Tag: FCA

Statement by Mahindra & Mahindra about FCA court case

Statement by Mahindra & Mahindra

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Aug. 3, 2018 – “We understand that a complaint has been filed by FCA with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) against Mahindra. Mahindra has not yet been served with the complaint and we prefer not to comment at length on the dispute at this time. However, we have reviewed FCA’s core filing and find it to be without merit. Mahindra has a historic relationship and agreements with FCA and its predecessors that go back seventy years.

The relationship began in the 1940’s with the original agreement with Willys and continues to this day, with the most recent agreement executed with FCA (then Chrysler Group LLC) in 2009. Our actions, products, and product distribution (including ROXOR) both honor the legacy of the relationship and the terms of our agreements with FCA. Mahindra has been co-existing with FCA (and the Jeep brand) for over 25 years in India and in many other countries.

The ROXOR is a derivative of Mahindra vehicles distributed in those markets. Based on these agreements and our history, we believe that FCA’s claims are baseless and Mahindra is well within its rights to both manufacture and distribute the ROXOR off-road vehicle.”

About Mahindra Automotive North America

Mahindra Automotive North America (MANA) is the North American headquarters of the Mahindra Group’s automotive division. Established in 2013, MANA now employs over 400 people, and became the first automotive OEM to launch a manufacturing operation in SE Michigan in over 25 years when it began producing the ROXOR off-road vehicle earlier this year in Auburn Hills, MI. Working with affiliate Mahindra teams in India, Italy and Korea, MANA also continues to fulfill its mission as a center of automotive engineering excellence, which includes automotive design, engineering and vehicle development, and is led by a team of veteran industry executives, engineers and designers. For more information, visit mahindraautomotivena.com and roxoroffroad.com.

About Mahindra

The Mahindra Group is a $20.7 billion (USD) federation of companies that enables people to rise through innovative mobility solutions, driving rural prosperity, enhancing urban living, nurturing new businesses and fostering communities. It has a leadership position in utility vehicles, information technology, financial services and vacation ownership in India and is the world’s largest tractor company, by volume. It also enjoys a strong presence in agribusiness, components, commercial vehicles, consulting services, energy, industrial equipment, logistics, real estate, steel, aerospace, defense and two-wheelers. Headquartered in India, Mahindra employs over 200,000 people across 100 countries. Learn more at mahindra.com.

Media contact information:

Varsha Chainani
Mobile – + 91 99873 40055
Office Email Address – chainani.varsha@mahindra.com

