Europe

Volvo Cars has begun the search for a new head of purchasing to replace Martina Buchhauser, who led the automaker’s push to more ethically and sustainably source materials since arriving from BMW in 2017. Buchhauser will return to Germany at the end of this month to “take on new opportunities,” a spokeswoman told Automotive News

PARIS — A mix of executives from Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group have been named to lead Stellantis, the new automotive giant created from the merger of the two automakers, in four major organizational levels, with PSA veterans having the numerical edge. Under CEO Carlos Tavares, top cross-company positions announced Tuesday include Richard Palmer as

Renault plans to strengthen its collaboration with alliance partners Nissan and Mitsubishi even as it undertakes a major overhaul itself, Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard said in interviews with Japanese media.  Among the areas where the three automakers will seek more commonalities to increase profits include platform sharing, electric vehicles and the Chinese market.  “In a very

The just-finalized merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group to create Stellantis will raise the global profile of an under-the-radar chief executive who will lead a vast and massively complex carmaker with quiet intensity. The market debut this week of Stellantis will function as coming-out party for CEO Carlos Tavares, who held the same

PARIS — Under Renault Group ownership since 1999, the Dacia budget brand has generated double-digit profit margins through a frugal “design to cost” strategy. Lada, a once-struggling Russian brand now also under Renault’s control, has also become a profitable division of the French automaker. But Renault thinks Dacia and Lada can be even stronger together,

New-car sales in Russia fell by 2.1 percent in December to 166,666 vehicles, according to data from the Association of European Businesses. Despite the drop, Russia performed better than many other markets hit by government lockdowns to suppress the spread of COVID-19. Despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic, Russia was “one of the best

TOKYO — Carlos Ghosn hid part of his compensation at Nissan because he feared the French government would force him out of Renault if it discovered how much he earned, a Nissan executive told a Tokyo court on Thursday. Hari Nada, a former Nissan vice president in charge of legal affairs, is a key whistleblower

HAMBURG — Volkswagen said it would further cut car production at its Wolfsburg plant in northern Germany due to a shortage of semiconductors that has hit the industry worldwide. Staff producing the Tiguan, Touran, and Seat Tarraco models at Wolfsburg will work reduced hours, VW said in a statement on Wednesday. Production of the Golf

Former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, on trial over charges related to Volkswagen Group’s diesel scandal, blamed engineers for his failure to uncover widespread cheating on emissions tests. Stadler, testifying for the first time, told a Munich court on Tuesday that engineers gave the management board at the VW Group’s luxury-car unit insufficient information to detect

PARIS — Renault Group named Laurent Rossi, a former Google executive, as CEO of Alpine. He replaces Cyril Abiteboul, the managing director of Renault’s Formula One team, who was also temporarily overseeing the Alpine car brand. At Alpine, Rossi will be in charge of the sports car brand and Renault’s racing efforts, including endurance racing and

Deep-pocketed customers helped insulate the U.S. luxury market from the brunt of the pandemic fallout last year. U.S. luxury sales fell 11 percent in 2020, compared with a 14 percent slide for the overall industry. Luxury brands delivered 2,030,912 vehicles, accounting for a record 13.9 percent of total U.S. light-vehicle sales. BMW defended its sales

PARIS — The outlines of the power structure at Stellantis, the new company formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group, are starting to take shape ahead of the expected start of trading on Jan. 18, but key positions remain to be filled. Incoming CEO Carlos Tavares will be in command of operations,

One person was killed and six were seriously injured in an explosion at a factory in China operated by a subsidiary of battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., authorities said Friday. Thursday’s blast happened in a workshop belonging to Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology in the city of Ningxiang, in the southern province of Hunan, the

LONDON — Daimler on Thursday unveiled a new “Hyperscreen” display that will cover almost the entire dashboard of its luxury Mercedes-Benz models, in a bid to outdo Tesla’s large touchscreen infotainment system that has been a hallmark of the electric-car maker’s success. In a video presentation, Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius said the new screen –

An increase in new-car sales to private customers and higher self-registrations countered a big drop in sales to rental companies in Spain in December. Jeep, Dacia, Nissan, Mercedes and Toyota showed the strongest growth among volume brands. Registrations were 105,841 in December compared with 105,853 in the same month of 2019, according to the ANFAC industry

