Europe

FRANKFURT — Daimler’s Dieter Zetsche will not seek to become chairman of the German carmaker’s supervisory board, he told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper. Zetsche, 67, a former CEO of the company that owns the Mercedes-Benz brand, was due to take a seat as chairman on the board of directors, which in Germany is known as

Polestar has reversed course on the Precept sedan, deciding to turn what was originally billed as a “vision” of the brand’s future into a production model. It will take three years to complete development of the brand’s future flagship grand tourer, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath told Automotive News Europe. The production car will be underpinned

WASHINGTON — BMW and two U.S. subsidiaries agreed Thursday to pay an $18 million fine to resolve accusations that they disclosed misleading information about the German luxury automaker’s retail sales volume in the United States while raising approximately $18 billion from investors in corporate bond offerings. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said from 2015

HAMBURG — German prosecutors said on Wednesday they had charged another eight Volkswagen employees over the scandal surrounding cheating on diesel engine emission tests. The eight are accused of fraud, false certification and violation of the law against unfair competition, the Brunswick prosecutor’s office in VW’s home state of Lower Saxony said in a statement.

CEO Elon Musk outlined Tesla Inc.’s plans to cut electric vehicle battery design and manufacturing costs so radically that a $25,000 car that drives itself will be possible, but the automaker’s shares slipped as Musk forecast the change could take three years. Musk acknowledged that Tesla does not have its ambitious new vehicle and battery

DETROIT — The Detroit auto show is changing dates — again. After reimagining the Detroit show as a summertime indoor/outdoor event, originally scheduled for June 2020 but postponed a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, show organizers said Monday the event would take place Sept. 28 to Oct. 9, 2021, and would remain in the

Austin Russell dropped out of Stanford University in 2012 to focus on his driverless-car startup, Luminar Technologies. Eight years later, Russell, 25, is taking Volvo Cars’ lidar supplier public in a $3.4 billion deal that will see him retain full control over the company and make him among the youngest CEOs of a publicly traded

Zoox has received a permit from California state authorities to test its self-driving vehicles without an in-car backup driver, in a victory for Amazon, which acquired the startup in June. The new permit, which was announced on Friday, allows Zoox to test two autonomous vehicles without a driver behind the wheel on specified streets near its

Volkswagen Group will pool its emissions with longtime Chinese joint venture partner SAIC Motor and its subsidiary MG Motor, according to documents filed with the EU. The move will allow VW Group to benefit from strong demand for the zero-emissions ZS EV, a small full-electric SUV that is offered in markets such as the UK,

Automakers say they will not be able to meet potentially more stringent CO2 emissions reduction targets in the European Union without a larger electric car charging infrastructure. In a “State of the Union” address on Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised a new target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Von der Leyen

PARIS — Renault has hired Luciano Biondo, the head of Toyota Europe’s assembly operations in Valenciennes, northern France, to lead its factory network in the region, focusing on electric vehicles and light-commercial vans. Marvin Cooke, senior vice president for manufacturing at Toyota Motor Europe, will assume Biondo’s responsibilities as part of his current job, Toyota

FRANKFURT — Volkswagen Group named Porsche veteran Klaus Zellmer as the new head of sales and marketing at the automaker’s namesake brand. Zellmer succeeds Jürgen Stackmann, who is leaving the company, VW said in a statement on Tuesday. Zellmer, 53, moves to the new post from his role as head of Porsche North America. Kjell

PARIS — PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles on Monday said they revised the terms of their planned merger, adding PSA would hold onto its stake in parts supplier Faurecia and FCA would cut the cash portion of a 5.5 billion euro ($6.5 billion) special dividend. Once combined, the new company will be called Stellantis.

