Trade News

Tesla Inc. wants Robyn Denholm to remain as chair of the electric-vehicle manufacturer’s board, even as CEO Elon Musk will soon become eligible to retake the top job following a three-year suspension.

Musk, who has led the EV maker since 2008, lost his position as chair as part of a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over his ill-fated attempt to take Tesla private in 2018.

The SEC agreement, announced in September of that year, required Musk to step down from the role and be replaced by an independent chair for three years, a period which ends later this year. Denholm, 57, has served on Tesla’s board since August 2014 and been its chair since November 2018.

“We believe that Ms. Denholm possesses specific attributes that qualify her to serve as a member of the board and as its chair,” Tesla said Friday in its proxy filing. The company cited her “leadership experience and her financial and accounting expertise.”

The EV mar…

Well into her career, Emily Eldridge decided to go back to school and get her MBA. Her son was 5 years old, and her daughter only 2. Although the executive MBA program at the University of Michigan was tough, requiring a family “juggling act” of evening and weekend classes, she says “the outcome was so worth it.”

The best part, Eldridge says — the confidence boost — was having the opportunity to work on a project in an industry she was not familiar with. She was able to offer “strategic direction, because the learnings I had in the auto industry were transferrable,” she says. “It was such a great feeling to know that I wasn’t siloed — that the skills and knowledge I had learned, while they might look disjointed, have all come together in the person I am today.”

Eldridge’s skills and knowledge have been accumulated during a career that started in retail and moved into the auto industry. She is currently senior director, messaging for FordDirect, the joint ventur…

Doctors appointed to evaluate whether Texas software mogul Robert Brockman is competent to stand trial for tax fraud improperly helped U.S. prosecutors gather evidence against him, his lawyers claim in a court filing.

Brockman, 80, has said that his dementia prevents him from helping to defend against charges that he evaded taxes on $2 billion in income. Three doctors appointed by a federal judge to examine Brockman have found he’s competent.

But in a court filing Wednesday, his defense lawyers said the doctors aren’t “genuine neutral experts.” Rather, they asked Brockman about “his view of the potential evidence, facts underlying the charges in the indictment, and the defense strategy,” according to the filing.

Lawyers for Brockman said they consented to the appointment of the three doctors, assuming they would act neutrally as agents of the court. The defense team said it didn’t agree “that these doctors, under the guise of medical examinations, could…

About a decade ago, Royal Automotive Group in Tucson, Ariz., reworked the sales model at its Kia store so that a customer no longer needed to work with multiple people to buy a vehicle.

Dealership group managers noticed that a number of subprime deals were taking a long time to complete, lengthening the wait for all customers to get into the finance and insurance office to finish transactions, said Kevin Cravo, Royal Automotive's executive variable director. Group leaders, Cravo said, knew from survey data that the handoff to "the box" was a major pain point for customers.

"If you have one finance manager stuck on one subprime deal for two hours trying to hang that paper, it just clogged up the whole front of the house," he said.

What emerged from that single-store shift includes a groupwide buying center that works with all six of Royal's dealerships in Tucson, using hubs of employees housed at its Kia and Buick-GMC stores. Royal employs F&I manage…

When industry R&D executives say that autonomous vehicles are going to require a lot more work, they aren't kidding.

Exactly how much research must go into testing various technologies to ensure that they can be trusted with human lives? How about 8.8 billion miles of test driving.

To surmount that research challenge, some European companies have banded together to address the research as a group, rather than relying on individual corporations and balance sheets to figure it out separately.

Their mission: proposing a guide to vehicle architecture that can handle the industry's autonomous technology goal.

"We want to reach a global safety reference, that is key," said Ricky Hudi, chairman of The Autonomous, an initiative that has brought together multiple players in the autonomous vehicle ecosystem. The group includes automakers, Tier 1 suppliers, chipmakers and software developers.

"It's not that other …

TOKYO — Subaru, a slow starter in the global electrification race, is overhauling its product development strategy and building a new R&D center to better compete in an era of electrified vehicles.

The comparatively small Japanese automaker will plow $272.2 million into a new seven-story technical center at its domestic production hub in Gunma prefecture just north of Tokyo.

The facility will open in spring 2024 and bring under one roof about 2,800 workers from engineering, product planning and design. The goal is to speed the automaker's product development process and improve flexibility as the industry shifts to electrified vehicles.

Under a new product development strategy announced in May, Subaru will adopt a matrix-style development approach focused on features — such as powertrains, driver-assist systems and connectivity — and on values, such as safety and the environment.

Subaru said the change will improve…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Friday said it's asking the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to rescind General Motors' "Cruise" and "Super Cruise" trademarks, the latest in a spat between the two automakers over the phrasing of Ford's new driver-assist system.

GM last month sued Ford over its use of the term Ford BlueCruise, arguing it's "a brazen attempt" by Ford to take advantage of positive press about GM's hands-free Super Cruise technology and Cruise, the San Francisco company GM bought in 2016. GM claims BlueCruise is "far less advanced than Cruise's technology and thus likely to yield an inferior consumer experience, with the potential for comfort and safety issues."

Ford announced it would use the name BlueCruise for its hands-free driving technology in April this year. It has called the complaint meritless and frivolous.

"To defend itself, Ford has no choice but to ask the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to rescind both of GM's 'Cruise' and 'Supe…

Lordstown Motors Corp., the embattled electric vehicle startup, renewed a warning about its ability to continue as a going concern.

The company said in a regulatory filing Friday it doesn’t have enough money to fund large-scale production or commercially launch the battery-electric pickup it plans to manufacture. That came two days after telling investors it was on-track to start limited production in September.

“The current level of cash and cash equivalents are not sufficient to fund commercial scale production and the launch of sale of such vehicles,” it said. “These conditions raise substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least one year.”

The aspiring truckmaker’s shares fell 6.5 percent to close at $5.37 on Friday in New York. The stock is down more than 70 percent this year.

Lordstown is one of a number of SPAC-acquired EV startups struggling to raise cash and move into produc…

Lamborghini has resurrected a storied nameplate from decades ago for one last ride before the Italian supercar company transitions to an all-electric future.

The 2022 Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4 pays homage to its famous predecessors built between 1974 and 1990, with their sharply angled wedge shape, sculpted rear and unusual doors. Originally designed by Bertone, posters of the previous-generation rear-engined, scissor-doored, exotic-looking Countach were as ubiquitous on bedroom walls in the late 20th century as were posters featuring equally glamorous-and-unobtainable Hollywood starlets.

The modern version, which will be displayed at The Quail as part of Monterey Car Week, is outfitted with a naturally aspirated rear-mounted 6.5-liter V-12 engine that combined with the brand's 34-hp hybrid supercapacitor technology produces a total of about 825 hp, Automobili Lamborghini says.

Equipped with standard all-wheel drive, the Countach LPI 800-4 is capa…