Carmakers struggle to hire hackers, the hottest job in the industry

Carmakers struggle to hire hackers, the hottest job in the industryMcConnell Trapp has a special set of skills.
He can hack into cars and control aspects of them from his computer.
Trapp, 39, who has a law degree and speaks Japanese fluently, started hacking cars about 16 years ago. He used a computer, some various vehicle spare parts, a turbocharger and the help of few good friends to increase the 120 horsepower normally found in a 1995 Honda Civic sedan to almost 300 hp.
“It was a lot of trial and error,” said Trapp, who admitted he “blew up a lot of engines.”
Today, Trapp is director of Speed Trapp Consulting in Troy. He works as a legal “techno” consultant. He is one of the good guys who uses his ability to infiltrate car computer systems and uncover potentially dangerous flaws that would make them vulnerable to someone with malicious intentions. But if he were a bad guy, he knows how he could compromise several cars at once. Cars in operation today.
“I'd walk into a dealership. I would see if they have a WiFi router designated for customers and gain access into that first,” he said.
Then, if the dealership's service department server is hooked into the main system, he'd infiltrate the service department's storage database that the technicians use for vehicle diagnostics. From there it's as easy as inserting a “fake” update resembling other files for vehicles and infecting multiple cars there for service.
“Hypothetically, I could make a running engine turn off, or render other aspects of the car either useless, or just make it appear as though the vehicle constantly needs service or recalls when it actually doesn't,” he said. “That's the danger, that's the scary part.”
It's that threat associated with vehicle technology that is driving many auto companies and other industries to increasingly look to hire hackers with ethics like Trapp, called “white hat” researchers. Those hackers can identify cybersecurity flaws and thwart nefarious actions of “black hat” hackers.
But finding white hat hackers to hire is incredibly hard, personnel experts said. First, few people have those skills. Then, they must be vetted to make sure they have both the technological acumen and the moral compass for the job. The need for them is outpacing the thin supply.
Hackers for hireTypically, computer hacking is associated with a person or a group with malevolent intentions. The hacker gains unauthorized access to a computer and a technology dependent system to do harm.
In the 2017 movie, “The Fate of the Furious,” for example, actress Charlize Theron's character hacks into every self-driving car in New York City, takes remote control of them and causes mass chaos and destruction.
Depending on which hacker you talk to, some, such as Trapp, say such a movie scenario is unlikely in real life, especially if a human is still needed to turn on a car. Others say, though, that we are almost to a point where that could happen.
General Motors is leading the way in developing autonomous cars. It has promised to bring them to market in urban areas in a taxi-like platform next year. But the fear of scenarios such as the one in the movie, as well as a desire to keep customers' information protected in regular cars, is ratcheting up the need for the company to hire white hat researchers.
GM launched a new program this summer called Bug Bounty. It took GM years of forming relationships with white hat hackers. GM will now bring those hackers to Detroit and pay them a hefty bounty or cash payment for each “bug” they uncover in any of GM vehicles' computer systems.
Read more:
GM is hiring hackers: Here's why
Car hacking remains a very real threat
Famous car hackers head to GM's self-driving unit
Fiat Chrysler has had a Bug Bounty program in place since 2016. It pays white hat hackers up to $1,500 each time they discover a previously unknown vulnerability in vehicle software.
Last year, GM's self-driving unit, Cruise, hired famous car hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek. The two, dubbed the “Cherokee Brothers” by Trapp and others in the hacking community, gained fame in 2015 when they proved they could remotely stop a Jeep Cherokee.
GM approachGM conducts its cybersecurity using a three-prong approach: It hires third-party companies that employ white hat hackers, it has its own hackers on staff and it has the Bug Bounty program.
GM and Cruise employ 25 to 30 white hat hackers on staff today compared with five to 10 in 2013, said Jeff Massimilla, GM's vice president of Global Cybersecurity. GM has about 450 people dedicated to all other aspects of cybersecurity across the company, he said.
“As we continue to get more connected and into AV, we will want to increase that number of white hat researchers,” said Massimilla.
Massimilla declined to say how much GM is investing to hire cybersecurity personnel, but he said, “It’s an extremely high priority, we’re well funded and well resourced.”
