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The EV investment figure, which has not previously been published, dwarfs previous investment estimates by Reuters and is more than twice the most recent calculation published just a year ago.

The U.S. Department of Justice launched the previously undisclosed probe last year following more than a dozen crashes, some of them fatal, involving Tesla's driver assistance system Autopilot, which was activated during the accidents, the people said.

The talks come as auto manufacturers from Stuttgart to Seoul have been angered by Biden's $430 billion "Inflation Reduction Act", enacted in August and aimed at rolling back climate change and making Washington a world leader in the electric vehicle (EV) market.

The first outcomes from the partnership between Volkswagen's software unit Cariad and Bosch, announced in January this year, are planned for 2023, the statement said.

As Ford, General Motors Co and other companies began to realize they would need to step up investment over a longer period of time, "it was never clear what the financial returns were going to be" on automated vehicles, Evangelos Simoudis, an investor, author and corporate adviser

Brent crude futures for December delivery settled at $93.26 a barrel, down 24 cents, 0.3%, after rising 2% last week. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude lost $84.58 a barrel, losing 47 cents, 0.6%. Both benchmarks had fallen by $2 a barrel earlier in the session.

Alison-Madueke was a key figure in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan who served as petroleum minister from 2010 to 2015. She has been dogged by corruption allegations since she left office but denies the charges.

Figures on Wednesday showed record U.S. crude exports, a hopeful sign for demand, even as crude stocks rose. The U.S. dollar weakened in early trade on hopes that interest-rate hikes may become less aggressive.