Trade News

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Elon Musk insisted in court on Monday he does not control Tesla Inc. and said he did not enjoy being the EV company’s CEO as he took the stand to defend the company’s 2016 acquisition of SolarCity.

The lawsuit by union pension funds and asset managers alleges the celebrity CEO strong-armed Tesla's board into wasting the company’s assets to buy SolarCity, which was running out of cash. Musk at the time owned a 22 percent stake in both Tesla and SolarCity, which was founded by his cousins.

Musk said in his testimony Monday that he's tried "very hard not to be the CEO of Tesla, but I have to or frankly Tesla is going to die.”

The shareholders' lawsuit accuses Musk of dominating deal discussions, pushing Tesla to pay more for SolarCity and misleading shareholders about the deteriorating financial health of the solar panel maker.

Kicking off a two-week trial in Wilmington, Del., Musk, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and a slightly …

For auto dealers near New York City, space is often limited and expensive.

So when Oliver Brodlieb — a fourth-generation dealer on Long Island — came across a 5-acre site in Oyster Bay, N.Y., that could provide his growing dealership with some much-needed "breathing room," he seized the opportunity.

"The amount of sales that we were growing — double-digit year-over-year growth — and all of the service business that that generates, it was like fitting 10 pounds in a five-pound bag," said Brodlieb, president of East Hills Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram in Greenvale, N.Y. "We couldn't continue to grow without expanding our footprint."

He bought the site in 2015 for $5.3 million along with business partners Ken and Tim Brodlieb — his uncle and cousin. Ken owns East Hills Auto Group, which consists of Brodlieb's dealership as well as three Chevrolet stores and a Subaru store.

The partners are using the site — formerly a Chevrolet dealership — as a storage f…

We asked our honorees: What would people be surprised to know about you?

"It is the privilege I had to save someone's life after getting a phone call to be a stem cell donor for a leukemia patient. A few years after the successful cell transplant took place, I was able to meet him and his family in Irvine, Calif. Fast-forward to this day we remain close friends." — Carlos Vallejo

"There's two events I do every year: I go to Las Vegas in the summer to go to [Electric] Daisy Carnival, a huge EDM festival that goes from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Every winter I always fly out to New York to go to the Met to watch an opera." — Karmala Sutton

"I'm an avid golfer. It's how I relax." — Shelby Reed

"I collect Funko Pops. My office has ... over 100 of these Funko Pops. Whenever people come into the office, they look and are shocked, to say the least, but impressed, too, in a way because they are super cool little figurines." — Joey M…

We realized a long time ago that there's never enough space to write about all the interesting things that go on in the car business from week to week, month to month. We have to make choices, and so many remarkable stories just fall by the wayside.

That was one of the reasons we created our annual "40 Under 40" feature, which appears in this week's issue. We hear about, we meet, we observe the stories of people doing interesting things early in their careers, hitting on new ideas, solving problems and succeeding in impressive ways. These are some people who are worth keeping your eye on.

At the same time, we'll catch up with another individual this week who's not at the front end of his career, but at the tail end. Edsel Ford II, pictured above, retired in May, after serving 33 years on Ford's board and in various executive functions around the business. But he admits to us th…

Don Burnette, CEO and co-founder of Kodiak Robotics, discusses fresh investments from Bridgestone and BMW iVentures, Kodiak’s unique mapping strategy and building a truck-specific self-driving system.

How do I subscribe?

Apple Podcasts: “Shift: A podcast about mobility” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe.

Spotify: "Shift: A podcast about mobility" can be streamed through Spotify on your desktop, tablet or mobile device. Click here to subscribe.

Google Play: "Shift: A podcast about mobility" is available on Android devices through the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe.

Jeep, a brand known for pushing adventures in the wilderness, is getting an assist from the weather as it pushes the new Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid.

The brand, trying to get acquainted with the electric vehicle crowd, is displaying Wrangler 4xe ads on the screens of Volta charging stations in San Francisco and Los Angeles that change with the weather. Jeep is the first company to run a campaign using Volta's weather technology.

The Volta stations have 55-inch screens that show the Wrangler with the top and doors off when the weather is sunny, with the slogan, "Embracing nature has never felt more natural." When it's cloudy, the doors and roof are on and the slogan says, "Charge ahead and take on the elements," while lightning bolts flash in the background.

The campaign, which began this month and runs throughout July, shows how Jeep is adapting its messaging to appeal to a more environmentally conscious audience as the brand ext…

Some of the hottest new vehicles revealed by automakers lately — including significant new electric vehicles — have mostly remained online. Only a few industry insiders and journalists have been able to see them up close.

That changes this week with the Chicago Auto Show, which will feature highly anticipated vehicles such as the Ford F-150 Lightning, the burly Bronco and the Kia EV6. Ford also will mark global debuts of two interactive displays with road courses for its off-road vehicles and its new electric models.

While smaller auto shows have been returning for months as the pandemic eases, some of the newly revealed models have been absent. Recent shows also have come with restrictions that limited their appeal. Masks, social distancing and reduced automaker participation meant smaller crowds.

The Chicago show is not a complete return to the pre-pandemic era, but it will be close.

For starters, there will be a me…

TOKYO — Mazda's plans to resurrect its trademark rotary engine as a part of an electrified range extender is now on the back burner.

The rotary range extender had been expected next year as part of the company's multiple-solution approach to electrification. Mazda Motor Corp. still plans to resurrect the rotary — but first as a power-assist technology for series and plug-in hybrid offerings.

"We are still considering using rotary engine as a range extender, but the timing of its introduction is undecided," spokesman Masahiro Sakata said.

Mazda's commitment, however, may be shaky. Japanese media reports say Mazda has scrapped plans for using the rotary range extender in the MX-30. Mazda ditched the rotary range extender partly because it required a bigger battery that would make the vehicle too expensive, Japan's Nikkei business daily and Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun reported.

Mazda declined to comment. The rotary range-extender version of the MX-30 was…

Ford Motor Co. on Friday said it amended its bylaws to adopt gender-neutral language in an effort to build a more inclusive workplace.

The automaker said it would use the title "chair" in place of "chairman."

This comes amid fierce debates over what it means to be a man or a woman, and how language and institutions need to be more inclusive.

Earlier this year, White House added gender-neutral pronouns that people could select when contacting the U.S. government, while professional networking site LinkedIn announced plans to let users add their preferred gender pronouns to accounts in certain countries.

Companies that provide Internet vehicle listings are looking beyond generating traditional leads to help consumers transact online.

The capabilities that listings sites such as CarGurus and TrueCar are adding to their platforms expand on their original auto classifieds businesses. They range from integrating with digital retailing software providers to allowing consumers to build deals that incorporate vehicle financing and protection products.

The shift follows a broader industry trend toward e-commerce that had been slow to evolve until the coronavirus pandemic sped it forward. Executives of the listings companies and observers of the segment say allowing consumers to complete more purchase steps on third-party websites before passing them on to a dealership will generate deeper leads from more-serious buyers.

Someone who acts beyond simply requesting a quote, such as seeking a trade-in value or applying for credit, signals to a dealership that "this…