Trade News

WASHINGTON -- Fifteen 15 U.S. states on Tuesday sued the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after it agreed last month under then-President Donald Trump to an auto industry request to delay the start of dramatically higher penalties for companies that fail to meet fuel efficiency requirements.

The states, including California and New York, filed suit in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals over the decision announced in the final days of the Trump administration that could save the industry hundreds of millions of dollars or more. The NHTSA last month said it expected the final rule to significantly cut future burdens on industry by up to $1 billion annually.

NHTSA said last month it expected the final rule to significantly cut future burdens on the industry by up to $1 billion annually.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said on Twitter the decision "cements the Trump (administration's) legacy of putting industry ahead of public hea…

Automotive News Chief of Editorial Operations Dave Versical and reporter David Muller discuss the business of used cars.

Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors Inc. is getting close to a deal to go public at a roughly $12 billion valuation after veteran dealmaker Michael Klein's blank-check acquisition firm launched a financing effort to back the transaction, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The merger between Lucid and Klein's Churchill Capital IV Corp. would be the biggest in a string of deals by EV makers such as Nikola Corp. and Fisker Inc. that have gone public by combining with special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs.

Churchill Capital IV has initiated talks with investors to raise more than $1 billion by selling shares in a private investment in a public equity transaction for the deal with Lucid, the sources said. The size of that transaction could reach $1.5 billion or more based on investor demand, one added.

These funds would be in addition to the $2 billion Churchill Capital IV raised in an initial public offering in July on …

The redesigned Porsche 911 lineup expands again this year with the arrival of the Turbo variant, which follows the Turbo S. Available as either a coupe or convertible, the 911 Turbo is powered by a twin-turbo, six-cylinder boxer engine with 572 hp and 553 pound-feet of torque along with an eight-speed PDK transmission. Porsche says the 911 Turbo was widened by around 1.78 inches to accommodate a new chassis and features a larger active front spoiler and larger variable rear spoiler for better aerodynamics. We've collected a selection of 911 Turbo reviews, both coupe and convertible, from the automotive media.

"In advance of track testing, we gave our 911 a street test, taking it on a scavenger hunt in search of "muffler men," those roadside-attraction fiberglass giants built in the 1960s to advertise tire shops and transmission swaps. Exact locations of road-trip oddities can be difficult to pin down, so it made for a good challenge of the 911's map displ…

The Department of Transportation on Feb. 15, 1968, announces a new motor vehicle safety standard requiring protective head restraints on all passenger cars manufactured after Dec. 31, 1968.

The rule was designed to reduce the frequency and severity of "whiplash" neck injuries, even in low-speed accidents.

Lowell Bridwell, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, called it one of the most important standards issued to date under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966.

At the time, about 4 million rear-end crashes -- or one out of four accidents -- occurred annually on U.S. roads. When a vehicle is struck from behind, passengers in such crashes are pushed forward, often violently, causing their heads to snap backward and injuring the neck. About three-fourth of all neck injuries treated by medical professionals at the time were the result of rear-end auto collisions. Disabilities caused by whiplash tended…

Widespread and severe winter weather in the U.S. has caused several automakers to press pause on production this week.

General Motors said it hasn't had to suspend production because of natural gas shortages -- an issue because freezing temperatures have sent electricity demand soaring. But the company did cancel production on Tuesday first shifts at a number of its assembly plants.

Locations impacted include GM plants in Fort Wayne, Ind.; Spring Hill, Tenn.; Bowling Green, Ky.; and Arlington, Texas.

The automaker also idled Monday production shifts at the plants in Tennessee, Texas and Kentucky amid the blast of subzero temperatures, snow and ice sweeping the country. It also halted Monday production at Wentzville Assembly in Missouri.

"We will continue to monitor the weather situation and make adjustments as needed," Dan Flores, a GM spokesman, wrote in an email.

Several Ford Motor Co. operations are down as a result o…

A year ago, I wrote about heading into my first NADA Show in Las Vegas, unaware of what to expect.

That week was near-constant motion — walking the show floor, taking in technology vendors' newest offerings, talking to dealers. I boarded the plane home to Michigan with a notebook full of ideas and topics to explore. A month later, the coronavirus pandemic reached the U.S. and shut down many dealership showrooms across the country, and the emphasis on digital auto sales I heard at the show seemed even more prescient.

That theme remained top of mind last week during NADA's first virtual show, held remotely rather than in New Orleans as initially planned out of concern for attendees' health and safety as the virus continues to spread.

Here is some of what I'm taking away from this year's show:

One: It will be critical for dealers to master the customer experience. Software is important, but dealers have to change their processes to meet customers on the…

Over the past 10 months, Apple has outfitted its latest iPad Pro and iPhone 12 with lidar sensors that enhance the camera capabilities in both devices. Even though the additions have nothing to do with the company's secretive self-driving vehicle program, the moves nonetheless elicited cheers from one Israeli auto-tech startup.

Opsys Tech has spent the past five years developing a particular kind of lidar for use in driver-assist and self-driving systems called VCSEL, which rhymes with 'pixel.' The company's founders are convinced Vertical Cavity Scanning Emitting Lasers offer advantages over conventional lidar, because they allow more emitters to be packaged on smaller chips and use less power overall.

When Apple started using the same type of lidar, Opsys Tech counted another key advantage — it can further compete on cost.

"By the time Apple finished saying to the world 'I need VCSELs for my phone,' everyone was building capacit…

Ford Motor Co. has sold off its stake in Velodyne Lidar Inc., a leading maker of sensors being used in the development of self-driving cars.

Ford, which invested $75 million in Velodyne in 2016, no longer held any shares as of the end of last year, according to a regulatory filing. The automaker held almost 13.1 million shares three months earlier, a holding worth $244.2 million at the end of the third quarter.

“This is consistent with our efforts to make the best, highest use of capital,” said T.R. Reid, a Ford spokesman. “We are using Velodyne technology in our autonomous vehicles.”

Velodyne last year merged with Graf Industrial Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company, and trades on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker VLDR. The valuation of the San Jose, Calif.-based company has been volatile since its trading debut, peaking at $4.62 billion in late December. Stock markets were closed Monday for Presidents' Day.

Ford took a stake in Velo…

TOKYO -- Renesas Electronics, a key supplier of automotive semiconductors, said it will restart production at its advanced chip plant in northeast Japan after an earthquake on Saturday cut power to the facility and shut it down.

A resumption of full output will, however, take a week, which could delay some shipments at a time when customers, particularly carmakers, are struggling with a global chip shortage.

"We will do what we can to ensure there is no disruption to supplies," a Renesas spokeswoman said.

The 7.3 magnitude tremor off Japan's northeast coast caused strong shaking at the Naka factory in Ibaraki Prefecture, which has the company's only cutting-edge 300-millimeter fabrication line.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has warned that aftershocks from the latest quake could last for several days.

In 2011, a deadly magnitude 9 quake shut the plant for three months. After that temblor, which killed 20,000 people and destroyed the …