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The Tata Nano, billed as the world's most inexpensive car, priced as low as $2,000, is formally introduced on March 23, 2009, in Mumbai, giving more residents of one the world's most populous countries the chance to buy a car for the first time.

Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, who personally championed the project, saw the Tata as a replacement for the droves of motorcycles and scooters on India's roads.

The herculean task of engineering and building the Nano became a source of national pride and industrial perseverance in India.

Since the Nano was first shown, Tata's main production plant had to be moved following land protests, the company posted its first annual loss in seven year and its credit rating was downgraded with the threat of further downgrades.

Because demand far outstripped supply, the first 100,000 owners were picked at random.

The Nano body and chassis were made of steel while the bumpers w…

In the roughly two-plus minutes it takes to brush your teeth, Carvana sells — or buys — another car.

That analogy comes from the online used-car retailer's Online Car Buyer Report, which reports that Carvana sold 244,000 vehicles in 2020 — or one every 2.2 minutes on average. Sales volume rose 37 percent compared with 2019 — an impressive jump though a slowdown from triple-digit growth in prior years.

Maybe even more important is that Carvana last year also bought a vehicle from a customer every 2.5 minutes on average for a total of 203,000 purchased during 2020. In the aforementioned report, Carvana touted its digital-first sales as a safe, contactless way for people to get rid of their vehicles.

Carvana, like other used-vehicle retailers, is keen on buying consumer vehicles, particularly as it seeks a bigger share of the used-vehicle market.

We frequently hear from dealers that the hunt for decent used inventory has only gotten harder. Some hit …

DETROIT -- BorgWarner Inc. on Tuesday said it targets boosting its share of revenue from electric vehicles to about 45 percent by 2030 from less than 3 percent now.

The Auburn Hills, Mich., company said its plan comprises three approaches -- profitably scaling electric light vehicles, expanding into electric commercial vehicles and optimizing its combustion-engine portfolio through the planned disposal of businesses with between $3 billion and $4 billion in aggregate revenue.

It sees revenue from EVs growing to about $10 billion in 2030 from about $350 million this year. BorgWarner sees overall revenue growing from an estimated $15 billion this year to about $18 billion in 2025 and more than $22 billion in 2030.

"We've presented an acceleration towards electrification," BorgWarner CEO Frederic Lissalde said in an interview. "The market is pulling in such a way that a lot of our backlog is on battery-electric vehicles. W…

South Motors CEO Jonathan Chariff opens up about the company's virtual wellness programs and how the tools are helping employees stay physically and mentally fit amid the pandemic.

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A Detroit judge ruled Volkswagen Group does not have to face a $750 million lawsuit by a unit of supplier Prevent Group, who alleged the automaker sought to strangle the company's business over a pricing dispute.

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman on Monday threw out a 2019 antitrust suit filed by Prevent USA, accusing VW of launching a corporate dirty-tricks campaign to interfere with its acquisitions, cut it off as a supplier and make an example out of the Bosnia-based company.

The case was among more than a half-dozen suits the two companies have filed against each other in three countries regarding a 2016 pricing squabble over Prevent's decision to cut off parts supplies to VW. Judges in Germany have split their rulings in the cases.

Friedman said Prevent's suit was a "continuation of an ongoing dispute" currently before the German courts over the Bosnian company's allegations VW is trying to drive it out of business. The judge threw it out on…

QuantumScape Corp., an EV battery startup that went public via a reverse merger, said it’s seeking to raise as much as $859 million to fund expansion of a battery pilot line.

Shares of the San Jose, Calif.-based company have rallied 18 percent since Feb. 15, the day before it announced it had cleared a key hurdle in the development of its solid-state battery tech. At the time, it also said it would build a 200,000-square-foot pilot line in California to make prototype cells for its partner, Volkswagen Group, and other potential automotive customers.

The company is now seeking to more than double the capacity of that pilot line, dubbed QS-0, it said in a regulatory filing Monday. QuantumScape seeks “to provide more prototype cells to Volkswagen” as well as other automakers and “prospective customers in other industries,” according to the filing.

The company will use proceeds from the share sale to build the pilot line and secure a lease for the pilot prod…

Kia Motors America has tapped automotive industry veteran Michael McHale to lead its U.S. brand experience endeavors, the automaker said Monday.

The role is new, according to the company. McHale will take the title of director of brand experience and lead "all aspects" of Kia Motors America public relations and external communications, which includes events, auto shows and strategic partnerships. He started in the job effective Monday, Kia said.

McHale's 25 years in the industry made him ideal for the position, Kia said in a statement. From 2007 to 2018, he was director of corporate communications for Subaru of America. He also has held roles in the communications divisions of the BMW, Land Rover and Mini brands.

McHale presided over corporate communications for Rivian Automotive, an EV startup based in Irvine, Calif., from 2018 to 2019.

"As the industry shifts to electrification, Michael's experience will be instrumental to our communications eff…

BEIJING -- China's Great Wall Motor will launch a new standalone brand for its off-road vehicles, chairman Wei Jianjun said, as automakers pursue new segments when sales in the world's biggest car market pick up.

Wei said Great Wall, the country's top pickup maker, plans to launch the "Tank" brand during the Shanghai auto show this year in April.

Baoding-based Great Wall earlier this year also launched a new standalone brand for electric and smart vehicles. It's also building an EV factory with BMW in China.

TOKYO -- Toyota, Nissan, Honda and other Japanese carmakers scrambled on Monday to assess the impact on their production of a fire at a Renesas Electronics chip plant that could aggravate a global semiconductor shortage.

Renesas has said it will take at least a month to resume production at a 300mm wafer line at its Naka plant in northeast Japan after an electrical fault caused machinery to catch fire on Friday and poured smoke into the sensitive clean room.

The fallout on carmakers could spread beyond Japan to auto companies in Europe and the U.S. because Renesas has about a 30 percent share of the global market for microcontroller unit chips used in cars.

"We are gathering information and trying to see if this will affect us or not," a Honda spokesman said. Other automakers including Toyota and Nissan said they too were assessing the situation.

Two-thirds of production at the affected line is automotive chips. Renesas also has a 200mm wafer line…

In the nascent truck wars, Detroit won’t need tents.

In the summer of 2018, when Tesla needed to quickly ramp up production at its Fremont, Calif., factory, the company erected a big top the size of two football fields in the parking lot. The strategy brought into stark relief the difficulty of taking a vehicle from the drawing board to the end of an assembly line.

The future of the auto industry in America will be largely determined by a parade of new electric trucks — at least four from Detroit incumbents facing off against at least six from Tesla Inc. and other upstarts. The newcomers will be building pickups for the first time, but they also will be building truck factories for the first time, which is arguably a more difficult task. Not only have Ford Motor Co., General Motors, and Stellantis NV refined the blocking and tackling of building and tooling a factory, they have scads of them sitting empty or ticking away at reduced capacity.

“A distinct …

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Americas CEO Martin Fritsches says the company's expanding product portfolio, close relationship with dealers and one-one-one approach with customers are driving the brand forward. 

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