Europe

BERLIN – Continental announced plans for a restructuring that will combine its business activities around connectivity, mobility and high-performance computing. The supplier said in a news release Thursday that its tires business and ContiTech division, focused on rubber technologies, would become independent group sectors. Its Automotive Technologies brand will split into five business areas. As

DETROIT — Jeep’s second plug-in hybrid, the Grand Cherokee 4xe, will offer 25 miles (40 km) of electric range, a 6,000-pound tow rating and a Trailhawk version powerful enough to conquer the Rubicon Trail in battery-only mode. The 2022 Grand Cherokee 4xe is scheduled to reach North American dealerships in early 2022, following the arrival

BERLIN — Tesla is seeking a waiver from COVID-19 rules on mass gatherings for a “Giga-Fest” at its huge factory under construction near Berlin. The EV maker plans to host up to 9,000 people to showcase its plans for the 5.8-billion-euro ($6.9 billion) plant, which will build Tesla cars for European customers. Tesla began construction

MILAN — Ferrari and its parent company Exor, the holding vehicle of the Agnelli family, have entered a partnership with Jony Ive, the creative mind behind many of Apple’s iconic products, and fellow designer Marc Newson. The duo belong to the LoveFrom creative collective of designers, architects writers, engineers and artists based in London and

BMW plans to build all its future cars on a single, electric-focused platform. The automaker showed its ideas for sustainable, premium transportation with its iVision Circular concept car. Development chief, Frank Weber, talked about these topics and more during a roundtable at the IAA Munich auto show that included Automotive News Europe Associate Publisher and

FRANKFURT — The planned opening of Tesla’s first gigafactory in Europe later this year will force local industry to step up its game, Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess said. Diess’ comments, made on Twitter, come as Tesla continues work on its plant in Gruenheide, near Berlin, as it awaits final building approval for the 5.8

TURIN — Tesla CEO Elon Musk said there is an end in sight for the global chip shortage that has pummelled the car industry this year thanks to new semiconductor plants that are planned or under construction. Asked how long he thought the global chip shortage would affect vehicle production, Musk said: “short term I

German flying taxi startup Volocopter will sell 150 electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to its joint venture with a unit of Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Volocopter, which counts Daimler, BlackRock and Intel Capital as some of its investors, said it expects the partnership to bring the air taxis to China within

MUNICH — Cupra will price its full-electric small car at “about 25,000 euros” ($29,500), when it launches in 2025. The cost will be 5,000 euros higher than the 20,000 euros starting price for Volkswagen brand’s small EV, also due in 2025. Both cars will be based on a shortened version of VW Group’s MEB electric

U.S. auto retail giant AutoNation named Stellantis executive Mike Manley as its next CEO to replace the outgoing Mike Jackson. The moves are effective Nov. 1, when Jackson, 72, will retire from his post as well as the company’s board, the nation’s largest new-vehicle retailer said. Manley, 57, had been CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

WASHINGTON — U.S. auto safety investigators have opened a new probe into 30 million vehicles built by nearly two dozen automakers with potentially defective Takata airbag inflators, a government document seen by Reuters on Sunday showed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday opened an engineering analysis into an estimated 30 million U.S. vehicles

Valeo has given the clearest indication yet it intends to buy out partner Siemens from their electric-car components venture to counter a declining combustion-engine business. Siemens “entered this joint venture with the plan to eventually sell and we to buy,” Christophe Perillat, Valeo’s incoming CEO, told Bloomberg News on the sidelines of a Munich auto

German automotive lobby groups oppose proposed new regulations that would make it harder for plug-in hybrids sold in the country to qualify for government subsidies. The minimum full-electric range for plug-in hybrids to receive incentives would rise to 60 km (37 miles) from 40 km starting in October 2022 and to 80 km on Jan.

IHS Markit, whose production projections are cited by automakers, suppliers and research analysts the world over just took its biggest chop yet to estimates that have been falling all year due to the global chip shortage. IHS Markit slashed its production forecast for this year by 6.2 percent — or 5.02 million vehicles — and

All Volkswagen ID models are now able to receive regular over the air (OTA) software updates through mobile data transfers, the automaker said. The move brings the automaker one step closer to Tesla-like levels of upgrade capabilities in its growing family of full-electric models. The updates had previously only been available as part of a

Vitesco Technologies, the powertrain unit that Continental plans to spin off on Thursday, has nearly 15 billion euros in orders for its electrification products. CEO Andreas Wolf explained what is driving interest in the supplier’s systems and components in an interview with Automotive News Europe Managing Editor Douglas A. Bolduc. Where is Vitesco on its

STOCKHOLM — Automotive tech supplier Veoneer on Tuesday stuck to its recommendation in favor of Magna International’s acquisition bid after receiving an updated, non-binding offer from Qualcomm. The Swedish company has become an attractive takeover target as its expertise in making advanced driver assistance systems fits in the plan for both Qualcomm and Magna in

Dacia, Renault Group’s Romania-based budget-priced brand, has revamped its lineup substantially in the last year. Slower-selling models based on old platforms like the Logan MCV station wagon and Lodgy minivan have been replaced by a tightly focused range: The Spring EV minicar, the new Sandero/Logan small cars on the modern CMF-B platform, an extensively refreshed Duster

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 – 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

MUNICH — This week, Munich is hosting IAA Mobility, a reinvention of the auto show that for seven decades occurred annually in Frankfurt, until the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancelation in 2020. Set amid environmental protests that shut down roads and the build up to a Sept. 26 election that will see German Chancellor Angela

LONDON — JPMorgan has struck a deal to buy a majority stake in German car giant Volkswagen’s payments business ahead of a planned rollout of in-car technology that allows drivers to automatically pay for fuel or tolls. The U.S. bank on Wednesday said it agreed to buy 75 percent of Volkswagen Payments for an undisclosed

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

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

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

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

STUTTGART — Daimler expects significantly lower sales of Mercedes cars through the end of September due to the ongoing chip shortage. “With the plant closures at semiconductor suppliers in Malaysia and elsewhere, the challenge has now become even greater, so our sales in the third quarter are likely to be noticeably lower than in the

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