DriveNews.co.uk: Your Ultimate Hub for Comprehensive Automotive News and Insights! We bring you the latest reports, stories, and updates from the world of cars, covering everything from vehicle launches to driving tips. Stay with DriveNews.co.uk to stay revved up about the automotive world 24/7
DETROIT/WASHINGTON — Workers at a Mercedes-Benz factory in Vance, Alabama, filed a petition with U.S. regulators to hold an election to join the United Auto Workers, the union said on Friday.
Here's a story with a lot of layers, and it starts in China. The Beijing Late Post reports (translated, and via Car News China) that battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Company (CATL) is in talks with General Motors about establishing a North American battery production facility that would duplicate the licensing agreement Ford arranged with CATL for Ford's Blue Oval Battery Park in Michigan (BOPP). The BOPP, announced a year ago, would have Ford pay for the factory and production equipment, then license CATL's lithium iron phosphate battery technology. CATL would set up the plant and train Ford personnel, and help Ford set up a supply chain that satisfies IRA tax credit requirements, but have no financial interest in the plant, making its money from the licensing fee and royalties for the batteries produced. The Late Post cited unnamed sources for the GM news, saying that this potential plant is being considered for the U.S. or Mexico, and would be capable of making just as many batteries as Ford's facility.
Ford, the second largest automaker in the United States by sales, is delaying the launch of its new three-row electric vehicles it will build at its assembly complex in Oakville, Ontario to 2027 from 2025. The automaker will also delay deliveries of an all-new EV truck it will build at a new plant in western Tennessee until 2026. Last year, the automaker said it would begin production in late 2025 and build up to 500,000 electric trucks annually.
DETROIT — New vehicle sales in the U.S. rose nearly 5% from January through March, as buyers stayed in the market despite high interest rates. But electric vehicle sales growth slowed during the first three months of the year, with mainstream buyers wary of limited range and a lack of charging stations.
BEIJING — Shares of China's Xiaomi surged as much as 16% on Tuesday as the electronics maker's sporty electric vehicle launched last week drew strong interest, though a brokerage forecast the firm would lose nearly $10,000 per car this year.
Tesla and Jeep took the podium in American University Kogod Business School's 2023 «Made in America» index in what turned out to be a surprising — and delayed — reshuffling of the 2022 finishing order that puts Tesla on top (with five models in the top 10), with the previous year's first-place entry, the Lincoln Corsair, falling to a three-way tie for sixth place, behind entries from Honda and Volkswagen. Jeep is the first Detroit-based manufacturer to appear this year (at #3); the first GM car on the list, the Chevrolet Corvette, appears at #7 — tied with the Ford Mustang GT and just ahead of the Chevy Camaro Turbo (#8).
MOSCOW — Russian company Automotive Technologies announced it had started assembling Citroen C5 Aircross models in batches at a plant south of Moscow formerly owned by Stellantis, with the cars set to be sold in dealerships from May.
Tesla has a plan to fend off cheaper competition from China with a $25,000 electric car. But first it has to overhaul a 100-year-old manufacturing process pioneered by Henry Ford.