Japan's Calsonic Kansei has agreed to buy Fiat Chrysler’s auto parts business Magneti Marelli for more than $7 billion. Fiat Chrysler's CEO Mike Manley said that the automaker considered "a range of options" for Magneti Marelli before deciding to sell it to U.S. private equity firm KKR-owned automotive company Calsonic Kansei. The deal between the two auto parts manufacturers is expected to rake in total annual revenues of €15.2 billion ($17.5 billion) and have nearly 200 facilities and research centers  globally for the combined business, as suggested by Fiat Chrysler. The deal could close in the first half of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals. The announcement comes amidst  rapid evolution in the auto industry landscape, with electric cars and self-driving vehicles among major technologies at the forefront of the shift.Maybe, selling off its auto parts unit would allow Fiat to focus more on leveraging the new trends in the vehicles market.  

With a starting price of $45,000, the new version of the electric car is less expensive than the previously cheapest Model 3 whose starting price was $49,000.The long range battery can last 310 miles, but are priced at $54,000 or more. The standard battery model of Tesla car, which is expected to go about 200 miles on a charge (starting price $35,000), won't be available for four to six more months.

Elon Musk, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Tesla Inc. have have submitted a joint filing in support of a settlement to recent problems, after Musk tweeted negatively about the initial settlement proposal. Musk and the company will pay $20 million to regulators, and Musk has agreed to step down as Chairman but remain Chief Executive Officer.The SEC said Musk misled investors with tweets this past summer by saying he was considering taking Tesla private and had secured funding. The SEC charges against Musk last week knocked about $7 billion off the company's market cap, bringing down its market value to $45.2 billion, below General Motors' (GM) $47.5 billion. 

A Tuesday filing revealed that one of Tesla’s biggest investors has made a big bet on it. On Nio’s first day on the NYSE, September 12, the stock closed a little lower than it was initially priced.After peaking the next day with 75% gains, the car-maker’s stock shifted into neutral and gradually rolled downhill before finding a parking spot below it’s original closing price, at about $6.20. Now, just hours after the new disclosure, and hours after market close, the stock price is feeling out a new support level which may keep it over $7.80, which would be up 25% from it’s recent moving average.

Tesla Inc.’s stock extended losses for a fifth straight session on Monday.The stock closed at its lowest level since March 2017, and lost more than $10 billion in market capitalization in one week. Even as the electric carmaker's  sales of Model 3 sedan are performing well in the U.S. and third quarter projections for it look healthy, the company's CEO Elon Musk’s tweets mocking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by calling it the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission” might have diluted the positives and therefore potentially added to investor concerns.

Elon Musk might have stirred a controversy again, by yet another tweet – this time calling the SEC the  “Shortseller Enrichment Commission”. Per last weekend’s settlement, Tesla agreed to pay $20 million in fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) while Musk would step down as chairman but continue as the company’s CEO.Apparently, there were some claims/allegations at the time that short-sellers - who try to profit by borrowing shares and selling them to buy them back at expected lower prices - lost millions due to Musk's August 7 tweet. On Thursday, District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan asked Elon Musk and the SEC to justify that the settlement deal they had made was fair and would not hurt the public interest.

Softbank and Toyota are joining hands for developing driverless technology-based transportation businesses. In a joint venture called Monet, the two Japanese companies will offer services including mobile convenience stores, delivery vehicles, transportation for the elderly, hospital shuttles and mobile offices – all via autonomous vehicles.For instance, by the second half of the 2020s, the venture will start an on-demand mobility service using Toyota's self-driving electric vehicle called e-Palette for meal deliveries and hospital shuttles. The companies said that the joint venture will start at 2 billion yen ($17.49 million), and will be raised to 10 billion yen in future.

Honda is investing $2 billion over 12 years in General Motors's self-driving cars.  Honda and GM's autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise have been collaborating in the development of self-driving versions of GM's Chevrolet Bolt EV electric car, which are expected to be available for public use next year.But what could potentially put the two companies in the fast lane is their latest partnership where they plan to build an apparently one-of-a-kind vehicle that might not require human controls at all.  Additionally, Honda has bought a $750 million equity stake in Cruise, which also received $2.25 billion funding from Japanese investment bank Softbank. Earlier there were rumors of Honda in talks with Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent company Alphabet, to build a self-driving delivery car.

Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. sales chief Mark LaNeve is not nervous about competition with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV." LaNeve seemed to attribute the recent decline in Ford vehicle sales mostly to the -11% drop in sales to rental car agencies. But he is looking forward to revamped models of its SUVs, the Escape and Explorer, to be launched in the middle of 2019 and hopes these to boost sales.

