Europe

Gigi and Glenn Moss took delivery of their 40th anniversary present to each other on July 8: a complementary pair of Rolls-Royces. The white Rolls-Royce Phantom Tempus and red Rolls-Royce Dawn Black Badge are the first cars that the California couple has ever owned from the storied brand. But they are the first of many,

MILAN — Stellantis said on Friday it had signed a 12 billion euro ($14 billion) revolving credit facility with a group of 29 banks, “available for use in general corporate purposes.” The facility is made up of two tranches worth 6 billion euros each, with three- and five-year maturities, which can be both extended by

It will take ZF Friedrichshafen months to return to full production capacity at a suspension parts factory in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany, after flooding caused damages estimated to be in the millions of euros. All of the plant’s assembly lines, which make specialized valves for damping systems, have to be rebuilt. In the interim, ZF will

HAMBURG — Volkswagen could not produce several hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the first half of 2021 due to the ongoing shortage of semiconductors, a management board member said. VW is working hard to soften the impact that the lack of chips has had on the industry, procurement chief Murat Aksel told shareholders at

DETROIT — The global semiconductor chip shortage that has hit automakers around the world and constrained vehicle production will easily drag into next year, Stellantis Carlos Tavares said. The comments by Tavares at an Automotive Press Association event in Detroit on Wednesday echoed those made by Daimler earlier in the day. “The semiconductor crisis, from

BERLIN — BMW said on Tuesday nearly all its German plants were affected by an ongoing shortage of semiconductors that are currently preventing the automaker from completing around 10,000 cars. The Munich-based company earlier this month said that the bottleneck, which has affected carmakers around the world, has already led to 30,000 vehicles in lost

LONDON — Stellantis said on Monday it will temporarily halt a shift at its Vauxhall van factory in Luton, England, due to the large number workers isolating to halt the spread of COVID-19. “The safety of our staff is of the highest priority at Stellantis,” the company said in a statement. “In order to protect

Robert Bosch is considering closing a plant in Munich that makes components for cars powered by internal combustion engines, local newspaper Muenchner Merkur said on Sunday. Germany’s coming transition from combustion to electric cars will lead to “considerable overcapacity and the need for adjustment,” according to a company spokeswoman cited by the newspaper. Demand for

PRAGUE — The Czech Republic is in talks with two potential investors, including Volkswagen Group, for an electric battery cell factory and is ready to offer billions of crowns in an incentive package, Industry Minister Karel Havlicek said. The country, which is home to VW Group’s Czech brand Skoda, is one of the locations that

LONDON — The McLaren Group announced a 550 million pound ($758 million) equity investment, with much of it coming from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and global investment firm Ares Management. McLaren Group includes the British supercar maker as well as McLaren Racing, which competes in Formula One and IndyCar in the United States

Aston Martin has unveiled its first plug-in hybrid model with the 937-hp Valhalla hypercar. The Valhalla is the second of three mid-engine models Aston Martin has promised as it shifts into segments long dominated by Ferrari. Deliveries of the delayed Valkyrie are planned to start September this year, with a lower-priced mid-engine supercar called Vanquish

Automakers criticized the European Commission’s proposal to effectively ban the sale of gasoline and diesel cars in the bloc by the middle of the next decade. The Commission’s new climate package to slash planet-warming CO2 emissions, announced Wednesday, includes a target to reduce CO2 from new cars sold in the bloc to zero by 2035.

BERLIN — The European Commission will propose an absolute cut-off date after which all automakers will have to stop producing combustion-powered cars in the EU, its president, Ursula von der Leyen, said. Even though a dozen European automakers had already announced they would switch to zero-emissions cars between 2028 and 2035, a legal cut-off date

PARIS — France is resisting the European Union effectively phasing out combustion-engine car sales by 2035, advocating for a more lenient target for the end of the decade and a longer leash for plug-in hybrid models. The French government backs a target to reduce emissions from cars 55 percent by 2030 and for hybrids to

PARIS — Renault will reveal the Megane-e full-electric compact car and a prototype version of the Renault 5 retro-themed EV at the Munich auto show in September. The Megane-e will be one of the most critical new models to be launched under CEO Luca de Meo since he took over in July 2020. It has

