Elon Musk, chief product architect of Tesla Motors tweeted that the company would introduce a major new product line next month. Musk tweeted that the new product line will be revealed at Hawthorne Design Studio on Thursday 8pm, April 30. Shares in the electric car company jumped 3% to $190.97 on the news.

Some reports mentioned that the product might be a home battery based on a technology used in the Tesla vehicles. Musk has spoken about it during a February earnings call.

At that time, he said, "We're going to unveil some of the Tesla home battery or consumer battery that will be for use in people's houses or businesses, fairly soon. We have the design done, and it should start going into production probably in about six months or so".

On Monday, Swedish carmaker Volvo said that it would make an investment of $500m in order to construct a new factory in the US. This step has been taken by the company as it is looking forward to sell more 100,000 cars a year in the US, which is world's second largest auto market.

The target of selling 100,000 cars a year focuses on approximately 80% growth from current sales levels. It is expected that this year, the US market will reach 16.9m units. There has been growth in sales of General Motors, Chrysler and Ford.

Dennis Williams, leader of the United Auto Workers union, was present at the union's national bargaining convention in Detroit on Wednesday.

He has rejected a tier of lower wages for workers making auto parts. Williams affirmed that the union already has too many tiers of low wages. He was responding to the reports revealing that General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co may propose a third tier of pay.

Williams is facing pressure from union members to send a second tier of wages. He affirmed that he has come across talks about the third tier in which employees would be paid less than the $15.28 starting salary for second-tier workers.

Detroit headquartered General Motors Company announced on Friday that it has built a new Teen Driver system that automatically mutes the radio when passenger sitting on the front seat is not buckled up. The new system also gives a report card to parents about their teens' trip. According to the company, the new system will be in on its redesigned 2016 Chevrolet Malibu.

While giving information about the new system, the company said that the Teen Driver system also gives audible and visual warning to the driver if vehicle travels over pre-set speeds by parents. Volume of the radio could also be set to a lower level that cannot be exceeded, as per the company.

Mercedes wants to offer people an experience wherein they can imagine sitting comfortably in a luxurious automobile, with ample space, having face to face conversation with leg room to spare, checking email or completing up that work project, while the car they are taking to meeting is cruising along with no driver at the wheels.

This is the experience that Mercedes wants to offer with its F 015 Luxury in Motion, a computer-driven autonomous vehicle. According to experts, driving will no longer be needed in car transportation. It is going to be the place to socialize, relax, work and do anything and everything, excluding to pay attention to the road and other drivers, safety lights and speed zones.

Electric vehicle market Tesla Motors said it is updating its Model S electric car with an aim to help ease drivers' concerns about running out of battery charge.

Tesla also hinted that in near future, drivers can take their hands off the wheel altogether. Latest update of Tesla will plan the best route to a destination driver's based on the location of charging stations. Tesla said that it will guide the car to available spots to charge.

The car will give warning to drivers if battery power is low before they drive beyond an area where they can charge. Tesla first achieved widespread attention following their production of the Tesla Roadster, which is the first fully electric sports car. Tesla’s second vehicle is the Model S, which is a completely electric luxury sedan.

Honda is recalling about 105,000 vehicles because of defect in driver's side air bag inflators, which can explode under too much pressure. Takata-made airbags can explode and could throw metal pieces at passengers. The company recalled some 2008 Pilot, 2004 Civic and 2001 Accord vehicles.

According to the company, all of the vehicles were identified on March 5 and the company selected the vehicles using a process, in which it matched Takata airbag inflater part numbers to individual vehicle identification numbers, or VINs.

It was discovered by Honda that over 88,000 Pilot vehicles should have been included in last year's recall related to Takata.

Ford Motor Company was on top in the Ethisphere Institute's list of World’s Most Ethical Companies of 2015 for the sixth consecutive year. Each year, the Ethisphere Institute recognizes companies, which take care of their products and services they provide to their consumers in addition to prioritizing their businesses.

Companies are selected by the Institute on the basis of five characteristics i.e. corporate citizenship and responsibility; ethics and compliance; culture of ethics, governance and leadership; innovation; and reputation.

Automotive giant General Motors will purchase $5 billion shares stock and will be returning cash worth $20 billion to shareholders over the next few years. GM took this step in order to resolve dispute with investors and it also approved a plan in an attempt to boost its share price that has remained unchanged for some time.

The decision was taken after discussions took place between the company and an investment group, which is led by Harry J. Wilson. The group is a part of the government task force, which managed the company's $49 billion bailout few years back.

The electric-car maker Tesla Motors will cut jobs in China due to disappointing sales in the country. The company led by entrepreneur Elon Musk has gone through a trademark dispute, and it is still battling to convince Chinese customers to buy electric cars made by the company.

As per a China-based newspaper, the automaker will reduce staff count by about 30%. While confirming the job cuts, Gary Tao, spokesman of the company, said that the company has been reducing staff since early this year. The layoff is a part of a larger restructuring plan. Much of the plan has already been implemented and the current team of the company is ‘strong and steady’, Tao added.

’s Tesla Motors has listed 78 job openings in its new stationary-storage unit. The new unit of the company will make battery packs and will also help the company to expand his range beyond the electric vehicles for providing energy to homes, businesses and utilities.

