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Subaru is resurrecting the top-level tS trim on the 2024 BRZ coupe early next year with an improved tuned suspension and high-performance brakes. The brand's EyeSight driver-assistance features will be standard, marking the first time on a model equipped with a manual transmission.

The Japanese brand first showed the 2024 BRZ tS at an enthusiast gathering Sunday in Arcadia, Calif. Pricing was not announced. The tS trim was last available on the 2020 BRZ.

Through June this year, BRZ sales in the U.S. were up 51 percent to 2,512 vehicles.

Powered by a 2.4-liter naturally aspirated boxer engine paired with a six-speed manual transmission, the 2024 BRZ tS produces up to 228 hp and up to 184 pound-feet of torque.

The EyeSight system includes adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warning and pre-collision braking assist. The tS trim, based on the Limited trim level, also includes special internal and external badging.

Bollinger Motors Inc. aims to invest $44 million at its Detroit area manufacturing plant and headquarters in an expansion that would create 237 jobs.

The homegrown electric truck startup, bought by Mullen Automotive Inc. last year, is preparing to launch production of its first vehicle, a Class 4 EV, in the first half of next year, according to a briefing memo from the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

The board of the MEDC's funding arm, the Michigan Strategic Fund, on Tuesday approved a $3 million performance-based grant for the project, which the MEDC said would offset the additional cost of expanding in Michigan versus a competing site in Indiana.

The jobs are expected to pay an average of $55.37 per hour plus benefits. The company presently employs 55 in Michigan. Bollinger will also team with Michigan Works to recruit local talent in disadvantaged areas, the memo said.

Bollinger has identified a third-party assembly manufacturer in Livon…

LONDON – Jaguar Land Rover sees the U.S. as key to the future success of the Jaguar brand, which is being reinvented.

JLR is overhauling Jaguar by reducing its model range and pushing the brand higher upmarket to compete with Bentley and Porsche instead of Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

The U.S. market was central to the success of Jaguar in the 1990s.

"This brand was incredibly successful in North America 25 years ago before we took the compromises and the decisions we made," JLR CEO Adrian Mardell told investors last month.

Jaguar's past U.S. success is now “lost within Ford Motor Company data,” said Mardell, who was confirmed as JLR CEO on July 20 after holding the position on an interim basis.

Mardell joined JLR in 1990, the year after Ford bought the company from British Leyland. Back then, Jaguar was targeting a much richer customer. Its XJ sedan started at $54,750 in the U.S., equivalent to around $100,000 today, while the XK coupe cost fr…

Hyundai Motor Co. wants to speed up completion rates of a software patch that will protect its vehicles targeted by thieves following a national social media-driven crime wave.

The automaker is staging a mobile service center in Washington, D.C., this week for owners of the affected vehicles residing within 25 miles of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, where the event will take place.

According to company spokesperson Ira Gabriel, about 37,000 Hyundai owners were alerted via email about the opportunity.

The service center will cover two of the stadium's parking lots. Technicians will be on-site to install and complete the software upgrade, a process Hyundai estimates will take less than an hour.

Gabriel said the clinic is the first in what could be a series of events and is a response to its dealer network being swamped with customers asking for the software update.

In a statement, Hyundai said the clinic is "intended to complement Hyun…

Join us at noon Thursday for a LinkedIn Live chat on the 2023 UAW contract talks with Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University.

The discussion, where we will take questions from the audience, will also be simulcast on Facebook.

Wheaton will be joined by Automotive News Executive Editor Jamie Butters and Staff Reporter Michael Martinez as they discuss the top issues facing both unionized workers and the Detroit 3 automakers.

We welcome questions and comments in advance and encourage Automotive News readers to submit voice notes about UAW contract talks to [email protected]

Chevron Corp. is considering opportunities to produce lithium that would be used in EV batteries, CEO Mike Wirth said in a Bloomberg interview.

Extracting lithium fits with the “core capabilities” of a company like Chevron that has deep experience producing oil and gas, Wirth said on Sunday, without providing details of specific plans.

