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Sonic Automotive Inc. CEO David Smith was indicted by a Mecklenburg County, N.C., grand jury this week on four charges including felony assault by strangulation, according to the court and prosecutor's office.

The procedural action moves his criminal case forward in the Mecklenburg County Superior Court after Smith waived a probable-cause hearing Dec.1.

In addition to the felony assault charge, the grand jury on Monday indicted Smith, 46, on misdemeanor charges of false imprisonment, assault on a female, and interfering with emergency communication, said Meghan McDonald, community liaison coordinator in the Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office.

Smith's next court date, a scheduling conference for lawyers, is set for May 18, Jessica Davis, public information officer in the county trial court administrator's office, wrote in an email to Automotive News.

Smith was arrested Oct. 5. A 22-year-old woman not related to Smith told the …

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Volvo Cars North America CEO Anders Gustafsson discusses the brand's plans to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030 and its strategy for selling BEVs exclusively online.

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Rohit Chopra, President Joe Biden’s choice to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told a Senate panel Tuesday he plans to prioritize the enforcement of fair lending laws and scrutinize the emergence of large technology companies into financial services.

Democrats on Tuesday pushed Chopra to revive the CFPB after the Trump administration weakened enforcement and several rules, while Republicans warned the bureau overstepped its authority previously under Democratic control.

Chopra, a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, where he campaigned for tougher consumer privacy and enforcement penalties, helped establish the CFPB, which was formally launched in 2011.

Auto dealers have been among the most significant critics of the agency.

As an FTC commissioner, Chopra has been an outspoken watchdog over how some dealerships are compensated for arranging customer financing.

Data collection

Chopra said that, if confirmed, he w…

DETROIT -- General Motors said on Wednesday it was further extending production cuts at three North American plants and adding a fourth to the list of factories hit by the global semiconductor chip shortage.

The extended cuts do not change GM's forecast last month that the shortage could shave up to $2 billion from this year's earnings. GM CFO Paul Jacobson subsequently said chip supplies should return to normal rates by the second half of the year and he was confident the profit hit would not worsen.

The U.S. automaker did not disclose the impact on volumes or say which supplier or parts were affected by the chip shortage, but said it intends to recover as much of the lost output as possible.

"GM continues to leverage every available semiconductor to build and ship our most popular and in-demand products, including full-size trucks and SUVs," GM spokesman David Barnas said. "We contemplated this downtime when we discussed our outlook for 2021."

T…

A teardown of Volkswagen AG’s first dedicated electric vehicle found it measures up favorably to Tesla Inc. models in several key aspects.

The deep dive into the ID.3 by UBS Group AG analysts found the platform underpinning VW’s EV models will be fully cost competitive with Tesla and boast best-in-class energy density and efficiency. Analysts led by Patrick Hummel called the car “the most credible EV effort by any legacy auto company so far.”

UBS’s assessment is the latest positive development for an EV that got off to a bumpy start last year. Production hiccups, software glitches and disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic plagued the ID.3’s launch and cast doubt over the ability of traditional automakers to field products that can compete with the likes of Tesla’s Model 3. While other incumbents have converted existing combustion-engine cars into EVs, VW opted to take a more radical approach in the wake of its emissions wrongdoing.

VW is primarily…

SHENZHEN, China -- Telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp. is joining a number of Chinese technology companies entering the electric vehicle market as it looks to build a team for a new product line, a company spokeswoman told Reuters.

The Shenzhen-based company did not say whether the product line will supply parts for partner companies, or whether the company would be producing its own branded vehicles.

Chinese technology firms have been stepping up their focus on electric vehicles in the world's biggest car market, as Beijing promotes greener vehicles as a means of reducing air pollution.

Earlier this month Reuters reported that ZTE rival Huawei Technologies Co. is planning to make EVs under its own brand and could launch some models this year.

A Huawei spokesman denied it had EV ambitions of its own, beyond supplying technology to partners.

