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Beasts sometimes lurk at Jeep Only.

When people stop by the Las Vegas dealership dedicated to the free-spirited brand, they might catch a glimpse of beefed-up Gladiators and Wranglers loaded with Demon and Hellcat power waiting for someone to give them a home.

The monstrous contraptions bearing six-figure price tags are the handiwork of Dakota Customs, which specializes in tossing supercharged V-8 engines into Jeeps and Rams. The business also sells conversion kits for the do-it-yourself crowd, including off-road shops and Jeep dealerships.

It's a nice arrangement for Jeep Only. The store sends the Jeeps to Dakota, which does the conversions and ships back the vehicles. The dealership has sold a half dozen of the modified Jeeps in the past few months, co-owner John Grant said.

The store has a 2020 Gladiator Rubicon model with a Demon engine listed on its website for $250,000. There are a couple of Hellcat Wranglers going for as much as $169,950.<…

Editor's note: This story is part of the annual Automotive News "Future Product Pipeline" series.

Mazda's addition of the CX-30 crossover this year has paid off big for U.S. sales, allowing the Japanese automaker to weather the coronavirus crisis better than its bigger rivals.

As it awaits another new crossover next year — from its Alabama joint- venture with Toyota — Mazda is adding new powertrain options to keep its lineup lively.

They include both a down-market motor that lowers the price of the base Mazda3 sedan, and an upmarket turbocharged engine for the Mazda3 sedan and hatch that advances the brand's premium intentions. The top trim hatchback with turbo and all-wheel drive starts at $34,696 with shipping.

The turbo motor will show up in the CX-30 as well, making for a potent subcompact CUV. The smaller nonturbo motor could also be a future option for the base model.

What isn't offered are hybrid, plug-in hybrid or EV options. Mazd…

Tensions over whether drivers for Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. should be considered contractors or employees have come to a head.

For years, the ride-hailing companies have classified their workers as independent contractors rather than employees — at the same time avoiding having to provide full employee benefits.

Both companies have long said that changing the way drivers are classified would have a severe impact on already- thin profit margins. Now they face that possibility in the nation's most populous state.

In California, both companies — along with food delivery service DoorDash — are campaigning for a ballot measure set for a vote in November that would exempt app-based transportation and delivery companies from requirements of a new state labor law.

The law requires companies to reclassify their gig economy workers as employees unless three criteria are met: One, that the worker is free from the hiri…

BOSTON -- A federal judge on Friday ruled that two Massachusetts men can be legally extradited to Japan to face charges they helped former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn flee the country in a box and on a private jet.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell in Boston rejected the arguments against extradition by U.S. Army Special Forces veteran Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, and certified the case for the U.S. secretary of state to evaluate.

The Taylors' lawyers had argued they could not be extradited because Japanese penal code does not make it a crime to help someone "bail jump," and that they could only be charged if Japanese authorities were already pursuing Ghosn pre-escape.

But Cabell rejected that argument, saying their conduct "literally brings them squarely within the purview" of the law, which makes it a crime to harbor or enabling the escape of someone like Ghosn who has committed a crime.

Lawyers for the Taylors did not …

General Motors is recalling more than 7,000 2020 Chevrolet Corvettes because the vehicle can be driven with the front trunk lid unlatched, creating the possibility of the hood flipping open.

The recall prompted General Motors to place a stop-delivery order on the 2020 Corvette, according to NHTSA.

If drivers ignore vehicle warnings that the hood is not latched, wind can open the unlatched hood. The opened hood could obstruct a driver's forward view, increasing the risk of a crash, according to NHTSA.

The Corvette's hood latch warnings, prior to the recall, were both visual and audible: A hood-ajar icon in the instrumental panel, an initial audible chime activated once, a more persistent chime when the vehicle was moving above 3 mph, and a driver information center display with a message that the vehicle speed is limited to 82 mph.

GM spokesman Dan Flores said dealers will make the repair before selling any 2020 Corvett…

Before Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk returned to the U.S. after a three-day visit to Germany, he made a final stopover to meet with one of his biggest competitors -- Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess.

