Europe

MILAN — Ferrari is rolling out the Roma, the fifth new model this year for the ‘Prancing Horse,” as it expands its stable to help sustain its profit and share price growth. The Roma will be a 2+2 coupe, meaning it has two small rear-seats, Ferrari said on Wednesday, without disclosing its price. The Roma

FRANKFURT — Tesla plans to build its next factory near Berlin, CEO Elon Musk said, sending a stark message to Germany’s automakers that he is headed for their home turf. Tesla also will establish an engineering and design center in Berlin near the Germany capital city’s new airport, Musk said Tuesday. He made the announcement

LONDON — Sales of Aston Martin’s new SUV could exceed expectations, becoming the “ultimate catalyst” for the luxury automaker’s beaten-down stock, according to analysts at HSBC Holdings. “After months of underperformance and the future of the company at stake, we believe the launch of the DBX is potentially game-changing,” the bank said in a note

Magna International has lowered its 2019 financial outlook to reflect the estimated impact of the UAW strike at General Motors in the United States. The strike lasted 40 days and stretched from the latter part of the third quarter and into the fourth.   Magna, which supplies body exteriors and structures and power technologies, said Friday that it experienced

Since time is a valuable commodity for Porsche’s affluent customers, the Volkswagen Group subsidiary hopes it can convince discriminating electric vehicle drivers with the fastest recharging capability currently on the market. The Taycan, the brand’s first EV and a rival to the Tesla Model S, has an 800-volt electrical architecture that is twice as powerful

Magna International has lowered its 2019 financial outlook to reflect the estimated impact of the UAW strike at General Motors in the United States. The strike lasted 40 days and stretched from the latter part of the third quarter and into the fourth.   Magna, which supplies body exteriors and structures and power technologies, said Friday that it experienced

Rolls-Royce’s newest model, the Cullinan SUV, is the latest to receive a variant from the British ultraluxury automaker’s performance and engineering subbrand, Black Badge. The Cullinan Black Badge receives a handful of design and performance changes over the standard model. The 6.75-liter-twin turbo V-12 engine now delivers 600 hp and 900 newtons meters (664 pound-feet)

TOKYO – Mitsubishi Motors slashed its annual profit and sales outlook, becoming the latest Japanese automaker hit by sputtering global demand and a stronger yen. Operating profit for the fiscal year through March 2020 will be 30 billion yen ($275 million) instead of 90 billion yen, the company said in a statement Wednesday, citing decreases in

FRANKFURT — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group have said they will not to close factories if they merge but this promise is likely to come under heavy strain as the combined group would have spare production capacity of almost 6 million vehicles in a slowing autos market. The companies last week unveiled plans to

MILAN — Ferrari is aiming to move further upmarket with its branded accessories by teaming up with another iconic Italian name, Giorgio Armani, to help push the supercar maker’s handbag and clothing lines into the premium-price space. CEO Louis Camilleri is tackling a long-held goal of former Chairman Sergio Marchionne, who died in 2018: transform

MILAN — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group aim to sign a final merger agreement as early as the beginning of next month, a source familiar with the matter said. The two automakers said earlier this week they planned to join forces in a 50-50 share merger to create the world’s fourth-largest automaker, seeking scale

Volkswagen Group’s powerful labor unions vowed to block the automaker’s plan to build a 1.3 billion-euro ($1.4 billion) factory in Turkey until violence triggered by the country’s cross-border offensive in northern Syria has stopped. “I want to say very clearly: the labor representatives repudiate approval as long as Turkey tries to reach its political goals

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration will look very closely at the planned merger between Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot owner PSA, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Friday. The deal, announced on Thursday, would create the world’s fourth-largest automaker. “We will obviously look at it very, very carefully,” Kudlow said on Bloomberg.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group went out of their way to make their combination as equal as possible, shedding assets, paying special dividends and distributing board seats. It did not take long for investors to figure out who the buyer is. Shares of Fiat Chrysler jumped 10 percent Thursday after the two sides announced

Magna International said on Wednesday it will build dual-clutch and hybrid transmissions for BMW under a multi-year contract. The products will be built at Magna’s plants in Germany and Slovakia, the company said. Magna did not disclose the financial terms of the contract. Magna ranks No. 3 on the Automotive News Europe list of the

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group of France are in talks to combine, The Wall Street Journal reported. The newspaper reported that people familiar with the matter said a deal between FCA and the Peugeot parent could create a “$50 billion trans-Atlantic auto giant.” An all-share merger of equals, the paper reported, is one of

