Europe

LONDON — Aston Martin have started work on a new Formula One factory and wind tunnel that team owner Lawrence Stroll said underpins his commitment to the sport and aim of fighting for world championships in the next three to five years. The Canadian billionaire told reporters the factory and ‘campus’ at Silverstone, central England,

Qualcomm has made a formal bid to buy automotive technology company Veoneer for more than $4 billion, beating a previous offer from Magna International, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. semiconductor company has formalized its offer of $37 a share, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Qualcomm

Polestar has bolstered its management team by naming new finance and R&D bosses. Johan Malmqvist, 45, started this month as chief financial officer, succeeding Ian Zhang, who will remain on the Volvo Cars subsidiary’s management team with a focus on the Asia Pacific. Malmqvist has more than 20 years’ international experience across multiple sectors. Most

MUNICH — Hyundai is considering whether to expand its full-electric Ioniq sub-brand to smaller cars based on the E-GMP platform, including a successor to the Kona small SUV, the brand’s marketing chief said. “It would make sense to extend all the benefits associated with the E-GMP platform to smaller vehicles,” Thomas Schemera, global head of marketing

MUNICH — Seat will not get a small battery-powered car from Volkswagen Group’s MEB-Small electric platform. Seat’s sister brand Cupra and VW Group’s core VW brand both unveiled concepts for entry-level full-electric cars from the platform at the Munich auto show. The production versions of the Cupra UrbanRebel  and VW ID Life are expected to

Twenty-five young and talented automotive executives have been honored as Rising Stars within the automotive industry by Automotive News Europe. The award ceremony took place on Sept 7. Since the program was started in 2011, Automotive News Europe has awarded more than 200 Rising Stars. The 11th annual Rising Stars awards recognize fast-climbing auto leaders who are

MUNICH – Renault’s Mobilize mobility services unit will roll out production versions of its purpose-built vehicles in 2022, starting with the Limo, a Chinese-built midsize electric sedan for ride-hailing and taxi companies. The Limo had its public debut this week at the Munich motor show, where it was displayed alongside prototype versions of the Hippo,

BEIJING — China’s market regulator has fined three auto chip sales companies for driving up prices, in a move to help auto production in the world’s biggest vehicle market. The State Administration for Market Regulations said on its website that it fined three local companies a total of 2.5 million yuan ($388,300). The companies are

TOKYO — Toyota will slash global production again next month, to the tune of 330,000 units, as the pandemic and global shortage of automotive microchips continue to bite. The total hit represents a 40 percent cutback from Toyota’s original October production plan. In announcing the reversal on Friday, Japan’s biggest automaker said it will also

MILAN — The U.S.-Chinese startup Silk-FAW showed its S9 plug-in hybrid hypercar concept at the 2021 Milan Design Week. The automaker will start production of the vehicle at the beginning of 2023 in a new plant near to the Italian city of Reggio Emilia. Construction work is expected to begin by the end of the

Automotive News Europe honors the winners of the 2021 Rising Stars awards. Through Oct. 11, the 25 winners will be featured. The Rising Star for Autonomous & Automated Driving is Syed Shahrukh Kazmi, who is customer chief engineer at Aptiv. For his full profile click here. The 2021 Rising Stars winners were honored on Sept.

MUNICH — Semiconductor supplier Qualcomm is open to working with foundries in Europe if incentive programs to boost automotive chip production on the continent attract the right partners, CEO Cristiano Amon said. Foundries in Europe are now geared towards mass production of semiconductors, Amon told Reuters at the IAA car show in Munich, but there

Intel will dedicate production at its plant in Ireland for the manufacture of chips for automakers as the company pushes into a growing market currently buffeted by shortages that have crippled vehicle production. The U.S.-based chipmaker has a facility in County Kildare in Ireland that has been used for manufacturing its mainstay computer processors. Intel

MUNICH — Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess is optimistic that there are sufficient funds, internal or external, to pull off its ambitious plan to build six large battery factories across Europe with partners by the end of the decade. “The required capital is available in the market. Northvolt has shown this,” Diess said on the

The executives chosen as 2021 Automotive News Europe Eurostars set themselves apart by exceeding expectations in a very challenging year. Frank Klein, president of Magna Steyr, is this year’s Eurostar winner for Supplier Division Head. For his full profile please click here. Automotive News Europe and Capgemini Invent will honor a new winner each weekday

MUNICH — Mercedes-Benz previewed its upcoming EQS large full-electric SUV with a concept for its ultraluxury Maybach brand. The Concept Mercedes-Maybach EQS was unveiled at the Munich auto show on Monday. It’s a physical concept with a virtual interior designed to recreates the “feel-good atmosphere of an elegant yacht,” Mercedes said in a statement. The

The executives chosen as 2021 Automotive News Europe Eurostars set themselves apart by exceeding expectations in a very challenging year. Jean-Marc Chery, president and CEO of chipmaker STMicroelectronics, is this year’s Eurostar winner for Supplier CEO. For his full profile, please click here. Automotive News Europe and Capgemini Invent will honor a new winner each

MUNICH — Soaring demand for semiconductors means the auto industry could struggle to source enough of them throughout next year and into 2023, though the shortage should be less severe by then, Daimler’s CEO said on Sunday. Automakers, forced by the COVID-19 pandemic to shut down plants last year, face stiff competition from the sprawling

Italy is in talks with the European Union on ways to shield supercar makers, including Ferrari and Lamborghini, from the planned phase-out of combustion engine vehicles by 2035. While the Italian government fully backs Europe’s commitment to cut emissions by phasing out the most-polluting engines, “in the gigantic cars market there is a niche, and

When automotive executives gather in Munich this upcoming week for Europe’s first major car show in two years, they will do more than just lift the veil on shiny sheet metal. These are occasions where big deals tend to get done. Consider one of the last times the auto world descended on a European city

WASHINGTON — U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating a July 26 fatal crash in New York involving a Tesla that may have been using an advanced driver assistance system. In July, several media outlets reported that a 52-year-old man fixing a flat tire on the Long Island Expressway in New York was killed when he

Former Volkswagen and Apple executive Johann Jungwirth is bullish about the future for autonomous vehicles. Jungwirth, who is now a vice president at Intel-owned Mobileye, expects driverless taxis  to be on the road in Germany by next year. Mobileye, which is augmenting its camera-based driver-assist systems with help from lidar maker Luminar, has permits to

HANGZHOU, China — “Do you know how big Volvo is?” asked Don Leclair, finance chief at Ford Motor. It was 2008, and Leclair was responding to an offer from a little-known Chinese businessman to purchase the Swedish carmaker, which Ford owned. The businessman, Li Shufu, had a company with less than half Volvo’s sales and

Nikola Corp. said on Thursday it had signed a deal with Germany’s Bosch Group to build Bosch fuel-cell power modules at the U.S. vehicle maker’s facility in Coolidge, Arizona for two of its trucks powered by hydrogen fuel-cells. Bosch, which has a stake in Nikola, will supply fully assembled fuel-cell power modules and other major

PARIS — New-car registrations in France fell by 15 percent in August compared with the same month last year, as the chip shortage and continuing coronavirus uncertainty hindered the market’s recovery. There were 88,066 sales in August 2021 on 22 selling days, compared with 103,631 sales in August 2020, which had 21 selling days, industry