Europe

MILAN – Cupra’s small full-electric hatchback to be launched in 2025 will be called the Raval, after a neighborhood in Barcelona. The first EV from Volkswagen Group’s sporty Spanish brand, the Born compact hatchback, was also named after a district in the city. Cupra’s main factory is in Martorell, west of Barcelona.  The Raval was

COPENHAGEN — Volvo has delayed the production start of its new EX90 all-electric flagship for more software development and testing. The company now expects to start production of the SUV in the first half of next year, Volvo said in a statement on Thursday. Volvo unveiled the model late last year, expecting it to hit

Volkswagen Group’s software unit Cariad will likely bring its next generation 2.0 platform to market towards 2027 or 2028, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said. The software will enable Level 4 autonomous driving and is due to be implemented across the group from 2026 but its development has suffered delays. Antlitz said the company first

LONDON — Ford said it will test a small fleet of prototype hydrogen fuel-cell versions of its electric E-Transit model to see if they are a workable zero-emission option for customers hauling heavy goods long distances. Ford will lead a consortium in the three-year project that includes BP, which will focus on hydrogen and infrastructure,

SHANGHAI — BYD has launched five lower-priced versions of its Seal sedan, as the Chinese electric vehicle giant seeks to extend its lead in the world’s largest market for new-energy cars. The price of the rear-wheel drive Seal Champion Edition with a 550-km (342-mile) driving range, starts at 189,800 yuan ($27,459.09), 10 percent lower than

PARIS — Alpine unveiled the A290 Beta small “hot hatch” concept ahead of its 2024 launch as a production model, as the Renault Group brand builds out a full lineup and plans for international expansion. The A290 Beta is a small full-electric hatchback based on the coming Renault 5, but with a specially tuned chassis,

BERLIN — Porsche will incorporate automated assistance and navigation functions from Mobileye’s so-called “SuperVision” technology platform in future models, Mobileye said in a statement. The agreement is the technology provider’s second large signing for the platform with a major automotive group after China’s Geely. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, which was previously going to use technology from

Peter Bosch, production chief at Bentley, will become CEO of Volkswagen Group‘s software unit Cariad on June 1, taking over from Dirk Hilgenberg. Bosch will also assume responsibility for finance, purchasing and IT, VW said on Monday in a statement Bosch is a former Oliver Wyman consultant who spent nearly seven years at the VW

BANGKOK — Toyota has stopped sales and deliveries of its Yaris Ativ in Thailand, senior officials said on Monday, after its affiliate Daihatsu rigged part of the door in side-collision safety tests. Speaking at a press conference in Bangkok, Toyota’s CEO for the Asia region, Masahiko Maeda, said the problem may have occurred due to

Wolfspeed sees green-tech subsidies in the European Union as on par with what the U.S. is offering to attract production of semiconductors important for electric cars. Tax breaks and other incentives under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and support in the European Union are similar, Wolfspeed CEO, Gregg Lowe, said. The U.S. chipmaker is ramping

MILAN — Ferrari’s core earnings rose 27 percent to 537 million euros ($594 million) in the first quarter on increased shipments. Results were driven by sales of the Portofino M, the 296 GTB and the 812 Competizione models, as well as pricing capacity, the company said in a statement on Thursday. CEO Benedetto Vigna said

China’s Tianqi Lithium is considering buying a minority stake in Smart Automobile, the Geely-Mercedes joint venture, as part of the minicar maker’s latest private funding round, according to people familiar with the matter. The Chinese miner is in advanced talks to invest $100 million to $200 million in Smart, a joint venture between Germany’s Mercedes-Benz

FRANKFURT — German passenger car sales rose 13 percent in April as delivery bottlenecks eased and demand for battery-electric cars continued to rise. Registrations were 202,947, according to data from the KBA motor transport authority. Sales of full-electric cars increased 34 percent to 29,740, despite the fact that government subsidies for battery-electric cars were significantly

LONDON — Aston Martin hired former Ferrari and Rimac executives as it works to strengthen its leadership ahead of launching its first full-electric car in 2025. The brand appointed ex-Rimac executive Paul Thomas to the newly created position of BEV Chief Engineer, which also covers plug-in hybrid vehicles. Aston Martin will start deliveries of the

ANSTY, England — Geely unit London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) on Friday unveiled a new, large electric-vehicle platform for vehicles ranging from minivans to commercial vans that it said could also be used by other units of the Chinese automaker. LEVC said the platform, dubbed Space Oriented Architecture (SOA), had been jointly developed over the

