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10/03/2025Automotive News

Ford withdraws petition to deploy self-driving vehicles

WASHINGTON — Ford Motor Co. has withdrawn its petition to deploy a limited number of self-driving vehicles without traditional driving controls or features on US roads, an unpublished federal document shows.

In the notice, which is scheduled to be published Friday, NHTSA said Ford has withdrawn its July 2021 request for a temporary exemption from certain federal safety standards for a vehicle equipped with an automated driving system.

Ford sought an exemption from seven safety standards to deploy vehicles that would be used to support mobility services such as ride-sharing and package delivery, according to the petition.

Ford notified NHTSA

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28/02/2025Automotive News

How BMW plans to lower battery costs for electric cars

BERLIN — BMW is betting on efficient design and recycling to bring down battery costs and is steering clear of investing in mines, finance chief Nicolas Peter said, setting the automaker apart from some competitors digging deep into the supply chain.

“We don’t think it is right to invest in mines. We view it as more important to get back raw materials from cars and other products,” Peter told Reuters in an interview on Friday.

Peter, who is due to retire in May, also said the carmaker was experiencing a strong first quarter and said he saw no reason to

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23/02/2025Automotive News

Waymo retires self-driving Pacifica hybrid minivans for Jaguar EVs

Self-driving technology company Waymo will retire its fleet of Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans, the vehicular flag-bearers for the nation’s first commercial robotaxi service.

Waymo said Thursday it will replace the vans used in its metro Phoenix commercial operations by increasing its deployment of Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicles.

The transition will occur in a matter of weeks. Waymo intends to maintain a national fleet of about 700 vehicles.

The move comes as the Google-affiliated company joins the “EV Acceleration Challenge” unveiled this week by the White House.

As the federal government hastens electrification efforts, Waymo saw an opportunity to “not only

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21/02/2025Automotive News

Volkswagen Is Reportedly Removing Its Design Chief

murat axel, gunnar kilian, ralf brandstätter, klaus zellmer, jozef kaban, thomas ulbrich standing, fltr — Volkswagen Is Reportedly Removing Its Design ChiefULI_SONNTAG/VW

Volkswagen will replace its current design chief Jozef Kaban, Automotive News Europe’s affiliate Automobilwoche reports. The designer’s work reportedly hasn’t impressed new VW CEO Thomas Schaefer, and as a result, he’ll reportedly be replaced by Bentley design boss Andreas Mindt.

Kaban has been the head of Volkswagen design since 2020. He came to the company from Rolls-Royce, where he led the design team for six months. Automobilwoche
reports that Kaban’s retro ID. Life concept—which was supposed to preview a 2025 mainstream EV from VW—didn’t impress the new CEO, who wanted a

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20/02/2025Automotive News

March auto sales: GM’s strong sales; Ford gains; Toyota slips

The automaker said it ended the first quarter with 412,285 cars and light trucks in dealer stock or in transit, unchanged from the end of the fourth quarter.

Ford rebounded from a fourth-quarter 2022 decline with sales rising 10 percent in the most recent three-month period, with Ford division volume rising 11 percent but Lincoln down 1.1 percent. The first-quarter tally was driven by a 20 percent jump in pickup sales and a slight gain in SUV volume.

In March, Ford’s sales advanced for the fourth straight month, rising 7.5 percent, with the Ford division up 8.2 percent but Lincoln

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17/07/2023Automotive News

Is This Auto Stock a Good Buy?

Once a popular meme stock candidate, Mullen Automotive, Inc. (MULN) is witnessing a downward spiral, with shares falling close to 100% over the past year. The past month alone has seen a 63.3% drop in share price, with the stock hovering near its 52-week low of $0.10 recorded on July 5, 2023.

While MULN continues to establish partnerships and initiate product launches in an effort to highlight its growth potential within the electric vehicle (EV) industry and spur investors’ optimism, the stock looks poised for further depreciation.

Consistently trading under the $1 threshold, efforts have been deployed to elevate MULN’s

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01/07/2023Automotive News

Gerald Meyers obituary: Former American Motors CEO was 94

At a meeting in June 1971 to review new car designs, Meyers didn’t care for any of the proposals from designers. Teague then proposed a wide, small car with lots of glass. He sketched what he later called a “grubby doodle” — a four-wheeled football covered in glass with a roll bar in the middle. It became the Pacer and was introduced in 1975, to initial success, with first-year sales that topped 100,000.

“We saw the Megalopolis — these urban sprawls that extend from Los Angeles to San Diego with no break,” Meyers recalled later. “And congestion, pollution, noise, energy

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08/06/2023Automotive News

Canadian partners buy VW car dealership in the US

Hewitt — an experienced used-car manager — is focusing on the store’s sales department, while Alalouf oversees fixed operations, accounting and finance.

The partners each have three decades of automotive managerial experience. They met 25 years ago at what was then the Cowell Auto Group near Vancouver, British Columbia, then later worked for Canada’s Foundation Automotive Corp. in the US

After they decided last year to launch their own business, Alalouf and Hewitt sold their Vancouver homes to raise cash. They said they chose a US location because Canadian dealerships were either too expensive or too remote.

If all goes

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