Polestar will take over part of Saab’s former car plant in Sweden to extend its R&D operations in Europe. The EV maker will conduct powertrain development for the Polestar 5, a Tesla Model S rival, and the Polestar 6 roadster at a 15,000-square-meter building in Trollhattan, Automotive News Europe sister publication Automobilwoche reported. Polestar will…
Category: Automotive News
Lloyd Reuss obituary: Former GM president championed engineering
DETROIT — Lloyd Reuss, a mechanical engineer who rose to become General Motors president in the early 1990s, died on Friday. He was 86. Reuss, a classic company man with sharp political instincts and a passion for performance, was the father of Mark Reuss, GM’s current president and head of the automaker’s regional and international…
Transport technology startup funding plunged 43 percent in March
Globally, deal activity in the mobility technology sector for the fourth quarter of 2022 was going flat into 2023, Jonathan Geurkink, a senior analyst at PitchBook, told Automotive News. “We are seeing investment shift away from the activity in and around autonomous driving and the ride-hailing and last mile stuff seems to be tailing off…
Why Arizona Heat Makes Windshield Cracks Expand
Many of us have been there. You get a small chip or crack in your windshield and leave it alone, figuring it won’t get any bigger. Unfortunately, this isn’t often the case. In many situations, this crack or chip will gradually grow larger, causing you to need a full windshield replacement in the future, rather…
Road safety study: SUVs are more dangerous to cyclists than cars
SUVs cause more severe injuries to bicyclists than cars, a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows. The tall front end of SUVs can strike bicyclists higher on their bodies above the center of gravity. This results in riders getting knocked down, where they can be run over, rather than being thrown…
VW’s Cariad, ThunderSoft partner on connectivity, infotainment
BERLIN — Volkswagen Group’s software unit Cariad will establish a joint venture with Chinese technologies provider ThunderSoft for connectivity and infotainment systems in China, with ThunderSoft holding a 51 percent stake. The partnership will develop software products for car cockpits, infotainment systems and cloud development. These are consumer-facing areas where automakers are competing to set…
Tesla cuts prices in Germany, France to boost demand
BERLIN — Tesla’s latest price reductions in Europe were made possible because of a scaling up and improvement in its production capacity, the company said. Tesla cut prices in European markets including Germany and France on Friday, with all versions of the Model 3, Model S, and Model X selling for lower prices as well…
Nissan revs up fleet sales as production returns
Nissan’s average pre-pandemic fleet mix hovered at about 30 percent, a TrueCar spokesman said, declining to disclose specific volumes. During the pandemic and subsequent supply chain shortages, which dramatically cut fleet sales across the industry, that share dropped to 18-to-20 percent. In recent months, the fleet share increased to about 25%. Nissan, which in the…