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On a Wednesday afternoon in May, an Uber driver in San Francisco was about to run out of charge on his Nissan Leaf. Normally this would mean finding a place to plug in and wait for a half hour, at least. But this Leaf was different.

Instead of plugging in, the driver pulled into a swapping station near Mission Bay, where a set of robot arms lifted the car off the ground, unloaded the depleted batteries and replaced them with a fully charged set. Twelve minutes later the Leaf pulled away with 32 kilowatt-hours of energy, enough to drive about 130 miles, for a cost of $13.

A swap like this is a rare event in the U.S. The Leaf's replaceable battery is made by Ample, one of the only companies that offers a service that is more popular in markets in Asia. In March, Ample announced that it had deployed five stations around the Bay Area. Nearly 100 Uber drivers are using them, the company says, making an average of 1.3 swaps per day.

Am…

An Audi dealership that was one of the stores at the center of a lawsuit filed by Volkswagen of America against Napleton Automotive Group has been acquired by another dealership group.

Burlington Automotive Group acquired Audi Wyoming Valley in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on May 17 from Wyoming Valley Motors.

Burlington Automotive, led by Randy Lebowitz, Jake Lebowitz and Wayne Hileman, now has nine dealerships, according to DCG Acquisitions, a Dave Cantin Group company. Dave Cantin and Brian Brown of DCG Acquisitions handled the transaction.

Napleton Automotive had been set to acquire the Audi dealership on multiple occasions dating to at least 2016. The latest deal collapsed last year.

Volkswagen of America last year asked a federal court in Pennsylvania to enforce a 2017 court order related to that store, and a judge ruled in August 2020 in Volkswagen's favor, deeming purchase agreements between Napleton and Wyoming Valley for its Audi store and a Volk…

McDonald Automotive Group, with dealerships in Littleton and Lakewood in Colorado, bought three stores this month in the state, adding brands to its portfolio.

McDonald on June 17 purchased Ehrlich Toyota East and Ehrlich Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram, both in Fort Morgan, from Scott Ehrlich and John Motschall, plus Ehrlich Toyota in Greeley from the Ehrlich family, former owner Scott Ehrlich said.

The stores have been renamed McDonald Toyota of Fort Morgan, McDonald Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram of Fort Morgan and McDonald Toyota.

The McDonald group, which dates back more than 50 years and now is led by the fourth generation of the family, also sells Mazda, Volkswagen, Volvo, Audi, Hyundai and Genesis vehicles.

Ehrlich said McDonald approached him about the sale.

"I was a reluctant seller," Ehrlich told Automotive News, adding that he will retain his Toyota of Laramie store in Wyoming.

McDonald Automotive Group, in a statement, said it is del…

WASHINGTON — The Alliance for Automotive Innovation is calling on NHTSA to reconsider its plan to end a national pilot program that would allow the agency to facilitate and monitor the testing and development of automated vehicles and assure the safety of those activities.

In a letter sent Thursday to NHTSA Acting Administrator Steve Cliff, the alliance argues that a national AV pilot program is "an important component of a much needed and long overdue federal regulatory framework for AVs."

The alliance — which represents most automakers in the U.S. as well as some suppliers and tech companies that are developing AV technologies — said a pilot program also could enable the safe and responsible testing and deployment of AVs at a larger scale under NHTSA oversight, allowing the agency to gather necessary data and research to establish a longer-term regulatory framework for AVs and tackling consumer acceptance challenges.

The group is asking NHTSA to meet w…

DETROIT — Rory Gamble, the 13th president of the UAW, who inherited a union in crisis and helped avert a federal takeover after prosecutors proved his two predecessors were corrupt, has elected to retire a year early.

Gamble on Friday informed the union's International Executive Board of his decision -- effective June 30 -- which he has been considering for months. Even if he wanted to continue in the role, a longstanding tradition of officers not running for reelection after they turn 65 years old would have prohibited Gamble, 65, from seeking another term.

