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BMW's redesigned 4 Series convertible receives more oomph under the hood and a smarter suite of safety and driver-assist technology.

The 2021 BMW 4 Series convertible arrives in U.S. stores in March with a starting price of $54,095, including a $995 destination fee.

Since BMW introduced the first 3 Series convertible in the 1980s, the four-passenger droptops have become staples among young, upper-middle class drivers, said Sam Fiorani, vice president with AutoForecast Solutions.

"As more and more of these buyers have shifted to crossovers, the choices for those who like to put the top down have been slowly dwindling," Fiorani said. "This generation of the 4 Series convertible could be among the last of the breed, closing the roof on upscale wind-in-your-hair four-passenger cars."

Powering the new 430i and 430i xDrive convertibles is an updated 2.0-liter four-cylinder TwinPower turbocharged engine delivering 255 hp — an…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is lowering the price of its Mustang Mach-E crossover between $1,000 and $3,000, depending on the trim, as it prepares to launch the vehicle later this year.

In a memo to dealers, Ford said the Premium trims will get a $3,000 price cut, with the all-wheel-drive version dropping to $50,800 and the rear-wheel-drive model falling to $48,100. The California Route 1 rwd trim price will decrease $2,000 to $50,900.

The most expensive Mach-E, the sold-out First Edition model, will get a $1,000 price cut to $59,400. The Select trim, the vehicle's least-expensive variant, will also see a $1,000 price cut, with awd model prices falling to $46,695 and rwd models falling to $43,995.

All prices include $1,100 in shipping fees. Customers also are eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit.

Ford, in the memo, said all price changes go into effect today but will apply to those who have placed orders or made a reservation since the vehicle wa…

Despite an expected decline in light-vehicle sales, the third quarter is slated to be the strongest in a year mired by the coronavirus pandemic, industry forecasters say.

Most automakers plan to release September and third-quarter U.S. sales results Thursday, and forecasters expect new-vehicle retail sales to continue recovering while leasing volume and fleet demand remain depressed.

U.S. light-vehicle sales fell 22 percent to nearly 9 million through August, according to J.D. Power and Cox Automotive.

J.D. Power and LMC Automotive expect 3.5 million retail sales in the third quarter, down 6.2 percent from the third quarter of 2019, but a smaller decline than in the first and second quarters, when sales fell 13 percent and 23 percent.

The seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of sales will hit 15.7 million in September, J.D. Power and LMC project, or about 200,000 vehicles higher than Cox's projection and about a million higher than ALG's.

…

WOLFSBURG -- Volkswagen Group is reviewing the future of its high-performance brands Lamborghini, Bugatti and Ducati as part of broader quest for more economies of scale as it shifts to mass producing electric cars, senior executives told Reuters.

VW's management board and directors will look at the automaker's strategy at a meeting in November and are working on a new "to do list" as the company tries to more than double its value to 200 billion euros ($235 billion), one executive said.

The review could result in technology partnerships for the Lamborghini, Bugatti high-performance sports cars brands and the Ducati superbike brand. Other options include restructuring, and a listing or sale, said two executives, who declined to be named.

Reports last month said VW is in talks to sell Bugatti to Croatian performance electric-car specialist Rimac. Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali is stepping down to join Formula One as CEO amid speculation about the bra…

Nikola Corp. wants to put allegations of deception behind it with a push to showcase its own innovations and detail how it plans to get its clean-powered trucks to market.

Executives at the embattled startup are talking to investors to rebut criticism it has no working prototypes and to clarify its business plans after the resignation of founder and former Chairman Trevor Milton. That effort includes highlighting technology with existing or pending patents, explaining the role partners will play and providing better milestones on efforts to start production.

“Our message is the same as it was before,” CEO Mark Russell said in an interview. “We have an ecosystem of partners that have validated what we’re doing. We believe we’re within three years of producing a fuel cell truck and one year of producing a battery-powered truck.”

Nikola executives will also use planned and direct communication to media and investors instead of the social media posts that Mi…

DETROIT -- General Motors and Nikola Corp. have not finalized their deal to jointly build electric pickup trucks and hydrogen fuel cell tractor-trailers, one day ahead of the date targeted, and are continuing discussions, GM and Nikola said on Tuesday.

"Our transaction with Nikola has not closed," GM spokeswoman Juli Huston-Rough said in a statement. "We are continuing our discussions with Nikola and will provide further updates when appropriate or required."

A statement by Nikola echoed GM's. Huston-Rough and a Nikola spokeswoman declined to comment further when asked if terms of the deal were being renegotiated.

Shares of Nikola fell 7.4 percent to close at $17.88 on Tuesday. GM shares dropped 2.4 percent to close at $28.74.

