Europe

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine presents a “substantial risk” to the recovery of global light-vehicle sales this year, auto industry consultants J.D. Power and LMC Automotive said in a joint forecast on Friday. The consultants cut their sale forecast by 400,000 to 85.8 million units, also due to rising oil and aluminum prices that could discourage

FRANKFURT/BERLIN — Volkswagen Group and its top shareholder Porsche Automobil Holding SE have entered a framework agreement for a possible stock market listing of iconic sports car brand Porsche, edging closer to what could become one of the world’s largest stock market debuts. “The automotive industry is changing fundamentally. Volkswagen is determined to play a

Mercedes-Benz hopes to introduce Level 3 autonomous driving in the U.S. this year, CEO Ola Kallenius said, after winning certification in Germany for the technology last year. “It’s our objective to roll out this technology this year,” Kallenius told reporters on Thursday during Mercedes’ 2021 results call. Mercedes has been conducting tests in the U.S.

BERLIN — Audi is recalling 100,000 cars due to a problem that may not have been properly repaired in an initial call back and could now potentially lead to alterations in the wheel alignment of the rear axle. Audi recalled some A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, Q5, Q7, Q8 and e-tron models built between 2019

TURIN — Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said the automaker was able to reduce its break-even point to less than 50 percent of its installed production capacity in the final months of last year. It did so to protect Stellantis from “chaos” created by the combination of the chip shortage, rising raw materials prices and geopolitical

Former Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller has been hired by Nikola as president and tasked with helping the U.S. electric truck maker ramp up production. Lohscheller joins Nikola after a short stint as CEO of VinFast Global, the automotive arm of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup. Lohscheller arrived at VinFast in July 2021 but stepped down five months

PARIS — Any sanctions imposed on Russia for its actions in Ukraine by the U.S. and allies could affect Europe’s biggest automakers, including Renault Group, Volkswagen Group and Stellantis. All three have significant operations in Russia. Renault Group has the most exposure with its controlling stake in AvtoVAZ, maker of Lada, long the market leader

The cargo ship that caught fire last week carrying about 4,000 Volkswagen Group vehicles could cost the automaker at least $155 million, according to one consultant’s estimate. Of the roughly $438 million total value of goods aboard the Felicity Ace, which went up in flames off the coast of Portugal’s Azores Islands, Russell Group said

ZF Friedrichshafen is poised to overtake Continental as the supplier rivals navigate fierce headwinds to tackle the disruptive shift to electric and self-driving vehicles. ZF, which has customers including BMW and Porsche, met its profit-margin target last year amid a double-digit jump in revenue, even as the further fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and major

Ford Motor is looking at ways to separate its electric-vehicle operation from its century-old legacy business, hoping to earn the sort of investor respect enjoyed by Tesla and other electric-only brands. CEO Jim Farley wants to wall off Ford’s electric operations from its internal combustion engine business and has even considered spinning off one or

Tesla faces a review in Germany over an Autopilot feature, as regulatory scrutiny intensifies into the automaker’s driver-assistance technology.   The KBA, Germany’s federal motor vehicle office, is investigating Tesla’s automated lane-change function and whether it’s approved for use in Europe, Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday, citing a spokesman for the agency. The

PARIS — Renault Group could split off its electric and internal combustion drivetrain activities into two “dedicated entities,” CEO Luca de Meo said, as the automaker targets a 100 percent full-electric lineup in Europe by 2030.  Full-electric activities and technologies would be concentrated within France, while combustion engines, hybrids and transmissions would be built outside

The Italian government approved almost 8 billion euros ($9 billion) in aid to shield consumers and companies from soaring energy prices that are weighing on the economic outlook, including 1 billion euros for the automotive industry. Some 6 billion euros were allocated for energy aid, Prime Minister Mario Draghi told reporters on Friday. Draghi’s administration

TURIN — Stellantis will sell its 20,000-square-meter office space in the historical Lingotto complex in Turin to a software company to further reduce the automaker’s real estate costs. The building, which has a test track on its roof, was designed by renown French-born Italian architect Giacomo Mattè-Trucco. It served as a factory and headquarters to

With its connectivity, advanced driver safety systems and consumer-centric ethos, the software-defined car is poised to bring about dramatic change within the automotive industry.  Automakers, traditionally at the core of automotive technology, must now be prepared to integrate into a bigger ecosystem, with technology giants synonymous with computer manufacturing, internet search engines, and mobility as

