AUTO INDUSTRY
Tesla increases car price
Tesla Motors Inc., the maker of electric vehicles led by billionaire Elon Musk, said the price of its Model S sedan will rise by $2,500 as the company boosts production of the battery-powered car.
The sedan’s base price goes to $59,900 on Jan. 1 from the current $57,400, less than six months after Model S production began, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said. Customers who have ordered cars that won’t be delivered until next year won’t be charged the higher price, Tesla said.
The increase is “only half the rate of inflation” and comes four years after Tesla initially announced Model S pricing, George Blankenship, the carmaker’s vice president of worldwide sales, said in the statement.
The Model S was named 2013 “Car of the Year” by Motor Trend magazine, the first time the award has gone to an electric vehicle. Tesla has said it will build at least 20,000 of the cars at its Fremont, Calif., plant next year, and add the Model X electric sport utility vehicle in 2014.
GM unveils SS sedan
General Motors Co., preparing 13 new Chevrolet models for the U.S. next year, unveiled a NASCAR version of the upcoming SS sedan that the automaker says looks similar to what will be sold in showrooms.
The production version of the rear-wheel-drive sedan will be shown at Speedweeks in February at Daytona International Speedway in Florida, where the new race car will compete, Mark Reuss, president of GM North America, said.
“If you look at where the sport has gone, there wasn’t a lot of stock left in stock-car racing,” he said. “We really wanted to get a car ... in our showrooms that we could race in NASCAR and really bring the coordination and realization that you could actually buy a car that’s not too far off from the race car.”
Along with the SS, Chevrolet is also planning a redesigned Corvette sports car, which will be first shown in January in advance of the Detroit auto show. Together, the cars will add some new muscle to the Chevrolet brand that has emphasized the Volt plug-in hybrid sedan and small cars, such as the Cruze and Spark, since Detroit-based GM emerged from a U.S.-backed bankruptcy in 2009. The Cruze is assembled in Lordstown.
It’s part of Chevrolet’s product push next year that also includes a redesigned Silverado pickup.
Compiled from wire reports