Europe

It will take ZF Friedrichshafen months to return to full production capacity at a suspension parts factory in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany, after flooding caused damages estimated to be in the millions of euros. All of the plant’s assembly lines, which make specialized valves for damping systems, have to be rebuilt. In the interim, ZF will

REE Automotive plans to launch production of an electric delivery van and a people mover in 2023, CEO Daniel Barel said. The Israeli startup received shareholder approval for a reverse merger with special acquisition company 10X Capital Venture Acquisition on Thursday, Barel said the company does not have a specific number of orders – a

FRANKFURT — Shareholders in Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker, on Thursday approved a deal to settle claims against four former executives, including longtime CEO Martin Winterkorn, related to the company’s emissions scandal. The initial deal, which was announced last month and which will see Volkswagen receive 288 million euros ($339 million) in compensation, required shareholder approval

FRANKFURT — Volkswagen expects sales of its ID electric-car family to pick up significantly in China in the second half of the year, CEO Herbert Diess said. By the end of the year, VW wants to sell between 80,000 and 100,000 ID cars in China, Diess said, adding sales were expected to double to 6,000

DETROIT — The global semiconductor chip shortage that has hit automakers around the world and constrained vehicle production will easily drag into next year, Stellantis Carlos Tavares said. The comments by Tavares at an Automotive Press Association event in Detroit on Wednesday echoed those made by Daimler earlier in the day. “The semiconductor crisis, from

FRANKFURT — Porsche must pay a fine of 40 million euros ($47 million) for breach of duty relating to its tax filings, German prosecutors said. The company is paying that sum to the state of Baden Wuerttemberg, where it is based, and not appealing the fine, the prosecutors added. “Therefore, the proceedings against Porsche have

BERLIN — BMW said on Tuesday nearly all its German plants were affected by an ongoing shortage of semiconductors that are currently preventing the automaker from completing around 10,000 cars. The Munich-based company earlier this month said that the bottleneck, which has affected carmakers around the world, has already led to 30,000 vehicles in lost

FRANKFURT — Volkswagen Group’s global deliveries of full-electric vehicles more than doubled in the first half, mostly driven by demand in Europe. Deliveries of full-electric models from the group’s VW, Audi, Porsche, and Skoda brands rose 165 percent to 170,939 from 64,462 during the same period last year, VW Group said in a statement on

LONDON — Stellantis said on Monday it will temporarily halt a shift at its Vauxhall van factory in Luton, England, due to the large number workers isolating to halt the spread of COVID-19. “The safety of our staff is of the highest priority at Stellantis,” the company said in a statement. “In order to protect

MILAN — Italian supplier Brembo said it will open its first high tech lab in California’s Silicon Valley to accelerate the company’s digitization, one of the key objectives of a plan announced in September. Brembo’s ‘Inspiration Lab’ will focus on strengthening the company’s expertise in software development, data science and artificial intelligence, the premium brake

Robert Bosch is considering closing a plant in Munich that makes components for cars powered by internal combustion engines, local newspaper Muenchner Merkur said on Sunday. Germany’s coming transition from combustion to electric cars will lead to “considerable overcapacity and the need for adjustment,” according to a company spokeswoman cited by the newspaper. Demand for

Europe needs to regain lost ground in microchip production, battery cell manufacturing, software development and other digital competencies, Audi CEO Markus Duesmann said. Building competencies in these areas will help make the region’s auto industry less dependent on complex international supply chains, which have struggled and in some case ground to a halt during the

Land Rover has launched a long-wheelbase variant of its Range Rover Evoque compact SUV in China. The Rover Range Rover Evoque L increases rear legroom by 125 mm (4.9 inches) and offers an electrically adjustable rear seat back to allow passengers to stretch out further, according to the brand’s consumer website. Long-wheelbase versions of global

PRAGUE — The Czech Republic is in talks with two potential investors, including Volkswagen Group, for an electric battery cell factory and is ready to offer billions of crowns in an incentive package, Industry Minister Karel Havlicek said. The country, which is home to VW Group’s Czech brand Skoda, is one of the locations that

LONDON — The McLaren Group announced a 550 million pound ($758 million) equity investment, with much of it coming from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and global investment firm Ares Management. McLaren Group includes the British supercar maker as well as McLaren Racing, which competes in Formula One and IndyCar in the United States

