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The first 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 70th Anniversary Edition, which sold for $3.6 million — a new record for charity. The first retail 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 70th Anniversary edition brought a stunning $3.6 million over the weekend, with NASCAR race team owner and Chevrolet dealer Rick Hendrick placing the winning bid. It’s a record sale for a charity vehicle donated by a manufacturer at Barrett-Jackson, where the car was auctioned. The sale surpasses the previous record , held by the first retail 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, by $600,000. Hendrick bought that one too. The money from the Scottsdale, Arizona auction will go to Operation Homefront, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit that Chevrolet has supported since 2017. The charity helps military families overcome short-term problems so that they don’t become long-term chronic issues.  “We are deeply grateful to our friends at Chevrolet and Barrett-Jackson for choosing Operation Homefront as the beneficiary of this ...

Each week TheDetroitBureau.com reports on the biggest news and events happening in the auto industry and relays those stories in its weekly  the Headlight News podcast . The roundup includes news, features, reviews and more.  Toyota was the top selling automaker globally for the second straight year, topping Volkswagen. Toyota took home the global sales crown — again. The Japanese automaker distanced itself from Volkswagen, which was second in 2020 as well, selling 10.5 million vehicles worldwide in 2021. VW came in as the runner up, despite a worse year in 2021 than 2020.  Some of the other stories you need to know about include: U.S. new vehicle sales are expected to be down in January as automakers continue to play catch up with inventory levels while struggling with semiconductor and other shortages. U.S. dealers have barely 1 million vehicles in stock and J.D. Power says it’s not getting better anytime soon;  GM CEO Mary Barra and Ford CEO Jim Farley m...

A Porsche Taycan battery-electric vehicle has just landed a spot in the Guinness World Records for requiring the shortest charging time to travel coast-to-coast across the U.S. The trip covered 2,834.5 miles through 13 states. (Photo Credit: Wayne Gerdes) Plugging in for just 2 hours, 26 minutes and 48 seconds, the Porsche driven by Wayne Gerdes required barely a third of the time to charge as the previous record holder, a Kia EV6 last year making the trans-continental run in just over 7 hours. “I’m proud and honestly a little surprised to have set the new benchmark by such a margin,” said Gerdes as he finished the record run which took him 2,834.5 miles from Los Angeles to New York City. “The Taycan performed even better than expected. Its performance, comfort and road holding were excellent, but the standout metric alongside the charging capacity was its efficiency.” Overcoming “charging anxiety” Porsche is actively trumpeting the trip, and for good reason, along with so-ca...

The new EQS, and Ola Källenius, chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG. It’s a small matter, perhaps, but one worth noting. Daimler AG announced last week that it is formally changing its name to Mercedes-Benz Group AG on Tues., Feb. 1, 2022. The move comes after the company’s truck division was spun off as Daimler Truck AG in December. It’s listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.   The move was approved by Daimler AG stockholders  in October.  By spinning off the truck division, the company hopes to unlock shareholder value for both companies. Executives now expect that Mercedes-Benz Group AG will now be thought of as a true luxury EV automaker, one mentioned alongside Tesla, Lucid or Rivian, and boasting a similar multiple. But that’s a tall order given that markets value traditional automakers at lower multiples than neophyte startups.  Daimler sold more than 2.4 million units in 2021 despite microchip shortages. “Merce...

The Euro-Asian Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance will invest nearly $26 billion to bring 35 battery-electric vehicles to market by 2030, the partners announced. Renault’s Jean-Dominique Senard, chairman of the Alliance, lays out the group’s electrification plans. The roadmap the alliance laid out envisions the three manufacturers sharing five common “architectures,” each targeting a unique segment of the global automotive marketplace. The program will deliver everything from electric minicars to battery-powered pickups. The project also calls for the three automakers to set up enough capacity to produce 220 Gigawatt-hours of batteries annually. Depending upon the size of the packs used in each vehicle, that could supply enough power for 3 million or more long-range battery-electric vehicles. It would also help drive down battery production costs by as much as 65%, according to a statement from the alliance. Plan calls for BEVs and batteries The announcement comes just two mon...

Workers at General Motors plant in Silao, Mexico are scheduled to select which union will serve as their representative in bargaining with GM.  Workers at General Motors Silao (Mexico) plant are scheduled to vote on which union will represent them in talks with GM. The vote is supposed to cap off a contentious process, giving workers in Mexico a larger voice in setting wages and working conditions. The process is backed up by provisions in the new U.S, Mexican and Canadian Trade Agreement, which are designed to break up the cozy relationship between American businesses and old-line Mexican labor unions that has helped keep wages low.  Last summer, workers at Silao, a sprawling plant where GM builds highly profitable full-sized pickup trucks, voted decisively for a change in union representation, which had been handled for years by chapter of CTM, the century-old confederation of labor, which critics contend had a long history of signing sweet-heart deals. The deals bene...

We got a first look at the Kia EV6 during a splashy event in New York’s Times Square last May. The SUV is the first in what will become an extended family of battery-electric vehicles for the South Korean brand — and a key part of the electrification program parent Hyundai Motor Group is pulling together. After a splashy debut last May in Times Square, we got to put the new Kia EV6 through its paces. Now, after a nine-month wait, I finally got a chance to drive the new battery-electric SUV, traveling to the other side of the country to do so. Eventually, Kia plans to offer four different versions of the compact crossover, including a high-performance GT model that will be added to the line-up a year from now. During a long day’s journey through Napa and Sonoma wine country, north of San Francisco, I focused on the current top-line EV6 GT-Line, a rear-wheel-drive package and a fully loaded all-wheel-drive model. Overview Kia already offers several battery-electric vehicles, in...

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