The job openings can be seen on the company’s website. These openings are for the storage team, including several engineers, chief counsel, a regulatory and policy advocate and an installation project manager.

After having a close look at Tesla’s filings and presentations, it is clear that the growth trajectory has been quite progressive and bright in the segment.

It is comparatively easier and quick to make batteries for the stationary storage devices rather than making cars, as they are more long-term investment.

Japanese automotive giant Toyota Motor Corporation has offered promotion to more foreigners to senior posts. Europe chief Didier Leroy has been appointed executive vice president by the world's biggest automaker.

Leroy will be one of six executive vice presidents (EVP) at Toyota. Julie Hamp, a senior official at Toyota Motor North America will be made a managing officer and will also become first female executive.

An African-American general counsel in North America, Christopher Reynolds is also going to hold the post of a managing officer. Promotion of Hamp marks a step in Japanese automaker's move to reduce the gender gap in the workplace. Corporate Japan has been asked to appoint women to 30% of top jobs by 2020.

The private international transport company, Uber, has launched a new Spanish-language feature, which will better serve its Latino users. On Monday, the popular, but controversial, ridesharing company launched the new feature, UberEspañol, in Tucson, Phoenix and San Diego.

According to reports, the new feature will be very helpful for the passengers as after its installation, they will not need any separate smatphone app. Instead of that, the consumers will plug in a promotion code to use the company’s basic service to communicate with a Spanish-speaking driver.

Detroit - The death toll from crashes involving General Motors cars with defective ignition switches has climbed to 57.

The total is one more than last week. It was posted today on an internet site by compensation expert Kenneth Feinberg.

Feinberg and his aides are checking claims filed or postmarked before a January 31 deadline to determine which are eligible for compensation.

Each eligible death claim is worth at least USD 1 million under his guidelines. Feinberg was hired by GM to make payments.

As of Friday, he received 479 death claims and 3,866 injury claims. Of the injury claims, 94 will get compensation, up from 87 a week ago.

New Delhi - Seeking to regain its lost market share in the mid-sized sedan segment, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) today launched an updated version of Verna, priced between Rs 7.74 lakh and Rs 12.19 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

The model, which competes with Honday City and Maruti Ciaz, will be available in both petrol and diesel options and have ten variants.

"The world sedan will further strengthen our line up in the sedan segment," Hyundai Motor India Ltd Managing Director and CEO B S Seo told reporters here.

The Hyundai Verna has sold over 2.3 million units globally, he added.

Beginning with a substantial share in the mid-sized sedan segment, Verna had started losing out to rivals.

London, Feb 16 : Engineers have created the world's very first ticklish car which "giggles" when touched at sensitive areas.

The new Toyota Yaris with a "TICK LME" number plate, which was unveiled for Red Nose Day, reacts to touch by lighting up and flashing its headlights and indicators, spraying water from the windscreen washer fluid spouts and moving as if it was chuckling, in addition to a laugh recorded by Red Nose Day legend Lenny Henry, the Daily Star reported.

Mr Tickle from the Mr Men series, who unveiled the red hatchback and is the celebrity consultant on the project, said that he was "tickled pink" to be part of the innovative project.

Mumbai - Home-grown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra on Friday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 930.32 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014.

M&M had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,230 crore in the same period last fiscal.

Its revenue stood at 18,371.91 crore in the latest quarter, as against 20,679.92 crore in the same period last fiscal, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The company said the figures are not comparable from the year-ago levels due to the merger of its associate companies.

Chennai , Feb 12 : Luxury car manufacturer Rolls Royce on Thursday officially launched its latest model, the Ghost Series II. With this, the Tamil Nadu capital has become the first city in South India where the car has been launched.

"Basically it's an evolution to Ghost Series I and there is quite a few changes to the car-exterior wise interior wise and also technology wise," said Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd, Asia-Pacific, general manager Sven J Ritter, while launching the car.

He added that the super luxury car maker was yet to decide on entering the sports utility vehicle segment.

The Ghost Series II was launched in the rest of the country in November.

According to reports, India is one of the top five markets in Asia Pacific for the Ghost series. (ANI)

New Delhi: In a slow start to the year 2015, domestic passenger car sales rose 3.14 percent in January, which industry body SIAM described as "realistic levels" considering the current economic situation.

As per the latest data released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), car sales in India in January stood at 1,69,300 units as against 1,64,149 units in the year-ago month.

"The 3-5 percent growth rate is realistic in view of the current economic situation. December sales were an aberration due to the excise duty cut coming into play from January," SIAM Director General Vishnu Mathur told reporters here.

New Delhi: Domestic passenger car sales increased 3.14 per cent to 1,69,300 units in January 2015 as compared with 1,64,149 units in the year-ago month.

Motorcycle sales last month declined 5.85 per cent to 8,68,507 units as compared to January 2014, according to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

Total two-wheeler sales in January rose 1.07 per cent to 13,27,957 units.

Sales of commercial vehicles rose 5.30 per cent to 52,481 units in January this year, SIAM said. Vehicle sales across categories registered an increase of 1.66 per cent to 16,50,382 units from 16,23,429 units in January 2014, it added.--PTI