Europe

BERLIN — Porsche will pay compensation to Volkswagen Group’s light commercial vans business after the sports-car brand backed out of a production agreement. VW’s van division was scheduled to build Porsche’s new battery-powered flagship at its factory in Hanover, Germany, alongside sister models for Audi and Bentley. The three luxury electric cars are part of

Mercedes-Benz plans to build the complete powertrain for its new MMA and MB.EA electric architectures entirely in-house starting in 2024, a top executive said. “To do this, we are significantly increasing the depth of added value and are also switching from third-party sourcing to in-house production, Markus Schaefer, head of development at Mercedes parent Daimler,

Aston Martin said sales to dealers in 2021 surged 82 percent, even as the British automaker forecast lower-than-expected annual adjusted core earnings due to delays in shipments of its limited-edition 2.4 million-pound ($3.3 million) Valkyrie sports car. Aston Martin said 10 Valkyries were shipped in the fourth quarter, fewer than previously planned. The delays have

Aston Martin is seeking a replacement for CEO Tobias Moers because of the automaker’s continuing financial woes, a report said. Moers, a former head of Mercedes-AMG performance division, has held the role for less than two years. A potential candidate for the CEO job has been approached, according to Autocar motoring magazine, which cited unnamed

PARIS — Franco-Italian chipmaker STMicroelectronics said its preliminary fourth-quarter revenues were slightly above the guidance given at the end of October, in the context of a global microchip supply crunch, which gave a lift to its shares. Sales for the last three months of 2021 increased by 11 percent sequentially, coming in at $3.56 billion

PARIS — Stellantis and Renault Group will focus on launching compact and midsize vehicles in 2022, with key models that include the Renault Megane E-Tech Electric, the Alfa Romeo Tonale and the Dacia Jogger. Others include the Chinese-built Citroen C5X, the Maserati Grecale, the Renault Austral (replacing the slow-selling Kadjar) and a widely rumored coupe/crossover based

Aston Martin Chairman Lawrence Stroll has approached Steven Armstrong, a senior Ford Motor executive, to gauge his interest in becoming CEO of the British automaker, according to people familiar with the matter Stroll reached out to Armstrong, a former chairman of Ford Europe, twice last month, according to one of the people, who asked not

Mercedes-Benz sold 2.05 million passenger vehicles globally in 2021, losing its crown as the world’s top-selling luxury brand to BMW. It’s the first time in five years that the BMW brand has outsold Mercedes. Sales of Mercedes brand passenger cars fell 5 percent to 2.05 units last year, parent Daimler said Friday. Volume slumped by

Volkswagen Group plans to unveil the ID Buzz, an electric iteration of its iconic hippie-era microbus, on March 9. CEO Herbert Diess announced the date Thursday in a Twitter post that sketched out the contours of the new design, which draws on the lines of the original model. VW’s original microbus — the colorful, bread

PARIS — BMW has signed a deal with Faurecia to use the supplier’s Aptoide Automotive App Store in future vehicles, both cars and motorcycles.  Aptoide is a scalable platform that allows over-the-air updates and new apps to be added. Faurecia and Aptoide, an independent Android app store platform, created a joint venture in 2019 to

Volvo Cars will make what it calls “unsupervised autonomous driving” available first to customers in the U.S. state of California before rolling it out in other markets. The official launch of the automaker’s so-called Ride Pilot is pending Volvo’s internal verification that it is safe as well as approvals for use from local authorities in

Stellantis said it is linking with Amazon to help spearhead its vehicle software push and get the electric Ram ProMaster van on the road next year to make deliveries in a series multi-year agreements. Amazon will be the first commercial customer for the battery electric ProMaster, which will expand the company’s sustainable delivery network that

MILAN — New-car sales in Italy fell 28 percent in December, according to data from the country’s ministry of infrastructure and transport. There were 86,679 registrations last month, according to the ministry, down from 119,620 in December 2020 which had one less selling day. The result marked the sixth consecutive monthly decline. Industry association UNRAE

STOCKHOLM — Volvo Car Group said it has appointed Jim Rowan as new CEO to succeed Hakan Samuelsson in March. Rowan, currently CEO at U.S-based Ember Technologies, is taking over just months after Volvo wrapped up its IPO, the biggest in Europe last year. Volvo, in a statement Tuesday, said Samuelsson will stay in his

Mercedes-Benz said its battery-powered Vision EQXX prototype, which it says is capable of being driven more than 1,000 km (621 miles) on a single charge, is the “most efficient and aerodynamic vehicle” it has built to date. The Vision EQXX’s battery and weight-saving technologies are designed to combat the challenge from Tesla. “This isn’t a

