Europe

Israel’s Innoviz Technologies said it will supply hardware and software to Volkswagen Group‘s Cariad unit in a deal valued at $4 billion. The components, including laser-based lidar sensors, will be used in advanced driver assistance systems and automated vehicles from multiple brands in the Volkswagen Group, starting mid-decade, Innoviz said in a statement on Tuesday.

MILAN — Ferrari raised its forecasts for full-year revenue and profit after its order book hit new highs, as Portofino M and F8 models drove sales. “The quality of the first six months and the robustness of our business allows us to revise upward the 2022 guidance on all metrics,” Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna said

PARIS — Plastic Omnium will buy Hella’s 33 percent stake in the HBPO joint venture, which makes front-end modules, for 290 million euros ($295 million), the two companies have said. The move will give Plastic Omnium full ownership of the joint venture, which was established in 2004 with a third partner, Behr (later a part

Opel/Vauxhall has named Christophe Mandon as head of sales, succeeding Florian Huettl, who was promoted CEO of the Stellantis unit in May.  Mandon is currently responsible for commercial management of all Stellantis brands in the Africa/Middle East region. He will report to Huettl, who had been in the CEO role since January, Opel said in a news release.

Volkswagen Group is bracing to pay higher prices for commodities as improving supply of semiconductors allows the automakers to increase production and start delivering cars to waiting customers. Sales have already ticked up “noticeably” in recent weeks as more chips have become available, VW said Thursday. With stockpiles of more cheaply sourced materials dwindling, restocking

Next.e.GO Mobile, a German maker of compact electric vehicles, is going public through a merger with a blank-check firm to create a company valued at $913 million, including debt. The deal will provide e.GO with about $285 million of proceeds, assuming investors do not redeem their shares, according to a statement Thursday, confirming a Bloomberg

MILAN — Italy’s Alfa Romeo will work on a new large-size car in the United States to be launched in 2027, the brand’s head Jean-Philippe Imparato said on Friday, adding however the group had not yet decided where to manufacture it. Imparato said the step was key to tailoring the design for overseas markets, helping

Aston Martin expects its finances to improve in the second half of 2022 after burning through tens of millions of pounds in cash earlier this year, it said, as easing supply chain snarls help boost deliveries of higher margin cars. Its positive free cash flow forecast comes as the automaker posted a bigger loss for

Stellantis’ state-owned Chinese partner accused the European company of disrespecting customers in the world’s biggest auto market in an escalation of a dispute over their failed Jeep venture. Guangzhou Automobile Group on Friday said comments Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares made the previous day on how trust had broken down between the two companies over their

As Porsche finalizes its plan to enter Formula One racing, leaked documents detail the sports-car maker’s plan to buy half of Red Bull Technology. The filing shows that Porsche petitioned Moroccan race authorities on July 8 regarding an impending 10-year deal with the F1 team. The notification outlined a 50 percent purchase of Red Bull

Sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles are faltering in Europe, which has been their most important market to date, while demand is rising for for full-electric vehicles. As consumers turned away from diesel cars after Volkswagen’s diesel scandal and Europe’s lawmakers toughened emissions regulations, some automakers bet heavily on plug-in vehicles, which are powered by an

TOKYO – Toyota is increasing overseas production to offset lower output at home in Japan. From January to June, the automaker built more cars overseas than it ever has during that period. And it capped the run by notching record overseas sales and production results for the month of June, as the automaker gradually recovers

Jaguar Land Rover reported a quarterly loss before tax of 524 million pounds ($632 million), compared with a loss of 110 million pounds a year earlier. Quarterly revenue fell 11 percent from a year earlier, mainly due to a weaker model mix, inflation and adverse currency movements. The prolonged semiconductor shortage, surging commodity prices and

BERLIN — Mercedes-Benz expects a significant rise in revenues and slightly higher earnings in 2022 on the back of strong vehicle prices and model mix even as the company warned of economic turbulence due to Europe’s worsening energy crisis, high inflation and protracted supply-chain problems. The company on Wednesday raised its outlook after an 8

BMW Group has promoted the former head of Mini Germany, Ulrike von Mirbach, to help lead the brand toward electrification as head of its Europe region. BMW has said that Mini will become an all-electric brand from the beginning of the 2030s. “I am convinced that Ulrike von Mirbach will successfully lead the Mini brand

MILAN — Silk-FAW, a start-up of U.S. automotive engineering and design firm Silk EV and Chinese automaker FAW, said it would press ahead with a plan, worth over one billion euros ($1.02 billion), to build electrified cars in Italy. Silk-FAW will finalize the purchase of the land in the city of Reggio Emilia where the

It says a lot about the state of the auto industry and where it’s going that software problems have cost the CEO of an automaker his job. Volkswagen Group ousted Herbert Diess as CEO on Friday after severe software development delays set back the scheduled launch of key new Porsche, Audi and Bentley electric cars.

