Industry

WASHINGTON — Federal funding to support a national electric vehicle charging network has prompted Flo to hasten its EV charger manufacturing and deployment strategy in the U.S. The North American EV charging company entered the U.S. market in 2018, but federal assistance from the bipartisan infrastructure law signed in 2021 and last year’s Inflation Reduction

Mobileye Global Inc., a global supplier of advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving technology, established a test center in Shanghai last week. The facility in Shanghai’s suburban Jiading district will  test and validate  technology to ensure it provides customers in China with advanced and reliable solutions, Mobileye said. Mobileye said it won 24 projects

America’s public and private electric vehicle charging stations are susceptible to cyberthreats because they don’t meet the latest security standards. Most of the hundreds of thousands of public and home chargers use older technology that leaves them vulnerable to security breaches, according to Jim Alfred, vice president of Canada’s BlackBerry Technology Solutions. That means these

Shares of Uber Technologies and Lyft Inc. rose on Tuesday after a California court ruled that drivers can be treated as independent contractors rather than employees, removing some future regulatory risks for the rideshare companies. Analysts expect the decision will likely be challenged before the California Supreme Court, which could take months to decide whether

SEOUL — Fast-growing Kia is banking on a first-mover advantage by reaching into the nascent market for larger electric vehicles with its full-size, three-row all-electric EV9 crossover. The EV9 will claim a spot that is mostly white space at the moment — a segment for roomy, family-oriented cargo and people movers that meet American space

FRANKFURT — Porsche said it is in talks with Google about integrating its software into its car cockpit. Talks about Google Automotive Services are underway, CEO Oliver Blume said on Monday after presenting the brand’s full-year results for 2022. A source told Reuters in January that Porsche was weighing integrating Google’s software, which would give

Tire sensors are likely to become smarter and generate more important data for drivers in the coming years as electric vehicles become more prominent, industry executives say. That’s an important safety factor. EVs are generally heavier than gasoline-powered vehicles and generate massive torque, leading to faster tire wear rates, said Yagil Tzur, vice president of

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Wednesday it is opening a new special investigation into a February fatal crash in California involving a Tesla Model S where an advanced driver assistance system was suspected of having been used. The agency is investigating the crash of a 2014 model year Tesla involving a

A consortium of some of the world’s biggest automakers is investing in a holographic head-up display technology startup. Hyundai Mobis, the parts and service affiilate of South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co., led a $50 million series C funding round valuing the United Kingdom’s Envisics at $500 million. Envisics develops augmented reality head-up displays or

Two analytics companies are joining forces to try to provide a real-time look into electric vehicle battery behavior and increase production speed. The partnership announced Thursday is between PDF Solutions and Voltaiq. PDF Solutions is based in Santa Clara, Calif., and collects data during manufacturing, performs analytics and employs machine learning for semiconductor companies. Voltaiq

Our Next Energy Inc. has landed a deal with Shyft Group Inc. to supply the delivery vehicle manufacturer with lithium iron phosphate batteries at a Michigan plant. Worth more than $200 million in revenue, the agreement calls for the Michigan-based startup battery manufacturer to supply Shyft with 15,000 battery packs for Class 3-5 trucks over

ZF Group is rolling out its first pure software product, as the world’s third-largest parts supplier looks to establish itself as a major player in the fast-growing market for automotive software. The product, called CubiX, controls all of a vehicle’s chassis functions, including braking, front- and rear-axle steering, active roll stabilization and electric drive. By

Automakers are so worried about vehicle and software security gaps that they are paying hackers to uncover vulnerabilities. These bug bounty programs reward friendly digital invaders, known as white hat hackers, who look for breaches and notify automakers and suppliers of the problems — although the auto industry pays them considerably less for their efforts

DETROIT — Traditionally, automakers didn’t install anything on a vehicle that they couldn’t charge for. While it might simplify manufacturing somewhat to build each vehicle with the same set of parts, it costs money to install buttons, switches, knobs, sensors, computers and wiring for optional or nonfunctioning equipment. When you build hundreds of thousands of

DETROIT — General Motors isn’t promising that Ultra Cruise, its hands-free driving system for city streets, can handle every situation right away. Ultra Cruise, which debuts in 2024 on the Cadillac Celestiq, will tell the driver to take over through roundabouts and other intersections requiring complicated maneuvers, said Jason Ditman, the system’s chief engineer. It

