- ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Maker Rockstar Games Asks Workers to Return to Office Five Days a Week Bloomberg
- Rockstar Games Is Asking Employees to Return to Office Amid GTA Security Concerns IGN
- Rockstar Games calls off remote work, citing leaks in the run-up to releasing the new Grand Theft Auto VI Fortune
- As GTA 6 enters final development stretch, Rockstar is bringing its developers back to the office 5 days a week for “security” and “productivity” Gamesradar
- GTA 6 Is Reportedly Entering The Final Stages Of Development With Rockstar Mandating A Return To Office Press Start Australia
Tag Archives: Auto
Tesla is sending shockwaves through the auto industry as intrigue around its $25,000 ‘mystery model’ continues to build – Yahoo News
- Tesla is sending shockwaves through the auto industry as intrigue around its $25,000 ‘mystery model’ continues to build Yahoo News
- Elon Musk Biographer Walter Isaacson’s Interview Raises Speculations On Tesla Robotaxi Design – Tesla (NA Benzinga
- $25,000 Cybertruck-Like Tesla Is Almost Here — Just Ask PT Barnum Forbes
- Tesla will Manufacture its Latest EVs in Gigafactory Texas and not Mexico gizmochina
- Elon Musk Wanted Cybertruck To Be Stainless Steel, ‘Cool’ And Different Than Other Trucks: ‘We’re Not Doi Benzinga
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Honda to start producing new hydrogen fuel cell system co-developed with GM
TOKYO, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Japan’s Honda Motor Co (7267.T) said it will start producing a new hydrogen fuel cell system jointly developed with General Motors Co (GM.N) this year and gradually step up sales this decade, in a bid to expand its hydrogen business.
Honda will target annual sales of around 2,000 units of the new system in the middle of this decade, the company said on Thursday, aiming to boost that to 60,000 units per year in 2030.
The Japanese carmaker is seeking to expand the use of its new system not only for its own fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), but also commercial vehicles such as heavy trucks, as stationary power stations and in construction machinery.
Honda will start production of the hydrogen fuel cell system through its joint venture with GM this year, Honda senior managing executive director Shinji Aoyama told reporters during a company event in Tokyo.
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With the “next-generation” system, the company aims to more than double durability compared with its older fuel cell system and to bring costs down by two-thirds.
“While commercial vehicles are in use all over the world, they’ll likely see electrification just as with passenger cars,” said Tetsuya Hasebe, general manager of Honda’s hydrogen business development division.
That would likely lead to a divergence in trucks using batteries and those running on fuel cells, he added.
Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Jamie Freed
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
U.S. seeks Tesla driver-assist documents; company hikes capex forecast
WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) disclosed on Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has sought documents related to its Full Self-Driving (FSD) and Autopilot driver-assistance systems as regulatory scrutiny intensifies.
The automaker said in a filing it “has received requests from the DOJ for documents related to Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD features.”
Reuters reported in October Tesla is under criminal investigation over claims that the company’s electric vehicles could drive themselves. Reuters said the U.S. Justice Department launched the probe in 2021 following more than a dozen crashes, some of them fatal, involving Autopilot.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has championed the systems as innovations that will both improve road safety and position the company as a technology leader.
Regulators are examining if Autopilot’s design and claims about its capabilities provide users a false sense of security, leading to complacency behind the wheel with possibly fatal results.
Acting National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) chief Ann Carlson said this month the agency is “working really fast” on the Tesla Autopilot investigation it opened in August 2021 that she termed “very extensive.” In June, NHTSA upgraded to an engineering analysis its defect probe into 830,000 Tesla vehicles with Autopilot, a step that was necessary before the agency could demand a recall.
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Autopilot is designed to assist with steering, braking, speed and lane changes. The function currently requires active driver supervision and does not make the vehicle autonomous. Tesla separately sells the $15,000 full self-driving (FSD) software as an add-on that enables its vehicles to change lanes and park autonomously.
The automaker’s shares rose 2% in early trading.
The Wall Street Journal reported in October that the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a civil investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot statements, citing sources.
Tesla also forecast Tuesday capital expenditure between $7 billion and $9 billion in 2024 and 2025. The midpoint of that expectation is $1 billion higher than the $6.00 billion to $8.00 billion range provided for this year.
Some of the spending will go toward a $3.6 billion expansion of its Nevada Gigafactory complex, where Tesla will mass produce its long-delayed Semi truck and build a plant for the 4680 cell that would be able to make enough batteries for 2 million light-duty vehicles annually.