The two auto executives met for about two hours on Thursday evening at a small airport in Brunswick, where Musk test-drove VW's ID3 electric compact car, according to people familiar with the matter. Musk also inspected the ID4 electric SUV that VW will launch later this year, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the meeting wasn't public.

A VW Group spokesman confirmed that Diess met with Musk, but declined to comment on details.

Musk had toured Europe's largest economy since Tuesday, visiting pharmaceutical company Curevac, before moving on to Berlin for meetings with politicians and a visit of the factory Tesla is building outside the German capital in Gruenheide.

The site would be Tesla's first assembly plant in Europe and could produce as…

Join Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein for a daily podcast series about the coronavirus crisis. He’ll speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about how the virus is impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

Deloitte's Global Transportation leader Simon Dixon discusses the firm's 2020 Global City Mobility Index and explains which cities around the world are making advances and ushering in smart mobility.

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PARIS -- PSA Group and the French energy company Total have signed an agreement to create a joint venture that will build battery cells at locations in France and Germany. 

The two companies have been working on the project since last year and announced the intent to form a joint venture in January.

PSA said Thursday that Yann Vincent, formerly head of industrial operations and supply chain, would be the CEO of the battery alliance, which will be called Automotive Cells Company, or ACC. 

Ghislain Lescuyer, the chairman of Total’s battery subsidiary Saft, will hold the same post at ACC.  

PSA and Total also released a number of details about the planned factories, which will be operational in 2023 and supply PSA Group vehicles from Peugeot, Citroen, DS Automobiles and Opel/Vauxhall -- and potentially cars from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which is working toward a merger with PSA.

Batteries produced in the factories could eventual…

TIANJIN, China -- China's auto market, the world's biggest, is expected to grow only slightly in the next five years, the country's top auto industry body said on Friday.

"The next five years will be the key period of industry's transformation and upgrade," Li Shaohua, senior executive at the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, told an industry conference hosted by China Automotive Technology and Research Center in Tianjin.

CAAM predicts China's auto sales will reach around 27.75 million vehicles in 2025, up from 25.77 million units in 2019, Li's presentation showed.

Though sales have picked up in recent months, CAAM predicts they will fall around 10 percent for all of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the market hard early in the year.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican auto production fell 13.15 percent year-on-year in August to 293,463 units, in the third full month the since the car industry restarted after a coronavirus-induced lockdown, data from the national statistics agency showed on Friday.

Meanwhile, auto exports dropped 8.59 percent to 257,610 units. Output and exports were down by about a third from 2019 during the first eight months of this year, the figures show.

Measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic previously brought activity in the sector to a near-standstill.

The Mexican auto industry accounts for close to 4 percent of gross domestic product and generates nearly 1 million direct jobs, according to the country's main industry association.

Volkswagen Group's heavy-truck business plans to make a fresh push to acquire Navistar International Corp. after talks were put on hold amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to people familiar with the matter.

VW’s Traton is seeking to restart negotiations this month to win over Navistar’s management and the main shareholders, including billionaire investor Carl Icahn, said the people, asking not to be identified because deliberations are private.

The German company’s truck unit in January offered to buy the rest of Navistar for $35 a share in cash, or $2.9 billion, to secure a bridgehead in the U.S. heavy-truck market and step up its challenge to Daimler and Volvo AB. VW already owns 16.7 percent, the second-biggest stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Officials representing the German side and Navistar have recently discussed the potential range of a higher offer that would be sufficient to secure access to the target’s books, two people …

Yandex and Uber Technologies Inc. will spin off the self-driving car unit of their joint venture into a separate company, giving Yandex more control over the businesses and paving the way for new investors.

Russia’s largest internet company will invest $150 million in the new division, Yandex Self-Driving Group, the companies said in a statement on Friday. It will also purchase part of Uber’s stake, and as a result the Moscow-based company will have 73 percent ownership of the division, and Uber will have 19 percent, with the rest reserved for the unit’s management.

Yandex will also contribute its car-sharing business to the JV with Uber, which is known as MLU and includes ride-hailing and food delivery, the companies said in a separate statement. This will leave Uber with a 33.5 percent stake in MLU, compared with about 37 percent as of June 30. Yandex.Drive has about 16,000 cars across several Russian cities.

The changes will give Yandex more control o…