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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.

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Volvo Cars is cruising through a product transformation as it steers toward an all-electric future by the start of the next decade.

The Swedish automaker has told dealers that it expects to launch seven new and redesigned electrified models, including five battery-electric vehicles.

The first two are due next year and will bookend Volvo's crossover lineup.

Volvo's newest flagship, the EX90 large crossover, arrives on a new all-electric platform in the second half of next year. Software development issues related to the platform have delayed start of production by five or six months.

But first, Volvo will deliver its smallest, most affordable and fastest accelerating vehicle in the first half of 2024.

The EX30 compact crossover starts at $36,145 including shipping, and its performance variant can zip from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds. Also in the pipeline are all-electric versions of the XC60 midsize crossover and S90 large sedan.

Whi…

Before the end of the year, JLR says it will give an early look at the first of three new all-electric Jaguars that will begin appearing in 2025.

Although JLR officials updated the progress on their plan to reinvent Jaguar as a low-volume, super-premium luxury brand cast more in the mold of Bentley and Aston Martin than BMW and Audi, there are still more questions than answers as the 2023 model year winds down.

Will there be just one new Jaguar in 2025 until JLR builds out the lineup? JLR has said one new EV model will be launched each year after 2025. If all of the current lineup dies in 2025, Jaguar showrooms are likely to be largely empty and lonely places with just one model.

What will the U.S. Jaguar dealer network look like? This year, JLR has been encouraging Jaguar dealers to terminate their franchise agreements in exchange for a greater allocation of hot-selling Land Rovers.

JLR officials have not been forthcoming with many of those and…

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…