On June 13 and 14 in Paris, the annual Automotive News Europe Congress will host a series of top-level presentations, speakers and panel discussions on the theme of Making Sustainability Profitable. Speakers will include experts and executives from Renault Group, Toyota, Stellantis, Polestar, Ford, Hyundai and more. Join us in Paris to be part of the

Sales of full-electric vehicles in 2023 are expected to take a hit in the U.K. from inflationary pressures and lack of charging points, though the overall outlook for British new-car registrations has improved, the UK’s auto industry body, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said. The SMMT has downgraded its forecast for battery

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is in talks with partners to spend as much as 10 billion euros ($11 billion) to build a microchip fabrication plant in Saxony, Germany, according to people familiar with the matter. The planned venture between TSMC, NXP Semiconductors, Robert Bosch and Infineon Technologies will include state subsidies and would have

STOCKHOLM — Volvo said on Wednesday that sales increased by 10 percent in April to 51,976 cars, boosted by strong gains in China. Volvo, which is majority-owned by China’s Geely Holding, said in a statement that sales in China were up 46 percent. In Europe, its biggest market, sales were up 5 percent, while in

Germany’s Lilium will raise up to $250 million, including from its largest shareholder Tencent Holdings, to fund the development of its eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) jet. Lilium’s U.S.-listed shares surged 43 percent in premarket trading after the air taxi developer said the funds will enable it to cover “most of the estimated capital”

BRIXWORTH, England — Mercedes-Benz has engaged its Formula One team in the engineering process to build vastly more efficient mass-market electric vehicles, slashing development times by a quarter or more as it jump starts efforts to keep pace with Tesla. F1 technology has always eventually bled over into mass-market vehicles. But Mercedes’ F1 collaboration to

On June 13 and 14 in Paris, the annual Automotive News Europe Congress will host a series of top-level presentations, speakers and panel discussions on the theme of Making Sustainability Profitable. Speakers will include experts and executives from Renault Group, Toyota, Stellantis, Polestar, Ford, Hyundai and more. Join us in Paris to be part of the

Volkswagen Group plans to launch a new subbrand for electric cars in China to help the automaker reverse its sliding market share in the country. The subbrand will launch with the Cupra Tavascan full-electric SUV, a sibling model to the VW ID5 and Skoda Enyaq Coupe iV. Its models will be targeted at VW’s new

British car production rose for a second consecutive month, climbing 6.1 percent in March, as the global shortage of semiconductors and other components eased further, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said in a statement. In March, 81,605 cars were made in Britain, taking the first-quarter output to 219,887 units – 6 percent

LONDON — MG gave its Cyberster all-electric roadster ‘scissor’ doors that open upward because it needed visual drama to stand out in the increasingly competitive Chinese market, said Carl Gotham, the brand’s head of advanced design. The costs to engineer scissor doors have restricted their use to ultraluxury sports cars, but they are becoming more

MILAN — Stellantis has signed an agreement with Alliance Nickel for the supply of battery grade nickel and cobalt sulphate from the NiWest project in Western Australia, the two groups said. The deal, the latest struck in Australia by the world’s third largest automaker by revenues, confirms the country as a core supplier for Stellantis

MOSCOW — Holding company S8 Capital on Friday said it had closed a deal to acquire three of German supplier Bosch’s Russian assets and planned to rebrand the facilities within six months of the transaction’s completion. Scores of companies have opted to exit Russia or announced plans to do so since Moscow sent tens of

BERLIN — A technical project manager at Continental has admitted to involvement in the Volkswagen diesel scandal and incriminated other defendants, German prosecutors told Reuters. The unidentified individual admitted to having knowledge of and involvement in the illegal use of so-called defeat devices in VW diesel vehicles, the prosecutor’s office said, adding the person would

LONDON — An industry group of nearly 20 electric vehicle charger companies said they aim to double the size of Britain’s charging network this year with tens of thousands of new chargers, as the government tries to wean people off combustion engines. ChargeUK’s members have cumulatively announced plans to invest more than 6 billion pounds

Citroen has revealed the second of three planned small cars for emerging markets with the New C3 Aircross, an SUV available with five or seven seats. The C3 Aircross will go on sale in India and South America in late 2023, followed by a new market, Indonesia, in 2024. The Stellantis brand is targeting 30 percent