PARIS, Jan 17 (Reuters) – A solid performance by Renault’s (RENA.PA) higher-value brands helped soften an overall drop in annual worldwide group sales at the French carmaker, as its focus on more profitable models pays off.

Renault’s (RENA.PA) worldwide group sales fell for the third year in a row in 2021, due notably to problems with the supply of chips used in vehicles.

Renault, whose Chief Executive Luca de Meo has moved from a strategy of chasing volume to creating value, said sales of passenger cars and light vehicles fell 4.5% to 2,696,401 units.

Continue reading “Renault’s higher-value brands focus pays off in 2021”

By Aditi Shah

NEW DELHI, Jan 15 (Reuters) – India, which has among the world’s deadliest roads, on Saturday proposed mandating at least six air bags in all passenger cars manufactured from Oct. 1.

The government wants automakers to provide two side air bags and two curtain air bags, to protect those seated in the rear seats, in addition to the already required two air bags for all vehicles.

The side air bags are to “help mitigate primarily torso injury” during a side crash, while the curtain air bags would “deploy in a side impact crash or roll over to help mitigate primarily head injury”, the ministry of road transport said in a notification.

Continue reading “India proposes mandatory side, curtain airbags in all cars from Oct”

By Aditi Shah

NEW DELHI, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) and automaker Mahindra & Mahindra (MAHM.NS) are among companies that have submitted bids under the country’s $2.4 billion battery scheme, two sources told Reuters.

India last year finalised an incentive program to encourage companies to invest in the local manufacturing of batteries as it looks to establish a domestic supply chain for clean transport and build storage for renewable energy.

Friday is the last day to submit technical bids.

Continue reading “Reliance, Hyundai, Mahindra bid for incentives under India’s $2.4 bln battery scheme”

By Steve Scherer and David Shepardson

OTTAWA/WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Unvaccinated Canadian truckers re-entering Canada from the United States must get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine themselves starting Jan. 15, the Canadian government said on Thursday, a day after the Canadian border agency dropped the rule.

Some 10% to 20%, or between 12,000-22,000 Canadian truck drivers, and 40%, or 16,000 U.S. truck drivers traveling into Canada would be sidelined by upcoming mandates in both countries, the Canadian Trucking Association (CTA) estimates. Driver shortages are further expected to fuel red-hot inflation, industry lobby groups have said.

Canadian federal government ministers issued a statement on Thursday, saying the Canadian border agency made an error on Wednesday when it said those requirements were dropped.

Continue reading “Unvaccinated truckers entering Canada must quarantine -government”

Reuters

SEOUL, Jan 14 (Reuters) – South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution (LGES) plans to build a battery joint venture (JV) with Japan’s Honda Motor Co Ltd (7267.T) in the United States, South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper said on Friday, citing an unnamed industry source.

The potential battery JV between LGES and Honda could cost as much as 4 trillion won ($3.4 billion) and have an annual production capacity of up to 40 gigawatt hours (GWh) of batteries, enough to power 600,000 electric vehicles (EVs), the newspaper reported. The report did not have details, such as the timeline of when the JV would be built and begin operations.

LGES, LG Chem Ltd’s (051910.KS) battery subsidiary, commands more than 20% of the global EV battery market and supplies Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), General Motors Co (GM.N) and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) among others.

Continue reading “S.Korea’s LG Energy Solution plans U.S. battery JV with Honda -report”

BERLIN, Jan 13 (Reuters) – BMW won’t scale up its own battery cell production for electric cars until the technology has developed further, the German company said on Thursday, taking a more cautious approach than some rivals despite record brand sales in 2021.

The automaker, which was also upbeat about hitting the top end of its 9.5%-10.5% profit margin estimate for 2021, currently buys battery cells from CATL (300750.SZ), Samsung (006400.KS) and Northvolt among others, but is building its own pilot plant.

“We have secured our needs for the next few years very well with the partners we have,” finance chief Nicolas Peter told Reuters, adding BMW wouldn’t rush to scale up its own cell production.

Continue reading “BMW cautious on bringing batteries in-house despite rising sales”

NEW DELHI, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) is “still working through a lot of challenges with the government” in India, its billionaire chief executive Elon Musk said on Twitter on Thursday, responding to a question on when it would launch its electric cars in the country.

Tesla had plans to begin selling imported cars in India last year and has been lobbying the government to slash import taxes on electric vehicles (EVs) before it enters the market. In October, it took its demands to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office.

Musk didn’t identify the “challenges” being worked on in his Twitter post.

Continue reading “Tesla’s Musk says ‘working through challenges’ with India government”

Reuters

BEIJING, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Volkswagen Group’s (VOWG_p.DE) China unit said on Thursday it has shut a plant it jointly runs with FAW Group in the city of Tianjin, as well as a component factory, due to recent COVID-19 outbreaks there.

“Due to the recent COVID-19 outbreaks both the FAW-VW vehicle plant and VW Automatic Transmission Tianjin component factory have been shut down since Monday,” a spokesperson told Reuters.

