Tag: General Motors

Western Anxiety About Chinese EVs Could Prove Self-Defeating
World

Western Anxiety About Chinese EVs Could Prove Self-Defeating

Updated Jan. 1, 2024 12:06 am ETChina hawks have the upper hand in the political battle over electric vehicles. They should be wary of overplaying it.The rules for getting a tax credit on EV purchases in the U.S. changed recently. One difference will help stimulate sales: The credit, worth up to $7,500, is now available at the point of sale rather than at the end of the tax year, meaning it can be used as part of a down payment. Other changes will have the opposite effect. Among new sourcing requirements designed to foster a North American supply chain, battery components manufactured in China, the world’s largest supplier, now make models ineligible.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Western Anxiety About Chinese EVs Could Prove Self-Defeating
Money

Western Anxiety About Chinese EVs Could Prove Self-Defeating

Updated Jan. 1, 2024 12:06 am ETChina hawks have the upper hand in the political battle over electric vehicles. They should be wary of overplaying it.The rules for getting a tax credit on EV purchases in the U.S. changed recently. One difference will help stimulate sales: The credit, worth up to $7,500, is now available at the point of sale rather than at the end of the tax year, meaning it can be used as part of a down payment. Other changes will have the opposite effect. Among new sourcing requirements designed to foster a North American supply chain, battery components manufactured in China, the world’s largest supplier, now make models ineligible.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Carmakers Are Drowning in Cash
Money

Carmakers Are Drowning in Cash

Most carmakers are ending the year with lots of cash and lots of worries. Share buybacks are an antidepressant, not a cure, but they are better than nothing.It has been a highly profitable year for the traditional car industry. Production recovered following the microchip-related supply constraints of 2021 and 2022. Having previously been starved of inventory, consumers and fleet owners bought new vehicles despite higher interest rates. Globally, sales are on track to rise 10% this year, according to forecasting firm GlobalData.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Mary Barra Spent a Decade Transforming GM. It Hasn’t Been Enough.
World

Mary Barra Spent a Decade Transforming GM. It Hasn’t Been Enough.

Updated Dec. 16, 2023 12:04 am ETListen to article(2 minutes)At a 2018 meeting with a senior General Motors team, Chief Executive Mary Barra stunned the room with a sharp U-turn. She killed plans for a new high-end Cadillac that already had gushing reviews from the automotive press. Her reason: the car’s gas-guzzling V-8 engine. Barra, deep into her quest to turn GM into an electric-car powerhouse, decided it would send the wrong message to showcase another splashy Cadillac—the GM brand known for innovation—that leans on fossil-fuel technology. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Massive Layoffs Hit Troubled Robotaxi Developer Cruise
Technology

Massive Layoffs Hit Troubled Robotaxi Developer Cruise

Cruise, General Motors’ self-driving development subsidiary, will lay off almost a quarter of its workforce—about 900 employees—the company announced Thursday. The cuts are part of a broader restructuring to focus the robotaxi unit on a narrower path to commercialization. Instead of expanding its commercial robotaxi service to multiple US cities, the company will relaunch its currently paused service in just one.Cruise wants to “enhance our safety standards and processes before we scale,” company co-president and CTO Mo ElShenawy wrote in a letter to employees announcing the layoffs today. A company blog post said that 24 percent of full-time Cruise employees will be let go, with a focus on field and commercial operations, and corporate staffing, though some engineers are also affected. T...
North Carolina’s Billion-Dollar Bet on an EV Outsider
World

North Carolina’s Billion-Dollar Bet on an EV Outsider

Updated Dec. 11, 2023 12:13 am ETHAIPHONG, Vietnam—When electric-car startup VinFast Auto was looking to build a factory in the U.S., one state caught its attention in particular: North Carolina. For years, officials there had been trying to get an automobile manufacturer to set up shop in rural Chatham County. More than a billion dollars of incentives got them the Vietnamese upstart with huge ambitions but a limited record.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Many Car Dealers Are Getting Nervous About EV Push
World

Many Car Dealers Are Getting Nervous About EV Push

Auto dealers across many parts of the country say electric vehicles are becoming too hard a sell for buyers worried about the range, reliability and price of these models.When Paul LaRochelle heard Ford Motor was coming out with an electric pickup truck, the dealer was excited about the prospects for his business. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Auto industry eyes subscription fees as future multi-billion-dollar revenue stream
Money

Auto industry eyes subscription fees as future multi-billion-dollar revenue stream

Los Angeles — Jason Luu's 2020 Volvo XC90 has state-of-the-art remote features, such as the ability to start and stop the engine and unlock and lock the car from an app on his smart phone. But if he wants to keep using those features after a free trial, it will cost $200 a year.  "It's a little disheartening," Luu told CBS News.  Subscriptions are shifting into overdrive in the auto industry. For certain Toyota vehicles, the remote start option comes at a price of $8 per month after the expiration of a free trial, while BMW charges $20 a month for enhanced cruise control on certain vehicles. While Ford offers its hands-free driving "BlueCruise" assisted cruise control option for some of its vehicles, including the all-electric F-150 Lightning, are drive...