vehicle

Xpeng Stock Reverses After Unveiling First Electric Vehicle Of Its Kind

By Betty C. Morrow 15 hours ago

Xpeng (XPEV) unveiled its P5 electric car, touting it as the world’s first mass-produced EV equipped with lidar sensors. Xpeng stock turned lower.




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The P5 marks the Chinese EV startup’s third production vehicle and second electric sedan. It is “the world’s first production smart EV equipped with automotive-grade LIDAR technology,” Xpeng said in a release.

Some Wall Street analysts regard the emerging Tesla (TSLA) rival as an early leader in autonomous driving.

“Each new Xpeng model aims for a new high in technology, and the P5 is our most advanced and technically ambitious model yet,” said CEO He Xiaopeng.

Lidar technology uses pulsed laser light bouncing off objects to gauge their position, shape and distance. Lidar is expected to become a core self-driving technology, helping driverless vehicles “see” both static and moving objects on the roads, even in challenging weather and lighting conditions.

The

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Used vehicle costs to rise due to computer chip shortages

By Betty C. Morrow 3 weeks ago

Get ready to pay higher prices for used cars.

A dearth of semiconductor chip production is cramping new-vehicle production , limiting the availability of certain models in the coming months and threatening to raise used-car prices as buyers hunt for alternatives.

The shortages of chips, a result of the pandemic, are rippling through the automotive industry, undercutting production at General Motors, Ford, Honda, Toyota and other companies.

The upshot is that the used-car market, in particular, is poised for significant disruption – likely in the form of higher prices.

A similar thing happened in 2020 when automakers were forced to temporarily stop the production of most new vehicles due to COVID-19 lockdowns. That drove more buyers into the used market, increasing prices.

“The used-car market went haywire,” says Ed Kim, vice president of industry analysis for AutoPacific. “I’m expecting to see more of the same thing year, but for

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Edmunds: How to Get the Best Towing Vehicle for Your Needs | Michigan News

By Betty C. Morrow 3 weeks ago

By TRAVIS LANGNESS, Edmunds

You might be thinking about hitting the road this spring with a new SUV or truck and pulling a trailer or toy hauler. But figuring out what kind of vehicle to get without overspending can be a confusing process.

To help, Edmunds’ car shopping experts have advice on how to better understand the jargon and interpret the potentially misleading towing numbers offered by automakers.

MATCH YOUR VEHICLE TO THE JOB

The towing capacity of your vehicle is generally related to its size. For many small SUVs, expect a tow rating of around 1,000-2,000 pounds. This isn’t much but can be sufficient to tow a small utility trailer.

Upgrade to a new midsize SUV or a midsize pickup truck and you can tow considerably more. Trailers will still be relatively small, but when you want to tow more than a small utility trailer, things can get heavy

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BMW has no plans to produce its own electric vehicle batteries

By Betty C. Morrow 4 weeks ago

The BMW Tower photographed in Munich, Germany, on March 6, 2021.

Anne Czichos | iStock Editorial | Getty Images

The BMW Group has no plans to manufacture in-house electric car batteries, with the German automotive giant’s CEO telling CNBC that his firm had a robust network of suppliers to meet its demands.

“We have strong contracts with various battery manufacturers from China, from Korea, also from Europe, and that is a very strong network,” Oliver Zipse said.

“They will supply us with enough batteries for our ramp up for the next couple of years,” he added. “And for us, there’s no necessity to go into our own production.”

Zipse’s comments come shortly after German rival Volkswagen Group said it was aiming to establish several “gigafactories” in Europe by the end of the decade.

“Together with partners, we want to have a total of six cell factories up and running in

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