PARIS — Valeo will focus on driver assistance and self-driving technology at CES 2022, including two new lidar systems. The annual consumer-electronics showcase in Las Vegas has been scaled back this year because of a new COVID-19 surge, but it has become the main venue for new automotive-technology debuts. Paris-based Valeo is one of the

BERLIN — BMW plans to create up to 6,000 new jobs in 2022 to prepare for growing demand for its electric vehicles, the carmaker’s CEO told German daily Muenchner Merkur. BMW is on a very good path through the transformation and has its plants prepared for e-mobility, Oliver Zipse was quoted as saying in an

PARIS — New-car registrations in France fell 15 percent in December, partly due to a global semiconductor shortage and as a new wave of coronavirus infections creates uncertainty. In total, 158,121 passenger vehicles were registered last month, France’s CCFA association of carmakers said on Saturday. For all of 2021, registrations were up just 0.5 percent

Mercedes-Benz removed a video advertisement from a Chinese social media website, state media said, after the clip got swept up in a charged national debate over depictions of Asian-looking features by foreign companies. The video was posted on Mercedes-Benz’s official Weibo account on Saturday and later removed due to public backlash, the Communist Party’s Global

MADRID — Spanish authorities have selected local automotive group QEV Technologies as lead candidate to take over Nissan’s main plant in Barcelona after Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motor withdrew its interest, Nissan said. Catalonia-based engineering group QEV plans to turn the facility into a hub for electric vehicles, including participation from Swedish producers Inzile and

Tesla is recalling more than 475,000 of its Model 3 and Model S EVs to address rearview camera and trunk issues that increase the risk of crashing, the U.S. road safety regulator said. The EV maker is recalling 356,309 2017-2020 Model 3 vehicles to address rearview camera issues and 119,009 Model S vehicles due to

The Tesla Model 3 is on course to be Europe’s best-selling full-electric vehicle in 2021 amid strong gains in overall sales of battery-electric vehicles. Sales of the Model 3 jumped 84 percent to 113,397 through November, according to data from JATO Dynamics market researcher. Volkswagen’s ID3 compact hatchback is likely to be at No. 2.

BERLIN — BMW plans to create up to 6,000 new jobs next year to prepare for growing demand for its electric vehicles, the carmaker’s CEO told German daily Muenchner Merkur. BMW is on a very good path through the transformation and has its plants prepared for e-mobility, Oliver Zipse was quoted as saying in an

STOCKHOLM — Northvolt said its new gigafactory in northern Sweden has produced its first battery cell, making it the first European company to design and manufacture a battery on the continent. The cell is of a prismatic cell format — a variety of thinner and lighter battery — and came off the assembly line on

German executive Michael Lohscheller is stepping down as CEO of VinFast Global, the automotive arm of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup. Lohscheller will leave the position and return to Europe due to personal reasons, Vingroup said in a statement on Monday. Lohscheller quit his job as CEO of the Stellantis brand Opel in July to lead VinFast’s

German executive Michael Lohscheller is stepping down as CEO of VinFast Global, the automotive arm of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup. Lohscheller will leave the position and return to Europe due to personal reasons, Vingroup said in a statement on Monday. Lohscheller quit his job as CEO of the Stellantis brand Opel in July to lead VinFast’s

TOKYO — Toyota said it will launch a service next year offering customization and updates for cars as customers increasingly hold on to their vehicles for longer. The service, known as Kinto Factory, will start in late January and offer new safety features, refreshed interiors, and software upgrades to car computer systems. Toyota is trying

WASHINGTON — U.S auto safety regulators said they have opened a formal safety investigation into 580,000 Tesla vehicles sold since 2017 over the automaker’s decision to allow games to be played on the front center touchscreen. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said its preliminary evaluation covers various 2017-2022 model year Tesla Model 3, S,

BEIJING — Daimler and its Chinese partner BYD have signed an equity transfer agreement to restructure their China EV venture Denza. Daimler said its holdings in Denza will be reduced to 10 percent, and BYD will hold the remaining 90 percent equity interest after the transfer. In 2022, Denza will introduce new models to the

Renault’s venture with Brilliance Auto Group Holdings in China is unable to make payments and heading for restructuring, a further blow to the French automaker’s limited presence in the world’s biggest car market. In light of the partnership’s “inability to meet its current financial obligations, the company’s board of directors has resolved to initiate a