Europe

BRUSSELS — The European Union said it was “deeply concerned” about proposed tax credits for purchases of electric vehicles in the U.S. because they would be biased against foreign producers and may breach World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Under a provision of the $430 billion climate and energy bill that was passed by the Senate

SHANGHAI — China’s auto sales surged 30 percent in July from a year earlier to 2.42 million units, extending a recovery that began in June with the help of eased COVID curbs and government incentives. Sales for the first seven months, though, were still 2 percent lower than the corresponding period in 2021, data from

HAMBURG — Volkswagen Group’s incoming CEO, Oliver Blume, aims to shrink the size of the group’s management board as one of his first moves after his promotion, several people familiar with the matter told Reuters. “Some dual functions should be reconsidered,” one of the sources said. The number of board seats could be reduced to

Nikola Corp. said Michael Lohscheller will take over as the electric-truck maker’s CEO when Mark Russell retires on Jan. 1. Lohscheller will assume Russell’s president title and will join the Nikola board effective immediately. He will become CEO on Russell’s retirement, the company said on Wednesday. Russell joined Nikola as president in 2019 and became

NUNEATON, England — A handful of commercial electric vehicle startups are burning through cash fast, racing to bring vans or trucks to market before the funds run out or customers choose to buy from legacy automakers such as Ford or General Motors. Boosted by investor hunger to create the next Tesla, a clutch of commercial

China’s Great Wall, one of the country’s six largest automakers, has entered a strategic partnership with Europe’s largest car dealer group, Emil Frey, to distribute the Ora and Wey brands. The automaker announced its move into Europe at the IAA in Munich last year and has since been preparing its entry into Germany, its first

BEIJING — Baidu’s electric vehicle unit, Jidu Auto, will be one-generation ahead of Tesla in terms of autonomous driving technologies, Baidu CEO Robin Li said in a statement on Monday. “Our understanding of smart vehicles is that being electric is the semi-final while being intelligent is the final,” Li added. Jidu aims to be to

BERLIN — Germany would face costs almost six times as high as Brexit if it and the European Union were to shut China out of their economies, the Ifo institute said on Monday, citing the results of a study. The biggest losers of a trade war with China would be the automotive industry with a

Self-driving tech startup Aurora Innovation is working with several partners, including Toyota, Paccar’s Peterbilt brand and Volvo Trucks, to develop self-driving technology for trucks and robotaxis. The company also has autonomous freight hauling pilot programs with FedEx, Uber Freight and motor carriers Werner and Schneider National. “We are going to be putting more emphasis on

Porsche is trying to secure anchor investments from some of the largest Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, as the sports-car maker looks to pull off one of Europe’s biggest listings amid market headwinds and valuation concerns, people familiar with the matter said. Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co. and ADQ are among those considering committing funds

Car dealer Pendragon said on Friday talks over a potential takeover of the company were terminated after the bidder withdrew its interest, as one of the company’s five major shareholders did not participate. The company did not disclose the identity of the bidder, who was looking to offer about 460 million pounds ($558.35 million) for

British electric vehicle start-up Arrival is delaying trials of its bus and car projects to cut costs and focus on the production of its debut van, the Financial Times reported, citing three people familiar with the matter. Arrival has paused its car project but it might be revived once the company has begun producing revenues

The shortages of computer chips that forced global automakers to scrap production plans for millions of vehicles over the past two years are easing — at a new and permanent cost to the car companies. What had been “war room operations” to manage chip shortages are becoming embedded features of vehicle development, say executives in

Tesla CEO Elon Musk told shareholders that the EV maker will have an annual run rate of 2 million vehicles by the end of this year and will continue to build new factories to join the four it currently has in operation. Musk said Tesla could announce a new factory location as soon as this

MOSCOW — Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ said on Thursday it would move production of the Lada Vesta small car to its main site in Togliatti from its Izhevsk assembly plant, in a move which should allow it to retain Togliatti’s 42,000-strong workforce. AvtoVAZ said the Izhevsk factory would switch to production of an electric version of

German passenger car sales fell 13 percent in July as automakers were unable to keep up with demand because of production shortfalls due to parts shortages. Registrations for the month were 205,911, the KBA motor transport authority said on Wednesday. Electric-car maker Tesla was the biggest monthly winner with registrations up 142 percent for a

Volvo Cars’ CEO Jim Rowan has left some wiggle room for his company to keep working with Europe’s largest automotive lobbying group, ACEA. “We never want to close that door completely,” Rowan told Automotive News Europe. “But right now there is a misalignment on the sustainability strategy, which is an important part for us.” Volvo,

Volvo Cars took a step backward last month on its quest to reach a key sales milestone for its full-electric vehicles. EVs accounted for 3.5 percent, just 1,583 units, of automaker’s total global volume in July. That was a 26 percent decline on its EV sales in July 2021. The automaker’s overall volume was down