GM relies on its three-prong approach because of the shortage of white hat hackers, he said. Plus, many don't want to work for one company.
“Hacking a Camaro is pretty darn exciting, hacking an autonomous vehicle is pretty darn exciting — but it's tough to attract that talent because they’re just not there or they want to do it through bounty programs where they can work from home and have flexibility,” said Massimilla.
High priceMore than half of employer demand related to connected and self-driving cars is for workers in data management, cybersecurity and information technology, said the 2017 Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAV) Skills Gap Analysis by the Workforce Intelligence Network.
In 2015-16, there were 10,344 total job ads placed for CAV-related employment, and 5,400 of those ads were for jobs in data management and cybersecurity, the report said.
And, as demand rises for such skilled workers, the supply remains flat, thus inflating salaries. The average salary for CAV jobs in 2014-15 was $89,616. In 2015-16 that rose to $94,733, the WIN report said, citing data from Burning Glass Technologies.
There's a gap in demand for cybersecurity personnel, especially white hat hackers, versus the supply cuts across many industries. There also is in health care and insurance, said Bob Zhang, CIO of Strategic Staffing Solutions in Detroit, which works to find contract workers to fill such roles for its clients.
“The supply is really low right now. By 2020, the job gap will be 2 million jobs. That means 2 million unfilled openings in cybersecurity,” Zhang said. “You can’t just teach hacking. It requires a whole lot of knowledge from IT and computer science … you have to be the jack of all trades with a deep interest in systems networking.”
Some organizations offer training courses to verify a hacker as a “certified ethical hacker,” he said.
But most large corporations find it beneficial to hire third parties staffed with white hat hackers for specific projects.
“If I'm an IT manager, do I really want to hand-pick somebody and say, 'I’m going to put all of this multibillion-dollar company in the hands of the people I hire?' Or outsource it to a company that focuses on this type of service? Many do both.”
The gap in cybersecurity job demand versus supply is probably the largest gap in the IT industry's history, Zhang said.
“Once the security world matures and the amount of security providers increase, the demand will even out,” he said.
Creating the next generationSome colleges and universities offer courses in cybersecurity, but expanding that curriculum and recruiting younger people into vocational hacking courses to grow the talent pool can't happen fast enough to meet the soaring demand, said Jennifer Tisdale, director of connected mobility and infrastructure for Grimm.
Grimm is a technology consulting company with a new “car hacking lab” in Sparta, Michigan. It uses white hat researchers for automotive clients as well as other industries.
“We need to hire 20-plus researchers in the next two years,” said Tisdale. “I don't have time to wait for a college to structure a program for cybersecurity.”
College programs might not be the full answer anyway, said Brian Demuth, Grimm's CEO.
“There’s not a degree that should be created to do all of this, but there are things like extended learning that can help,” he said.
Grimm, which has 46 employees scattered across the country, looks for people who have a “fundamental view of computer science” and then trains, teaches and grows them from there, said Demuth.
Demuth, 38, is a hacker himself with a computer science background and a passion for tinkering with cars.
“I was always interested in how things worked. I grew up the son of a Marine, and he was in the intelligence field, so there were always computers and amateur radios around,” said Demuth. “My father was into mechanics and working on vehicles and making them start faster or stop faster. That’s what drove my passion into this.”
The hacker stigmaPart of the difficulty in recruiting hackers lies in the stigma surrounding the pursuit.
Matt Carpenter, 44, is Grimm’s lead researcher dedicated to automotive, aerospace and energy businesses. Carpenter works with four other white hat researchers in Grimm's car hacking lab.
“What I do and my team does is everything that can be done by an attacker,” Carpenter said. “We do this so that we can benefit the community and identify problems before someone with bad motives can do it.”
When asked if he calls himself a hacker, he said, “I like to be called a good guy, but there’s no way to be considered a good guy by everybody and do what I do. There’s a great stigma around being a hacker.”
Many people misunderstand the work white hat hackers do, which Carpenter said is “vital” to secure every car on the road.
“It takes a lot of deep knowledge and deep work,” said Carpenter. “You can’t pull me ..