Asian technology companies, including Baidu, have announced plans to make their own cars, while Shenzhe…

Cruise, the self-driving vehicle company majority owned by General Motors, is in talks to acquire Voyage, an autonomous technology startup that operates in retirement communities, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The companies are in serious discussions, one of the people said, but no deal is imminent. If an agreement is struck, it would merge Cruise’s engineering and software capabilities with Voyage’s presence in the retirement community market, which is well suited for a driverless taxi business. The people asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

“We have nothing to announce but Cruise is always looking to add to our world-class engineering team as we work to solve the greatest engineering challenge of a generation,” Cruise spokesman Ray Wert said.

The talks highlight the current state of autonomous vehicle development. Two years ago, investors thought self-driving cars could be on public roads relatively quickly, but del…

The automotive industry is currently undergoing an exciting period of transformation. While electric cars and autonomous vehicles get the big headlines, there are changes happening across the board—whether it's new digital cockpit technology or a move from car ownership to car subscription.

One of the biggest drivers for change in the industry is real-time technology. It touches every part of the automotive pipeline, from design to engineering to sales and beyond. 

Unreal: Build Automotive is the annual event that explores the latest developments in this field. Presented by Epic Games, this year the event will have a digital twist due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic. Epic will broadcast part of the show from its London Innovation Lab with the same cutting-edge virtual production techniques that are being used to create—and instantly swap between—photorealistic backdrops for automotive events and commercials. 

If you’ve not experien…

American Motors Corp. introduces the Pacer on Feb. 28, 1975, and the novelty car goes on sale the next day.

A revolutionary design, often derided as a flying fishbowl, the Pacer featured 5,615 square inches of glass — some 37 percent of its surface area. It was available in hatchback and wagon body styles and equipped with a short, low hood, thick B-pillars and an extra-long passenger door.

"When you buy any other car, all you end up with is today's car," AMC said in its advertising. "When you get a Pacer, you get a piece of tomorrow."

AMC, an automaker renowned for smaller cars, from the Rambler to the Hornet to the Gremlin, racked up 72,158 sales of the Pacer through Dec. 31 that year.

AMC initially planned to slot a twin-rotor Wankel engine in the Pacer. Instead, it offered three engines over its lifetime: a 232 straight-six (1975-79), a 258 straight-six (1976-81) and a 304 V-8 (1978-79).

The Pacer was "f…

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Ken Konieczka, vice president of North America sales, says the next-generation Outlander midsize crossover will help feed the appetite of product-hungry U.S. retailers.

How do I subscribe?Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

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Android“Daily Drive” is available on the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

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There was an admittedly off-brand report last month by GM Authority — an online blog that religiously follows all things General Motors — that the revival of the Ram nee Dodge Dakota had gotten the axe.

Stellantis nee FCA declined to comment on the report, which the blog had sourced to "sources inside Stellantis." A source told Automotive News that the resurrection of the Dakota nameplate is still moving ahead.

Frankly, given the recent ownership and management changes in Auburn Hills and what's happened in the midsize pickup segment, this game of Schrödinger's Dakota isn't all that surprising.

Think about it; if you're Carlos Tavares and you've just smashed together two disparate global automakers into one thing that you pray will eventually work, you might be casting about for ways to simplify your operations. And an expensive project launched by your predecessor to jam a second vehicle into a now-crowded segment where the market leader still commands …

Henrik Fisker knows there's plenty of baggage leftover from his first attempt at building a car, the Fisker Karma gasoline-electric luxury sedan, a decade ago.

Investors got burned. Jobs promised at a former General Motors plant in Delaware never materialized. Worse, the 2,450 or so cars that were built had more problems than a calculus textbook.

One chance is usually all anyone gets at starting a car company. But Fisker is getting another a shot. He's a raised a billion dollars through a special purpose acquisition company, or reverse merger, and he's signed a production contract with Canadian supplier Magna that will see the $37,499 Fisker Ocean electric crossover debut in the fourth quarter of next year, if the project remains on track.

I recently chatted with Fisker, now 57, for a half hour on a Zoom call — he ensconced in his sunny, airy Los Angeles headquarters, me in Detroit in full view of GM's giant downtown headquarters.

Although the Ka…