Europe

BERLIN — Volkswagen Group will recall more than 100,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles globally due to the risk of fire, a spokesperson for the automaker said. VW brand will recall 42,300 Passat, Golf, and Tiguan and Arteon models, while Audi will call back 24,400 vehicles. The Seat and Skoda units are also affected. There is a

SHANGHAI — Volkswagen asked staff at its Shanghai plant to prepare sleeping bags and yoga mats so they can deploy a system that allows the automaker to continue to operate despite parts of the Chinese city being under a strict COVID-19 lockdown. The arrangement will enable the plant, which VW runs with local partner SAIC

TOKYO — Parts supply disruptions continued to affect Japanese automakers’ global production for February, but the results released on Wednesday showed a clear contrast among them, with Toyota and Honda out in front. Toyota said its group, including Daihatsu and Hino Motors, produced 884,528 vehicles globally for the month, an increase of almost 11 percent

LONDON — Lotus applied its sports-car design and performance ethos to develop the Eletre full-electric SUV. The Eletre, which was revealed in London on Tuesday, will become the flagship model for the automaker’s new range of ‘lifestyle’ electric vehicles that will be built in Wuhan, China, for global markets. The high-performance SUV is the automaker’s

PARIS — Vincent Piquet has been promoted to CFO of the Renault brand from CFO global sales and marketing, Renault Group said. Piquet, 47, will become a member of Renault’s management board and report to CEO Luca de Meo as well as group CFO Thierry Pieton. He starts in his new position on April 1.

SHANGHAI — Volkswagen Group said its Shanghai operations were not currently affected by the city’s lockdown and that production was still ongoing, after authorities imposed drastic curbs to try and stem the spread of COVID-19. “Our Anting operations are currently not affected by the Shanghai city lockdown. In the current situation we still need to

Italian car designer Pininfarina is looking at acquisitions after returning to profit for the first time in three years, CEO Silvio Angori said. “We can move on after the restructuring and look actively to opportunities in the market for inorganic growth, in addition to our organic growth plans,” Angori said in a phone interview. The

During inaugural ceremonies at Tesla’s new Berlin factory earlier this week, CEO Elon Musk delivered the first German-made Model Y crossovers to eager customers, did a little dance near the assembly line for cheering fans and casually predicted that Tesla will reach annual production of up to 20 million vehicles by the early 2030s. “I

Honda will complete the electrification of its range in Europe with the launch of the new Civic Hybrid in the autumn, followed in 2023 by a small full-electric SUV, a hybrid compact SUV and a new CR-V SUV with a plug-in hybrid option. The new Civic compact hatchback, called the Civic e:HEV, will be sold

MILAN — Stellantis will build new full-electric flagship models for the DS and Opel/Vauxhall brands starting in 2024, according to documents seen by Automotive News Europe, as the group reshuffles model allocations for its European factories. The models will be built in Melfi, southern Italy. Production is set to start by late 2024 for the

Plastic Omnium reached a deal to buy AMS-Osram’s automotive-lighting business for 65 million euros ($72 million), a move aimed at supporting the French firm’s push into new market segments. The companies said the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022 and didn’t comment further on integration plans, according to a statement

The biennual Beijing auto show, which is scheduled to begin on April 21 in the Chinese capital, is expected to be postponed due to surging coronavirus infections in multiple cities across China. Internal discussions are ongoing to reschedule the show, with no official information ready for public disclosure, a source with one of the event’s

Stellantis is continuing to build vans at its factory near Moscow, even as rival Renault has bowed to pressure to exit its sizable operations in Russia. Stellantis’s Kaluga factory is operating at a low level, a spokeswoman said Thursday, though the plant may have to shut down because of logistical and supply problems.  After weeks

PARIS — Renault said it would suspend operations at its plant in Moscow while it assesses options on its majority stake in AvtoVAZ, the country’s No. 1 automaker. In response to the pullback from its second-biggest market, Renault revised downward its financial outlook for this year both for profit margin and free-cash flow.  The company

The automotive industry is certainly no stranger to navigating supply-chain risk and unforeseen disruption. Years of trusted partnerships and collaboration along the entire supply chain have led to principles such as just-in-time manufacturing, designed to reduce supply chain cost and improve productivity and response time. Another joint initiative came in the wake of the COVID-19

