target announced Thursday is 60 percent higher than the $20 billion goal the public dealership group had set for the same timetable in December 2020. Asbury, which has been on a store buying spree highlighted by its December purchase of Larry H. Miller Dealerships, already had exceeded the portion of its previous goal slated to come from acquisitions.

"What was surprising was the extent of the upsizing of the 2025 Strategic Growth Plan," Seaport Research senior analyst Glenn Chin wrote to investors on Thursday. Chin specifically highlighted that $32 billion revenue goal and a $55-earnings-per-share target.

The $32 billion figure represents more than three times Asbury's 2021 revenue of $9.84 billion. But that 2021 number mostly fails to reflect Asbury's big deals last year, particu…

WASHINGTON -- A key swing vote Democratic senator on Thursday questioned the need for electric vehicle tax credits in the face of strong consumer demand and Chinese production of battery components.

Senator Joe Manchin, who is a crucial vote in the evenly divided Senate, raised concerns about the tax credit at a Senate hearing with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

"There's a waiting list for EVs right now with the fuel price at $4. But they still want us to throw $5,000 or $7,000 or $12,000 credit to buy electric vehicles. It makes no sense to me whatsoever," Manchin said. "When we can't produce enough product for the people that want it and we're still going to pay them to take it -- it's absolutely ludicrous in my mind."

Automakers are investing tens of billions of dollars to ramp up EV production and some fear the window is closing for Congress to extend EV tax credits given Republicans may retake control of one or both houses of Congress nex…

There has been a sharp increase in the number of catalytic converters being stolen across the country, resulting in vehicles stacking up in dealership service departments as customers endure costly and lengthy repairs and manufacturers, police and legislators search for a way to curb the thefts.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau said there were 14,433 catalytic converter thefts reported in the U.S. in 2020, the last year figures were available. That's a fourfold increase from 3,389 theft cases reported in 2019. In 2018, there were just 1,298 thefts reported. Officials hinted that 2021 figures could show a dramatic increase.

On one day in April in Houston, AutoNation Toyota Gulf Freeway had 66 vehicles waiting to have their catalytic converters replaced after thieves stole them. Two of those vehicles were back for a second time after being targeted again.

While any vehicle can fall prey to thieves, some Toyota models are coveted because their catalytic…

Asbury Automotive Group Inc. generated record net income in the first quarter that was fueled by its 2021 acquisitions and higher profits in all dealership business lines.

Asbury on Thursday reported first-quarter net income of $237.7 million, more than 2.5 times the $92.8 million it produced a year earlier. Asbury reported first-quarter revenue of $3.91 billion, up 78 percent. On a same-store basis, revenue rose 5 percent to $2.28 billion.

Shares in Asbury surged 10.5 percen to $174.79 in afternoon trading on Thursday.

The results were buoyed by a slew of new locations. Asbury added a net $5.8 billion in annual revenue through those 2021 acquisitions, most of which closed during the final months of last year. Asbury's biggest deal was its December purchase of Larry H. Miller Dealerships and its finance and insurance products provider Total Care Auto.

"We see tremendous opportunity ahead of us as we roll out [digital retailing platform] Clicklan…

Sonic Automotive Inc.'s first-quarter net income soared 80 percent to $97.3 million despite a drop in used-vehicle sales from its growing EchoPark brand. The dealership group reported slight increase in retail sales at its expanding portfolio of franchised dealerships.

Revenue for the Charlotte, N.C., retailer rose 29 percent to $3.6 billion, a first-quarter record, Sonic said.

On the franchised dealership side, average gross profit per retail new vehicle more than doubled to $6,771 in the first quarter, Sonic said, while average gross profit per used vehicle also increased.

Sonic said total F&I gross profit per retail vehicle hit $2,495, an all-time quarterly record.

The group's standalone EchoPark used-vehicle stores generated record first-quarter revenue of $625.3 million, but higher expenses led to a $34.9 million loss for the unit.

"Despite inventory constraints and inflation due to ongoing supply chain issues, we continue to see s…

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday said it is cutting 580 salaried and agency jobs in the U.S. as it reorganizes under two new divisions.

The automaker is eliminating about 350 salaried and 280 agency positions on U.S. engineering teams, according to a spokeswoman. Ford alerted affected employees earlier Wednesday.

"We continue to align staffing around the critical skills needed to deliver our products, services, and the Ford+ plan," a Ford spokeswoman said in a statement.

The job cuts were reported earlier Wednesday by the Detroit Free Press.

Ford earlier this year separated its business into two divisions to focus on gasoline and battery-powered vehicles. Executives at the time did not rule out job cuts.

"There's going to have to be a change in the skill mix," Kumar Galhotra, president of the Ford Blue division, told investors in March. "We will reduce skills in certain areas, and we'll have to invest more in other areas. So, nothi…

BERLIN -- Volkswagen is considering an expansion of its Chattanooga plant in the United States to produce an electric pickup and the new ID Buzz electric microbus, a source close to the matter told Reuters.

The move would help the automaker to increase its market share in North America, which it identified in March as the region with the greatest growth potential, but which was unprofitable for several years before 2021.

VW said in March it was shifting production to the U.S. and China as a result of the war in Ukraine, which has caused production stoppages at its European plans because of parts shortages.

The automaker plans to invest at least $7.1 billion over the next five years in North America and add 25 new electric vehicles there by 2030, with the aim of 50 percent of sales to be electric by then.

The Chattanooga plant, its only U.S. plant so far, produces models including the Passat and Atlas. It started pilot production of the ID4 full-…