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Polestar's electric fastback, the Polestar 2, delivers more power, range and content for the new model year — along with a higher sticker price. The 2024 model arrives in August.

The updated Polestar 2, like its XC40 and C40 siblings from major shareholder Volvo, receives a new-generation permanent magnet electric motor and new silicon carbide inverters to help boost efficiency and performance. It also gets larger, improved lithium ion batteries.

For 2024, the single-motor Polestar 2 starts at $51,300, including shipping — a 3 percent premium over the current model. The single-motor variant shifts from front- to rear-wheel drive.

A new motor produces 299 hp, 68 hp over the current model. The car promises 320 miles of driving range and a 0 to 60 mph time of 5.9 seconds.

The dual-motor Polestar 2 now starts at $56,700, including shipping — a 6 percent price hike over the 2023 model. The increase is offset by a previously …

SUSONO, Japan — Solid-state batteries for electric vehicle with ranges of 900 miles or more. Software operating systems that update automatically. Futuristic factories where cars drive themselves through final assembly. Ultra-slick aerodynamics developed through rocket science.

Those are just a few of the new technologies that Toyota is packing into its toolbox for EVs of tomorrow.

Under pressure to show it has a winning game plan for the disruptive new age of electric vehicles, Toyota Motor Corp. has spilled fresh details about its plans to leapfrog ahead in just a few years.

Top executives of the automaker revealed parts of its wide-ranging strategy for the first time this month at Toyota's Higashi-Fuji Technical Center in the foothills of Mount Fuji under the theme "Let's change the future of cars."

An all-day executive briefing drove home Toyota's point that, contrary to being left behind, it has both the technolo…

Stella Automotive AI, a Tampa, Fla., auto retail technology startup funded in part by dealership groups Maroone USA and Pohanka Automotive Group, has hired auto industry consultant Rich Sands as its new CEO.

His hiring, effective May 26 and announced Monday, comes after the company in early May announced it had closed a seed round of financing.

Beyond Geoffrey Pohanka, the 2023 chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association and chairman of his namesake group, and Mike Maroone, CEO of Maroone USA, funding round participants included Czubay Family Enterprises and Presidio Group, a Denver and Atlanta investment banking and advisory firm focused on auto retail and consumer mobility. Ken Czubay, a partner with Phil Smith Auto Group, told Automotive News that Czubay Family Enterprises is his family's "small investment vehicle."

Stella Automotive did not immediately share how much was raised in the round.

Sands, 49, most recently was an automoti…

General Motors says it will invest about $630 million at its Ft. Wayne Assembly plant in Indiana for future full-size pickup production. Lithia’s acquisition goals just got even bigger. Plus, U.S. Department of Energy deputy assistant secretary Michael Berube talks about the department’s Hydrogen Hubs initiative.

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India’s transition to electric vehicles is giving automakers whose conventional gasoline cars have failed to make a mark a second chance.

High taxes, price-conscious consumers and tricky logistical issues have made it tough for many foreign carmakers to thrive in one of Asia’s biggest economies. They’ve found it difficult to loosen the grip of local players like Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., a household name since the 1980s thanks to its iconic Maruti 800 that became the first affordable car for the masses.

But with the advent of EVs, firms like MG Motor India Pvt, the local unit of China’s SAIC Motor Corp., Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG may finally gain a better foothold.

While MG Motor controls just a fraction of the local passenger vehicle market, last month it announced ambitious plans to grab a share of the country’s budding EV space, expecting to derive as much as three-quarters of its sales in India from electric cars by 2028 via the…

The supply chain crisis that roiled automakers and suppliers during the COVID-19 pandemic provided costly lessons about pinpointing vulnerabilities, increasing visibility and improving communication across tiers.

Those lessons have been top of mind as the industry builds a new supply chain around electric vehicles, automotive executives said during a roundtable discussion Monday.

"Last year and the year before, the supply chain was broken," said Bob Young, group vice president of purchasing supplier development at Toyota Motor North America Inc. "I would say today, it's fragile."