“Both plants have conducted COVID -19 testing twice for all employees this week and are waiting for the results. We hope to resume production very soon and catch up with lost production. The top priority remains the health and well-being of our employees.”

Continue reading “Volkswagen China shuts two plants in Tianjin due to COVID-19 outbreaks”

Reuters

BRUSSELS, Jan 13 (Reuters) – The European Union’s top court dismissed a complaint on Thursday brought by the cities of Brussels, Madrid and Paris against the European Commission in which they accused it of setting car emissions limits for nitrogen oxides too high.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) thereby overruled an earlier judgement in favour of the cities from the General Court, the EU’s second-highest chamber, which prompted an appeal by Germany, Hungary and the Commission.

The case revolves around the Commission’s introduction after the 2015 Dieselgate scandal of real driving emissions testing to complement laboratory procedures and its setting of emission limits on nitrogen oxides for light passenger and commercial vehicles.

Continue reading “EU court rejects cities’ bid to curb car emissions”

Reuters

Jan 12 (Reuters) – The BMW brand delivered an all-time high of 2.21 million vehicles in 2021, up 9.1% from the previous year, the company said on Wednesday, and more than doubled its sales of fully-electric vehicles globally.

The BMW Group delivered 2.52 million vehicles, an 8.4% increase from last year.

Continue reading “BMW brand delivers record 2.21 million vehicles in 2021”

By Joseph White

DETROIT, Jan 11 (Reuters) – General Motors Co (GM.N) said it will launch an online used vehicle market called CarBravo that will allow the automaker and its dealers to challenge Carvana Co (CVNA.N), CarMax Inc (KMX.N) and others profiting from selling secondhand vehicles.

GM’s CarBravo site will aggregate vehicles owned by Chevrolet, Buick and GMC dealers, as well as cars and trucks that GM Financial, the automaker’s consumer finance arm, controls after taking them back from rental car agencies or vehicle leases. GM officials said the company’s dealers have about 400,000 used vehicles in stock.

Continue reading “GM challenges Carvana with CarBravo online used car marketplace”

By Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh

• NEV sales a bright spot as China pushes to curb air pollution
• Industry body expects chip shortage to ease this year
• CAAM expects NEV sales to surge 47% in 2022

BEIJING, Jan 12 (Reuters) – China’s auto sales last year grew for the first time since 2017, industry data showed on Wednesday, boosted partly by a jump of 1.5 times in sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs).

Overall sales in the world’s biggest car market rose 3.8% year-on-year, after monthly sales of 2.79 million vehicles in December brought total sales for 2021 to 26.28 million，data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed.

Continue reading “China’s annual auto sales climb for first time since 2017”

Jan 10 (Reuters) – Rivian Automotive Inc (RIVN.O) produced 1,015 vehicles by the end of 2021, the Amazon-backed electric pickup truck maker reported in a filing on Monday, in line with its lowered expectations.

Last month, Rivian said it expected production to be “a few hundred vehicles short” of its 2021 target of 1,200 because of supply chain constraints. read more

The company delivered 920 vehicles by the end of 2021, according to the filing. (https://bit.ly/3fbzFvS)

Separately, Rivian said Rod Copes retired as chief operating officer.

“Rod began a phased retirement from Rivian several months ago, affording the team continuity as we moved toward production ramp,” the company said in an emailed statement on Monday.

Continue reading “Rivian manufactured 1,015 vehicles in 2021, says COO retired”

Reuters

Jan 10 (Reuters) – Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) expects inflation to ease later this year but warned there would be no significant improvement in the global semiconductor shortage, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

The German carmaker was well-hedged against inflation, Antlitz told the Journal on Monday, adding that the company had mitigated the impact of raw material and component price increases through rigorous cost-cutting.

Continue reading “Volkswagen CFO expects inflation to ease and chip shortage to drag on – WSJ”

Reuters

Jan 11 (Reuters) – Companies across the United States are revising their back-to-office plans, driven by rising uncertainty around the Omicron COVID-19 variant that has pushed up infections to record levels in the world’s biggest economy.

U.S. financial firms were among the first to encourage employees to return to offices, but rising cases have forced most of the major banks to rethink their plans and tighten vaccination mandates. read more

Continue reading “Factbox: Corporate America revamps back-to-office plans on Omicron threat”

By Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh

BEIJING, Jan 11 (Reuters) – U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) sold 70,847 China-made vehicles in December, the highest monthly rate since it started manufacturing in Shanghai in 2019, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed on Tuesday.

Tesla’s December sales, which included 245 for export, were almost three times the amount achieved in the same month last year and 34% higher than November’s sales. read more

It also brought Tesla’s total sales of China-made cars for last year to at least 473,078, according to Reuters’ calculations of CPCA’s data, which prior to April did not publish figures for Tesla’s China-made car exports.

Continue reading “Tesla sold a record 70,847 China-made vehicles in Dec -CPCA”

By Norihiko Shirouzu

BEIJING, Jan 11 (Reuters) – Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) said it would likely double sales of its ID battery electric vehicles in China this year and aims to do even better but the automaker could be hamstrung by a shortage of semiconductors.

