Overview

Corvane Ryle advises vehicle manufacturers, tier-one and tier-two suppliers, battery and charging companies, dealer groups, mobility platforms and their investors. Clients include automakers such as Ashgrove Motors, and our work extends from joint ventures and plant investments to the data, safety and trade questions that now shape every vehicle program.

The industry is being reshaped by electrification, software and trade policy. Battery and electric vehicle investments depend on supply agreements, government incentives and cross-border joint ventures, while tariffs, rules of origin and export controls affect where vehicles and components can be built and sold. Connected and increasingly automated vehicles generate large volumes of location, driver and biometric data, which raises privacy, cybersecurity and consumer protection issues in the United States, the EU and Asia, and brings new vehicle cybersecurity and software update requirements. Product safety regulators, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, continue to scrutinize recalls and driver assistance features, and class action risk follows.

Our teams combine M&A, joint ventures, finance, antitrust, trade, tax, privacy, product liability and litigation lawyers. We advise on investment structures and supplier contracts, and we defend clients when vehicles and components are challenged. Hiroshi Kanemoto in Singapore advises on cross-border M&A and joint ventures in Asia, and Tomás Ellery-Vance in Washington, D.C. advises on connected vehicle data and cybersecurity.

We aim to help clients plan several steps ahead. That means building supplier and joint venture contracts that anticipate tariff changes and regulatory shifts, preparing product safety and data governance programs before an incident occurs, and ensuring that an investment in a plant or a platform is structured to withstand the next change in policy.

Representative experience

• Advised Ashgrove Motors on an electric vehicle battery joint venture.
• Represented a tier-one supplier in its acquisition of a sensor and software business.
• Counseled an automaker on tariff mitigation and the renegotiation of long-term supply agreements.
• Advised a charging network operator on a project financing and related public funding.
• Defended an automaker in a putative class action concerning an advanced driver assistance feature.
• Counseled a manufacturer on a safety recall and communications with federal regulators.
• Advised a dealer group on its sale to a private equity sponsor.
• Acted for a connected vehicle platform on data protection compliance in the EU and US.
• Advised a mobility company on a restructuring of its vehicle leasing financing.