OSLO — Electric-car sales in Norway overtook those of vehicles powered by combustion and hybrid engines last year. Full-electric cars made up 54 percent of all new cars sold in the Nordic country in 2020, up from 42 percent in 2019 and from 1 percent of the overall market a decade ago, the Norwegian Road

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Mike Manley and Chief Financial Officer Richard Palmer will be eligible for cash retention awards worth tens of millions of euros after FCA merges with PSA Group to form Stellantis, company filings show. According to the documents, Manley and Palmer will receive the payments for certain possible role changes in the

TURIN – A big question is whether Stellantis — the new company that will result from the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles — will be able to support all its 12 brands in the future because of the huge investments that will be needed for electric cars, autonomous driving, and connectivity. Stellantis’

PARIS — Shareholders of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group are expected on Monday to agree to a merger between the two companies that will create a new global automaking powerhouse and unite two industry dynasties, the Peugeot and Agnelli/Elkann families.   Approval by shareholders will clear the way for the merger to close before

PARIS — New-car registrations fell by 12 percent in France in December, even though showrooms reopened at the beginning of the month after being closed in November because of a surge in coronavirus infections. There were 186,323 registrations in December, industry group CCFA said, on 22 selling days. There were 21 selling days in December

BEIJING — China will cut subsidies by a fifth next year on new energy vehicles such as electric cars, the finance ministry said on Thursday, as it seeks to combat pollution and cultivate home-grown champions in the auto sector. China, the world’s biggest auto market, has set a target for NEVs, including plug-in hybrids and

MOSCOW – Honda’s Russian subsidiary said it would stop supplying new cars to official dealers in Russia in 2022 as part of the company’s efforts to restructure its operations. The company said Wednesday that it would keep its presence on the Russian market with motorcycle and power equipment sales, and retain its activities related to

WARSAW — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles plans to invest 2 billion euros ($2.45 billion) in its plant in Tychy, Poland, Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin said on Tuesday, in a move that will see new electric and hybrid vehicles produced at the factory. FCA said new hybrid and electric Jeep, Fiat and Alfa Romeo models would

FRANKFURT — BMW plans to step up its production of electrified vehicles, CEO Oliver Zipse told a German newspaper. “We already had ambitions growth plans and want to further expand our market position,” Zipse said in an interview with the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper published on Sunday. Between 2021 and 2023, BMW will build 250,000 more

Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess said cash-rich technology giants invading the auto industry pose a much bigger challenge for the automaker than traditional rivals such as Toyota. “We look forward to new competitors who will certainly accelerate the change in our industry and bring in new skills,” Diess said in a LinkedIn post when asked

Renault CEO Luca de Meo will present his turnaround plan for the automaker on Jan. 14. The Italian executive plans a “revolution” at the French company, so he is calling his plan “Renaulution.” De Meo describes the key points of the restructuring to the automaker’s executives and employee representatives in an internal paper of several

Automakers welcomed a post-Brexit trade deal agreed between the UK and the European Union that was finalized on Christmas Eve, days before Britain is due to leave the bloc’s single market. The accord will complete UK’s separation from the EU and averts the threat of an acrimonious breakup on Jan. 31, when a 12-month transition

Jaguar Land Rover has not seen any impact so far from congestion at UK ports, its parent Tata Motors said on Thursday, even as many countries cut transport ties with Britain due to a fast-spreading new variant of the coronavirus. Toyota brought forward its Christmas production breaks at plants in England and France after transport

Volkswagen Group’s Seat unit will cut production at its Spanish factory in Martorell, near Barcelona, because of a shortage of microchips. A production line that builds the Seat Leon and Cupra Leon compact cars, and the Cupra Formentor crossover, will work on two shifts per day instead of the current three from Jan. 25 until

Toyota will halt production in the UK and France from Tuesday due to transport delays caused by the spread of a mutant strain of coronavirus that has led several countries to close their borders with Britain. The closures have “disrupted the transportation of parts,” Toyota spokeswoman Shino Yamada said in an emailed statement. The automaker