Tesla said it recorded an impairment loss of $204 million on the bitcoin it holds, while booking a gain of $64 million from converting the token into fiat currency.
Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin were hammered last year as rising interest rates and the collapse of major industry players such as crypto exchange FTX shook investor confidence.
Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and David Shepardson; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Bernadette Baum
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Shares and bonds nervy as rate-hike week looms
LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Stock markets worldwide halted their January rally on Monday, pausing for breath at the start of an agenda-setting week of central bank rate hikes and data releases that will clarify if progress has been made in the battle against inflation.
Investors expect the Federal Reserve will raise rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, followed the day after by half-point hikes from the Bank of England and European Central Bank, and any deviation from that script would be a real shock.
Europe’s benchmark STOXX index fell 0.8% on Monday morning, echoing a slight dip in MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), which has surged 11% in January so far as China’s reopening bolsters sentiment.
The U.S. Nasdaq index is likewise on course for its best January since 2001, a rally that will be tested by earnings updates from tech giants this week.
U.S. stocks were set to follow the nervous Monday mood with S&P 500 futures down 1% and Nasdaq futures falling 1.3%, as investors await guidance later in the week on the Federal Reserve’s policy.
Analysts expect a hawkish tone suggesting that more needs to be done to tame inflation. read more
“With U.S. labour markets still tight, core inflation elevated and financial conditions easing, Fed Chair Powell’s tone will be hawkish, stressing that a downshifting to a 25bp hike doesn’t mean a pause is coming,” said Bruce Kasman, chief economist at JPMorgan, who expects another rise in March.
“We also look for him to continue to push back against market pricing of rate cuts later this year.”
There is a lot of pushing to do given futures currently expect rates to peak at 5% in March and to fall back to 4.5% by year end.
Europe offered a brisk reminder that the fight against rising prices is far from over, as bond yields in the region rose sharply on Monday in the wake of stronger-than-expected Spanish inflation data.
The data showing inflation rose 5.8% year-on-year in January, against expectations of 4.7%, pushed up the zone’s benchmark German 10-year government bond yield 7 basis points (bps) to 2.3190%, its highest since Jan. 10.
Italian and Spanish yields also inched up.
The dollar index was flat ahead of the week’s key data, on course for a fourth straight monthly loss of more than 1.5% on growing expectations that the Fed is nearing the end of its rate-hike cycle.
APPLE’S CORE
Yields on 10-year notes have fallen 33 basis points so far this month to 3.50%, essentially due to easing financial conditions even as the Fed talks tough on tightening.
That dovish outlook will also be tested by data on U.S. payrolls, the employment cost index and various ISM surveys.
Reading on EU inflation could be important for whether the ECB signals a half-point rate rise for March, or opens the door to a slowdown in the pace of tightening. read more
As for Wall Street’s recent rally, much will depend on earnings from Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Amazon.com (AMZN.O), Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) and Meta Platforms (META.O), among many others.
“Apple will give a glimpse into the overall demand story for consumers globally and a snapshot of the China supply chain issues starting to slowly abate,” wrote analysts at Wedbush.
“Based on our recent Asia supply chain checks we believe iPhone 14 Pro demand is holding up firmer than expected,” they added. “Apple will likely cut some costs around the edges, but we do not expect mass layoffs.”
Market pricing of early Fed easing has been a burden for the dollar, which has lost 1.6% so far this month to stand at 101.85 against a basket of major currencies.
The euro is up 1.5% for January at $1.0878 and just off a nine-month top. The dollar has even lost 1.3% on the yen to 129.27 despite the Bank of Japan’s dogged defence of its ultra-easy policies.
The drop in the dollar and yields has been a boon for gold, which is up 5.8% for the month so far at $1,930 an ounce .
The precious metal was flat on Monday ahead of the slew of key central bank moves and data releases.
China’s rapid reopening is seen as a windfall for commodities in general, supporting everything from copper to iron ore to oil prices.
Oil steadied on Monday after earlier losses, with prices bolstered by rising Middle East tension over a drone attack in Iran and hopes of higher Chinese demand.
Brent crude rose 10 cents, or 0.12%, to $86.76 a barrel by 1200 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude added 4 cents, or 0.05%, to $79.72.
Reporting Lawrence White and Wayne Cole; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Arun Koyyur and Christina Fincher
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Rheinmetall eyes boost in munitions output, HIMARS production in Germany
DUESSELDORF, Jan 29 (Reuters) – German arms-maker Rheinmetall is ready to greatly boost the output of tank and artillery munitions to satisfy strong demand in Ukraine and the West, and may start producing HIMARS multiple rocket launchers in Germany, CEO Armin Papperger told Reuters.