When the deal was announced, Nikola said it expected it to close before Sept. 30, adding either side could terminate the agreement if it wasn't finalized by Dec. 3.

The alliance, announced Sept. 8, included plans for …

Tesla Inc. secured its own lithium mining rights in Nevada after dropping a plan to buy a company there, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The automaker held discussions in recent months with Cypress Development Corp., which is seeking to extract lithium from clay deposits in southwest Nevada, but the parties didn’t reach a deal, the people said, asking not to be named because the information isn’t public. The electric carmaker, which has vowed to slash its battery costs by 50 percent, instead focused on the plan that CEO Elon Musk outlined last week to dig for lithium on its own in the state.

Producing lithium from clay has so far proven difficult and costly. No company has been able to produce commercial quantities using the practice. But a push into mining is at the center of Tesla’s plan to cut battery costs and deliver on a promise to bring a $25,000 electric car to market. Musk told investors last week that Tesla has secured access to 10,000…

Carvana last week gave investors a tease about what's in store when it releases its third-quarter financial results.

The digital used-vehicle upstart said it anticipates reporting record retail vehicle sales, total revenue, total gross profit per vehicle and EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — margin for the third quarter. Carvana's positive projections dovetail with a used-vehicle market that rebounded over the summer, despite a global virus outbreak that hasn't waned.

Carvana's stock price soared more than 30 percent on Sept. 22, the day the company gave its earnings preview. Its market capitalization rose to nearly $39 billion that day — an amount close to that of General Motors and more than twice that of CarMax, the nation's used-vehicle leader.

Carvana's stock price dipped by the end of last week — it closed Friday's trading at $203.26, down more than 10 percent from its weekly high of $226.83 on Sept. 22. But …

Swedish battery-cell maker Northvolt AB raised $600 million in a private placement that brought in more big names such as the CEO of Spotify Technology to help it grab a share of the market for powering electric cars.

Daniel Ek, who helped set up the music streaming business, participated in Northvolt’s fund-raising along with former Kinnevik chairwoman Cristina Stenbeck and Niklas Adalberth’s venture capital firm Norrsken.

The funds will help Northvolt expand its production and R&D activities as it gears up to start churning out cells next year. The company, founded by former executives from Tesla Inc., is at the front of the European Union’s effort to build a domestic supply chain for electric vehicles as the region restricts the sale of gasoline and diesel cars.

“We are in the middle of a race to establish manufacturing capacity in Europe,” Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson said in the statement. “With these world-class partners behind us. We have crea…

The redesigned 2021 Acura TLX is longer, wider, lower and has a more expansive hood to give it the classic proportions of a sports sedan. It echoes the well-received 2019 Type S Concept that was a thinly veiled precursor to the production sedan. Acura's Type S performance variant is also being revived on the latest TLX midsize sedan after a decadelong hiatus. Mechanically, the updated model rides on a new platform and suspension architecture with a double-wishbone front suspension, new 10-speed automatic transmission and a four-cylinder turbo motor, which is borrowed from the RDX and makes 272 hp. We've gathered some highlights of early TLX reviews from the automotive media.

"The TLX can't match the nimbleness of the OG Integra, but those new control arms kept the front end just as firmly planted through these bumpy, quick-transition turns. Similarly, there's no matching the steering feel of the midengine NSX, but aggressive torque vectoring from the SH-AW…

WASHINGTON -- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will pay a $9.5 million civil penalty to settle allegations it misled investors by not disclosing that it conducted only a limited internal review of its compliance with emissions regulations, the top U.S. securities regulator said Monday.

Fiat Chrysler, which did not admit or deny wrongdoing to resolve the Securities and Exchange Commission probe, declined to comment on the fine that stems from the automaker's diesel emissions scandal.

The Italian-American automaker in January 2019 agreed to a settlement worth about $800 million to resolve claims from the U.S. Justice Department and California Air Resources Board that it used illegal software that produced false results on diesel-emissions tests.

The SEC said in February 2016 that Fiat Chrysler said it conducted an internal audit that confirmed its vehicles complied with emissions regulations but did not sufficiently disclose the limited scope of its internal audi…

WASHINGTON -- The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday questioned California Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan to require all new passenger vehicle sales in 2035 be zero-emission models, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the plan "raises serious questions regarding its legality and practicality" and said it could impact the state's electrical grid.

"California’s record of rolling blackouts -- unprecedented in size and scope -- coupled with recent requests to neighboring states for power begs the question of how you expect to run an electric car fleet that will come with significant increases in electricity demand, when you can’t even keep the lights on today," Wheeler wrote.

Newsom did not immediately comment.

California on two days last month imposed rolling blackouts on about 400,000 customers during an oppressive heat wave.

The state’s grid operator blamed outages on a gas plant suddenly…