Europe

Lotus’ imminent rival to the Porsche Taycan, an electric sedan code-named Type 133, has been spied winter testing above the Arctic Circle in Europe ahead of a launch planned for later this year. The sedan will be the second model in the brand’s non-sports car lineup following the Eletre crossover and images show a slippery,

Toyota models appeared 56 times in the top 10 rankings of 30 European markets through 1 month. That is up from 54 placements after 12 months of 2022. Toyota’s success was led by the Yaris and Yaris Cross, which had a combined 28 placements in January, according to market researcher Dataforce. The Japanese automaker was

MILAN — Stellantis plans to cut as many as 2,000 jobs in Italy this year to further reduce its workforce in Fiat’s former home country as the transition to electric vehicles takes its toll. The automaker, formed from the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler, and local unions agreed on the reductions that represent

BERLIN — Tesla’s plant in Brandenburg near Berlin is now producing 4,000 cars per week, the company said on Monday, three weeks ahead of schedule according to a recent production plan reviewed by Reuters. Output from the plant is now a third of Model Y output in Shanghai, where Tesla planned to keep an average

Volkswagen Group will build its own production plant in the U.S. for its new Scout brand, company sources told Automotive News Europe sister publication Automobilwoche. The automaker was considering using contract manufacturers Foxconn or Magna to build the vehicles. However, those plans are off the table. “The decision to build the plant ourselves has been

Toyota is benefiting from a shift toward more fuel-efficient powertrains in Poland, where overall sales rose 21 percent in January. Demand for hybrids such as the Japanese automaker’s Yaris Cross, Yaris and Corolla boosted the powertrain’s sales 67 percent to 7,820 units last month, according to figures from Dataforce. That increased Poland’s hybrid market share

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares’ 2022 pay fell 14 percent to 14.9 million euros ($15.71 million), the maker of Fiat, Ram and Peugeot vehicles said in a filing on Friday. Tavares did not receive a retention bonus in 2022, compared with a bonus of about 2 million euros in 2021, the filing showed. Stellantis reported profit

Volvo’s decision to pick an executive to lead its design team who has no experience at a traditional automaker could become a new industry trend. “This is the first but unlikely the last move where an automaker shakes up its design by bringing in someone who isn’t a longtime car design boss,” Sam Livingstone, who

BERLIN — German startup Sono Motors has abandoned plans to produce a partly solar-powered car called the Sion and will instead focus on building solar panels for third-party vehicles, the company said in a statement. Founded in 2016, Sono began trading on the NASDAQ in November last year in a bid to attract early-stage investors

BERLIN — Audi is planning an electric-car factory in the U.S. to take advantage of the subsidies offered through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), CEO Markus Duesmann told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “We do not have a factory in the U.S. yet. With the American government’s Inflation Reduction Act, building a U.S. plant for electric

European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis will head to Washington next month for more talks about the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), he said, adding that discussions are unlikely to solve all the EU’s concerns about the law. Dombrovskis, the European Union’s commissioner for trade, said progress was being made in some areas of the

BENGALURU – Tata Motors has begun talks with sovereign wealth funds and private equity investors to raise up to $1 billion via a stake sale in its electric-vehicle business,The Economic Times reported, citing sources. The company, which owns Jaguar Land Rover, plans to sell a significant minority stake, the newspaper report added, eyeing a valuation

Shortages of semiconductors and other components are easing, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said, helping the industry increase production and bulk up inventories. The constraints on production are being lifted just as automakers contemplate the prospect of price wars and a more competitive industry. Consumers may be less willing to spend on big-ticket items such as cars because

Stellantis unveiled a share buyback of as much as 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) following Mercedes-Benz and BMW in returning cash to shareholders after strong 2022 results on the back of high vehicle prices and pent-up demand. Stellantis expects another year of double-digit returns as vehicle price increases slow, chip shortages ease and production picks

Volkswagen is asking employees to complete an escape room experience with collaborative games and puzzles to ease anxiety over job security in the shift to electric cars. VW, which is spending 89 billion euros ($95 billion) on new technology through 2026, is using the eMotionRoom project at its Wolfsburg headquarters to help switch over about

SHANGHAI – Volkswagen Group’s joint venture with China’s SAIC Motor has appointed Jia Jianxu, a veteran executive at the state-owned Chinese automaker, as its new general manager. Jia has more than 20 years of experience in the auto industry and was in charge of SAIC’s European market expansion, according to SAIC-VW’s statement. Both automakers have

Forvia forecasts stable 2023 sales as it expects a stronger impact from wage and energy costs even as raw material inflation eases. Following more than two years of pandemic disruptions, the automotive sector has been facing continued supply chain snags due to Chinese lockdowns and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Forvia, which sells seats, dashboards and

Mercedes-Benz is preparing for perhaps the most important step in its transition to a direct sales to consumer “agency” retail model this year, when it begins the process in its home market, Germany. Mercedes said in 2021 that it had reached agreements with its European dealers to move to the direct-sales model. Sales boss Britta