He spoke days before Germany’s defence industry bosses are due to meet new defence minister Boris Pistorius for the first time, though the exact date has yet to be announced.
With the meeting, Pistorius aims to kick off talks on how to speed up weapons procurement and boost ammunitions supplies in the long term after almost a year of arms donations to Ukraine has depleted the German military’s stocks.
Rheinmetall (RHMG.DE) makes a range of defence products but is probably most famous for manufacturing the 120mm gun of the Leopard 2 tank.
“We can produce 240,000 rounds of tank ammunition (120mm) per year, which is more than the entire world needs,” Papperger said in an interview with Reuters.
The capacity for the production of 155mm artillery rounds can be ramped up to 450,000 to 500,000 per year, he added, which would make Rheinmetall the biggest producer for both kinds of ammunition.
In 2022, Rheinmetall made some 60,000 to 70,000 rounds each of tank and artillery shells, according to Papperger, who said production could be boosted immediately.
Demand for these munitions has soared since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, not only due to their massive use on the battlefield but also as Western militaries backfill their own stocks, bracing for what they see as a heightened threat from Moscow.
Papperger said a new production line for medium calibre ammunition, used by German-built Gepard anti-aircraft tanks in Ukraine for example, would go live by mid-year.
Germany has been trying for months to find new munitions for the Gepard that its own military had decomissioned in 2010.
HIMARS PRODUCTION LINE IN GERMANY?
At the same time, Rheinmetall is in talks with Lockheed Martin(LMT.N), the U.S. company manufacturing the HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) multiple rocket launchers in heavy use with Ukrainian troops, Papperger said.
“At the Munich Security Conference, we aim to strike an agreement with Lockheed Martin to kick off a HIMARS production (in Germany),” he said, referring to an annual gathering of political and defence leaders in mid-February.
“We have the technology for the production of the warheads as well as for the rocket motors – and we have the trucks to mount the launchers upon,” Papperger said, adding a deal may prompt investments of several hundred million euros of which Rheinmetall would finance a major part.
Rheinmetall also eyes the operation of a new powder plant, possibly in the eastern German state of Saxony, but the investment of 700 to 800 million euros would have to be footed by the government in Berlin, he said.
“The state has to invest, and we contribute our technological know-how. In return, the state gets a share of the plant and the profits it makes,” Papperger suggested.
“This is an investment that is not feasible for the industry on its own. It is an investment into national security, and therefore we need the federal state,” he said.
The plant is needed as shortages in the production of special powders could turn out to be a bottleneck, hampering efforts to boost the output of tank and artillery shells, he noted.
A few days before the meeting with the new defence minister, Papperger pushed for an increase of Germany’s defence budget.
“The 51 billion euros in the defence budget will not suffice to purchase everything that is needed. And the money in the 100 billion euro special funds has already been earmarked – and partially been eaten up by inflation,” he said.
“100 billion euros sounds like a giant sum but we would actually need a 300 billion euro package to order everything that’s needed,” he added, noting that the 100 billion special fund does not include ammunitions purchases.
Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Germany was 20 billion euros short of reaching NATO’s target for ammunitions stockpiling, according to a defence source.
To plug the munitions gap alone, Papperger estimates the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) would need to invest three to four billion euros per year.
In the talks with the minister, the defence boss hopes for a turn towards a more sustainable long-term planning in German procurement, stretching several years into the future, as the industry needed to be able to make its arrangements in time.
“What we are doing at the moment is actually war stocking: Last year, we prefinanced 600 to 700 million euros for goods,” Papperger said. “We must move away from this crisis management – it is crisis management when you buy (raw materials and other things) without having a contract – and get into a regular routine.”
Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Editing by Angus MacSwan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
EV carmakers work to fit auto dealers into their future plans
Customers wearing protective masks looks at the interior of a vehicle for sale at a Ford Motor Co. dealership in Colma, California, Feb. 1, 2021.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
DETROIT — As automakers chase Tesla-like profits on new electric vehicles, they face an existential question: how best to bring franchised auto dealers along with them as they transition to EVs.
Some, such as General Motors, are asking luxury dealers to go all-in on EVs or get out of the business. Others like Ford Motor are offering dealers different “EV-certification” levels, while most other carmakers, or OEMs, know they need to change the sales process to fit the evolving industry, but are still try to figure out how to do it.