PARIS — Chinese renewable energy group Envision is looking to build a battery factory in France to supply the growing electric vehicle market, a French newspaper reported. The company, which has battery production plants in Japan, the United States, Britain and in China, has identified around a dozen potential locations in France for the future

Delayed from late April, the Beijing auto show is set to begin on Sept. 26, making it the sole survivor, so far, of all the major international auto exhibitions canceled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Whether anyone attends is another matter. The pandemic has remained largely contained inside China since mid-March, and no

SINDELFINGEN, Germany — Daimler executives believe that the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class will be able to increase sales while maintaining or increasing the profit level of the current generation of the luxury sedan. The overall size of the luxury segment is being fueled by a surge in global wealth, CEO Ola Källenius said, leaving room for

ATLANTA — Porsche’s U.S. boss is said to be getting a major promotion. Klaus Zellmer, 53, CEO of Porsche Cars North America, will be elevated to chief sales officer at parent Volkswagen Group, according to the website of Germany’s Manager Magazin. A Porsche Cars North America spokesman declined to comment Thursday. Zellmer will replace Jürgen

MODENA, Italy — Maserati is challenging Ferrari and Lamborghini in the supercar class with the the 621-hp MC20, which it says offers a better power-to-weight ratio than its Italian rivals. The MC20’s 3.0-liter V-6 turbocharged gasoline engine, built by Maserati, also produces 730 newton meters (538 foot pounds) of torque. Production of the coupe version of

France’s 7 billion-euro ($8.3 billion) plan to use clean hydrogen in industrial processes and transport will cut the country’s carbon dioxide output in 2030 by the equivalent of the annual emissions of Paris, the government said. A global race to scale up green hydrogen has begun, with Europe pushing the fuel as key to the

Nissan has delayed the start of European production of its new Qashqai for more than six months, according to a report. Nissan was scheduled to start building the third generation of its best-selling compact SUV at its plant in Sunderland, England, in October, but now production will not start until “after April 2021,” two people

The Renault Formula One team will be renamed Alpine F1 from 2021, competing in French colors to showcase the automaker’s sports-car brand, new company CEO Luca de Meo said. Alpine has a strong motorsport pedigree, in rallying and endurance racing, but has not previously featured in Formula One as a constructor. The Renault name will

TIANJIN — China will roll out a new package of policies to support hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to improve the industry’s supply chain and technologies, a government official said on Saturday. China is the world’s biggest market for new energy vehicles (NEVs), which include battery electric vehicles as well as plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel

Before Tesla CEO Elon Musk returned to the U.S. after a three-day visit to Germany, he made a final stopover to meet with one of his biggest competitors — Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess. The two auto executives met for about two hours on Thursday evening at a small airport in Brunswick, where Musk test-drove

PARIS – Renault Group has announced a new corporate structure pegged to four brands rather than geographic regions, in the first move by new CEO Luca de Meo to turn around the struggling automaker. Alongside Renault, Dacia and Alpine, a fourth business unit will be formed for new mobility, according to a statement Thursday. Top executives

FRANKFURT — Elon Musk appears to be opening a new front in the European battle for electric-car supremacy: providing power for EVs. Musk’s Tesla has recently acquired a license that will enable the automaker to trade electricity across western Europe and the company has also been surveying customers in Germany about potentially using Tesla electricity

FRANKFURT — Continental plans to cut or transfer as much as 13 percent of its workforce to reduce costs by at least 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) a year, deepening restructuring as the coronavirus adds to pressure on the auto industry. Some 90 percent of the restructuring measures, which could affect 30,000 jobs, will be

PSA Group in October will add a fourth shift to an assembly line at its factory in Vigo, Spain, to meet demand for the Peugeot 2008 small SUV. The addition of the weekend shift means that the Vigo plant’s two assembly lines will both be working four shifts for the first time, PSA said in

BMW will cut hundreds of jobs at its factory in the UK that builds Mini cars due to falling demand. The Mini factory in Oxford, England, will move to a two-shift operation from three shifts in mid-October.The move will lead to the loss of 400 out of the 950 agency staff at the plant, which

Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess has encouraged Bill Gates to advise governments on how to lower carbon emissions from transportation and renewed his criticism of Germany’s slow abandonment of coal power. “You thoroughly understand the CO2 logic of the mobility sector. You know what we have to do and you could and should advise governments

German supplier Hella is planning a sale of its driver-assistance software unit, people familiar with the matter said. Hella is working with advisers to gauge interest in the business, the people said. It could fetch several hundred million euros, they said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The unit may attract