Used cars, which pushed up UK inflation during the pandemic, are now getting cheaper as Britons sell their vehicles in response to soaring fuel costs and a broader squeeze on household budgets. Inflation hit a 40-year high in June, driven by products ranging from motor fuel to eggs, but prices for second-hand cars fell 2.5

Volkswagen Group’s dramatic move to oust its combative CEO, Herbert Diess, was set in motion a week ago, when his backing from the billionaire Porsche and Piech family began to crumble. Unwavering support from the reclusive clan that majority-owns VW had helped Diess survive frequent clashes with powerful worker representatives. But as key project failures

BERLIN — Urban traffic congestion eased in the weeks after Germany made public transport almost free, data shows, suggesting an experiment by Europe’s largest economy to combat its dependence on cars may be having some success. Since the beginning of June, Germany has sold a monthly ticket for nine euros ($9.21) that is valid for

Volkswagen veteran Oliver Blume, who will succeed Herbert Diess as VW Group on Sept. 1, has worked at the multibrand automaker for his whole career. Born in Braunschweig, Germany, near VW’s Wolfsburg headquarters, Blume, 54, joined Audi’s international trainee program in 1994 after studying mechanical engineering at university. He specialized in production planning and earned

STOCKHOLM — Autoliv’s second-quarter adjusted operating profit fell 25 percent to $124 million. Earnings were hit by lockdowns in China, raw material cost increases, currency movements and volatile car production, the Swedish supplier of airbags and seat belts said in a statement on Friday. Quarterly revenue rose 2.9 percent to $2.08 billion, helped by a

FRANKFURT — Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess is stepping down and will be succeeded by Porsche boss Oliver Blume. Diess is resigning “by mutual agreement,” VW said on Friday. Blume will continue his role as the head of the Porsche brand, flanked by VW’s current Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz, who will assume the position

Baidu unveiled a new version of its self-driving robotaxi that it says costs nearly half as much to make as the previous model, opening the opportunity for cheaper travel. Apollo RT6 robotaxis are set to be mass-produced at a cost of 250,000 yuan ($37,000) per unit, the Chinese search-engine giant said on Thursday. Baidu aims

Ford Motor plans to add a new battery cell chemistry to its electric vehicle portfolio to increase capacity and make them cheaper to build. The automaker plans to add lithium iron phosphate cells to the Mustang Mach-E next year and to the F-150 Lightning in early 2024, a move it said will reduce material costs

PARIS — Volkswagen Group and chipmaker STMicroelectronics will develop a new semiconductor amid a global chip crunch that has put strains on the car industry’s supply chain. VW’s software unit, Cariad, and STMicro are set to co-design the new chip, which will be part of the Stellar microcontroller family of semiconductors, the companies said in

MADRID — Spain has signed a partnership agreement with Chinese green energy company Envision Group to embark on four projects, including an EV battery plant, with 3.8 billion euros ($3.9 billion) in total investment, partly funded by European Union aid. Jose Dominguez, head of Envision Spain, was quoted in a statement from the Spanish government

Volkswagen Group of America CEO Scott Keogh will leave the brand and take over as the first CEO of the German automaker’s new Scout electric vehicle brand. Pablo Di Si, who has headed VW’s South American region, becomes CEO of Volkswagen Group of America and CEO of Volkswagen North American Region. Keogh, 53, has been

MADRID — Mercedes-Benz plans to invest 1.2 billion euros ($1.23 billion) in its Vitoria plant in northern Spain after workers backed a new labor agreement, unions UGT and CCOO said. About 57 percent of the plant’s nearly 5,000 workers voted in favor of a deal that defines working conditions and pay raises until 2026, allowing

PRAGUE — Automakers will need to adjust their manufacturing strategies to account for a constant stream of disruptions affecting everything from supply chains to product distribution, Toyota Europe’s executive vice president for manufacturing, Marvin Cooke, said. “We have been through an unprecedented period of challenges, and the previous normality is gone,” Cooke said as the