The Auto World

Former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares made $23.9 million last year. He’ll be getting an additional $12.5 million this year in severance and bonuses. While Tavares was deploying his golden parachute, Stellantis’ net profit fell 70% in 2024. Stellantis’ net profit fell 70% last year to €5.5 ($5.8 / £4.5) billion thanks, in part, to a 15% decline in U.S. sales. Virtually all brands were in the red with Ram falling a stunning 100,437 units in a single year. While there’s no shortage of blame to go around, a lot of it can be chalked up to former CEO Carlos Tavares. He abruptly resigned on December 1 after internal conflicts boiled over. More: Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares Abruptly Resigns After Leadership Tensions Reach Breaking Point That’s not exactly leaving on a high note, but Tavares is laughing all the way to the bank thanks to a reported €23 ($23.9 / £19) million payday. Despite being more than many of us will earn in our lifetimes, Reuters reports the former ex...

Ford’s RRC experiment aimed to improve EV distribution efficiency but ultimately failed to deliver. In October, Ford started to pay dealers $1,000 for every EV ordered through one of the hubs. Customers could only view available EV inventory through Ford’s website, limiting buying options. Ford’s ambitious experiment with Rapid Replenishment Centers (RRCs), which aimed to change how unsold electric vehicles were stored across the US, is officially over. After a few months of what can generously be called a trial run, the automaker has decided to pull the plug. Why? Well, Ford has a laundry list of reasons, but the short answer is that things didn’t exactly go according to plan. The Idea Behind the RRCs Launched in May 2024, the program aimed to streamline Ford’s EV distribution, starting with the F-150 Lightning. The goal was straightforward: by bypassing the traditional dealership lot, Ford could cut costs, improve inventory management, and, ideally, make its distrib...

The lawsuit claims GM collected data from over 100,000 vehicles in Arkansas without consent. GM allegedly analyzed acceleration, braking, and late-night driving percentages from customers. This latest suit follows a New York Times report from 2024 revealing GM sold data to two brokers. If you thought your car was just a mode of transportation, think again, as it’s a goldmine for data brokers. The office of Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has filed a lawsuit against General Motors and OnStar for allegedly selling driving data to insurance companies. This lawsuit is just the latest in a growing list of cases where car manufacturers are under fire for collecting and selling user data. In August of last year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued General Motors for similar accusations, and recently, Ford, Hyundai, Toyota, and FCA have all faced similar suits. Read: Texas Probes Ford, Hyundai, Toyota, FCA For Selling Sensitive Driver Data The lawsuit, filed in Phil...

A new protest targeting Tesla and Elon Musk just popped up in London. The ad ties Musk and Tesla to Nazis and calls the brand’s models “Swasticars.” The group behind the protest offers merchandise to support their cause. Car news has always had its fair share of oddball moments, but over the last few years, much of the weirdness has come courtesy of E lon Musk . No other automotive CEO draws as much attention as he does and lately, it hasn’t been for the reasons he might hope. After several questionable actions by the boss at Tesla , he’s found himself at the center of yet another controversy, this time in the form of an ad campaign that’s got Londoners raising an eyebrow or two. And no, it’s not another SpaceX launch. This time, it takes the form of what appears to be a well-executed advertising campaign that has gone viral. Located at the Pollard Row bus stop in London, UK, it has been up for only a short time but is already drawing quite a bit of attention More: Musk...

Toyota won’t switch the GR lineup to an EV focus anytime soon, according to a new report. The statement comes from Sean Hanley, Toyota Australia’s sales and marketing manager. While most Toyotas will see electrification, GR models will remain focused on performance. Toyota’s Gazoo Racing (GR) lineup is one of the last remaining bastions of combustion performance cars in a world that’s rapidly moving toward electrification. With models like the GR86, GR Corolla , and the GR Supra, Toyota has carved out a solid niche. And now, even as the brand continues to shift toward electrification, there’s good news for enthusiasts: the GR family won’t be ditching gas engines—or manual transmissions—anytime soon. More: Mazda Inline-Six Rumor For New GR Supra And RX-7 Sounds Too Wild To Be True “Combustion engines and manual transmissions will be around for a long, long time,” says Sean Hanley, an executive with Toyota in Australia while speaking to CarSales . If this were an infome...

Xiaomi has left Porsche reeling by pricing its new SU7 Ultra at ¥529,000 ($72,800). When pre-orders opened last October, Xiaomi said it would cost ¥814,900 ($112,000) The Ultra recently beat the 400% pricer Taycan Turbo GT’s Shanghai circuit laptime. Spring is approaching and the weather in Stuttgart should be getting milder. But today the temperature in the Porsche HQ must have dropped about 10 degrees when Xiaomi revealed it is pricing its SU7 Ultra sedan more than 35 percent lower than previously suggested. At the initial launch of the range-topping Ultra last October, Xiaomi said the EV would cost ¥814,900 ($112,000), matching the current price of the similarly-sized Tesla Model S Plaid. That was already bad news for Porsche, whose rivaling Taycan Turbo GT is ¥1,998,000 / $274,871 (it’s $230k in the US). Related: Xiaomi SU7 Ultra Smashes Taycan Turbo GT’s Lap Record At Shanghai Circuit But now at the car’s proper debut, the Chinese smartphone company-turned-autom...

The crazy render includes wild wings and fake jet thrusters at the rear. The European designer has even given it fake missiles up front and at the rear. Mxtrem says it will offer the kit for the standard Stingray, E-Ray, and Z06. Just when you thought your inbox had reached peak desperation, with pitches from fuel additives that turn your car into a neutron star and “ entrepreneurs ” posing next to rented Lamborghinis with stock photos so bad even the watermark looks embarrassed, along comes the Maverick. It looks like an 8-year-old’s fever dream of a Corvette cosplaying as an F/A-18 fighter jet. And yes, some “European company” named Mxtrem swears they’re dreaming of building 12 of them worldwide. They even promise a prototype by May, apparently planning to beat Elon Musk’s mythical flying Roadster to the punch. Of course, that’s assuming Musk’s Roadster exists anywhere outside of quarterly result videos, which, to be fair, makes it the perfect competition for the Mav...

The lead foot of the Dodge Challenger Scat Pack driver caused them to spin out several times. Towards the end of the chase, the Challenger slammed directly into the front of a police car. All V8 Dodge Challenger models pack a serious punch, and if you try and drive one with the traction control turned off, you better have some good throttle discipline, or else you could end up like the moron behind the wheel of this Challenger. Try as they might to flee from police officers, all the driver could do was spectacularly spin the muscle car. This clip was recently shared to Reddit and it makes for very, very entertaining viewing. It opens with a police cruiser in hot pursuit of a Challenger, which appears to be a Scat Pack model. As the Dodge and the police car begin to merge onto a motorway, the driver of the Challenger pins the throttle. Read: Cops Impound YouTuber’s GT-R, Drop Him At Tim Hortons To Call His Mom This immediately kicks out the tail of the car, and the dri...