“I think we’re all building this airplane as we fly,” Michael Alford, president of the National Auto Dealers Association, a trade association that represents more than 16,000 U.S. new franchised dealers, told CNBC. “Depending on the OEM, the level of engagement or the intensity of the engagement varies.”
Automakers and franchised dealers have a complex relationship that is backed, in many states, by laws that make it difficult, if not illegal, to bypass franchised dealers and sell new vehicles directly to consumers. (Tesla and other newer EV startups have worked around such regulations to cut costs.)
Both automakers and franchised dealers want to maximize profits, but they’re separate businesses that heavily rely on one another to succeed. Dealers rely on automakers for product to fill and move off lots, and the carmakers in turn rely on dealers to sell and service vehicles as well as serve as concierges for customers.
How that historical relationship fits into an all-electric future is expected to be at the forefront of discussions between automakers and dealers at the National Auto Dealers Association Show occurring through Sunday in Dallas. The event attracts thousands of franchise dealers annually to hear from their respective automotive brands.
For dealers — from mom-and-pop shops to large publicly traded chains — EVs will mean new employee training, infrastructure and substantial investments in their stores to be able to service, sell and charge the vehicles. Depending on the size of the dealer, those upgrades could easily cost hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars. Of course, they want to make sure their investments will pay off.
“The tone and tenor of this subject matter has evolved, and I think it’s very, very clear this year that our legacy OEMs absolutely realize that we are essential going forward,” said Alford, who runs Chevrolet and Cadillac dealerships in North Carolina.
Competing with Tesla
As more automakers introduce EVs, they’re rethinking the sales process, including selling new vehicles largely, if not fully, online. Tesla was among the first automakers to embrace online sales for a large portion of its business, though it still has physical dealerships, information sites and service shops.
A greater shift online may limit the role of dealers to strictly processing, maintenance and as delivery centers going forward and eliminate the need for large lots of cars that they then sell to consumers.
“By and large, the franchise system remains in place even for EVs by traditional automakers, although they all seem to be looking at ways to tweak it to be more competitive, so they say, with the Teslas of the world,” said Michelle Krebs, Cox Automotive executive analyst.
Automakers believe doing so will provide consumers a more streamlined and cohesive sales process, but they also consider the dealers to be their partners and to offer “strategic advantages” when it comes to other sales and maintenance issues.
A Tesla dealership in Colma, California, on Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Honda Motor has said it plans to move more sales online, including 100% online sales for its luxury Acura brand for EVs. Mamadou Diallo, American Honda vice president of sales, said the plan is to facilitate the ordering process online, but with the vehicle being picked up or delivered by dealers. Those procedures are still being worked out, though, he said.
“We want to proceed with ensuring that we provide convenience with what customers are looking for, with no intention of bypassing our dealer body,” Mamadou said Tuesday during a media call.
Jay Vijayan, who assisted in building out Tesla’s digital and IT systems, doesn’t believe selling EVs exclusively online will pan out. He said a mix of sales points is best, which is why Tesla and newer EV startups are selling online as well as opening new showrooms and service centers.
“Apple still opens new stores, right? And every company you think is going to go direct is also opening new stores in the automotive space,” said Vijayan, founder and CEO of Tekion, a cloud-based dealer service provider.
Wall Street analysts have largely viewed direct-to-consumer sales as a means to optimize profit. However, there have been growing pains for Tesla when it comes to servicing its vehicles.
Ford CEO Jim Farley has said he wants the automaker’s dealers to cut selling and distribution costs by $2,000 per vehicle to be competitive with Tesla’s direct-to-consumer model.
Automaker approaches
Ford is among the automakers receiving the most pushback from dealers for its EV push, which includes EV-certification tiers that could cost more than $1 million per store, depending on the size of the dealership.
The Detroit automaker is facing legal challenges to the certification program from dealers who argue that the plan violates franchise laws. A group of 27 dealerships in Illinois filed a protest with the state’s motor vehicle review board, and four dealers in New York filed suit against the automaker last month, according to Automotive News.
Ford dealer Marc McEver said he signed on for the highest EV-certification tier at his dealership near Kansas City, Kansas, but he worries about the cost and timing of the program.
“I think we’re all concerned that what they’re having us put in now, by the time we really get some vehicles, will be outdated and need to be upgraded or replaced,” McEver, who also owns a Lincoln dealership, said.
