Europe

Toyota is benefiting from a shift toward more fuel-efficient powertrains in Poland, where overall sales rose 21 percent in January. Demand for hybrids such as the Japanese automaker’s Yaris Cross, Yaris and Corolla boosted the powertrain’s sales 67 percent to 7,820 units last month, according to figures from Dataforce. That increased Poland’s hybrid market share

BERLIN — Munich-based startup Sono Motors has abandoned plans to produce a partly solar-powered car dubbed the “Sion” and will instead focus on building solar panels for third-party vehicles, the company said in a statement. Founded in 2016, Sono began trading on the NASDAQ in November last year in a bid to attract early-stage investors

Volkswagen Group wants to remain a strong player in Europe and China, but in the face of growing geopolitical tensions and an increasingly complex regulatory environment, the automaker is looking beyond the U.S. for markets with growth potential, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said. “We are turning our attention to India to be more robustly

European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis will head to Washington next month for more talks about the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), he said, adding that discussions are unlikely to solve all the EU’s concerns about the law. Dombrovskis, the European Union’s commissioner for trade, said progress was being made in some areas of the

SUNNYVALE, California — Mercedes-Benz unveiled a new operating system that will underpin the luxury automaker’s next-generation vehicles. MB.OS (Mercedes-Benz Operating System) combines in-house software development with technology collaborations to improve four key areas: infotainment, automated driving, body and comfort, and powertrain systems. “We are the architects of the system,” Mercedes-Benz Chief Technology Officer Markus Schaefer

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said tighter emissions limits for pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide in the proposed Euro 7 standards are “useless” and counterproductive at a time when the auto industry is struggling to produce affordable electric cars. The new standards are expected to be put in place in July 2025, a

BERLIN — Tesla has paused plans to produce entire batteries in Brandenburg, Germany, and will instead carry out some production steps in the U.S. where tax incentives are more favourable, the Brandenburg economy ministry said on Tuesday. Tesla had originally planned to produce the full battery at its car plant site in Gruenheide near Berlin,

Volkswagen is asking employees to complete an escape room experience with collaborative games and puzzles to ease anxiety over job security in the shift to electric cars. VW, which is spending 89 billion euros ($95 billion) on new technology through 2026, is using the eMotionRoom project at its Wolfsburg headquarters to help switch over about

SHANGHAI – Volkswagen Group’s joint venture with China’s SAIC Motor has appointed Jia Jianxu, a veteran executive at the state-owned Chinese automaker, as its new general manager. Jia has more than 20 years of experience in the auto industry and was in charge of SAIC’s European market expansion, according to SAIC-VW’s statement. Both automakers have

Forvia forecasts stable 2023 sales as it expects a stronger impact from wage and energy costs even as raw material inflation eases. Following more than two years of pandemic disruptions, the automotive sector has been facing continued supply chain snags due to Chinese lockdowns and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Forvia, which sells seats, dashboards and

Mercedes-Benz is preparing for perhaps the most important step in its transition to a direct sales to consumer “agency” retail model this year, when it begins the process in its home market, Germany. Mercedes said in 2021 that it had reached agreements with its European dealers to move to the direct-sales model. Sales boss Britta

Mercedes-Benz could preview a new range of compact models later this year based on its new MMA architecture, CEO Ola Kallenius said. The automaker will continue to sell compact cars even as its emphasizes sales of its highest-margin models, including the luxury Maybach brand, the high-performance AMG division and off-road G-Class. The average selling price

HANOI — Vietnam’s VinFast said North Carolina regulators had given the automaker one of the environmental permits it needs to begin construction on a planned $4 billion EV assembly plant in the U.S. state. The company, a subsidiary of conglomerate Vingroup, has been moving to expand in the U.S., where it hopes to compete with

MOSCOW — Spending on new cars in Russia more than halved last year as the auto industry felt the full force of Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine, with production plunging, prices soaring and buyers switching to cheaper used models. While analysts continue to debate the overall effectiveness of economic curbs on Russia, there

STUTTGART — Investment and other tools to accelerate the industrial transition to a decarbonized future are welcome, but trade barriers are not, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius said, referring to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act. “Trade barriers, please no,” he said during a news conference on the automaker’s full-year results. With $369 billion of subsidies largely

