Europe

MILAN – Cupra’s small full-electric hatchback to be launched in 2025 will be called the Raval, after a neighborhood in Barcelona. The first EV from Volkswagen Group’s sporty Spanish brand, the Born compact hatchback, was also named after a district in the city. Cupra’s main factory is in Martorell, west of Barcelona.  The Raval was

STOCKHOLM — Sweden’s Northvolt said it will invest several billion euros to build an electric-vehicle battery cell plant in Germany, after speculation that the company could divert planned investment to the United States. Northvolt said it is set to pick Heide in northern Germany for its factory as long as subsidies are approved. Spokespeople for

Volkswagen Group’s software unit Cariad will likely bring its next generation 2.0 platform to market towards 2027 or 2028, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said. The software will enable Level 4 autonomous driving and is due to be implemented across the group from 2026 but its development has suffered delays. Antlitz said the company first

Ferrari’s market value has surpassed that of Stellantis, the auto group that contains Fiat, which was once the parent of the iconic Italian luxury sports-car maker. Ferrari has gained 34 percent this year, making it the best-performing stock among European auto manufacturers. That has sent the market value soaring to 49.2 billion euros ($53.9 billion),

SHANGHAI — BYD has launched five lower-priced versions of its Seal sedan, as the Chinese electric vehicle giant seeks to extend its lead in the world’s largest market for new-energy cars. The price of the rear-wheel drive Seal Champion Edition with a 550-km (342-mile) driving range, starts at 189,800 yuan ($27,459.09), 10 percent lower than

LONDON — Ford said it will test a small fleet of prototype hydrogen fuel-cell versions of its electric E-Transit model to see if they are a workable zero-emission option for customers hauling heavy goods long distances. Ford will lead a consortium in the three-year project that includes BP, which will focus on hydrogen and infrastructure,

PARIS — Alpine unveiled the A290 Beta small “hot hatch” concept ahead of its 2024 launch as a production model, as the Renault Group brand builds out a full lineup and plans for international expansion. The A290 Beta is a small full-electric hatchback based on the coming Renault 5, but with a specially tuned chassis,

Taiwanese solid-state battery maker ProLogium Technology is considering raising fresh funding at a valuation of about $2 billion to ramp up growth and investments, people familiar with the matter said. The electric-vehicle battery supplier, whose backers include Mercedes-Benz and Vietnam’s VinFast, is in talks with potential advisers to raise as much as $300 million, the

Peter Bosch, production chief at Bentley, will become CEO of Volkswagen Group‘s software unit Cariad on June 1, taking over from Dirk Hilgenberg. Bosch will also assume responsibility for finance, purchasing and IT, VW said on Monday in a statement Bosch is a former Oliver Wyman consultant who spent nearly seven years at the VW

BANGKOK — Toyota has stopped sales and deliveries of its Yaris Ativ in Thailand, senior officials said on Monday, after its affiliate Daihatsu rigged part of the door in side-collision safety tests. Speaking at a press conference in Bangkok, Toyota’s CEO for the Asia region, Masahiko Maeda, said the problem may have occurred due to

Wolfspeed sees green-tech subsidies in the European Union as on par with what the U.S. is offering to attract production of semiconductors important for electric cars. Tax breaks and other incentives under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and support in the European Union are similar, Wolfspeed CEO, Gregg Lowe, said. The U.S. chipmaker is ramping

MILAN — Ferrari’s core earnings rose 27 percent to 537 million euros ($594 million) in the first quarter on increased shipments. Results were driven by sales of the Portofino M, the 296 GTB and the 812 Competizione models, as well as pricing capacity, the company said in a statement on Thursday. CEO Benedetto Vigna said

China’s Tianqi Lithium is considering buying a minority stake in Smart Automobile, the Geely-Mercedes joint venture, as part of the minicar maker’s latest private funding round, according to people familiar with the matter. The Chinese miner is in advanced talks to invest $100 million to $200 million in Smart, a joint venture between Germany’s Mercedes-Benz

FRANKFURT — German passenger car sales rose 13 percent in April as delivery bottlenecks eased and demand for battery-electric cars continued to rise. Registrations were 202,947, according to data from the KBA motor transport authority. Sales of full-electric cars increased 34 percent to 29,740, despite the fact that government subsidies for battery-electric cars were significantly

LONDON — Aston Martin hired former Ferrari and Rimac executives as it works to strengthen its leadership ahead of launching its first full-electric car in 2025. The brand appointed ex-Rimac executive Paul Thomas to the newly created position of BEV Chief Engineer, which also covers plug-in hybrid vehicles. Aston Martin will start deliveries of the

ANSTY, England — Geely unit London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) on Friday unveiled a new, large electric-vehicle platform for vehicles ranging from minivans to commercial vans that it said could also be used by other units of the Chinese automaker. LEVC said the platform, dubbed Space Oriented Architecture (SOA), had been jointly developed over the

On June 13 and 14 in Paris, the annual Automotive News Europe Congress will host a series of top-level presentations, speakers and panel discussions on the theme of Making Sustainability Profitable. Speakers will include experts and executives from Renault Group, Toyota, Stellantis, Polestar, Ford, Hyundai and more. Join us in Paris to be part of the

Sales of full-electric vehicles in 2023 are expected to take a hit in the U.K. from inflationary pressures and lack of charging points, though the overall outlook for British new-car registrations has improved, the UK’s auto industry body, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said. The SMMT has downgraded its forecast for battery