Tesla had record car sales, even as U.S.-China trade war apparently looms large over the carmaker’s China market. The company confirmed numbers leaked to an industry news site on Monday that it produced around 80,000 cars in Q3.What's more, beating Wall Street expectations of 80,000, deliveries peaked at 83,500 - including almost 56,000 of the Model 3 sedan whose market is seen as critical to the company’ profit potential. However, Tesla admitted that it had missed its weekly Model 3 production target. Tesla is also apparently concerned about the 40% tariff China has slapped on imports of its cars - something that could potentially thwart the firm's sales and/or income from  the world' s biggest consumer of electric vehicles.

Tesla stock jumped +15% in early trading hours on Monday, on news of Tesla’s settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the latter’s allegations against Elon Musk. Late last week, the SEC alleged Tesla CEO Elon Musk of making "false and misleading statements" to investors through his August tweet which said he had secured funding for taking Tesla private.The SEC was planning to ask a federal judge to prevent Musk from serving as an officer or a director of a public company.  But the weekend’s event has led to results potentially less dire than expected for Musk and Tesla: as part of his settlement with the SEC, Musk will give up his position as the chairman, while he can still continue to operate as the CEO of Tesla.

The SEC is asking a federal judge to prevent Musk from serving as an officer or a director of a public company, among other penalties. According to the SEC, Musk had not even discussed any important deal term (such as price) with any private funding source – an allegation that denounces Musk’s August 7 tweet of “funding secured” at a per-share price of “$420”.Elon Musk however made a U-turn within only a few weeks of posting the tweet: he said that he would like Tesla to remain a public company after considering shareholders’ opinions.

Tesla might be losing another top executive. A Bloomberg report said that Liam O’Connor, vice president of global supply management of the electric car company, has resigned - according to people who did not want to be named since the matter is not officially announced yet.This month, the chief accounting officer and heads of human resources handed in their resignation. Tesla is losing its senior executives amidst its CEO Elon Musk getting embroiled in controversies, lawsuits  and even investigations from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice regarding his August 7 tweet to take the firm private and then backing from it just a few weeks later.

Lithium is a metal used in batteries of electric cars. Tesla will ask its battery suppliers to purchase lithium from  Ganfeng Lithium Co., as mentioned in the China-based firm’s filing to the Shenzhen exchange on Friday.Ganfeng’s lithium compounds capacity may rise to 75,000 tons of carbonate equivalent at the end of this year, which would make it the industry’s second-largest, according to CRU Group research cited in its IPO prospectus.  

Auto parts supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG is developing its own technology for self-driving vehicles. With an investment of 12 billion euros ($14 billion) over the next five years on autonomous vehicle technology, the German company’s project will include developing a battery-powered self-driving delivery van.Navigating city centers, identifying traffic lights and maintaining lanes even in absence of markings on street are some of the features of ZF’s  autonomous van, as mentioned by the company.

In less than three weeks of posting that tweet, Musk abandoned the plans and said that Tesla would remain a publicly traded company.But the latest news of the DOJ’s involvement potentially lends a more serious tone to the matter, since the Department’s investigations are often associated with possible criminal charges.

BMW said Tuesday that it plans to shutdown its Mini factory in England for a month of maintenance starting April 1, over Brexit-related concerns. The German multinational automaker is unsure about whether or not the UK would exit the European Union with a trade deal, and therefore wants to hold off production in its Oxford factory immediately after Brexit.   News of BMW’s decision comes just a day after Jaguar Land Rover announced that it will reduce the number of work days from five to three a week until Christmas for its 1,000 workers due to uncertainty over Brexit. 

The carmaker said that reducing the number of work days from five to three would help avoid job cuts and allow operation through Christmas. The move is apparently a result of decreasing demand for diesel vehicles.Consumers’ concerns over Brexit uncertainties and regulatory stringency following Volkswagen’s emission scandal might have dampened their appetite for diesel cars. Jaguar Land Rover expressed in July its fears that if Brexit happened without the UK being able to maintain a smooth trading relationship with the European Union, the company would see its profits get reduced by more than £1.2 billion ($1.6 billion)  a year.

BMW seems to be eyeing the self-driving electric car market. The BMW Vision iNext is a concept at present, but the company hopes to transition it towards the production stage in 2021.According to a CNN report, the Vision iNext was unveiled before journalists at four different airports -- in Munich, New York, San Francisco and Beijing -- over the course of five days earlier this week.

After a not-so-great initial public offering, Chinese electric car company NIO  had a remarkable surge in its stock price on its second trading day. NIO share price jumped +76% in New York on Thursday.However, NIO recorded just $7 million in sales in the first half of this year, while Tesla  has generated $2 billion in annual sales in China. Alongwith NIO, other Chinese tech companies Pinduoduo, iQiyi and NetEase listed on U.S. stock exchanges also saw sharp rises in their stock prices on Thursday.