Aside from the investments, dealers who opt into selling Ford EVs will need to abide by five standards to stay within good standing: clear and nonnegotiable pricing; charging investment; employee training; and improved vehicle purchasing and ownership experience for customer, both digitally and in person.
Ford on Saturday plans to outline some changes to its EV-certification tiers, according to two people familiar with the plans. The changes, as first reported by Automotive News, would narrow the differences between the program’s two tiers. The bottom tier comes with lower capital investment but also a smaller allocation of EVs from Ford.
Ford, though, unlike archrival General Motors, is allowing dealers to opt out of selling EVs and continue to sell the company’s gas-powered cars.
GM has offered buyouts to its Buick and Cadillac dealers that don’t want to shell out to sell EVs. About 320 of Cadillac’s 880 retailers took buyouts. Buick’s buyouts are ongoing, according to a spokesman.
Toyota Motor, for its part, has no plans to overhaul its franchised dealership network as it invests in electrified vehicles, CEO Akio Toyoda told dealers to resounding applause in September.
“I know you are anxious about the future. I know you are worried about how this business will change. While I can’t predict the future, I can promise you this: You, me, us, this business, this franchised model is not going anywhere. It’s staying just as it is,” said Toyoda, who will step down as CEO to become chairman in April.
EV maker Lucid surges on report Saudi PIF to buy remaining stake
Jan 27 (Reuters) – Lucid Group’s (LCID.O) shares surged 43% on Friday, paring gains after doubling on market speculation that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) wanted to buy out the electric vehicle maker.
The speculation originated from an “uncooked” alert attributed to deals website Betaville, using its term for market gossip. Lucid was the sixth-most traded stock on U.S. exchanges and third top mover on the Nasdaq mid-afternoon.
The PIF, the sovereign wealth fund that owns more than 65% of Newark, California-based Lucid, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lucid declined to comment.
In 2018, PIF was interested in taking Tesla private, but the deal did not materialize. Tesla chief Elon Musk is under trial for allegedly misleading investors with his tweet “funding secured” for taking the company private.
Lucid has been struggling to deliver its sleek Air luxury EVs after delivering 4,369 vehicles last year.
With Tesla’s price cuts, money-losing U.S. startups like Rivian Automotive Inc (RIVN.O) and Lucid will find it difficult to grab share in an industry competing for shrinking consumer wallets.
Lucid’s short interest as a percentage of its total float is around 37% versus only 3.5% for Tesla. Still, in dollar amounts, Lucid’s short interest totals $1.6 billion, versus $15.01 billion of Musk’s car maker.
Short sellers dealt a mark-to-market loss of $685 million with Lucid’s shares spike on Friday, analytics firm S3 Partners added. Losses, however, only materialize if short sellers close out their positions.
“With Lucid short sellers’ mark-to-market losses climbing, we should expect short covering to begin in earnest after today’s short-side blood bath,” said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of S3, adding it has become a popular trading position.
One long-short fund manager who had no previous exposure to Lucid said it decided to short it as this person believes the spike was solely based on rumors.
Reporting by Carolina Mandl, in New York, Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru and Hyun Joo Jin; Editing by Maju Samuel and Josie Kao
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Some auto insurers are refusing to cover some Hyundai and Kia models
CNN
—
Progressive and State Farm, two of America’s largest auto insurers, are refusing to write policies in certain cities for some older Hyundai and Kia models that have been deemed too easy to steal, according to the companies.
Several reports say the companies have stopped offering insurance on these vehicles in cities that include Denver, Colorado and St. Louis, Missouri. The insurance companies did not tell CNN which cities or states were involved.
The Highway Loss Data Institute released insurance claims data last September that confirmed what various social media accounts had been saying: Some 2015 through 2019 Hyundai and Kia models are roughly twice as likely to be stolen as other vehicles of similar age, because many of them lack some of the basic auto theft prevention technology included in most other vehicles in those years, according to the HLDI.
Specifically, these SUVs and cars don’t have electronic immobilizers, which rely on a computer chip in the car and another in the key that communicate to confirm that the key really belongs to that vehicle. Without the right key, an immobilizer should do just that – stop the car from moving.
Immobilizers were standard equipment on 96% of vehicles sold for the 2015-2019 model years, according the HLDI, but only 26% of Hyundais and Kias had them at that time. Vehicles that have push-button start systems, rather than relying on metal keys that must be inserted and turned, have immobilizers, but not all models with turn-key ignitions do.
