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Hurricane Ida battered southeastern Louisiana with torrential rainfall and high winds Sunday and Monday, causing flooding and extensive power outages throughout the region and forcing auto dealerships to close.

More than 1 million homes and businesses in the state were without electricity Monday morning. All of New Orleans lost power Sunday evening because Ida caused extensive damage to the transmission system of Entergy, the city's main utility.

Ray Brandt Auto Group has nine stores in the state. Several are clustered around New Orleans. The group said in a Facebook post that all of its dealerships would be closed on Monday.

Southland Dodge, a Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram-Fiat dealership in Houma, La., closed Saturday in anticipation of the storm.

Premier Automotive Group’s five Louisiana stores experienced no major damage but lost power, dealer principal Troy Duhon told Automotive News.

The group’s corporate office was vandalized and a vehic…

A 2019 Tesla Model 3 reportedly driving on Autopilot mode crashed into a parked Florida Highway Patrol car Saturday morning, according to a police report.

The state trooper had stopped to help the driver of a disabled 2012 Mercedes-Benz GLK350 on an interstate highway near downtown Orlando around 5 a.m. when the incident occurred, the report states.

The emergency lights were activated on the state patrol car -- a 2018 Dodge Charger -- when the 26-year-old female driver in the Tesla slammed into it and then crashed into the disabled vehicle, narrowly missing the trooper, the report says. There were no major injuries.

The Tesla's Autopilot advanced driver-assistance system was engaged when it struck the patrol car, police officials tweeted.

A NHTSA spokesperson had no immediate comment on the matter.

U.S. auto safety regulators this month opened an investigation into the EV maker's Autopilot mode after a series of collisions with first respo…

The Munich auto show, finally taking place Sept. 7-12, hasn't had an easy go of it. The expo, also known as IAA Mobility 2021, was intended to succeed Frankfurt as a still-Germanic go-to European show after the Frankfurt effort succumbed to automaker marketing pull-backs and consumer indifference in 2019.

Then a new complication hit, COVID-19.

Primarily, the fledgling Munich show is organized in three pieces:

The Summit, a traditional trade show Open Space, mostly outdoor interactive exhibits around the city Blue Lane, which "will connect the city center and the trade show with a test track where forward-looking mobility becomes a real experience."

Still, it's largely going to be a German-centric show for a German-centric audience, with some outside automakers dropping in new products or concepts because it has become harder to find an auto show that's still running right now. And while there may be some surprises, here's what's known or likely to be …

Honda has traditionally sponsored a week of community service among its employees, dealers and suppliers that marks the June founding of American Honda Motor Co. in 1959. But after canceling last year's effort because of the coronavirus pandemic, the automaker decided to think bigger for 2021 and made its Team Honda Week of Service last the entire summer.

Activities have included restocking food banks that were depleted during the ups and downs of the coronavirus crisis and helping with school supplies.

Expanding the effort to the entire summer "allows us flexibility to work with nonprofit organizations who faced increased demand but that were also still operating in that COVID environment," Yvette Hunsicker, vice president of corporate social responsibility, inclusion and diversity at American Honda, told Automotive News.

The service projects attempt to meet needs in individual communities across North America, where conditions diff…

Batteries have risen to the forefront of policy discussions as governments around the world commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With the global market for electric vehicle batteries expected to hit almost $1 trillion by 2030, the U.S., China and Europe are jockeying for position in the race to produce cheaper, more efficient and safer batteries at scale.

As China dominates lithium ion battery production and builds factories at breakneck speed, Europe is on its tail, aiming to become the second-biggest battery cell-producing region by 2025. Although the U.S. has more technological innovation at its disposal, it needs to make significant strides to catch up.

The manufacturing of lithium ion batteries depends on key materials such as graphite, lithium and cobalt. These materials are used in today's active cathode materials and chemistries found in high-performing batteries: lithium ion, solid-state and silicon.

Chinese che…

Display screens got bigger. And then bigger. And then they swiveled. And now, with Mitsubishi Electric Corp.'s soon-to-debut Firebird platform, a driver can rotate the screen from vertical to horizontal. More significantly, Firebird serves as an integrated digital cockpit controller, using Amazon Alexa to execute vehicle functions through an Android 10 operating system.

Nissan jumped into the brave new world of digital retailing this spring, rolling out a nationwide online shopping platform.

And while hundreds of dealers have already adopted the retail tool, Nissan faces a sales job to get hundreds more on board.

While digital retailing is rapidly sweeping over the retail industry, some dealers are cautious about becoming early adopters of new platforms.

At the same time, public dealership groups with several franchises are unlikely to adopt a factory platform because they have standardized digital retailing systems across multiple brands.

But Nissan is hoping to overcome the hesitancy with a glitzy marketing campaign to win over dealers and drive consumer awareness of [email protected]

The campaign will kick into high gear in November and run through the end of the year.

"We're treating this with the magnitude of a vehicle launch," Nissan U.S. Vice Pres…

DETROIT — The new products are just the beginning.

Ford Motor Co. has shaken up its vehicle lineup in recent years, cutting slow-selling models and investing heavily in its well-known Mustang and Bronco subbrands, in a bid to increase profits while boasting the industry's freshest showroom.

Executives plan to continue adding exciting products and constantly update what's already in showrooms. But now the company is going further.

CEO Jim Farley laid out his strategy, dubbed Ford+, at an investor presentation this year. It involves connected technology and experiences that will lead to what he calls an "always-on" relationship with buyers aimed at keeping them in the Ford fold.

"Great products alone are not sufficient, though, to deliver Ford+," Farley said on the company's second-quarter earnings call. " 'Always-on' means we are regularly interacting with our customers on things large and small, and we're building new capabilities like connected…

TOKYO — Even as it pushes ahead with big plans for electric vehicles, Hyundai Motor Group is readying a hydrogen blitz.

Hyundai, one of only a handful of auto industry true believers in the potential of hydrogen-powered vehicles, plans to present a vision for the future next week, showing how compressed gas can power everything from cars to freight haulers and all manner of new mobility.

Promo videos for the planned Sept. 7 event tease a high-powered racer tearing up a track, a buslike cross-country cargo mover, and the promise of the ability to "charge hydrogen, wherever you are."

"Join the hydrogen future full of surprises," the clips beseech.

The South Korean carmaker is billing the public proclamation as "Hydrogen Wave."

But the forum is expected to go beyond vehicles of the future by outlining plans for a hydrogen infrastructure that covers next-generation fuel cell systems, fueling networks and other…

Fairfax Assembly, a 34-year-old plant perched on the Kansas side of the Missouri River, has played a major role in keeping General Motors' profits flowing in as the microchip shortage hobbles global auto production.

It's just not the role that the more than 1,800 people who work there want.

The plant, which makes the Chevrolet Malibu sedan and Cadillac XT4 crossover, has built nothing since the first week of February as GM diverts chips to plants that make more profitable vehicles. In the nearly seven months that Fairfax has been dark, GM's full-size SUV plant in Texas hasn't canceled a single scheduled day of production, and four other North American plants have missed less than two weeks.

No automaker has kept an assembly plant offline this year more than Fairfax has been.

"A lot of depression and anxiety has set in. It's a nonstop culture of 'what's next?' " said Anthony Walker, an employee assistance program work-f…