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Former Tesla Inc. technician Martin Tripp acknowledged that he intentionally violated a protective order when he announced on Twitter that he’d fired his attorneys and posted court documents and depositions online. Not long after an online hearing Friday, Tripp posted a thread of contrition on Twitter, apologizing to the judge for publicly maligning her and

A California judge on Thursday refused to give Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. more time to appeal his decision forcing them to classify drivers in that state as employees, which they have said would necessitate restructuring their businesses. At a hearing in San Francisco Superior Court, Judge Ethan Schulman said he found no reason

General Motors plans to hand off ventilator production at its Indiana parts facility to Ventec Life Systems by the end of the month as it completes its government contract to build 30,000 ventilators to help treat coronavirus patients. GM has delivered more than 20,000 ventilators to the National Stockpile and expects to send the remaining

LOS ANGELES — Hyundai giveth and Hyundai taketh away with the next-generation Elantra for the 2021 model year. Last week, it announced the discontinuation of the Elantra GT hatchback and its sporty N Line trim. This week, the Korean automaker confirmed that the new N Line version of the Elantra sedan will be equipped with

The Cadillac Lyriq will start at less than $60,000 when it debuts in late 2022 or early 2023, Steve Carlisle, president of General Motors North America, said Wednesday. Cadillac won’t announce official pricing anytime soon, but as the brand transitions to an all-electric portfolio, the Lyriq midsize crossover and other EVs have to be able

Tesla Inc. is splitting its elevated shares in a 5-for-1 exchange, a move timed to make the stock price less expensive for individual investors after becoming the world’s most valuable automaker. Its shares surged on the news in aftermarket trading. Each shareholder of record on Aug. 21 will receive a dividend of four additional shares

Labor negotiations between Unifor and the Detroit 3 formally begin in Toronto on Wednesday, kicking off a round of talks that could prove pivotal to the future of Canada’s shrinking automotive assembly base. “We’ve got our hands full with all of them,” Unifor President Jerry Dias told Automotive News Canada this week, ahead of the

A California judge Monday granted the state’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. from classifying their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees. Judge Ethan Schulman of the San Francisco Superior Court delayed enforcing his order by 10 days to give the companies a chance to appeal. The decision

DETROIT — A Tesla store along Chicago’s Magnificent Mile shopping district was broken into overnight Sunday during numerous acts of vandalism in the city’s downtown commercial area. One video shows a number of people running into the Tesla-Gold Coast location on North Rush Street after the store’s windows were broken. It’s unclear whether any vehicles

LOS ANGELES — Hyundai Motor Co. is launching a global battery-electric brand using the Ioniq name from its current hybrid and EV hatchbacks. It plans to release three electric vehicles from the new brand in the next four years, starting in early 2021 with a midsize crossover. Hyundai Motor Group, which includes Kia and Genesis,

DETROIT — Jim Farley’s gambit at the outset of the Great Recession to leave a flourishing career at Toyota Motor Corp. to help save a foundering Ford Motor Co. has paid off: In less than eight weeks, he’ll become CEO. While Ford is nowhere near the precarious position it was in when Farley moved from

Editor’s note: This story is part of the annual Automotive News “Future Product Pipeline” series. BMW plans to keep its foot on the product-development accelerator over the next few years as the performance automaker looks to maintain its sales lead over rival Mercedes-Benz. BMW is launching 12 products this year, including a new 2 Series

Editor’s note: This story is part of the annual Automotive News “Future Product Pipeline” series. Audi’s expansion of its battery-electric lineup will begin next year and will continue for at least the next four years as the German luxury brand adds battery-powered, all-wheel-drive sport sedans, crossovers and perhaps even supercars. Over that period, however, Audi

Jeep is in a transformative period. While the spotlight is on the adventure brand’s upcoming off-road joust with the Ford Bronco, another larger development is taking place: Jeep is setting itself up to gain ground everywhere else. By the end of 2021, Jeep will have a varied powertrain portfolio that plays in the electrified and

LOS ANGELES — Hyundai Motor America has named Olabisi Boyle, a former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles engineering executive, as vice president of product planning and mobility strategy for the Korean automaker’s U.S. operations. Boyle’s responsibilities include strategic direction of Hyundai’s U.S. vehicle lineup, along with market research, business analytics and pricing. She starts Monday and will