"I said on Day One I would hand over the keys to this treasured institution as a clean union," Gamble said in a statement. "My original intent as a UAW Vice President was to retire at the end of June 2021, and after looking at the progress we have made and the best interests of UAW members for a stable transfer of power, this is the right time for me to turn over the reins."

While the UAW did not imm…

The Tesla Model 3 sedan has become the first all-electric vehicle to top Cars.com's annual American-Made Index, beating out the Ford Mustang.

The Model 3, assembled in Fremont, Calif., jumped to the No. 1 spot from No. 4 last year. It is the first time Tesla Inc. has topped the list after having three vehicles in the top nine in 2020.

The Mustang, built near Detroit in Flat Rock, Mich., made its first top 10 appearance this year.

The 2021 index comes amid a microchip shortage and heightened consumer demand.

"Despite this, there remains a high consumer focus on buying American-made vehicles as the economy is still emerging from the effects of the pandemic," Kelsey Mays, Cars.com assistant managing editor and the index's lead researcher, said in a press release.

Tesla also took the No. 3 spot this year, with the Model Y crossover.

Tesla scores well in the index's analysis of U.S. manufacturing work force and domestic powertrain sourcin…

Mercedes-Benz USA said on Thursday sensitive personal information of nearly 1,000 customers and interested buyers was inadvertently made accessible on a cloud storage platform.

No Mercedes-Benz system was compromised and no files were maliciously misused, the company added.

The data accidentally made accessible comprised self-reported credit scores, driver license and social security numbers and credit card information that was entered by customers and interested buyers on dealer and company websites between January 2014 and June 2017.

Mercedes said any individual who had credit card information, a driver's license number or a social security number included in the data will be offered a complimentary two-year subscription to a credit monitoring service.

"Data security is a serious matter for MBUSA," the company said in a statement. "Our vendor confirmed that the issue is corrected and that such an event cannot be replicated. We will continue our …

GM Financial will stop working with non-General Motors dealerships on off-lease vehicle payoffs starting July 1 to ensure GM dealerships have "priority access" to the vehicles coming back to market, according to a message obtained by Automotive News.

The microchip shortage is the primary motivator of the policy change, a GM spokesperson confirmed via email, "to better support our GM dealers through the current economic environment and the challenges they're encountering sourcing quality pre-owned vehicles."

Joe Bartuch, executive vice president of U.S. sales and credit for the lender, told GM that the captive finance company would notify customers over the coming weeks that the terms of their lease agreement stipulate they "are only able to submit a lease purchase request ... by contacting GM Financial Customer Experience or working with a participating GM dealership."

The policy will be in place for the remainder of 2021. GM Financial will then reassess…

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden pledged support for a bipartisan infrastructure framework that would uphold his goal of building 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations nationwide while slashing the funding allotted to do so.

The $1.2 trillion agreement was unveiled Thursday by the White House after the president and Vice President Kamala Harris met with a bipartisan group of 10 senators, including Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Rob Portman of Ohio.

The plan, which likely faces a challenge from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, would provide $7.5 billion to build a national EV charging network along highways and in rural and disadvantaged communities, according to a White House fact sheet on the agreement. It also would provide $7.5 billion to electrify thousands of school and transit buses and boost domestic manufacturing of zero-emission vehicles and parts.

Biden had previously called for $174 billion to boost EVs, includ…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Robotaxi company Zoox details safety innovations in AV 'transparency' initiative

In its second publicly released safety report, Zoox Inc. is offering details about nine of the more than 100 proprietary safety features not found in conventional vehicles that the company is using to further its self-driving vision.

The technologies include rider protection in the vehicle.

The self-driving startup, owned by e-commerce giant Amazon, released the report Tuesday, after it revealed its electric, "purpose-built," autonomous robotaxi in December. Zoox says it expects to release additional reports, including information on its collision avoidance, external lighting and sound and emergency vehicle-detection systems, as well as information on its vehicles' structural energy absorbers that dampen impacts from collisions.

"You want to build trust for AVs, you need data, you need transparency and you need experience," Mark Rosekin…