The founders of Argo AI, the autonomous vehicle company that was shut down last year, are launching a new self-driving business that could specialize in trucking and ride-hailing, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The venture by Bryan Salesky and Pete Rander will be backed by an investment from a company that approached them

Editor’s note: Redwood will soon produce cathode from the recycling program. An earlier version of this story misstated that status of that production. Redwood also clarified that other packs were recycled outside of the California pilot program. Redwood Materials recycled more than 1,000 end-of-life battery packs last year to produce high-quality battery materials through a

AutoNation’s $190 million acquisition in January of mobile service firm RepairSmith has energized the small but growing mobile repair world and highlights how dealerships can remain relevant in a rapidly changing retail environment. At the time of the purchase, AutoNation CEO Mike Manley said buying RepairSmith gives the nation’s largest new-vehicle retailer the ability “to

Private equity investors plowed at least $647.5 million into automotive-related startups in February. Of that, almost 71 percent, or $457.5 million, went to companies working on battery technology, one of the safer bets in the electric vehicle space thanks to the federal government’s industrial policy and incentive programs. While automakers invest billions on EV development

Ford Motor Co. said it is creating a wholly owned subsidiary named Latitude AI to research and develop automated driving technologies. Latitude’s formation underscores the company’s focus on automated technologies that support human drivers in personally owned vehicles. But the company has its roots in self-driving technology: Its 550-person staff will largely be comprised of

Mercedes-Benz’s China unit is tapping China’s largest battery maker, CATL, and two major battery material recyclers – GEM Co. and Brunp Recycling Co. — to recycle retired batteries used in electrified vehicles.  The four companies will form a so-called closed-loop battery recycling project, according to a memorandum of understanding signed Monday, GEM and Brunp said

Self-driving truck company Embark Technology is shutting down. The company announced its closure Friday in an email from CEO Alex Rodrigues to Embark employees. This is the second recent major failure of autonomous technology company. Argo AI Inc. folded in October after its main backers Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen decided to pull the plug

When big rigs pull to the highway’s shoulder, their drivers are required by federal regulations to place three reflective triangles behind the vehicle within 10 minutes of stopping. In a self-driving world, there’s nobody around to perform this mundane task. That’s a problem for companies that intend to deploy driverless trucks, but self-driving tech firms

Gotion Inc. hopes to move forward with a $2.4 billion EV battery parts plant in the Big Rapids area, but it has a backup plan that could involve leaving the state if the deal falls apart, said Chuck Thelen, the company’s vice president for North American operations. Since announcing the plant and plans to create

WASHINGTON — The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association on Wednesday released a U.S. policy framework outlining key priorities for federal AV legislation and regulation. The group’s framework includes several recommendations for Congress and the U.S. Department of Transportation to steer federal action and advance the deployment and commercialization of AVs across the U.S. “AVs are testing

The frontrunners among companies vying to develop and deploy autonomous vehicles face tenuous futures. That’s one key takeaway in a new report issued Tuesday by research and consulting firm Guidehouse Insights. The company’s report assessed and ranked the strategies of leading AV developers. Collectively, it spotlights the difficulty most are navigating in building viable businesses

TOKYO — When engineers at Toyota recently conducted a teardown study of the Tesla Model Y, it did more than expose key technological secrets of the popular American-made, full-electric crossover. It also tore away a moldering complacency at the Japanese automaker. What laid underneath the Model Y’s sheet metal was a masterfully simplistic vehicle structure

Lotus’ imminent rival to the Porsche Taycan, an electric sedan code-named Type 133, has been spied winter testing above the Arctic Circle in Europe ahead of a launch planned for later this year. The sedan will be the second model in the brand’s non-sports car lineup following the Eletre crossover and images show a slippery,

SHANGHAI — CATL, the world’s largest battery maker, has offered to cut costs for Chinese automakers, a move that demonstrates its market power and could also widen China’s cost advantage in electric vehicles. China’s CATL has offered smaller domestic electric-vehicle makers discounted prices on batteries, according to four people with knowledge of the terms. The discount

Sometimes it feels like the state of the autonomous-vehicle industry can only be viewed through the reflection of a fun-house mirror. The setbacks appear as seismic shudders. The progress seen as inch-by-inch developments. Certainly, the shuttering of Argo last October counts as one of the former. The demise of the Ford-and-Volkswagen-backed company has cast a