Europe

SEOUL — South Korea’s anti-trust regulator said it will impose a combined fine of 42.3 billion won ($33.48 million) on Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen and Audi for colluding to rig emissions of its diesel cars using software. The four were involved in collusion that reduced competition and restricted consumer choice, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC)

LONDON — Nissan has reinstated Europe as a “core” global market as the automaker recovers from its business crisis in 2020, when it shrank its footprint in the region to concentrate on the U.S., China and Japan. Nissan has successfully tackled the underlying cause of its unprofitability in Europe after launching new models and cutting

BorgWarner has appointed Hau Thai-Tang, who retired last year after a long career at Ford Motor Co., to its board of directors. Thai-Tang held top roles in Ford’s product development and purchasing departments in his 34 years at the automaker. BorgWarner, in a Wednesday news release, praised Thai-Tang for developing “an industry leading product portfolio

LONDON — Nissan’s Renault-built replacement for the Micra small car is a perfect example of how the automakers’ alliance will operate going forward, the companies said. The Micra replacement will be developed and built by Renault and share 80 percent of parts with the coming full-electric Renault 5, Renault CEO Luca de Meo said at

BERLIN — Ford employees will be updated on negotiations with management over planned job cuts in Europe later this month Ford said in January that it would decide by mid-February how many jobs would be lost in the region. The automaker did not say how many jobs could be axed but the works council at

Renault and Nissan are finally done reshaping their complex relationship. The new status: better, but still complicated. Following almost a year of discussions, the partners presented a deal in London Monday that will see Renault lower its stake in Nissan and plans for a range of new models alongside junior alliance partner Mitsubishi Motors. There

LONDON — The new terms of the alliance of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi mean the three companies now have “an open relationship rather than a forced marriage,” Renault CEO Luca de Meo told Automotive News Europe after the automakers held a joint news conference in London on Monday. The setting for the event in the

Renault CEO Luca de Meo worked for more than eight months to reboot the automaker’s alliance with Nissan to move beyond a “culture of compromise” that had been the status quo in recent years, he said. In de Meo’s view, a merger was previosly seen as the ultimate goal of the alliance, and as a

Renault’s board voted in favor on Sunday to reshape the French automaker’s alliance with its Japanese partner Nissan, a source said. The deal will reshape the two-decade-old alliance to put the two companies on an equal footing. Under the agreement, Renault will reduce its controlling stake in Nissan to 15 percent from 43 percent, while

A day after a “frustrating” earnings report, Ford CEO Jim Farley told employees in a letter that he is cutting the percentage used to calculate bonuses for senior leaders including himself. The letter, co-signed by CFO John Lawler and obtained by Automotive News, explained that for 2022, the company’s salaried work force is scheduled to

Rationalizing your business in an already high-cost, low-return industry that is undergoing major change is not easy. Look no further than Ford and its Fiesta. The almost 50-year-old small hatchback has been one of Europe’s most popular models. Less than a decade ago, Ford was celebrating it becoming the UK’s best-selling car of all time.

A pair of Automotive News Europe Rising Stars have had a successful start to 2023. Onto CEO Rob Jolly’s electric car subscription service has raised 100 million pounds ($121 million) to help it expanding its EV fleet in the UK. The credit funding line comes from global investment group CDPQ and independent asset manager Pollen

SAN LUIS POTOSI, Mexico — BMW plans to invest 800 million euros ($866 million) in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi to produce high-voltage batteries and fully electric Neue Klasse models. The expansion, set to add around 1,000 new jobs at its operations in the Mexican state, is BMW’s latest push into electric

STOCKHOLM — Chinese electric-car maker Xpeng is repositioning itself as a premium brand as it rolls out larger, more expensive models in its initial European markets while dropping some smaller cars. The Tesla rival launched in Norway in 2020 with the G3 compact SUV, which was renamed the G3i after a face-lift. The automaker had

Renault and Nissan will formally unveil the agreement to reshape their alliance on Feb. 6 in London, the companies. The deal will reshape the two-decade-old alliance to put the two carmakers on an equal footing. Renault will reduce its controlling stake in Nissan to 15 percent from 43 percent, while Nissan will take a share