FRANKFURT — Opel/Vauxhall appointed Pascal Martens as the new head of its light commercial unit to executive ambitious growth goals for the business. Belgian national Martens, who is currently Opel’s director of sales, will assume the role on Nov. 1. He succeeds Tobias Stoever, who has been appointed head of Peugeot marketing in Germany. PSA

BorgWarner employee Paul Whelan was ordered Thursday to remain in custody through Dec. 29, a year and a day since he was arrested in Russia on suspicion of spying. The 49-year-old security chief for the suburban Detroit auto supplier has been behind bars since he was arrested at a Moscow hotel on Dec. 28 with a flash

Gorden Wagener, the man behind such wild concepts as the Mercedes-Maybach Ultimate Luxury Shuttle thinks the keys to a healthier tomorrow are ease and aesthetics, as he explained in an interview with Bloomberg. Let’s get right to it: Is “sustainable luxury” an oxymoron? No, it’s not. Sustainability will be key to the luxury of the

Jaguar Land Rover turned profitable in its latest quarter while working through a cost-cutting program. The UK automaker’s pretax profit was 156 million pounds ($200 million). Revenue rose 8 percent to 6 billion pounds, JLR’s owner, Tata Motors, said Friday. Tata Motors itself lost 2.17 billion rupees ($31 million) in the three months ended Sept.

WOLFSBURG — Volkswagen is adding advanced connectivity and semi-autonomous features to help its latest Golf retain buyers in a market shifting toward SUVs and full-electric cars. The Golf’s new digital cockpit is a technological leap comparable to the debut of the first touch-based smartphones, VW said on Wednesday when it presented the latest generation of

AMSTERDAM — Honda has brought forward a goal to only sell battery-powered and hybrid cars in Europe by three years to 2022. Honda is axing its diesel cars in Europe as it adds full-electric and hybrid powertrains in a green technology push. Honda had said it intended to move 100 percent of its European sales

FRANKFURT –  Continental said on Tuesday that slower automobile production growth over the next five years had forced the supplier to book a 2.5 billion euro ($2.8 billion) impairment. The auto industry slowdown has already prompted profit warnings from various suppliers, including Continental, in the past few months. “We do not anticipate that global production

French supplier Valeo said it expanded its tech center in the central China city of Wuhan to strengthen its development capability of parts and components for intelligent vehicles in China.  Last week, the tech center’s phase-two project — a new building covering a ground area of 3,000 square meters (32,291 square feet) — started operation,

Skoda has sought to reassure its employees after reports suggested that its owner, Volkswagen Group, is considering repositioning the brand downward to compete with low-cost marques such as Renault’s Dacia. In an internal letter to employees seen by Automotive News Europe, Skoda CEO Bernhard Maier wrote that brand values of space, functionality, value for money

FRANKFURT – Tesla Inc.’s attempts to humble Porsche with a new lap record on Germany’s legendary Nordschleife racetrack have reignited a controversy about the value of lap times, as the circuit steps in to quash claims of cheating. Porsche and Tesla are battling to establish supremacy in lap times for four-door electric sports cars, but comparisons

Skoda’s new Octavia has been designed to give it much more “emotional” appeal compared with the outgoing model, according to the Czech automaker. Sketches giving a flavor of the new compact car have been released by the Volkswagen Group subsidiary ahead of the Octavia’s planned unveiling in November. The car is Skoda’s best-seller. The sketches

British business allowed itself a moment of hope as Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the European Union reached an agreement to ward off a no-deal Brexit. The agreement envisages an ambitious, wide-ranging and balanced economic partnership through a Free Trade Agreement that ensures no tariffs, fees, charges or quantitative restrictions across all sectors with appropriate

LOS ANGELES — Volvo Cars has entered the electric vehicle market with a safe choice: a crossover. The XC40 Recharge, unveiled here Wednesday, is a modified version of Volvo’s XC40 compact crossover. In place of the the four-cylinder engine it has a 75-kilowatt-hour battery. The dual-motor XC40 Recharge is expected to arrive at dealers in

CHATTANOOGA — Last week, I was at Volkswagen’s assembly plant here for the reveal of the new five-seat Atlas Cross Sport, which will let Volkswagen compete against the Ford Edge and Jeep Grand Cherokee. But in conversations with executives, I found myself talking and thinking about the German brand’s coming lineup of at least three