Mich. firm 'out of business in three months' if auto tariffs kick in

Mich. firm 'out of business in three months' if auto tariffs kick inMary Buchzeiger wakes up each day wondering if the Auburn Hills-based auto supplier she's spent years building is on path to earn a billion dollars in annual sales … or spiral into bankruptcy.
Her uncertainty rests on whether President Donald Trump's proposed 25 percent tariff on foreign cars and parts is adopted. If it is, Buchzeiger, 44, will brace for the worst.
“We may have to start all over again and reconfigure the business,” said Buchzeiger, CEO of Lucerne International. “There's going to be some carnage along the way and it's going to be companies like mine that are first to go. We don't have deep pockets.”
Lucerne International sells about $50 million worth of parts it makes each year. It has eight plants in Asia where it fabricates auto parts using steel and aluminum before shipping them back to the U.S. for final production for its various automaker customers, the biggest being Fiat Chrysler.
Lucerne, for example, makes all the hinges on the Jeep Wrangler SUV. That means if Lucerne goes under, FCA may have to find another company to make those hinges, and there aren't very many.
Long-term contracts with its customers block Lucerne from passing its higher raw material costs or tariffs on to them. And Lucerne's profit margins are too thin to absorb the higher costs.
“I can't sell the products for less than what it costs me to produce them, and that's what would happen with the tariffs,” Buchzeiger said. “We'd be out of business in three months.”
Growing up carsLucerne has considered opening a U.S. manufacturing plant to lower its reliance on Asian imports, Buchzeiger said. But those plans are on hold because the company's future is in question, she said.
The postponed plant would have created about 125 full-time jobs, she said, although with the low U.S. unemployment rate there are few skilled trade workers available to hire to ramp up production to fulfill orders.
Buchzeiger is intimately familiar with the complexities of the automotive supply chain. She grew up in Ortonville and her family was deeply rooted in the car business. She started working in it when she was a kid and her father quit his purchasing manager job at General Motors in 1984 to start Lucerne International.
“My parents couldn't afford day care, so I went to work with them over the summers,” Buchzeiger said.
Her parents had a small plant in Pontiac and Buchzeiger said, “I was driving a forklift truck at age 13. I've always been around the business and I've always worked.”
In her 20s, Buchzeiger moved to East Lansing intent on going to Michigan State University. Instead, she started a marketing company there producing menus for bars and restaurants. She graduated from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield in 2000 with a bachelor of science in industrial operations. She went to work for Lucerne, which had about $2 million in annual sales at that time.
After working her way though the company, in 2005, she recognized that Lucerne needed to expand its presence in Asia.
“In 2003, 2004 and 2005 we started to see all our products move offshore, so it was sink or swim,” Buchzeiger said. “It was a good time to open our doors, get on a plane and make some things happen on the other side of the world.”
She bought the company from her father in 2015. It had $12 million in annual sales and had 14 employees at the time.
Going gangbustersOver the past three years, Lucerne's business has been “gangbusters,” Buchzeiger said.
“We were growing significantly. We are at just under $50 million in sales and 46 employees,” Buchzeiger said.
Fourteen of those employees are in Asia and one is in Europe. The company's goal is to hit $1 billion in annual sales in nine years, she said.
That's why it became critical to protest Trump’s first round of tariffs on Chinese products, because 90 percent of Lucerne’s revenue was tied to products that fell under that provision. Namely, the hinges used on the Wrangler, which is assembled in Ohio.
Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods, including autos and parts, under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, are separate from the Commerce Department investigation of whether cars and parts made elsewhere are a threat to national defense and therefor eligible for new tariffs under Section 232.
Read more:
Tariff hearing: Tax would cut U.S. jobs
Automakers: Trump tariffs would cost consumers
“The Jeep Wrangler is half my business. It's $25 million in sales, and that is 25 percent tariff, so it's a huge increase in price,” Buchzeiger said.
Buchzeiger and her leadership team waged a campaign to win an exemption. “I went to Washington and testified,” she said.
