Europe

FRANKFURT — Volkswagen expects to produce around 43 percent more vehicles at its main plant in Wolfsburg, its works council boss, Daniela Cavallo, told a German newspaper. The increase would be a marked improvement from this year but production would be still impacted by the shortage of semiconductors. This year, VW expects to produce around

LONDON — British car manufacturers had their slowest November in 37 years as the sector struggled to cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on global supply chains, industry data showed. Car production fell by 29 percent compared with November 2021 to 75,756 units, despite a 53 percent increase in electric vehicle output, the

BERLIN — Tesla and relevant authorities have submitted all the documents necessary for the approval process for the automaker’s planned factory near Berlin, the environment ministry of the German state of Brandenburg said. The approval process is still ongoing, the ministry said on Wednesday. Due to environmental objections and red tape, it remained unclear when

BEIJING — Geely Holding and Renault are likely to soon announce a deal to jointly produce the Chinese automaker’s hybrid vehicles in South Korea and look at possibly exporting cars duty-free to the United States, three people familiar with the matter said. The joint venture will allow Renault to shore up its struggling business in

BERLIN — Volkswagen said allegations made against it by Acer were unfounded, after a magazine reported that the Taiwanese computer maker had sued the automaker for infringing on its mobile network patents. German weekly WirtschaftsWoche had reported on Tuesday that Acer had filed a suit in the U.S. state of Virginia, alleging that VW had

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

Ferrari said three top executives will leave the automaker as it implements a new organizational structure. Chief Technology Officer Michael Leiters, Chief Manufacturing Officer Vincenzo Regazzoni and Chief Brand Diversification Officer Nicola Boari “will end their cooperation with Ferrari to pursue new opportunities,” the company said in a statement on Monday. Ferrari said it will

UK-based electric vehicle start-up Arrival has shown off the minivan styling of its planned car aimed at drivers of ride-hailing taxis. The design of the car has been optimized with the help of drivers from Uber to ensure a more comfortable experience for both driver and riders, Arrival said. The resulting prototype model is “affordable,

FRANKFURT — China is pressuring Continental to stop using components made in Lithuania, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, amid a dispute between Beijing and the Baltic state over the status of Taiwan. The Chinese government, which views self-ruled Taiwan as its territory, downgraded diplomatic ties with Lithuania last month after the opening

PARIS — Renault has released prices for the Megane E-Tech Electric, one of the automaker’s most hotly anticipated launches in recent years. The full-electric compact car will start at 35,200 euros ($39,440) in France for the 130 hp version with a 40 kilowatt-hour battery in base trim, a figure that falls to 29,200 euros with

Mercedes-Benz has reached agreement with its European dealers to transition to an agency model, in which customers would buy directly from the automaker rather than the dealer, the brand said Friday. The agreement with the European Association of Mercedes-Benz Dealers, or FEAC, creates a framework to introduce the change, which would affect passenger cars and

Louis Desanges, the president of the 126-year-old Automobile Club de France, found himself in a bit of a bind in 2019. Carlos Ghosn had resigned as CEO of Renault following his arrest in Tokyo, and later that year the car company had named Clotilde Delbos as interim CEO. Desanges’s club has traditionally extended honorary memberships

Harald Kroeger, who has led some of the most technology-intense initiatives at Robert Bosch, will leave the supplier at the end of the year. Kroeger, 54, is responsible for systems integration in the Mobility Solutions business sector, cross domain computing solutions, chassis systems control, automotive electronics, steering and two-wheeler/powersports at the supplier. He is leaving

FRANKFURT — China is pressuring supplier Continental to stop using components made in Lithuania, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, amid a dispute between Beijing and the Baltic state over the status of Taiwan. The Chinese government, which views self-ruled Taiwan as its territory, downgraded diplomatic ties with Lithuania last month after the

PARIS — The lawyer for a taxi driver involved in a fatal accident in Paris at the weekend said the driver’s Tesla Model 3 had accelerated on its own and that its brakes had not worked. Paris taxi company G7 suspended the use of 37 Tesla Model 3 cars in its fleet after the accident

TOKYO — Nissan plans to build new battery recycling factories in Europe and the United States by the end of fiscal 2025, the daily Nikkei reported on Thursday. Nissan hopes that recycling batteries and re-using them in electric vehicles will help lower production costs as the price of rare metals rise, Nikkei said. The factories

