- China’s Tesla Wannabe NIO Gets Mixed Early Reviews From Analysts – Bloomberg: NIO Inc. got a mixed early reception on Wall Street as analysts initiated coverage on the Chinese electric-car maker with a mix of buys and hold ratings …
- The 2018 Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti drives beautifully, but some people are concerned about the quality – CNBC: The Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti drives well, but some people are concerned about quality issues that CNBC wasn’t able to replicate.
- MIT researchers develop a chip design to take us closer to computers that work like human brains – CNBC: Scientists at MIT are developing brains-on-a-chip for neuromorphic computing. It would allow processing facts, patterns and learning at lightning speed and could fast-forward the development of humanoids and autonomous driving technology.
- Tesla launches most substantial update yet for Model S, X and 3 – Autocar: Version 9.0 software update brings new features, while Model 3 gets glowing safety report from NHTSA Tesla has released a new over-the-air software update for the Model S, X and 3, said to be the most substantial the brand has ever released.
- GM’s China sales slip into reverse, dropping 15% as market stalls – Automotive News: General Motors’ quarterly sales in China fell for the first time in over a year, hit by faltering economic growth and a wider slowdown in the world’s biggest auto market amid a whipsawing trade war with the United States.
- Daimler CFO to leave following Kallenius’ appointment as next CEO – Automotive News: Daimler CFO Bodo Uebber will leave the company, marking the first top-level departure after the automaker picked Ola Kallenius to take over as CEO from Dieter Zetsche.
- Electric Audi RS3 drag races Huracan Performante, 911 GT2 RS – Yahoo: On paper, the electric RS3 is far superior to the Lamborghini and Porsche, besting them 540 bhp and 480 bhp, respectively, and the power difference is noticeable. Neither can best the Audi. The first race against the Huracan has the Audi getting a …
- Tesla Is Looking for a Manager to Handle Elon Musk – Bloomberg: That’s pretty much the job posting Tesla Inc. agreed to as part of the settlement nine days ago with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which requires the company to appoint an independent chairman to replace Elon Musk and add two directors …
- BRIEF-Geely Automobile Holdings Says Sept Total Sales Volume Up 14 Pct – Yahoo: BRIEF-Geely Automobile Holdings Says Sept Total Sales Volume Up 14 Pct. Reuters 8 October 2018, 10:15 AM GMT. Oct 8 (Reuters) – Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd: * TOTAL SALES VOLUME FOR MONTH OF SEPTEMBER 2018 WAS 124,429 UNITS, UP …
- Skoda adds Virtual Cockpit option to its larger models – Autocar: Digital instruments and map display now available to order on Karoq, Octavia and Superb; Kodiaq to get the tech soon Skoda has become the latest VW Group manufacturer to adopt the ‘Virtual Cockpit’ digital instrument display as an option across many…
- Faraday Future Is Out of Cash Again and Investors Aren’t Happy – Fortune: Faraday Future is out of cash. Again. According to a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange first reported by Reuters, the intended Tesla challenger …
- London court blocks Google mass legal action over iPhone data collection – Reuters: London’s High Court on Monday blocked an attempt to bring legal action against Alphabet Inc’s Google over claims it had collected sensitive data from 4 million iPhone users.
- Daimler Extends Management Reshuffle – WSJ: Daimler declined to comment beyond a statement that said Mr. Uebber had informed the chairman Monday “that he would not seek an extension of his contract that runs until December 2019.” Mr. Uebber wasn’t available for a comment. The auto maker is …
- Aston Martin share capital released onto London Stock Exchange – Autocar: Aston Martin has released its entire share capital onto the London Stock exchange main market, following its initial floatation on the 3rd of October. The amount of available shares totals 228,002,890, up from the initial 57,000,723 share offering that …
- Daimler CFO Uebber will leave automaker – Automotive News: Daimler’s Chief Financial Officer Bodo Uebber will leave the company, marking the first top-level departure after the automaker picked …
- Mercedes-Benz reveals deliveries fall as new emissions standards bite – FT: Daimler, the world’s largest premium carmaker, will need all hands on deck to deal with myriad challenges at the moment. Its stock price is depressed, it must invest more in electric and autonomous technology, and it faces trade war battles. Earlier …
- Audi’s Europe sales fall 56% on WLTP – Automotive News: Audi’s European sales fell 56 percent in September due to supply bottlenecks caused by the introduction of Worldwide harmonized …
- Faraday Future seeks to scrap share sale to Evergrande unit – FT: Shares in the Hong Kong-listed healthcare unit of property developer China Evergrande sank by a fifth on Monday, following an announcement that …
- Audi warns of sales fluctuation after Europe sales fall 56% on WLTP – Automotive News: Volkswagen Group’s premium brand Audi said it expected sales in Europe to fluctuate in the coming months after a 56 percent slump …
- GM China sales drop 15 pct in Q3 as market stalls – Reuters: General Motors Co’s China sales fell 14.9 percent in the third quarter of the year, hit by a wider slowdown in the market and faltering Chinese economic growth amid a whipsawing trade war with the United States.
- 2019 Ford Focus ST to use detuned Focus RS engine – Autocar: Ford is well under way developing an all-new, more engaging Mk4 Focus ST, and barely disguised prototypes have been spotted testing ahead of a planned early 2019 launch. The latest generation of Ford’s Volkswagen Golf GTI rival is set to ditch the old …
- Vietnam’s first car-hailing app FastGo heads overseas – Nikkei: FastGo, a Vietnamese ride-hailing app, plans to launch its service in Malaysia and Myanmar in December as it hopes to become …
- VW top-sellers now WLTP compliant, automaker says – Automotive News: The best-selling versions of all VW models now conform to WLTP rules, easing a delivery bottleneck that has hit sales.
