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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Volkswagen AG's bid to avoid lawsuits filed by officials in three states seeking damages stemming from the German automaker's diesel emissions cheating scandal.

The justices refused to hear appeals by VW and German auto supplier Robert Bosch LLC of a lower court ruling allowing Florida's Hillsborough County and Utah's Salt Lake County to seek to hold the companies liable under local laws and regulations barring tampering with vehicle emissions controls. The court also rejected VW's appeal of a similar ruling in a case brought by the state of Ohio.

Volkswagen subsidiary Volkswagen Group of America Inc has argued that under the Clean Air Act, the landmark U.S. environmental law, only the federal government can pursue such claims. VW noted it already has reached a settlement of more than $20 billion with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The lawsuits accused VW of deceiving the EPA - and in doing so also vio…

Stellantis said it plans to cut about 400 workers at its Belvidere Assembly Plant, which builds the Jeep Cherokee in northern Illinois.

The layoffs will take effect as early as Jan. 14, the company said. Stellantis sent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices on Nov. 10 to affected hourly employees, the state of Illinois, the city of Belvidere and the UAW.

"As we continue to balance global sales with production of the Jeep Cherokee produced at the Belvidere Assembly Plant, which has been further exacerbated by the unprecedented global microchip shortage, Stellantis has determined that additional staffing actions are needed as a result of changes in the plant's operations," the automaker said in a statement.

The automaker said it "will make every effort to place laid off hourly employees in open full-time positions as they become available based on seniority."

The plant has had significant downtime this year and already had cut…

Entry ramp on the road to self-driving cars

Depending on one's tolerance for adventure, a ride in a truly self-driving car can be a thrilling glimpse of an inevitable future … or a nail-biting gamble where one is forced to accept on faith the idea that machines can outfox reckless, distracted human drivers.

Judging by survey results that AAA released in February, most Americans would likely fall into the second group. The auto club found that just 22 percent of people believe manufacturers should focus on developing self-driving vehicles.

More telling, however, was the attitude people had toward the fundamental technologies that make self-driving possible: technologies that are largely safety-focused, such as automatic emergency braking and lane-keeping assistance.

Fifty-eight percent of the people AAA surveyed said they wanted such advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS, in their next vehicle.

Monday's issue dives into the ins and …

Brulte, mobility strategist and consultant, details how autonomous-vehicle operators can expand profit margins from unique experiences, how providers can provide more seamless charging for EV owners and whether Rivian can challenge Tesla.

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BMW and Volkswagen Group's Audi unit are interested in buying British supercar maker McLaren Automotive Ltd., Automobilwoche reported.

BMW is eyeing the supercar business, while Audi is also looking at McLaren’s Formula 1 racing unit, Automobilwoche said, without specifying where it got the information. BMW will hold talks with Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, which controls McLaren, at the beginning of next month, according to the report. Automobilwoche is a sibling publication of Automotive News.

Spokespeople for BMW and Audi didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.

McLaren has been attempting to repair its finances following the impact of the pandemic. In July, the Woking, England-based company raised 550 million pounds ($738 million) from existing investors and the sale of preference shares and equity warrants to new backers Ares Management Corp. and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. It also r…

TOKYO — Mazda's upcoming CX-50 crossover, designed specifically for American drivers, could be the brand's new hero nameplate, delivering record U.S. sales as Mazda moves up market.

The entry, to be built at a new factory in Alabama, is envisioned boosting North American volume by 150,000, an impressive 34 percent surge over this year's expected sales total.

Discussing the upcoming model while announcing Mazda Motor Corp.'s financial results last week, CEO Akira Marumoto said the CX-50 will play a crucial role in securing long-term profitability at the low-volume Japanese player. Mazda will release fresh details about the CX-50 in the United States on Monday, Nov. 15, Marumoto said.

But he teased some specs, saying the CX-50 was developed for U.S. market tastes with a wider tread and bigger cargo room. On the outside, it is expected to be around the size of Mazda's CX-5 crossover, which is currently the automaker's best-selling vehicle in the U.S.

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Elon Musk and RJ Scaringe are getting a lot of attention these days. As well they should. Lifting electric vehicle startups from nothing into something is no small feat.

But companies tasked with steering a legacy business into an uncertain future would do well to keep an eye on Toshihiro Mibe.

In his seven months at the helm of Honda Motor Co., the 60-year-old engineer is shaking up the automaker in a manner reminiscent of the way Honda shook the world in the 1970s with its CVCC engine.

Just take a look at the story on Page 1 of the Nov. 15 issue of Automotive News. It's based on our first one-on-one interview with the new chief executive. Among the key points:

Honda, the first Japanese car company to build vehicles in the U.S., is now the first Japanese automaker to pledge to become gasoline-free by 2040. As part of that goal, it will introduce its own dedicated EV platform and solid-state batteries in the second half of this decade. It is abando…

TOKYO — Honda Motor Co. has long thrived on a reputation for stubborn industry independence, cutting-edge engineering and — perhaps most of all — near-bulletproof engines deployed in everything from airplanes and race cars to lawnmowers.

But today's satisfied driver of a Honda Civic or Acura NSX may hardly recognize the Japanese automaker in 20 years under a radical revolution being led by recently installed CEO Toshihiro Mibe.

If his transformation succeeds, Honda Motor Co. will take a page from Elon Musk's SpaceX and start making rockets. Honda will drop its long-standing aversion to tie-ups with other companies and possibly combine with new partners, even tech companies outside the automotive world.

Honda will also ditch its famed combustion engines for full-electric or hydrogen fuel cell systems. And in this divergent future, Honda — following an industry trend — may even sell fewer vehicles than today, as the business model …