French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with executives and union representatives from the automobile sector on Monday to discuss the green transition, ahead of the publication of a sweeping climate-policy package by the European Union. The meeting will revolve around “what’s at stake for the sector,” Macron’s office said on Saturday. The European Commission is

FRANKFURT — Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess received a contract extension — giving fresh backing to the boss overseeing the most aggressive push into electric vehicles by an established automaker. Diess will remain in his post until October 2025, his 67th birthday, VW said in a statement on Friday. Diess and his management team “have

Polestar, the electric-car maker controlled by Volvo Cars and its owner Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, is in talks to go public through a merger with Gores Guggenheim, a blank check-firm, according to people with knowledge of the matter.  A transaction may value the combined company at around $25 billion, the people said. No deal has

Renault CEO Luca de Meo said the effects of the global semiconductor shortage will be felt through next year, a warning that doesn’t bode well for a recovery in auto production. Major suppliers have cautioned Renault that the shortage is “a structural thing that will be with us through 2022,” de Meo said Wednesday on

LONDON — Lotus will leverage owner Geely’s connection with Daimler to use an engine from Mercedes’ performance arm AMG in its Emira sports car. The Emira was unveiled on Tuesday ahead of its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed auto show on Thursday. It’s the second model after the Evija full-electric hypercar to

FRANKFURT — Volkswagen Group’s Porsche brand said it will form a joint venture with Croatia’s Rimac Automobili that will include VW’s Bugatti brand, confirming plans mapped out earlier this year. The venture will be called Bugatti-Rimac. Rimac will own 55 percent, with Porsche owning the rest. The new entity will be established in the fourth

Volvo’s goal to sell 800,000 vehicles globally by 2020 was derailed by the pandemic, but the automaker’s rapid recovery over the last 12 months has put the target within reach again. “Right now we are on a run rate of 770,000,” Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson told Automotive News Europe. “I think we will finish 2021

Tesla delivered 201,250 cars worldwide in the second quarter, a record for the electric-car maker led by CEO Elon Musk. While the company doesn’t break out sales by region, business appeared healthy in China. The bulk of the period’s sales were of the Model 3 sedan and the Model Y crossover, which are produced in

Slovakian battery startup InoBat has appointed two more former Aston Martin executives to top positions within the company, who will join the supercar maker’s ex-CEO, Andy Palmer. Paul Hancock will be chief financial officer at InoBat after leaving his position as deputy chief financial officer at Aston Martin. Hancock had worked at the British automaker

BMW has established a second corporate venture fund, earmarking $300 million to bankroll startup companies focused on sustainability, advanced manufacturing and future transportation, the automaker said. BMW i Ventures, based in Mountain View, California, will manage the fund, as well as continuing to disburse money from its initial 500-million-euro ($593 million) fund. The two funds

Volvo Cars laid out an extensive road map to becoming a fully electric car maker by 2030, including plans to sell 600,000 battery electric vehicles at mid-decade and build a European battery gigafactory in 2026. Volvo also said it plans to equip many of its future vehicles with self-driving technology, including standard lidar sensors from

FRANKFURT — Renault and Royal Dutch Shell are among companies interested in taking a stake in electric vehicle charging group Ionity, two people familiar with the matter said. Ionity, whose owners include Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW and Ford, in March said it was examining ways to expand its network of fast-chargers across Europe, adding additional shareholders

LONDON — Nissan is expected to confirm as soon as this week that it will build a battery gigafactory in Sunderland, northeastern England, as part of its electric vehicle strategy. “I understand Nissan will confirm as soon as this week details of its EV strategy for the UK, including the construction of a battery gigafactory

Daimler is on target to spin off its heavy truck business by the end of the year, finance chief Harald Wilhelm said. “We are right on schedule with the detailed preparations for this complex project and want to list Daimler Truck as an independent company by the end of this year,” Wilhelm told Automobilwoche, a

BERLIN — Volkswagen brand will stop selling combustion engines cars in Europe by 2035 as it shifts to full-electric vehicles, but later in the U.S. and China, its sales chief, Klaus Zellmer, told a German newspaper. “In Europe, we will exit the business with internal combustion vehicles between 2033 and 2035, in the United States