News
Tesla to build trucks, defends autonomous vehicles
PALO ALTO, CA - Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is turning his sights to commercial vehicles, unveiling a "master plan" for the company that includes producing a new Tesla Semi. "In addition to consumer vehicles, there are two other types of electric vehicle needed: heavy-duty trucks and high passenger-density urban transport," he writes in the plan that was posted last night. "Both are in the early stages of development at Tesla and should be ready for unveiling next year. We believe the Tesla Semi will deliver a substantial reduction in the cost of cargo transport, while increasing safety and making it really fun to operate."
European truck makers fined billions for price fixing
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM -- The European Union is fining five truck makers nearly 3 billion euros (Cdn $4.3 billion) for acting as a cartel to fix prices of medium and heavy-duty trucks and time the introduction of technologies to comply with emissions rules. It's the highest fines ever imposed by the EU for a single cartel - twice the previous highest amount, imposed in 2012, according to Margrethe Vestager, the European Union's competition commissioner, in a statement. MAN (now owned by Volkswagen), Daimler, DAF (owned by Paccar), Iveco and Volvo/Renault -- which together account for around nine out of every 10 medium and heavy trucks sold in Europe -- had been working together for 14 years, from 1997 until the European Commission's investigation in 2011 put a stop to it.
