Author: Reuters
TOKYO — Nissan may bring production of its ultra-compact electric vehicles in-house, five people aware of the matter said, emboldened by the success of its Sakura model currently built by junior partner Mitsubishi Motors. The automaker is considering moving production to its factory on the southern island of Kyushu within the business 12 months starting April 2028, said two of the people, who declined to be identified as the data was private. Nissan and Mitsubishi denied the plan. The Nissan Sakura was Japan’s best-selling vehicle within the passenger EV market in 2023 with a 42% share, showed Reuters calculations based…
HANOI — Vietnamese electric vehicle (EV) maker VinFast on Thursday said its fourth-quarter net loss deepened 3.4% from the previous three months however it goals to just about triple vehicle sales this 12 months because it expands into latest markets. VinFast’s net losses in the ultimate quarter of 2023 reached $650.1 million, also 1.3% higher than the identical period of 2022. It plans to extend deliveries to 100,000 units this 12 months, compared with the virtually 35,000 made in 2023, when it missed a 50,000 unit goal because of slow EV adoption in some regions and increased price war.…
Rivian said on Wednesday it will cut its workforce by 10% and forecast EV production this yr that widely missed estimates, hurt by downtime for factory upgrades and slowing demand for electric vehicles as a result of high rates of interest. Shares of the corporate tumbled about 17% in prolonged trading after Rivian said it expects to supply 57,000 vehicles in 2024, well below estimates of 81,700 units, based on eight analysts polled by Visible Alpha. It produced 57,232 vehicles last yr. “We firmly imagine in the complete electrification of the automotive industry, but recognize within the short-term, the difficult…
TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp said on Tuesday each the president and chairman of Daihatsu Motor will step down almost a 12 months after the small-car unit said it had rigged collision safety-tests. The departures are amongst essentially the most drastic changes Daihatsu has made thus far, as Toyota seeks to return the brand to its roots as one among Japan’s most iconic compact automobile makers. Toyota faces a possible hit to its fame from the security certification lapses at Daihatsu, in addition to separate governance issues at truck maker Hino Motors and affiliate Toyota Industries. The scandals on the…
WILMINGTON, Delaware — Elon Musk suffered one in all the largest legal losses in U.S. history this week when the Tesla CEO was stripped of his $56 billion pay package in a case brought by an unlikely opponent, a former heavy metal drummer. Richard Tornetta sued Musk in 2018, when the Pennsylvania resident held just nine shares of Tesla. The case eventually made its strategy to trial in late 2022 and on Tuesday a judge sided with Tornetta, voiding the big pay deal for being unfair to him and all his fellow Tesla shareholders. Tornetta couldn’t be reached for a…
A Hertz EV test-drive event in Los Angeles just last July. (Getty Images) Electric vehicles were already considered unappealing by a piece of the car-buying public. Now their image could take one other hit as rental giant Hertz dumps 20,000 of them, mainly Teslas, for gas-powered cars. Hertz, the biggest U.S. fleet operator of EVs, has blamed the sale on high repair costs and weak demand for the vehicles it offers on rent. Analysts and industry experts consider the move will affect the second-hand marketplace for EVs and dissuade buyers who’re already rethinking big purchases as a consequence of…
People view the LG e-Centric EV charging station at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. (AP) LG Electronics on Friday opened its first factory within the U.S. for assembling electric-vehicle charging stations because the South Korean electronics giant looks to capture a share within the fast-growing market dominated by ChargePoint and Tesla. Based in Fort Price, Texas, the corporate’s 100,000 square feet latest factory has an annual capability of 12,000 units, LG said in an announcement. The corporate already has a distribution center in town. LG, a high-end TV manufacturer, has been attempting to diversify its business into fresh sectors…
WASHINGTON — Two groups representing auto dealers said on Friday they’d filed a legal challenge to the Federal Trade Commission’s latest sweeping consumer protection regulations finalized last month. The FTC said the brand new rules will ban bait-and-switch promoting tactics, prohibit charging for add-on costs that don’t profit consumers and require dealers to make key disclosures to consumers, including accurate pricing disclosures in promoting and sales communications. The principles were first proposed in 2022 and can take effect on July 30. In addition they require dealers to maintain records of certain advertisements and customer transactions. The National Automobile Dealers…
WASHINGTON — General Motors said on Wednesday it’s offering incentives of $7,500 on its electric vehicles that earlier this week lost a U.S. government tax credit, while Ford Motor said it’s climbing the costs of a few of its F-150 EVs by $10,000. The Treasury issued guidelines in December detailing recent battery sourcing requirements geared toward weaning the U.S. EV supply chain away from China. The rules took effect on Monday. GM said last month that each one of its EVs would temporarily lose eligibility except the Chevrolet Bolt, adding that the Cadillac Lyriq and Chevy Blazer EVs are losing…
Former auto designer Vicki von Holzhausen thinks carmakers could make their electric vehicles even greener — with the assistance of bamboo and bananas. Vegan leather constructed from those plants is a specialty of an eponymous “material innovation” company she founded in 2015 in Malibu, California. The firm started off making handbags, backpacks and other accessories. Today, it ships quite a lot of plant-based materials to the style, furniture and aerospace industries, and has mounted a foray into the auto business. “We’re working with all the (vehicle) manufacturers,” von Holzhausen said in an interview. The primary plant-free materials from her company…
