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A look at how retail tech startup Tekion decided to buy its own dealerships to test its services, and won. GM and Samsung win tax breaks for a $3.5 billion battery plant in Indiana. And experts say an indictment against a former Apple autonomous car engineer could signal bigger security risks for the industry.

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Tesla knocked the U.S. luxury sales crown off BMW's head last year, ending the German marque's three-year reign in the segment.

But BMW plans to beat the American upstart at its own game. Over the next few years, BMW will add competitively specced battery-powered models to its lineup of sedans and crossovers.

Last year, electric vehicles accounted for 5 percent of BMW's U.S. sales, Sebastian Mackensen, CEO of BMW of North America, told Automotive News.

Mackensen predicts battery-electric vehicle share will "more than double" this year and outpace BMW's overall sales growth in the U.S.

"There's still a healthy and robust demand for plug-in hybrids, but [BEVs] will drive demand long term," he said.

Despite the expected long-term market shift toward battery power, Mackensen is confident of near-term demand for combustion engines.

"We're selling the Ultimate Driving Machine — that can be the ultimate combustion engine-driving machine, a…

Automotive supply behemoth Bosch has named a president for Bosch Mobility Americas as the company realigns its global mobility business.

Paul Thomas, 52, will assume the newly created role in January, Bosch said Wednesday. He will be based in suburban Detroit, where the German company keeps its North American headquarters.

Thomas will oversee an Americas unit with about 30,000 employees and $10 billion in annual revenue. His current role is vice president of Mobility Solutions, Americas, where he is responsible for sales, marketing and quality.

"Paul has a proven track record of driving growth in our mobility business. His leadership will be critical to help us support our customers and reach our potential in a key growth region for Bosch globally," Mike Mansuetti, president of Bosch in North America, said in the release.

Bosch is the world's largest auto supplier with $49 billion in sales in 2022, according to the Automotive News 2022 list of t…

In this podcast, Jeff Berman, Group News Editor, for Logistics Management and Peerless Media, interviews Chris Rogers, Head of Supply Chain Research for S&P Global Market Intelligence. 

Rogers provided Berman with an overview of various global trade trends and themes, including:

the current outlook for U.S.- bound imports and shipments; a Peak Season outlook; ongoing inventory drawdowns; and the U.S.-China relationship related to trade and tariffs, among others

Chris Rogers is Head of Supply Chain Research for S&P Global Market Intelligence. He has more than 10 years of experience in building research businesses covering corporate decision-making and government policy in the supply chain and logistics sectors at S&P Global, Bloomberg, and Flexport. Chris’s prior experience includes power, gas and emissions markets analysis at investment banks, including JP Morgan and UBS.

Lithium ion battery supplier Microvast Holdings said it is considering all options after the U.S. Energy Department canceled a $200 million grant following lawmakers' concerns over its alleged links to China.

"Neither the Chinese government nor the Chinese Communist Party has any ownership in the company, nor do they control or influence company operations in any way," Microvast CEO Yang Wu said in a statement on Wednesday.

The grant, which stemmed from U.S. $1 trillion 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, was to help Microvast build a plant in Tennessee.

Two Republican lawmakers criticized the decision to grant funding in a letter last December to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, saying Microvast had ties to the Chinese Communist Party that raised "serious concerns about the department's ability to protect U.S. taxpayer dollars."

The grant was further targeted to support work by General Motors and Microvast on developing specialized EV battery …

Tesla owners drive significantly more miles per year than buyers of rival EVs, thanks to the superior range of Tesla vehicles, according to a new study from iSeeCars.

The range advantage translates to a Tesla ownership experience that's more similar to combustion vehicles — in terms of miles driven — than to other EVs, iSeeCars said.

Tesla still falls short of combustion cars for annual mileage in the U.S. market. And the study found that EVs, in general, would need to drive 440 miles on a single charge to match gasoline vehicles.

Adding 161 miles of range to the average 3-year-old electric car would increase its average range from 279 miles to 440 miles to match 3-year-old gasoline cars, which average 24.7 miles per gallon and have an average fuel tank capacity of 18 gallons.