Young was joined by Jonathan Jennings, vice president of supply chain for Ford Motor Co.; Jeff Morrison, vice president of global purchasing and supply chain for General Motors Co.; Ray Scott, president and CEO of Lear Corp.; and David Dauch, chairman and CEO of American Axle & Manufacturing.

The roundtable was part of the Automotive Golf Classic, an annual event ho…

WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Manchin is once again criticizing the U.S. Treasury Department for how it is implementing the Inflation Reduction Act's tax credit for new electric vehicles.

In public comments submitted Sunday to Treasury, the West Virginia Democrat further detailed his concerns over the department's handling of the provision known as Section 30D, arguing that it "has seriously misconstrued the plain language and clear purpose of the critical minerals and battery component requirements."

Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said proposed guidance released by Treasury in March "deviates from the will of Congress in at least three major respects," including its interpretation of the critical mineral requirement and free-trade agreement.

"My comment is simple: Follow the law," he wrote in an 11-page letter to Treasury, explaining that the tax credit's purpose is "no longer to promote the purchase and use of [EVs] ..…

The EV battery's circle of life

EV batteries. You have to build them, charge them, recycle them — and make sure there's enough of them.

This week's Automotive News covers a variety of topics surrounding the batteries that power electric vehicles, from their birth to their useful life to their disposition to their rebirth.

One story goes in-depth about a relatively obscure provision of the Inflation Reduction Act: Section 45X. While most of the attention has been on the federally funded incentives granted to consumers of certain EVs, the advanced manufacturing production tax credit has the potential to be a boon to U.S. battery manufacturers and their automaking partners. The credits they can receive through 2032 — in some cases, as direct payments from the federal government — could be substantial. But with billions of dollars on the table, Section 45X has come under criticism from Republican lawmakers.

We also examine a watershed moment in the …

EV batteries. You have to build them, charge them, recycle them — and make sure there's enough of them.

This week's Automotive News covers a variety of topics surrounding the batteries that power electric vehicles, from their birth to their useful life to their disposition to their rebirth.

One story goes in-depth about a relatively obscure provision of the Inflation Reduction Act: Section 45X. While most of the attention has been on the federally funded incentives granted to consumers of certain EVs, the advanced manufacturing production tax credit has the potential to be a boon to U.S. battery manufacturers and their automaking partners. The credits they can receive through 2032 — in some cases, as direct payments from the federal government — could be substantial. But with billions of dollars on the table, Section 45X has come under criticism from Republican lawmakers.

We also examine a watershed moment in the brief history of the…

The deputy assistant secretary provides a status report on the DOE’s Hydrogen Hub initiative, the role of the national laboratories in researching new battery technology and progress toward electrification across America.

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Before becoming Automotive News' retail technology reporter this year, I wrote about biotech, health care, medical devices and property and casualty insurance startups, as well as the venture capital driving each sector.

The most prominent investors typically came from large VC firms in Silicon Valley in California, New York or emerging startup hubs such as Austin, Texas, or Washington, D.C. International firms from places including Tel Aviv, Isarel; Paris; or London committed money to companies in the U.S. or are about to expand here.

Some large hospital groups, medical device firms, biotech companies and property and casualty insurers also joined the investment party through venture funds they created. Their strategy: to back promising technology they might acquire someday or at least use in their operations.

Some of those strategies carry over to auto technology and auto retail technology investing, but with interesting twists. Read more

Assembly plants in each auto-building region of the world cut vehicles from their production schedules because of microchip shortages last week, according to AutoForecast Solutions.

Plants in China were the most impacted, with 14,013 vehicles lost due to a lack of semiconductors. 

Still, the total number of vehicles expected to be cut by year’s end stayed steady at about 2.82 million — a sign that the chip situation is slowly improving, if “sometimes painfully so,” said Sam Fiorani, AutoForecast Solutions vice president of global vehicle forecasting.

Source: AutoForecast Solutions Inc. autoforecastsolutions.com