Stealing these vehicles became a social media trend in 2021, according to HLDI, as car thieves began posting videos of their thefts and joyrides and even videos explaining how to steal the cars. In Wisconsin, where the crimes first became prevalent, theft claims of Hyundais and Kias spiked to more than 30 times 2019 levels in dollar terms.
“State Farm has temporarily stopped writing new business in some states for certain model years and trim levels of Hyundai and Kia vehicles because theft losses for these vehicles have increased dramatically,” the insurer said in a statement provided to CNN. “This is a serious problem impacting our customers and the entire auto insurance industry.”
Progressive is also cutting back on insuring these cars in some markets, spokesman Jeff Sibel said in an emailed statement.
“During the past year we’ve seen theft rates for certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles more than triple and in some markets these vehicles are almost 20 times more likely to be stolen than other vehicles,” he wrote. “Given that we price our policies based on the level of risk they represent, this explosive increase in thefts in many cases makes these vehicles extremely challenging for us to insure. In response, in some geographic areas we have increased our rates and limited our sale of new insurance policies on some of these models.”
Progressive continues to insure those who already have policies with the company, he said. Progressive is also providing them with advice on how to protect their vehicles from theft.
Michael Barry, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, said it was very unusual for auto insurers to simply stop writing new policies on a given make or model of vehicle.
“They generally want to expand their market share depending on where they’re doing business,” he said.
Hyundai and Kia operate as separate companies in the United States, but Hyundai Motor Group owns a large stake in Kia and various Hyundai and Kia models share much of their engineering.
Engine immobilizers are now standard on all Kia vehicles, according to a statement by the automaker and the company says it has been developing and testing security software for vehicles not originally equipped with an immobilize. Kia said it has begun notifying owners of the availability of this software, which is being provided at no charge.
Hyundai said it is providing free steering wheel locks to some police departments around the country to give local residents who have easily stolen Hyundai models. Hyundai dealers are also installing free security kits for the vehicles, the company said.
Exclusive: Tesla’s Musk met top Biden officials on EVs in Washington Friday
WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Tesla (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk met two top White House officials on Friday in Washington to discuss how the car maker and Democratic President Joe Biden could work together to advance electric vehicle production and speed electrification of U.S. vehicle networks.
Musk met John Podesta, a Democratic stalwart who serves as Biden’s senior advisor for clean energy innovation, and Mitch Landrieu, who oversees infrastructure spending, a White House spokesperson told Reuters.
“John Podesta and Mitch Landrieu met with Elon Musk to discuss shared goals around electrification and how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act can advance electric vehicle production and charging as well as the broader cause of electrification,” the White House spokesperson said.
Musk responded on Twitter to a link to an earlier version of this story with “True.”
A Reuters witness on Friday saw Podesta, Landrieu and Musk entering a downtown building that houses both Tesla’s Washington lobbying operation and the Center for American Progress, a think tank Podesta founded. Landrieu and Podesta left about half an hour later and did not answer questions.
Musk left about 45 minutes after Podesta and Landrieu. He too ignored questions from a Reuters reporter.
BIDEN, MUSK TENSIONS
Relations have often seemed antagonistic between Biden, who has pushed for companies to use union labor, and Musk, who has pushed to keep unions out of his factories.
Musk called Biden “a damp sock puppet in human form” last year after Biden highlighted EV production by GM and Ford in a tweet but left out Tesla.
Biden only publicly acknowledged the role of Tesla in U.S. electric vehicle manufacturing over a year after taking office, after Musk repeatedly complained about being ignored.
In June, Biden compared Tesla unfavorably to Ford and sarcastically wished Musk “lots of luck” on his “trip to the moon” after the billionaire expressed reservations about the economy.
Still, Musk has long-standing important relationships with the U.S. government, and those have continued under the Biden administration.
Tesla has benefited from tax subsidies given to buyers of its electric vehicles while SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company, has contracts worth billions of dollars to deliver astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station, and to build a moon lander.
U.S. consumers who bought Teslas became eligible again this month for up to $7,500 in consumer tax credits, under the $430 billion U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed last August. An earlier tax credit for Tesla buyers expired after the automaker sold its first 200,000 vehicles in the United States.
The law imposes requirements that EVs receiving the tax credits must be North American-made. There are also caps on vehicle prices and income for buyers who are eligible for the credits.
The law also sets new battery sourcing restrictions expected to take effect in March. It also includes new U.S. battery production credits that Musk said earlier this week could have significant benefits to the company.
Reporting by Nandita Bose, David Shepardson and Raphael Satter; Editing by Heather Timmons, David Gregorio and Rosalba O’Brien
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.