It worked; the administration removed Lucerne's product codes from the tariff list.
“That was a small victory,” Buchzeiger said. “The new threat is the rest of the tariffs. The 301 is just China. Now they have another list and pretty much everything else we make in Asia is effected by that.”
Many of her contracts are negotiated for longer terms, so if Lucerne faces rising costs to do business, it cannot charge more for its parts.
“There's no caveat for tariffs. They're watertight. You cannot come in and raise your prices,” Buchzeiger said. “People don't understand the intricacy of the supply chain. We produce those hinges at eight different facilities in China and Taiwan, then they come into Michigan before being shipped to Ohio. The bigger suppliers have deeper pockets and can absorb costs and move things around. The smaller ones can't. It'll be bigger than 2008 when we crash.”
'A holy mess' Buchzeiger did not travel to Washington to testify against the proposed 232 tariffs, but submitted written testimony about the possible impact on Lucerne. She said, “I feel like we're fighting for the entire industry.”
Buchzeiger said Trump's proposed 232 tariffs will make the U.S. automotive industry much less competitive with auto companies around the world.
“It's going to crush our race for autonomous vehicles and for future vehicles,” she said. “We're going to lose.”
Lawyer Catherine Karol at Butzel Long in Detroit said her supplier clients are being hurt by the 301 tariffs already in place. Butzel Long represents more than 3,500 clients globally, about a third of which are in the car business, almost exclusively suppliers, she said.
“It's dire for some of these smaller suppliers,” said Karol. “They are looking at possibly shutting their doors. They're getting choked.”
Ultimately, the increased costs will be passed onto consumers, Karol said.
“Auto parts suppliers are getting hit in all directions: Steel, aluminum … it will just keep growing,” Karol said. “Their heads are spinning. Then when you propose the 232 tariffs on the auto parts … the way the global supply chain is set up, parts go back and forth numerous times no matter where the vehicle is assembled, so that one will be a holy mess in addition to the tariffs already impacting these suppliers.”
GM, Toyota warn of job cuts over auto tariffs
Scrambling for a solutionBuchzeiger said she understands the motive behind the Trump administration proposing the tariffs: Bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. That's harder than it sounds, she said. For one thing, when she investigated producing parts here, she could not find an existing plant with the capacity to build the volume of parts she needed.
Already, Lucerne has taken about a 20 percent hit on its parts sales to BMW. That's because China raised the import tax on cars from the U.S. to 40 percent in retaliation for Trump's higher tariffs on Chinese goods.
BMW builds SUVs in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and exports them to 140 countries, including China. BMW has scaled back the number of cars it plans to sell in China now because of the tariff. Therefore, it is ordering fewer parts from Lucerne, she said.
Besides the financial hit, the tariff issue has been an overall distraction to business, Buchzeiger said.
“We've wasted so many resources on dealing with these tariffs and rather than me spending my time running my business and doing what I'm good at, I am spending time in Washington and addressing this issue,” Buchzeiger said. “Other companies have told me they've had to pull (people) off their regular jobs and put teams together to address these tariffs.”
She said a supplier she knows sold one of his divisions because he needed to get out from under the tariffs and change up the company's operations.
“I want to keep growing and bring manufacturing back to the U.S., but we need time,” Buchzeiger said. “I can't even fill my open spots right now because of the low unemployment rate. There is a shortage of skilled trades. I don't have people to put in a plant, so it's a compound issue.”
So Buchzeiger will continue to forge forward and devise a contingency plan in the hopes of securing Lucerne's future. She said before she has to lay off any of her employees, she would first cut back on some of the community programs Lucerne sponsors. And she will continue to lobby Washington.
“It's my duty to stand up and speak out,” Buchzeiger said. “I'm always a glass is half full kind of person, so I know there's a future. The size of it? I'm unsure of and we're looking at what we can do so that we don't have to lay one person off.”
Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com
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FCA chief failed to disclose gift to UAW, sources say