Earlier in July, Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Darren Woods said the energy giant is exploring opportunities to produce lithium. The price and availability of lithium is crucial to whether EVs can scale up.

The lithium interest from U.S. oil majors contrasts with their counterparts in Europe, which have been more aggressive in certain energy-transition areas like wind, solar and power services.

U.S. companies have focused on adjacent areas of their fossil fuel business such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and lithium. Chevron itself has made clear it has no plans to invest significantly in big wind and solar proje…

Audi’s sales chief Hildegard Wortmann joins the show to talk about what she calls the brand's largest product initiative ever. Wholesale used-car pricing is set to rebound. And Unifor is taking a less adversarial approach to contract talks than the UAW.

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An electric truck previously damaged from a fire behind Nikola Corp.'s headquarters in Phoenix reignited Sunday afternoon, the company said.

"At approximately 2 p.m. at Nikola headquarters, one of the trucks that was previously damaged reignited. No one was injured and the fire was quickly contained. The damaged trucks have remained at the company's HQ site for safety monitoring and the ongoing investigations," the company said in the statement.

There were no injuries reported.

On June 23, a fire behind the Nikola headquarters destroyed two trucks and heavily damaged another two.

Nikola said it suspected foul play behind the fire last month. The June fire affected multiple trucks but caused no injuries.

"Foul play is suspected as a vehicle was seen in the area of the affected trucks just prior to the incident and an investigation is underway," the company said in a tweet that day.

But foul play has not yet been confirmed by the Pho…

A high-performing service department has long been the key to a profitable dealership. It carries even more importance today, as other areas have struggled due to inventory allocation, fluctuating consumer demand, and changing customer preferences. Measuring service-to-sales conversion performance is key to knowing how you stack up against your competition. Service departments continue to drive profitability for dealerships but, more importantly, remain the primary source to build strong, long-term loyalty with customers. The more dealers can do to make service a valuable experience for the customer, the harder it will be for them to shop around when it comes time to purchase their next new vehicle.

Toyota Motor Corp. has dismissed some workers at one of its plants in China, three workers told Reuters, as the Japanese automaker struggles with a price war and sales slump in the world's largest auto market.

The joint venture between Toyota and China's state-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) laid off the workers over the weekend and offered them compensation, said the workers, who declined to be named for privacy.

The workers affected were hired by labor service companies and dispatched to work at the factory of GAC Toyota in the southern city of Guangzhou.

Reuters was unable to determine how many workers in total were dismissed. GAC and Toyota did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

The GAC Toyota factory has an annual output capacity of 1 million vehicles and employs around 19,000 people, according to its website. It produces models including Camry, Levin and bZ4X.

Toyota's move comes after peer Mitsub…

NEW DELHI - Tesla representatives are set to meet India's commerce minister this month to discuss plans to build a factory to produce what the company has described as a new $24,000 car, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Tesla has expressed an interest in building a factory in India to produce low-cost EVs for the local market and for export, the person said, adding that the company had indicated the factory would be for the new vehicle.

The meeting with the commerce minister would be the highest level discussions between Tesla and the Indian government since June when Elon Musk met India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said he intended to make a significant investment in the country.

The 2 million rupee ($24,000) EV Tesla representatives were said to have described in discussions about an Indian plant would be 25 percent cheaper than its lowest priced offering, the Model 3 sedan, selling for a bit more than $32,200 in China.<…

General Motors is launching a new advertising campaign that aims to reposition its OnStar service as the digital connection underpinning in-vehicle safety, connectivity and entertainment.

The campaign set to launch Monday gives OnStar a new tagline — "Better Never Stops" — and includes a commercial promoting the brand as the link behind all of GM's vehicle technology, from its Super Cruise hands-free driver-assist technology to real-time navigation.

Previously, OnStar used the tagline "Be Safe Out There," which GM said will continue to be part of safety-related messaging.

GM is transitioning to an all-electric lineup and developing its Ultifi software platform, which will enable software-defined vehicles offering apps and other features through over-the-air updates. The automaker has said it expects software and subscription services to generate revenue in the range of $20 billion to $25 billion by 2030.

Amid that transition, the automaker in re…