Combustion vehicles in the study logged an average mileage of 12,758 per year, iSeeCars said, while the four Tesla models averaged just under 10,…

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will announce his 2024 presidential campaign in a Twitter Spaces livestream with Elon Musk on Wednesday evening, according to people familiar with his plans.

DeSantis will speak with the Tesla Inc. CEO at 6 p.m. ET and the campaign will release a launch video. The decision to launch his campaign alongside Musk would seem to underscore how DeSantis plans to orient himself around the culture war issues that have defined his tenure as governor.

Musk has drawn criticism for his handling of Twitter since acquiring the social media giant, including reducing content moderation and reinstating accounts — including Trump’s — that had been previously banned.

Musk said at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit Tuesday that DeSantis will have “quite an announcement to make” during the Twitter Spaces session. He added that he doesn’t plan to endorse any particular candidate at this time.

Still, Musk has cultivated ties wit…

The state of California has asked the Biden administration to approve its plan to require all new vehicles sold in the state by 2035 to be either electric or plug-in electric hybrids, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

The California Air Resources Board, which approved the plan in August, asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to approve a waiver under the Clean Air Act to implement its new rules that set yearly rising zero-emission vehicle rules starting in 2026 and would end new gasoline-only powered vehicle sales in the state by 2035.

"These vehicles will permanently displace emissions from conventional vehicles," wrote CARB Executive Officer Steven Cliff, adding that motor vehicles and other mobile sources are the greatest producers of emissions in California.

The Biden administration has repeatedly refused to endorse setting a date to phase out the sale of gasoline-only vehicles.

EPA spokesperson Tim Carroll said "as with a…

The redesigned Toyota Tacoma is the latest model to enter the midsize pickup cage match that keeps intensifying, as the Detroit 3 looks to cut into Toyota’s dominance in the segment. UAW workers smack down a tentative agreement with Clarios in Ohio. And Ford sees internal combustion vehicle sales and profits rising through at least 2025.

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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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Reconditioning is a complex process. Between inspections, estimates, approvals, repair orders, dispatching, coordinating with vendors… there’s endless information and countless people to manage.

When your team does not have a good understanding of what is going on throughout the recon process, they can’t work together to recondition efficiently.

No matter how many roles are involved in your reconditioning process, there should be one common responsibility and goal – effective communication.

In this eBook, learn how to develop good communication habits to:

- Connect your recon process – internally and externally.- Give, receive, and access insight on every step.- Drive overall efficiency.

A publicly traded auto retailer sold a dealership in Texas in April, while three other regional groups made first- and second-quarter acquisitions.

Here's a look at the deals involving luxury, domestic and import stores in Texas, Indiana, Wisconsin and Colorado.

Two transactions involved an auto retailer ranked on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups.

Sonic sells Maserati-Alfa Romeo store

Chip Johnson and Brady Bishop, partners in a dealership near Kansas City, Mo., bought a Maserati-Alfa Romeo store from Sonic Automotive Inc. last month.

On April 3, Johnson and Bishop bought Momentum Maserati-Alfa Romeo in Hurst, Texas, northeast of Fort Worth, Johnson told Automotive News.

The dealership was renamed Bishop Maserati-Alfa Romeo of Hurst.

"These are some higher-margin brands," Johnson told Automotive News. "They had a solid used-car business."

Bill Scrivner, CEO of Pinnacle Mergers & Acquisitions, …

The U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation will bring together automakers, electric vehicle charging companies, researchers and other stakeholders to create solutions to improve the EV charging experience.

The National Charging Experience Consortium, led by Department of Energy national laboratories, will develop best practices and work to solve charging pain points over the next two years. Participating research labs will publish the consortium's findings and make recommendations.

The group has 29 members and counting. Automakers General Motors, Ford Motor Co., Stellantis, BMW North America, Tesla and Rivian Automotive; charging networks; charger manufacturers; consulting firms; and electric utilities have joined so far.

Charger reliability is a major pain point as the Biden administration aims to have a nationwide network of 500,000 public charging stations by the end of the decade. One in five charging attempts in the U.S. failed last year, a…