FCA chief failed to disclose gift to UAW, sources sayDetroit — Fiat Chrysler's longtime CEO Sergio Marchionne gave an expensive Italian watch to United Auto Workers Vice President General Holiefield and failed to disclose the gift while being questioned by federal investigators, two sources told The Detroit News.
The sources describe a dramatic “gotcha” moment during a secretive July 2016 meeting between Marchionne, head of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, and investigators. It ended with the auto executive exposed to the possibility of federal charges.
Marchionne, 66, was never charged before he died July 25 in a Zurich hospital.
The auto executive's gift of a watch to a ranking union leader could bolster any criminal case against FCA, which has been named co-conspirator in the case along with the UAW. Both organizations could face criminal charges, fines and governmental oversight.
Flanked by his white-collar criminal defense lawyer, William Jeffress, at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit, Marchionne was asked by investigators whether he had given UAW leaders valuable items.
Marchionne said no, according to the two sources, who spoke under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
Investigators then confronted Marchionne with evidence he had given Holiefield a custom-made Terra Cielo Mare watch in February 2010. The Italian watchmaker has produced custom-made, limited-edition timepieces with the Fiat logo emblazoned on the dial since at least 2006.
A 2014 model featuring the Fiat logo and a mustard-yellow dial retailed for $2,245.
The watch given to Holiefield came with a hand-written note from what documents identify only as an unnamed FCA executive: “Dear General, I declared the goods at less than fifty bucks. That should remove any potential conflict. Best regards, and see you soon,” according to federal court records obtained by The News.
It is unclear whether investigators showed Marchionne the watch and note or just photographs of them, and it is unknown whether federal agents have the watch.
“There is a lot of intrigue here,” said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor. “Prosecutors had him and had leverage over him. This was an arrow in the government's quiver.”
Holiefield died in March 2015. The next year, Holiefield's home in Harrison Township was raided by federal agents investigating his widow, Monica Morgan-Holiefield, who was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison last month for her role in the scandal.
The raid was one stop in a broader series of searches that included the homes of Alphons Iacobelli, the automaker's top labor negotiator, and former UAW Vice President Norwood Jewell.
An inventory of items seized during the raid at Morgan-Holiefield's home is sealed in federal court.
Also unclear is how Marchionne explained the watch after being confronted by investigators. It is unknown whether Marchionne reached an agreement before talking to the government that would have granted him limited immunity as long as the auto executive told the truth.
“If you don't tell the truth, all bets are off,” Henning said. “If you lie, the government can use what was said against you. The FBI doesn't give you a free pass on lying.”
It is unclear why Marchionne was never charged. The potential charges include making a false statement and violating a federal labor law barring employers from giving union officials money and valuable items.
“Prosecutors are playing the long game,” Henning said. “We don't know what would have happened in six months if his health had been all right.”
It is possible FBI agents and prosecutors continued to build a criminal case against Marchionne, Henning said.
“He could have said he forgot about the watch, so the government has got to be a little careful,” he said. “When he said 'no,' it looks like they've got him, but the government has to ask if maybe it's not worth charging him but get his cooperation.”
The custom-made timepiece by Terra Cielo Mare is described in court records as an example of a stream of illegal benefits flowing from Fiat Chrysler to labor leaders during a years-long conspiracy designed to wring concessions from the UAW.
Federal prosecutors have left clues to Marchionne's involvement in hundreds of pages of federal court filings that referenced, but never publicly identified, the auto executive. Instead, the government identified Marchionne only as “FCA-1” as the investigation continued and prosecutors secured convictions against three Fiat Chrysler officials.
Fiat Chrysler released a statement to The News on Wednesday: “FCA US continues to cooperate fully with this investigation. The company also confirms that Sergio Marchionne met with the government in July 2016, in the spirit of full cooperation, where he answered questions to the best of his recollection. As the U.S. attorney’s investigation is ongoing, the company cannot comment further.”
The U.S. Attorney's Office would not discuss the meeting with Marchionne or say whether he was a target of an investigation that has led to seven convictions. Those include Iacobelli, who is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 27.
Iacobelli was accused of using more than $1 million in Fiat Chrysler funds on a Ferrari 458 Spider convertible, which he outfitted with an “IACOBLI” vanity plate, a pool at his Rochester Hills mansion and two solid-gold, bejeweled Montblanc fountain pens that cost $35,700 each.
The first reference to Marchionne in federal court records is on page 19 of a 42-page indictment last year charging Iacobelli and Holiefield's widow with conspiring to violate federal labor laws.
The indictment outlines a scheme by Fiat Chrysler executives to keep UAW officials “fat, dumb and happy.” Executives funneled money and gifts to labor leaders through the jointly operated UAW-Chrysler National Training Center, according to the indictment.
UAW leaders who served on the training center's board were given credit cards paid for by the automaker. UAW officials were given free rein to buy personal items, including $1,000 pairs of Christian Louboutin shoes, jewelry, purses, and a $2,180 shotgun for Jewell, according to court records and interviews. Jewell has not been charged with a crime.
In January 2014, then-UAW President Bob King was investigating how Holiefield and other union officials were using training center credit cards, according to the indictment.
That month, King’s senior assistant asked an unnamed Fiat Chrysler official for the credit card records, according to the Iacobelli indictment.
The unnamed Fiat Chrysler official emailed Iacobelli.
“We can’t provide the requested type of information to such people,” the email read. “If we tell (King and his assistant) that we aren’t giving them (expletive), what are they going to do, tell (FCA-1) we are being uncooperative? If so, so what?”
“We are providing nothing,” Iacobelli responded, according to the indictment. “We’re gonna have fun with these evil people.”
The conspiracy is damaging and sows distrust among UAW members, Henning said.
“More than anything, it shows union leadership appears to have been bought with trinkets,” he said. “The mistrust this fosters among union members is incredible.”
rsnell@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2486
Twitter: @robertsnellnews
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No ‘sound investor’ would want Elon Musk to remain CEO of Tesla, says former GM exec Bob Lutz