PARIS — Renault Group’s global sales rose 18.7 percent in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2020, with Renault brand up 18.5 percent and low-cost brand Dacia up 24.5 percent.  But the continuing impact of the coronavirus pandemic and a strategy under CEO Luca de Meo of favoring profitable

PARIS – Under the European Union’s proposed new emissions targets, automakers selling vehicles in the trade bloc will need to increase their mix of full-electric vehicles to 55 percent by 2030, according to analysts’ forecasts.  That represents a more than 500 percent increase from EVs current market share in western Europe, which is about 9 percent.  The

Aston Martin has unveiled its first plug-in hybrid model with the 937-hp Valhalla hypercar. The Valhalla is the second of three mid-engine models Aston Martin has promised as it shifts into segments long dominated by Ferrari. Deliveries of the delayed Valkyrie are planned to start September this year, with a lower-priced mid-engine supercar called Vanquish

Automakers criticized the European Commission’s proposal to effectively ban the sale of gasoline and diesel cars in the bloc by the middle of the next decade. The Commission’s new climate package to slash planet-warming CO2 emissions, announced Wednesday, includes a target to reduce CO2 from new cars sold in the bloc to zero by 2035.

The European Commission is proposing a reduction of CO2 emissions from new cars sold in the bloc to zero by 2035 in a plan that will effectively ban the sale of cars with gasoline and diesel engines. The Commission also seeks a 55 percent reduction of CO2 emissions by 2030, lifting an earlier target of

BERLIN — The European Commission will propose an absolute cut-off date after which all automakers will have to stop producing combustion-powered cars in the EU, its president, Ursula von der Leyen, said. Even though a dozen European automakers had already announced they would switch to zero-emissions cars between 2028 and 2035, a legal cut-off date

Volkswagen Group ratcheted up its mid-decade profitability goal as it hones plans to become the electric-car leader and cash in on what it expects to be a massive new revenue stream from software. Europe’s largest automaker will target an 8 percent to 9 percent operating return on sales in 2025, up from 7 percent to

Opel is moving the new-generation Astra compact upscale with two levels of plug-in hybrid power, an all-digital dashboard and improved driver-assistance systems. The Astra has moved to a Stellantis platform, the third-generation EMP2 architecture for compact and midsize vehicles, from a General Motors one.  Production for Opel and Vauxhall versions starts this autumn at Opel’s

MADRID — Spain will invest 4.3 billion euros ($5.11 billion) to support the production of electric vehicles and batteries as part of a major national spending program financed mostly by European Union recovery funds. The plan, which aims to spur private investment, would include the whole production chain from extracting lithium to assembling battery cells

Europe will be Volvo’s No. 1 electric vehicle market by the middle of this decade, a top executive predicts. “Given the fact that we sell more than 40 percent of our cars in Europe as plug-in hybrids right now, I think Europe will be first,” Chief Technology Officer Henrik Green told Automotive News Europe last

PARIS — Renault will reveal the Megane-e full-electric compact car and a prototype version of the Renault 5 retro-themed EV at the Munich auto show in September. The Megane-e will be one of the most critical new models to be launched under CEO Luca de Meo since he took over in July 2020. It has

French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with executives and union representatives from the automobile sector on Monday to discuss the green transition, ahead of the publication of a sweeping climate-policy package by the European Union. The meeting will revolve around “what’s at stake for the sector,” Macron’s office said on Saturday. The European Commission is

SOFIA — German electric car start-up Next e.Go Mobile will invest 140 million euros ($166 million) in a car production plant in Bulgaria, the country’s economy minister Kiril Petkov said. Next e.Go Mobile plans to start producing electric cars in the northern city of Lovech in two years’ time and to employ about 1,000 people,

FRANKFURT — Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess received a contract extension — giving fresh backing to the boss overseeing the most aggressive push into electric vehicles by an established automaker. Diess will remain in his post until October 2025, his 67th birthday, VW said in a statement on Friday. Diess and his management team “have

Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler is stepping up the pace of its transition to electric mobility and plans to largely eliminate internal combustion engines before the end of the decade. “We are switching from EV first to EV only,” a high ranking executive familar with the plan told Automobilwoche, a sister publication of Automotive News Europe. This means