PARIS — Full-electric vehicles accounted for 14 percent of all new cars sold in Europe in 2022, largely driven by big increases in Germany, Europe’s largest auto market, and the UK. Only Italy registered a decline for the year. Full-electric vehicle registrations increased 29 percent to 1.58 million, industry group ACEA said on Wednesday. In absolute

COVENTRY, England — Developing fully autonomous vehicles that can go everywhere has proven harder and more expensive than expected, but investors are continuing to fund startups that target simpler self-driving vehicle solutions far removed from pedestrians and other vehicles operated by unpredictable humans. British AV software company Oxbotica, Sweden’s Einride, America’s Outrider and British supplier

In the auto industry’s rocky transition to electric vehicles, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is celebrating a small but symbolic victory. The cause is a $3 billion deal between ZF Friedrichshafen and U.S. semiconductor maker Wolfspeed to produce chips for EVs in Saarland, a region in the western corner of Germany with an economy deeply tied

Ford is not reducing the prices of its Mustang Mach E electric crossover in Europe to compete with Tesla, which slashed prices for its Model Y and Model 3 cars by up to 20 percent. Ford’s European business is following a different path than in the U.S. where the automaker has cut prices of the

PARIS —   Renault and Nissan are rebalancing their troubled alliance in what could be a major step in reviving their alliance. But for the French automaker the benefits of the revamp are for now unclear and potentially quite limited, three industry sources said. The automakers on Monday announced a deal that will see Renault

China’s BYD, the world’s biggest seller of full-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, expects its 2022 net profit to be more than five times the amount it booked a year earlier, the company said. With sales of 1.86 million cars, it expects a net profit of 16-17 billion yuan ($2.37-$2.52 billion) versus 3 billion yuan in

The world’s No. 1 automaker has a new CEO, and the transition of power could not have come at a more pivotal time. Toyota on Thursday surprised the market when it announced that Lexus President Koji Sato will take over from Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the venerable Japanese automaker’s founder, effective April 1. While

TOKYO — Toyota chief Akio Toyoda is set to remain a dominant force inside the world’s largest automaker for years to come and will continue to influence the agenda after stepping down in April, experts and people familiar with the automaker said. The 66-year-old Toyoda on Thursday announced he would step aside as leader of

PARIS — Renault will increase its budget for salaries to offer workers a rise of 7.5 percent in 2023 to help cope with the rising cost of living, three sources familiar with the company’s proposal said. The budget increase would equate to a net salary increase of 110 euros per month for about two thirds

LONDON — British finance minister Jeremy Hunt said that London had some concerns about the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act, which promises hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies to green industries. The European Union has previously expressed serious concerns about the $369 billion of investment to tackle climate change in the U.S. IRA, which

TOKYO – The man replacing Akio Toyoda as the new CEO of Toyota is a cosmopolitan car-guy engineer with an eye for luxury and a thirst for speed. In fact, in many ways Koji Sato is a mini-me version of his long-time mentor. As the head of the Lexus premium brand and Gazoo Racing motorsports

Autoliv reported fourth-quarter core earnings above analyst forecasts after the supplier restored profitability by passing higher costs on to its customers, sending its shares up almost 8 percent. Rising raw material prices have squeezed car suppliers for some time now. Autoliv CEO Mikael Bratt said the cost inflation seen by Autoliv in 2022 was the

The latest ‘sphere’ concept from Audi may be the most advanced and utilitarian of the bunch. The fourth in the series of battery-electric vehicle concepts — a self-driving sportback crossover — can transform into a small pickup capable of carrying bicycles or other gear. And it features an augmented reality interface. The Audi Activesphere concept

PARIS — Peugeot will launch the next generation 3008 compact SUV as a primarily battery-electric vehicle in the second half. It will be the first model on Stellantis’ STLA Medium platform. The 3008 will be followed by a new version of the 5008 midsize SUV, which Peugeot had not previously announced, although no launch date

Jaguar Land Rover returned to profit after improved availability of semiconductors boosted output of high-end models such as the new Range Rover. The British luxury automaker reported profit before tax of 265 million pounds ($326 million) for the three months ending in December, compared with a 9 million pound shortfall a year earlier, JLR said