- VW aims at ride-pooling market with all-electric minibus – Reuters: Volkswagen has unveiled an all-electric minibus to target urban customers who prefer to pay for use rather than own a vehicle, furthering the German company’s push into new forms of online-controlled personal transport services. Volkswagen’s (VW) new…
- Toyota Auris diesel ditched due to low sales – Autocar: Black pump model goes in model update, but Toyota says the decision isn’t linked to the impending tax hikes
- Fiat falls in Italy despite 7% market rise – Automotive News: New-car sales in Italy rose 6.8 percent to 156,332 in November, according to figures published by Italy’s transport ministry. Registrations increased despite a slump in market leader Fiat brand’s sales and declining demand from private customers. Fiat…
- DRB Hicom pins hopes on Chinese input for real profit – Nikkei: A glimmer of hope for a more sustained recovery has appeared, with the group banking on the two partnerships its has formed recently with Chinese companies Zhejiang Geely Holdings Group and Alibaba Group Holding. DRB Hicom said Proton’s financial and…
- Volkswagen starts its electric car countdown – Yahoo: In 100 weeks’ time, Volkswagen will officially launch its first I.D. car and with it, an all-out assault on the electric car market. Volkswagen already offers a proper plug-in electric car in the shape of the e-Golf, based on its best-selling hatchback…
- Why the Market Isn’t Sweating the Decline in US Auto Sales – Bloomberg: Detroit automakers got themselves in trouble in the past by dumping discounted vehicles to rental-car companies to paper over weak demand from regular Americans. Bulk shipments to fleet customers diluted brands like Chrysler and GM’s Chevrolet. When…
- China Is Said to Plan Extending Electric Vehicle Tax Rebate – Bloomberg: Extending the tax rebate will give a fillip to China’s development of the NEV industry, a term used to refer electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell cars. The surge in demand for such vehicles in China has attracted billions of dollars of…
- First 2019 Land Rover Defender test mule spotted in Britain – Autocar: Land Rover’s upcoming rugged new 4×4 will get even more advanced off-road tech than the latest Discovery
- PSA says electric motors made with Nidec to go into Opels and Vauxhalls – Reuters: French carmaker PSA envisages production capacity of 900,000 electric motors anually with Japan’s Nidec Leroy-Somer by 2022, according to a presentation by PSA executive Patrice Lucas. Motors made with Nidec will be fitted in all Opel and Vauxhall…
- Self-driving buses are being tested in China and they’re the largest of their kind yet – Yahoo: A small fleet of self-driving public buses has started running on the roads of China’s tech district of Shenzhen, Guangdong. The four buses are currently on trial, and will run over three stops on a public road about 1.2 km (0.75 mi) long. But where…
- Renault, Peugeot gain in Spain while diesel, VW sales fall – Automotive News: Sales of new cars in Spain rose 12 percent in November as buyers continue to shake off economic worries. Registrations increased to 104,170, according to industry association ANFAC. Sales to private customers increased 13 percent during the month. This…
- VW Unveils Electric Minibus in Race to Catch Ride-Pooling Trend – Bloomberg: The world’s largest automaker added Moia a year ago as its 13th brand alongside nameplates like Audi, Porsche and Skoda to expand beyond its main business of producing and selling vehicles and generate new sources of revenue. The foray is part of a…
- Volvo Cars sales up 6.1 pct in November as Chinese growth gives boost – Reuters: Geely-owned Volvo Car Group said in a statement on Monday its sales rose 6.1 percent year-on year in November boosted by strong growth in China, its biggest market. * Volvo says global retail sales in November reached 51,738 cars vs year-ago 48,755. *…
- Lamborghini expects to double sales with Urus – Automotive News: Lamborghini is preparing to shake up its business with the launch of its first SUV. The Urus is expected to double the supercar maker’s sales to 7,000 units by 2019. Now the company is deciding whether to add a 2+2 GT sports car that could, by the end…
- Honda says November China vehicle sales up 11.3 pct y/y – Reuters: Honda Motor Co’s sales in China rose 11.3 percent in November from a year ago to 140,972 vehicles, following a 14.5-percent increase in October, the company said on Monday. Honda’s January-November sales totalled 1.30 million vehicles, an increase of…
- Future Rolls-Royce Phantom to go electric – Autocar: Company CEO tells Autocar that the Phantom will skip hybrid and go full-electric, with seamless autonomy to come
- SUV is expected to double Lamborghini sales – Automotive News: Lamborghini is preparing to shake up its business with the launch of its first SUV. The Urus is expected to double the supercar maker’s sales to 7,000 units by 2019. Now the company is deciding whether to add a 2+2 GT sports car that could, by the end…
- Recall process still waiting for repair – Automotive News: WASHINGTON – When Mark Rosekind became the nation’s top vehicle safety regulator in 2014, massive recalls of General Motors ignition switches and Takata airbags underscored the difficulty of notifying millions of consumers about dangerous defects and …