The era of hydrogen-powered vans has begun at Stellantis, which is starting limited production of medium commercial vans from Peugeot, Citroen, Opel. Peugeot will deliver its first e-Expert Hydrogen van to Watea, a subsidiary of the Michelin group, the brand said Wednesday. Citroen will provide e-Jumpy Hydrogen vans to energy provider Suez, and Opel’s first

PARIS — Leading Paris taxi company G7 has suspended the use of Tesla Model 3 cars in its fleet after a fatal accident involving one of the vehicles over the weekend. G7 Deputy CEO Yann Ricordel said an off-duty taxi driver was taking his family to a restaurant when the accident happened on Saturday evening.

PARIS — Leading Paris taxi company G7 has suspended its use of all Tesla Model 3 cars in its fleet after a serious accident with one of the cars at the weekend. A company executive said that the 37 Model 3 cars in its fleet will remain suspended until the conclusion of a police investigation

Toyota will expand its European lineup with a small full-electric urban SUV with a highly efficient powertrain, CEO Akio Toyoda said, one of the 30 new EVs the automaker plans to add by 2030. Toyoda did not give a launch date for the new vehicle, but Toyota Europe said the EV rollout would be “rapid.”

BERLIN — BMW will build the X5 midsize SUV — currently produced in the United States — in China. The automaker will be adding localized production of the X5 in China for the Chinese market to satisfy strong worldwide demand for the SUV, BMW said on Monday. The company did not give a start date

BERLIN — Daimler’s Chinese shareholder BAIC Group has agreed not to further increase its stake in the Mercedes-Benz maker beyond the 9.98 percent stake it has held since 2019, the German company said in a statement. Daimler said it holds a 9.55 percent stake in BAIC Motor and a 2.46 percent stake in BAIC BluePark.

TOKYO — Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, the onetime electric vehicle pioneer who dove into the technology with overly optimistic expectations a decade ago, says now is finally the time to go all-in on EVs, as he blasts his former company as vision-less in this new era. Ghosn said newcomers to the industry, including Tesla

FRANKFURT — Volkswagen’s software unit Cariad and Robert Bosch are nearing an agreement to cooperate on automotive software, a German business paper reported. VW plans to invest a triple-digit million euro amount as part of the deal, Handelsblatt reported on Saturday, citing company sources. VW has bundled all its software efforts into Cariad, hoping it

BUDAPEST — Daimler will idle its Mercedes-Benz plant in Hungary for a month starting on Monday, extending a regular end-of-year maintenance period due to a global component shortage. “Adjusting to the continuously changing component supply situation, the Mercedes-Benz plant in Kecskemet will modify its production plans from calendar week 50,” Daimler said on Saturday. The

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is in early talks with the German government about potentially establishing a plant in the country, a senior executive said. Various factors including government subsidies, customer demand and the talent pool will influence TSMC’s final decision, Senior Vice President of Europe and Asia Sales Lora Ho told reporters on the sidelines

MILAN — Lancia will pursue profitability over volume to secure a long-term home in the 14 brand Stellantis stable and try to Mercedes-Benz to do so, its boss Luca Napolitano said. Lancia has in recent years retreated from a past littered with world rally titles and iconic cars such as the Delta to a single

LONDON — The UK and the Netherlands are ramping up efforts to woo Rivian Automotive as the start-up company looks for a location for its first factory outside of the U.S. Rivian said in a stock-market prospectus in October that it intends to begin sales in Europe in the near-term, targeting the pickup, SUV, and

Volkswagen Group said it will reassign responsibility for its China business unit to VW brand chief Ralf Brandstaetter. The company veteran will take over the role on Aug. 1, 2022, VW said in a statement on Thursday. Skoda boss Thomas Schaefer will become VW brand CEO. Schaefer will familiarize himself with the VW brand role

BERLIN — Audi’s sales and marketing boss, Hildegard Wortmann, is being promoted to head sales at parent Volkswagen Group, a German press report said. Wortmann, 55, will also be responsible for mobility services for the group, Spiegel magazine reported. Wortmann moved from BMW to Audi in July 2019. She previously worked at Unilever and Calvin