TOKYO — Osamu Masuko, the chairman of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and one of Japan’s oldest and longest-serving automotive chiefs, has abruptly resigned citing health reasons. The 71-year-old executive stepped down effective Aug. 7, the Japanese automaker said in a release. The company did not give details about his health condition but said that Masuko would

DETROIT — General Motors is pondering a provocative move based on a predicament it has faced for years: Pure plays on electric vehicles are all the rage, while old-school auto manufacturing can’t get any love. The idea — to spin off GM’s electric-vehicle operations as a standalone entity — was raised by analysts with CEO

Audi has cut the entry price of its first battery-electric crossover, the e-tron, by $8,800 for the 2021 model year as the Germany luxury brand begins expanding its EV lineup while facing criticism that the e-tron’s range is significantly less than rival Tesla. Audi said it would lower the price of the e-tron compact crossover

The coronavirus pandemic will slow the rollout of some electrified vehicle programs as suppliers deal with liquidity issues, automakers postpone launches and consumer hold off on new-car purchases, said Michael Robinet, executive director of automotive advisory services at IHS Markit, in a Zoom presentation Wednesday during the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars. “The

OAKLAND, Calif. — A U.S. judge on Tuesday sentenced former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski to 18 months in prison for stealing a trade secret from Google related to self-driving cars months before becoming the head of Uber Technologies Inc.’s rival unit. U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco said Levandowski, who was convicted on

Honda is recalling more than 600,000 model-year 2018-2020 Odyssey minivans and 2019-2020 Passport and 2019-2021 Pilot SUVs for safety-related issues that include malfunctioning dashboard and rearview camera displays, and sliding doors that may open while driving. The safety issues were posted Tuesday by NHTSA and announced by the automaker in a press release. There are

TOKYO — Subaru Corp. slumped to an operating loss in the latest quarter as the COVID-19 pandemic broadsided sales and production, especially in the key U.S. market. In the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, Subaru booked an operating loss of 15.7 billion yen ($146.2 million), reversing an operating profit of 92.2 billion yen ($858.6

Behold, the only American car you can factory order and pick up at a dealership that features body assembly  completed by an independent coachbuilder, just as luxury automobiles like Duesenbergs—and Lincolns—often were in the classic era: the Lincoln Continental Coach Door Edition. Anyone can plainly see the extensive modifications the coachbuilders made in stretching the

Hyundai Motor Co. on Friday appointed Jay Chang as the new global head of its Genesis brand. He replaced William Lee, who left Genesis to become CEO of marketing communications company Innocean. Innocean is Hyundai’s global advertising division that has also worked with sister company Kia and clients outside the parent company. Lee, who was

A new Volkswagen Golf GTI arrives in the United States for the 2022 model year—in fact, it and the Golf R are the only confirmed versions of the company’s compact hatchback coming to our shores. Before it arrives, Volkswagen is sending off the seventh generation 2021 Golf GTI with some new goodies for its final year on

When global supplier Hyundai Mobis said last year it would shutter an overseas manufacturing facility and build a new electric-vehicle components plant in Ulsan, South Korea, it did not mention China. But as it prepared to invest in Korea, the diversified Hyundai Motor Group-affiliated supplier also slashed production in Beijing. It was a telling moment

Speculation has always been regular part of the auto-journo gig, and today we’re armchair-quarterbacking the current Subaru BRZ‘s future. If you happen to check out Subaru’s Japanese website at this link, translate the page from Japanese to English (unless you’re fluent in the language, in which case, good for you), and scroll down to the ominous message blared

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company conducted “zero” consumer research when designing its upcoming Cybertruck. He says he doesn’t pay attention to competitors or know anything about other electric vehicles on the market. And criticism that the Autopilot name is misleading for Tesla’s driver-assist system, which has been linked to a number of accidents?

It’s hard to pull off a Jeep Wrangler in pink, but designer Afzal Kahn managed to do just that. This special Wrangler, painted in “3D texture pink military paint,” is currently up for grabs. And it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. The pink Jeep features a special design package from the Chelsea Truck Company.

Editor’s note: This story is part of the annual Automotive News “Future Product Pipeline” series. Acura’s return to its performance roots accelerated this year with the debut of a redesigned TLX midsize sports sedan on a new platform with an optional turbocharged six-cylinder engine. But there is much more to come, and it will happen