No deal yet on Stellantis EV battery plant in Windsor, automaker says

Porsche Canada CEO John Cappella breaks down the Canadian luxury market, explains how electrification affects sports cars and tells us what effect the luxury tax is having.

Greg Mordue, associate professor at McMaster University and former auto executive, tells BNN Bloomberg that Canada used to provide 20 per cent of the capital cost of an automaker’s project, but the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act forced the government to provide 200 per cent of the Volkswagen EV battery plant’s capital cost, and Stellantis will demand similar terms.

The second-floor showroom at Grand Touring Automobiles was the result of a concession, but it provided an opportunity to challenge conventional thinking.

Toyota vaulted ahead of competing brands to deliver the most vehicles eligible for the Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles (iZEV) program in April, largely thanks to a surge in shipments of its Rav4 plug-in hybrid.

Electric-vehicle charging is a growing priority for large real estate developers and asset-management companies in Canada as demand for powered parking stalls ticks up and future-proofing properties becomes a near necessity.

Two levels of government agreed to support the plant with matching $150 million contributions, totalling roughly half of the $600 million in project costs, the parties announced May 29.

AutoCanada Inc. isn’t getting out of the new-vehicle business, but the dealership group that owns 83 franchised stores in Canada and the United States is leaning on the used side of its operation to grow sales and provide a hedge against ongoing turbulence in the new-car market.

Online research, the rise of electric vehicles and innovations in other retail sectors are altering how dealerships will be designed, with showrooms shrinking, service areas growing and customers’ first points of contact changing, say experts in the field.

Kevin Hunter, head of Toyota's Calty design studio, says sequential redesigns of the Tacoma, Tundra, Sequoia and 4Runner was a first opportunity to reset the whole DNA of the brand's body-on-frame vehicles.