- PSA outlines plan to de-GM-ify Opel – Automotive News: Opel’s turnaround plan under PSA Group has some interesting parallels with The Count of Monte Cristo, the French novel about unjustly imprisoned protagonist Edmond Dantes. Locked up for decades by former parent General Motors and forced to accept…
- Mini boss calls EV move ‘a natural evolution’ – Automotive News: The Mini E will arrive exactly 10 years after the BMW Group subsidiary started trials of the battery-powered model. Mini boss Peter Schwarzenbauer spoke about the automaker’s move into the EV sector during a conversation with Automotive News Europe…
- Plug-in 911 is on the way – about 2023 – Automotive News: Porsche CEO Oliver Blume told Automotive News that the company is developing a plug-in hybrid variant of the 911 targeted to debut midway through the car’s next generation. With the redesigned 911 set to go on sale in 2019, that means the midcycle…
- GM: We’ll make money on autonomous – and win – Automotive News: Kyle Vogt, CEO of GM’s Cruise Automation self-driving vehicle unit, outlined a future in which GM not only builds a viable business around today’s buzzwords of autonomy and mobility, but has such a “strong competitive advantage” that it forces some…
- Toyota shake-up: No time to lose – Automotive News: Car guy Akio Toyoda wasn’t always convinced there was a future for autonomous vehicles at Toyota Motor Corp. It was an American computer whiz, Gill Pratt, who helped change his mind. Pratt, 56, heads the company’s Silicon Valley-based Toyota Research…
- Hardwired habits hamper electric cars – Detroitnews: Mike Hildebrandt, a two-time Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid owner, likes to play a game with his car’s battery range. When the battery starts draining, he starts turning knobs, shutting off the heat or the radio, trying to “eke out every electric mile…
- Electric-car push drives premiums for greener metals – FT: From “feng shui copper” to low-carbon aluminium, the green energy revolution is jolting global commodity markets and spurring demand for higher-quality raw materials. As the world’s largest car companies focus on producing more electric vehicles, they…
- Range Rover unveils SV Autobiography PHEV at Los Angeles Intenational Auto Show – Autocar: Jaguar Land Rover’s touch pro duo infotainment system with twin high-definition touchscreen controls allows information to be swiped from one screen to the other, delivering functionality and ease of use. An new Zenith clock features on the rear centre…
- Lotus owners want to ‘rank alongside Ferrari and Porsche’ – Autocar:
- China’s AI Advances Help Its Tech Industry, and State Security – New York Times: China is pioneering a push into self-driving cars, which could heavily depend on voice technology. In September, iFlyTek introduced a new product, …
- Volkswagen starting countdown to first electric ID production car in 2019 – Autocar: Volkswagen says the largest product and technology offensive in the history of the brand is now taking shape. More than 100 weeks ahead of the planned start of production of the first model in the I.D. family, the Volkswagen management board agreed on…
- Chipmaker Renesas adding to electric-vehicle team in China – Nikkei: Renesas partnered with Great Wall Motors in May to develop chip technology for electric vehicles and self-driving cars, and recently set up a center overseeing chip solutions for electric vehicles in the Chinese market. “China is the trend setter in…
- Industrial strategy for a post-industrial economy – FT: The supermarket of the future may not inspire the same flights of fantasy as assembling self-driving cars but it may turn out to be slightly more important to a nation of shopkeepers. Saying all that, these technologies whether developed at home or…
- As GM’s Sales Rise in China, So Do Its Risks – WSJ: LIUZHOU, China-As Chinese cars improve in quality and challenge foreign auto makers’ dominance in China, Detroit’s General Motors Co. GM -0.70% has devised what it believes to be a winning strategy: build a local car of its own. Its Baojun brand, built…
- Driverless L cars? Sounds great. – Chicago Tribune: With artificial intelligence, robotics and self-driving cars, the opportunity is near for driverless buses and other types of public transit. Trains without engineers are already being considered for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit. This will…
- Opel outlines why it expects to thrive under new owner PSA – Automotive News: The Count of Monte Cristo, the celebrated French novel about unjustly imprisoned protagonist Edmond Dantes, has some interesting parallels with Opel’s turnaround plan under PSA Group. Locked up for decades in Europe by former parent General Motors and…
- Should automakers leave automaking to others? – Automotive News: What if a car company outsourced its entire vehicle production operations to a secondary entity that would operate like an automotive version of Foxconn, Apple’s gigantic … The services of the industry’s best-known contract manufacturer, Magna, are…