- Evergrande Health slumps as EV maker Faraday seeks to scrap stake sale – Reuters: * Evergrande says has been sued by Faraday for failure to pay
- ‘Solid choices’ head FCA’s key US brands – Automotive News: In reshuffling Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ executive team last week, new CEO Mike Manley handed key brand responsibilities to two well-known, longtime colleagues with reputations as brand-growers. Tim Kuniskis, the father of Dodge Hellcat-mania, now …
- AvtoVAZ CEO Yves Caracatzanis has a tough job – Automotive News: AvtoVAZ CEO Yves Caracatzanis has one of the toughest jobs in the industry.
- Tesla owners volunteer to help with ‘delivery hell’ – Automotive News: Tesla appears to be trying to expand its delivery operation, but volunteers assume their work isn’t over.
- VW strategist Thomas Sedran on VW-Ford commercial truck partnership – Automotive News: VW strategist Thomas Sedran thinks Ford is an ideal partner #8212; at least for commercial trucks.
- Porsche sees opportunity to broaden subscriptions – Automotive News: Porsche’s limited trial of a subscription service is delivering positive results and the automaker is now considering more.
- Can USMCA, the successor to NAFTA, get through a skeptical Congress? – Automotive News: Lawmakers, industry and interest groups are withholding full-throated support for the deal until some details become clearer, such as how the new regional content and minimum-wage requirements for autos would be applied and enforced.
- Honda brings special skill to GM’s Cruise self-driving venture – Automotive News: Honda has much to offer Cruise, the young startup backed by GM. Honda’s move to invest billions in the self-driving tech company gives new credence to the San Francisco operation and intensifies its competition with Google’s Waymo.
- Bigland, Kuniskis key to new FCA management structure – Automotive News: Of the roughly dozen appointments new FCA CEO Mike Manley made last week, his successors at Jeep and Ram were arguably the most important as those brands supply the cash flow to keep the company afloat.
- Vietnamese carmaker VinFast starts on the fast track – Automotive News: Longtime GM executive Jim DeLuca is bringing a keen sense of American-Vietnamese history to VinFast, the well-funded and ambitious Vietamese automaker that made its global debut at the Paris auto show last week.
- PSA set to make key decisions about its return to U.S. sales – Automotive News: PSA Group’s methodical return to North America so far has been marked by futuristic steps into mobility services. Now, it’s about to get more traditional.
- Volkswagen, Microsoft Team Up to Develop Connected Vehicle Fleet – Yahoo: Volkswagen wants to undergo a digital transformation and the German automaker has teamed up with Microsoft Corp. to do it. As such, Volkswagen and Microsoft will collaborate to develop the ‘Volkswagen Automotive Cloud.’ The Volkswagen Automotive …
- Ten years later, more stories of survival – Automotive News: The plan called for a massive sale that would liquidate six months’ worth of Dodge inventory within three weeks, and then going all-in on the Hyundai …
- Short leash may be stiffest penalty for Musk, Tesla – Automotive News: If you thought Tesla and Elon Musk escaped the clutches of the Securities and Exchange Commission with a fairly modest punishment, settling civil fraud charges for a mere $20 million each, think again. A clause requiring Tesla’s board to establish a …
- Toyota deal gives SoftBank a robocar plan – Automotive News: TOKYO – The Japanese telephone and tech giant SoftBank Corp., which has been investing rapidly in the automotive sector, last week inked a deal with Toyota Motor Corp. to launch an autonomous mobility company that would deliver on-demand services …
- Honda deal vaults GM, Cruise forward – Automotive News: Cruise, which GM acquired in 2016, now has the backing of a renowned technology investment firm and a rival automaker, Honda Motor Co., which last week agreed to invest $2.75 billion in Cruise over the next 12 years. That includes an immediate $750 …
- China’s carmakers face threats at home, abroad – Automotive News: Last year, Geely even bought a Massachusetts company called Terrafugia that is developing flying cars. And, in the clearest sign of the times, Li splurged in early 2018 on a 9.7 percent stake valued at some $9 billion in Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler …
- UK welcome to join Pacific trade pact after Brexit, says Japanese PM – Guardian: The firm, which employs 7,000 at its plant in Sunderland, added: “We urge UK and EU negotiators to work collaboratively towards an orderly balanced Brexit that will continue to encourage mutually beneficial trade.” Earlier, Toyota warned that a no-deal …
- The Suzuki Katana is back – Autocar: Suzuki’s offering is in the same ballpark for wet weight as the others too at a claimed 215kg fully fuelled. The package includes a slipper clutch, ABS brakes and three-way traction control. Lighting is an LED affair this time, including indicators …
- That mysterious light in the sky? It was a SpaceX launch – Latimes: And Elon Musk and his team at SpaceX put one on Sunday night that managed to turn the city’s attention away from the Dodgers and to the sky – for a …
- Toyota Now Accepting Reservations for All-New Toyota Supra, But – Yahoo: The long wait is over for Toyota Supra fans as Toyota has announced that it is now accepting online reservations for the first 900 units of the much-awaited sports car. There is a catch though as the reservation is strictly limited to the European market.
- We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero or face more floods – Guardian: By contrast, a path that would prevent a rise of much more than 1.5C would require annual emissions to fall by about 50% between now and 2030, …
- Uber Driver’s Death Marks Seventh For-Hire Driver Suicide Within 1 Year – New York Times: About two dozen people gathered outside a Washington Heights subway station on Sunday afternoon to remember an Uber driver who became the …
- Upcoming Skoda Octavia RS to use hybrid power – Autocar: Christian Strube, member of the Skoda board of management for technical development, recently described the latest Octavia as a good option for hybrid power, singling the RS version out in particular. At the moment, the Octavia RS 245 model uses a …