If Elon Musk left Tesla, the stock would go up: Expert
4 Hours Ago | 06:14

For the good of Tesla, Elon Musk should step aside, former vice chairman of General Motors Bob Lutz told CNBC on Friday.

“I can't imagine any sound investor who has money in the company or any independent board member would want him to remain as CEO in light of recent performance,” Lutz said on CNBC's “Closing Bell.”

The New York Times published an extended interview with Musk on Friday in which he said the past year has been “excruciating” and “the most difficult and painful” of his career. The interview follows months of erratic behavior on Musk's part, both on and off social media. Most recently, the CEO tweeted that he would take Tesla private at $420 per share and had “funding secured,” which has invited scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Musk took to Twitter in July to call a British cave diver who assisted in the rescue of a Thai boys soccer team a “pedo guy.” During Tesla's first-quarter earnings call in May, Musk dissed analysts, cutting off Sanford Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi because of what he called a “boring, bonehead” question. Musk later apologized to Sacconaghi and to the diver, Vernon Unsworth, for his comments.

“Elon is tired, he's worn out. He's obviously got some emotional problems. He's self medicating. He has shown some disturbing signs of being somewhat volatile and unstable,” Lutz said. “I think the right solution for Tesla at this point is to move him aside from day-to-day operation.”

Lutz, an automotive industry veteran who has also served in top roles at BMW, Chrysler and Ford, has been a huge critic of Tesla in the past. In November of last year he said Tesla is “going out of business.” Although he wasn't quite as critical this time around, he did raise some of the same issues, saying Tesla was “bleeding” profitability and “will probably have to go back to the capital markets for more money.”

“In my personal judgment, the board should take action and find a CEO. Not get rid of Elon — keep him as the visionary, keep him as the titular head of the company, and give him the honor and respect the founder of the company deserves,” Lutz said. “But that company needs professional management, and it needs it now.”

J.P. Eggers, associate professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, agreed, saying it is likely there are many other things Musk would rather spend his time on than Model 3 production goals.

“We see this all the time with … start-up founders or early leaders in these firms, where what they really want to do is do the vision, do the growth, build the … reputation of the company. And when it comes to actually executing on the vision, they aren't always the best ones for that,” Eggers said Friday on “Closing Bell.”

As much as it might be better for Tesla — and its stock price — were Musk to step aside as CEO, Eggers said, he's not so sure Musk would be willing to stay on with the company in a secondary role.

“I have a hard time seeing him doing anything other than being completely involved or walking completely away. He's tenacious; that's what's made him successful to this point,” Eggers said.

Statement by Mahindra & Mahindra We understand that a complaint has been filed by FCA with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) against Mahindra. Mahindra has not yet been served with the complaint and we prefer not to comment at length on the dispute at this time. However, we have reviewed FCA’s core filing and find it to be without merit.

Statement by Mahindra & Mahindra AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Aug. 3, 2018 – “We understand that a complaint has been filed by FCA with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) against Mahindra. Mahindra has not yet been served with the complaint and we prefer not to comment at length on the dispute at this time.… Continue reading Statement by Mahindra & Mahindra We understand that a complaint has been filed by FCA with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) against Mahindra. Mahindra has not yet been served with the complaint and we prefer not to comment at length on the dispute at this time. However, we have reviewed FCA’s core filing and find it to be without merit.

Geely Wants To Turn Lotus Into A Luxury Porsche Rival

It will also reportedly increase its 51 percent stake in Lotus with its Malaysian partner Etika Automotive, which holds the remaining 49 percent stake. “Geely is fully committed to restoring Lotus into being a leading global luxury brand,” the company responded in a statement when asked about the investment but refused to comment further. Geely… Continue reading Geely Wants To Turn Lotus Into A Luxury Porsche Rival