TOKYO — When New York investment firm KKR & Co. waded into the auto sector and engineered the creation of megasupplier Marelli Corp., it seemed to lift a burden off two troubled automakers. First, KKR bought Japan’s Calsonic Kansei from Nissan Motor Corp., injecting Nissan with cash and completing Nissan’s divestiture of its tangled keiretsu

MILAN — Maserati will add a full-electric version of the coming Grecale midsize SUV built on a revised version of the Giorgio platform developed by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, rather than a new Stellantis dedicated EV platform. The Grecale is due to be launched this summer with internal-combustion versions on the Giorgio platform, which was first

Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess, answering questions from the general public in an online Reddit forum, revealed that the ID4 compact electric crossover will get added capabilities in a planned over-the-air update this summer. He also called a long-desired electric pickup for the brand in the U.S. a “good idea.” The Ask Me Anything forum

BERLIN — Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess warned of more output cuts because of the chip crisis at its main factory in Wolfsburg amid rising tensions over how to make the plant fit for the electric age. While VW has made progress managing the global components bottleneck, the situation at its German headquarters in Wolfsburg

PARIS — A shifting timetable for the final proposal of the upcoming Euro 7 pollution regulations, now set for July, has raised concerns among European advocacy and industry obbying groups who say they and their members need guidance to plan for the change. The EU standards limit tailpipe emissions of pollutants such as fine particulates,

Volocopter plans to start flying electric air taxis in Singapore within two years and is in talks to offer flights to nearby destinations in Indonesia and Malaysia. The German company plans to operate a fleet of 10 to 20 air taxis around the popular tourist destinations of Marina Bay and Sentosa, Chief Commercial Officer Christian

SAN FRANCISCO — Intel Corp.’s Mobileye unit plans to build and deploy self-driving electric shuttles with its U.S. partners in 2024, in a bid to scale up its automated driving system beyond taxis and delivery vehicles, executives told Reuters. Mobileye, Benteler EV Systems and Beep will launch the on-demand driverless shuttles, which will feature 12

TOKYO — Racing to catch up on lost production, Toyota will again reduce output in March even as it plans to build a record number of vehicles globally. Toyota, which has repeatedly chopped its fiscal-year production plan, wanted to stretch factory output to the max in March to recover ground lost during the semiconductor shortage.

WINDSOR, Ontario – North America’s busiest trade link will reopen for traffic on Sunday, ending a six-day blockade, a top U.S. official said, after Canadian police cleared the protesters fighting to end COVID-19 restrictions. Canadian police made several arrests on Sunday and cleared protesters and vehicles that occupied the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario, following a

MILAN — An agreement between the Italian government and Stellantis for the automaker’s planned battery plant in Termoli, southern Italy, will be signed shortly, Industry Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti was quoted as saying. “We are very close to signing the agreement for the gigafactory in Termoli where Stellantis will make batteries. It’s a matter of a

Canadian supplier Magna International said Friday that fourth-quarter net income and revenue fell as lower vehicle production caused by the microchip shortage hampered results. Still, the company raised its quarterly cash dividend by 5 percent to 45 cents a share as it generated solid free cash flow for 2021. North America’s largest auto supplier also

Ferrari, one of the few automakers to avoid global supply chain disruptions, is coming off a record sales year and has confirmed plans to build the Purosangue, its first utility vehicle, this year. Deliveries will begin in 2023. The plug-in hybrid is expected to feature a front midengine architecture. Images of the Purosangue — Italian

Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson says the automaker had a record market share in 2021, signaling that it is “not a wannabe” in the premium sector. “We now have an overall global market share of a bit more than 1 percent,” Samuelsson told Automotive News Europe during a conversation Friday on the automaker’s 2021 financial results.

BMW said buying a controlling stake in its Chinese car-making joint venture with Brilliance will bolster the German company’s earnings by as much as 8 billion euros ($9.1 billion). Chinese authorities gave BMW permission to raise its stake in the business with Brilliance China Automotive Holdings to 75 percent from 50 percent, the automaker said in

Mercedes-Benz introduced the A-Class sedan in the U.S. in 2019, hoping to lure millennial buyers to the more than century-old brand with a $30,000 entry-level model. It was supposed to be a key gateway to the brand for younger buyers. The A-Class “will do really, really well … for us,” then Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Dietmar