°®¶¹´«Ã½

Volkswagen AG aims to produce almost 50% more electric cars than it targeted previously, boosting a bet that has already strained profit margins.

Cobalt prices were surging so much last year that thieves were carrying out elaborate heists at warehouses in Europe’s busiest port. Now, prices are in free fall, and mining companies are taking the financial hit.

Tesla Inc.’s Model 3 sedan took command of the global electric-car market last year, outselling the nearest competitor by about 50%.

Volkswagen AG plans to save 1 million tons of carbon-dioxide emissions a year by making production of its first electric model carbon neutral, part of an effort to clean up its image in the aftermath of the diesel-cheating scandal.

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk visited Norway to accelerate a fix to service capacity in a key market for the carmaker after delays and bottlenecks angered customers in Scandinavia’s richest nation.

The vehicles that will secure the next decade for General Motors Co. aren’t covered in self-driving sensors or loaded with batteries. No, the future depends on hulking pickup trucks that often run on diesel and cost more than the average BMW.

A review conducted by the San Diego Union-Tribune showed various state agencies have committed $2.46 billion in public funds — some of it already spent and the rest planned over a number of years — for programs aimed at luring drivers out of cars and trucks powered by internal combustion engines and encouraging them into zero- or low-emission vehicles.

The Connecticut state Department of Motor Vehicles says less than a third of 1% of the state’s 2.9 million registered vehicles are electric, and lawmakers, clean energy advocates and labor and business groups say that ratio must drastically change for the state to hit its aggressive targets for pollution cuts.

Colorado moved to boost electric-car sales by taking the first step toward adopting a zero-emission-vehicle mandate patterned after one in California that’s under threat from the Trump administration.

The Nasdaq-listed company, Kandi Technologies Group Inc., which started making electric cars in 2013, plans to ship two of its models to the United States this year, Chairman and CEO Hu Xiaoming said Jan. 16. Sales will start after the company clears regulatory procedures, which have been held up by the federal government shutdown, Hu said.