MILAN — Maserati unveiled the Grecale midsize SUV, the Stellantis brand’s rival to the Porsche Macan and BMW X3. The Grecale, Maserati’s second SUV after the larger Levante, will arrive in European dealerships in the third quarter and in the U.S. by the end of the year. It will be available with a regular gasoline

BERLIN —Tesla is handing over to customers the first Model Y models built at its new 5 billion euro ($5.5 billion) factory, launching its first European production hub with the biggest investment in a German car factory in recent history. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will attend the opening ceremony on Tuesday afternoon local time alongside

Volkswagen Group of America plans to spend at least $7.1 billion in North America through 2027 to build up its local EV production capacity — including construction of a battery plant as well as overhauls of its assembly plants in Puebla and Silao, Mexico — and bolster interim ICE-powered production as part of a push

FRANKFURT — Managers at Porsche travelled to the United States late last year to discuss possible joint projects with iPhone maker Apple as well as with some other tech companies, the sports-car maker’s CEO said. “We already have Apple CarPlay, we will expand on that,” Oliver Blume said during a video conference on the automaker’s

BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is scheduled to attend the opening of Tesla’s gigafactory near Berlin on Tuesday, along with the automaker’s CEO, Elon Musk. Scholz will give a welcoming speech at the opening ceremony for the factory, a government spokeswoman said, but in view of the war in Ukraine, there may be changes

BMW was 10 grams per km under its European Union CO2 emissions target in 2021, helped by strong sales of electrified models including Mini vehicles and advances in combustion-engine technology. Group emissions were 115.9 g/km, BMW said, compared with a regulatory target of 126 g/km in the 27 EU countries plus Norway and Iceland. The

BERLIN — Volkswagen has a high sales goal for its retro-styled ID Buzz battery-electric van. “We want to sell around 120,000 units a year,” Volkswagen Passenger Cars CEO Ralf Brandstaetter said during a livestream of the company’s fiscal and product outlook for 2022 and beyond. The ID Buzz is the “most emotional ” member of

Robert Bosch is curtailing its operations in Russia amid signs that its parts may have been used for “non-civilian” purposes in violation of its policies, the company said. Bosch has halted deliveries of truck components to Russian customers pending an investigation into how the parts are being deployed, the Stuttgart-based supplier said in a statement

FRANKFURT — Porsche, which parent Volkswagen Group could float in a partial stock market listing later this year, set out a more ambitious sales target for electric vehicles. More than 80 percent of newly sold Porsche vehicles will be fully electric in 2030, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume said at the group’s annual press conference on

TURIN – Maserati will sell only full-electric cars from 2030 and will launch its last two new models with internal combustion engine variants in 2023. CEO Davide Grasso said the Stellantis luxury brand will electrify faster than it had originally planned because of changing consumer tastes. “We are seeing a strong acceleration in demand coming

BERLIN — Audi will expand its EV lineup with a spacious battery-electric station wagon based on the PPE platform it is developing with Porsche. Audi previewed the wagon by unveiling the near-production A6 Avant e-tron concept at its annual media conference on Thursday. The production version of the 5000-mm long (197 inches) concept will offer

BERLIN — BMW Group said it would resume full production next week at factories that were halted or slowed by supply bottlenecks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this month, output was paused at factories in Munich and Dingolfing, Germany, and Oxford, England. BMW said last week that it would begin to restart the factories, and

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Mercedes-Benz won’t cut spending on future electric vehicles even as it copes with supply-chain cost pressures exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the German automaker’s CEO said Tuesday. Ola Källenius, speaking during the company’s opening of its first U.S. EV battery factory, also affirmed the company’s 2022 financial outlook remained in place despite

British car distributor Inchcape said it had started transitioning its Russian business after noting ownership interests in the country were “no longer tenable” amid Western sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine. Inchcape’s retail-only business in Russia accounted for about 10 percent of the group’s revenue in 2021 after it sold operations in St.

PARIS — Renault Group has named Duncan Minto, a 25-year veteran of the automaker, as CFO of the Dacia-Lada business unit. Minto, 46, will report to Renault CFO Thierry Pieton and Denis Le Vot, the general manager of the Dacia and Lada brands, and serve on the business unit’s management board.  Renault CEO Luca de