PARIS — A new 48-volt mild hybrid system from Stellantis will debut on the Peugeot 3008 and 5008 SUVs in the second quarter, with CO2 emission reductions of up to 15 percent. The mild-hybrid system is based on a 1.2 liter three-cylinder gasoline engine with 136 hp that is mated to a new dual-clutch six-speed

Volkswagen brand is raising the prices for models with combustion engines by an average of 4.4 percent, the automaker’s dealers in Germany have been told. VW said “significant cost increases in the procurement of raw materials, energy and equipment” was the reason for the price hikes in a letter to dealers obtained by Automotive News

PARIS — Renault Group still plants to spin off its Ampere electric vehicle unit “ideally” by the end of the year, but the exact timing depends on “market conditions,” CEO Luca de Meo said. Ampere could have a market capitalization of 10 billion euros, de Meo has said, and alliance partner Nissan intends to invest

Stellantis is expanding its software development and engineering network to eight hubs by establishing a new facility in Poland. The new hub will be in the southwestern city of Gliwice, near the automaker’s Tychy factory, and will employ up to 300 people. The facility will add “software development resources to existing Stellantis technical operations in

MUNICH — BMW’s Mini brand is heralding its shift to battery electric cars by launching a convertible version of its full-electric hatchback. The car’s production run will be limited to 999 units for Europe only, with 150 units destined for the UK market, Mini said in a statement. It will be called the Electric Convertible

Years of warnings about job losses from the transition to all-electric cars from internal-combustion powertrains are starting to become reality, as Ford this week announced it would cut nearly half of its European engineering staff of 6,200. Martin Sander, Ford’s EV boss in Europe, said the reason was, simply, that electric cars are much simpler.

PARIS — Renault’s new Espace midsize SUV will be 140 mm shorter than its minivan predecessor, but will have a slightly wider interior when it is revealed this spring, the automaker said. Renault released silhouette images of the Espace, which will be available in five- and seven-seat versions. The 4,270 mm long model is expected

One turns 20 this year, the other shipped its first car shortly after World War II. The former wants to bring sustainable transportation to the masses, while the latter sells speed and extravagance to the world’s wealthiest. One’s cars quietly whir, and the other’s roar. Tesla and Ferrari have little in common, and won’t for

PARIS — Renault and Nissan will invest $600 million to boost their operations in India, including the planned launch of six new joint models. The companies described the investment as a starting point that will create 2,000 additional jobs in Chennai, where the alliance has a factory that builds cars for both automakers and an

Volvo will not follow Tesla and Ford in lowering prices for its electric vehicles anytime soon. The automaker is seeing robust demand for its full-electric models, Chief Financial Officer Johan Ekdahl said in an interview Thursday. “We feel comfortable in our pricing strategy and will not engage in price wars,” Ekdahl said. Ford last month

BERLIN — Volkswagen Group will speed up its shift to electric cars and revamp its software strategy in a five-year investment plan presented by management to the supervisory board on Friday, the automaker said in a statement. VW’s supervisory board discussed how to rejig the automaker’s production network to accelerate the move to cleaner driving,

TOKYO — The rebalancing of the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance opens a new chapter for the long-uneasy Franco-Japanese partnership in the wake of the arrest of its former chairman. But one man still fighting its past, former Nissan executive Greg Kelly, says the carmakers missed a golden opportunity to better strengthen their position as a

Ford is radically changing its business model in Europe in a bid to become sustainably profitable in the region. The automaker is dropping the Focus compact car and Fiesta small hatchback as it shifts to a smaller, all-electric passenger car lineup. It’s also axing thousands of jobs — many of them product development staff —

Renault Group is in discussions with Volvo Trucks to collaborate on the French carmaker’s new FlexEVan electric van project that will help it compete with Stellantis in Europe, according to people familiar with the matter. Talks with Volvo Trucks, which is the parent company of Renault Trucks and is the world’s second-biggest truckmaker, are continuing and

TOKYO – Honda said the global semiconductor shortage is bottoming out but still cut its global sales forecast as it warned that tight supplies will likely drag into the latter half of 2023. Japan’s No. 2 automaker trimmed 250,000 units off its sales outlook for the current fiscal year ending March 31, citing lingering chip