The ID series, which Volkswagen produces at its Chinese joint ventures with SAIC Motor (600104.SS) and FAW Group, is the backbone of its EV ambitions in China, the world’s largest auto market.

The German automaker sold 70,625 of its ID electric vehicles in China last year, missing its goal of selling 80,000 to 100,000 cars, with production also affected by regional COVID-19 outbreaks in addition to chip-related issues.

Continue reading “Volkswagen aims to double electric car sales in China this year after missing targets”

Reuters

BERLIN, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Ford (F.N) has appointed Audi’s Europe sales chief Martin Sander into a new role heading up its German operations as well as running passenger vehicles for Europe, the company said on Monday.

The new position will combine the role of chair of Ford-Werke GmbH in Germany and General Manager of passenger vehicles for Europe, effective from June 1 and based in Cologne.

Sander, who was born in Germany and is currently based in Ingolstadt, was previously senior vice-president of Sales in Europe for Audi, following a 25-year career at Volkswagen Group (VOWG_p.DE).

Continue reading “Ford hires Audi’s Sander to lead Ford Germany, passenger vehicles Europe”

By Nick Carey

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce, a unit of Germany’s BMW , said on Monday its sales soared 49% to a record high in 2021 despite the global coronavirus pandemic, as demand worldwide for luxury vehicles surged.

In an online presentation, Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös said the carmaker sold 5,586 vehicles to customers in more than 50 countries, the largest number in its 117-year history despite all the volatility wrought by the pandemic.

“In the luxury sector as a whole, the struggle was not so much focused on attempting to find customers, but rather producing enough product to satisfy huge customer demand,” Müller-Ötvös said.

Continue reading “Strong demand revs Rolls-Royce car sales to a record high in 2021”

By Hyunjoo Jin

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Pure electric cars are making all the headlines, but their gasoline-electric hybrid rivals quietly achieved record sales in the United States last year, industry data showed.

While the likes of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and Ford Motor Co (F.N) pushed for electric vehicle sales, Asian automakers boosted hybrid vehicle line-ups, as many customers still shun EVs due to higher prices, limited driving range or lack of charging stations.

By Joseph White

DETROIT, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) will show a production version of its long-awaited ID.Buzz, an electric reincarnation of its beloved Microbus or Kombi, on March 9 and plans to launch it in the United States in late 2023, the company said on Friday.

The ID.Buzz is one of “the most anticipated and most hyped” models anticipated from the Volkswagen brand since the company launched its new Beetle in the late 1990s, Scott Keogh, head of Volkswagen’s North American operations said during a media call.

Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess tweeted on Thursday “The legend returns on 03/09/22!” The tweet contained a sketch of the profile of the ID.Buzz van.

Continue reading “Finally, Volkswagen brings back the Microbus, with a battery”

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) – General Motors Co (GM.N) on Sunday said it had agreed to recognize California’s authority to set vehicle emission standards under the Clean Air Act.

The move will make the Detroit automaker eligible for government fleet purchases by the state of California, GM said.

The automaker made the commitment to recognize California’s authority in a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom. GM said in the letter it is “committed to complying with California’s regulations.”

Continue reading “GM recognizes California’s authority to set vehicle emissions rules”

MILAN, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Ferrari (RACE.MI) unveiled on Monday details of leadership changes aimed at boosting technology and product exclusivity as the luxury sports car maker embraces electrification under new chief executive Benedetto Vigna.

Vigna, a tech industry veteran and a former top executive at chip maker STMicroelectronics (STM.BN), took the CEO role at the beginning of September with a task to drive Ferrari into the new era of cleaner, silent and interconnected mobility.

In one of Vigna’s first major moves Ferrari last month said it was shaking up its leadership, with three top executives leaving the company, including Chief Technology Officer Michael Leiters. read more

Continue reading “Ferrari unveils new management team to face electrification challenge”

General Motors Co’s (GM.N) electric commercial vehicle business, BrightDrop, said on Wednesday it has signed a new deal to supply EVs to retail giant Walmart Inc (WMT.N) and expanded its supply agreement with delivery firm FedEx Corp. (FDX.N)

Financial terms of the deals, announced in conjunction with the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, were not disclosed. Continue reading “GM’s electric commercial vehicle unit signs deals with Walmart, FedEx”

Volvo Cars (VOLCARb.ST) and self-driving sensor maker Luminar Technologies Inc (LAZR.O) said on Wednesday a hands-free driving system called “Ride Pilot” will be first released in California, though the companies did not give a specific date.

Volvo is planning to deploy the technology, which will allow the car to fully take over driving tasks in some limited situations, in a forthcoming all-electric SUV that Volvo plans to announce later this year. Continue reading “Volvo to debut self-driving feature in California using Luminar sensor”

Vietnam’s VinFast plans to build electric vehicle battery cells and packs in a new U.S. manufacturing complex, its global chief executive told Reuters, as the company pledged to transform itself into an all-electric automaker by the end of this year.

VinFast, part of Vingroup JSC (VIC.HM), the largest conglomerate in the Communist-ruled country, became the country’s first full-fledged domestic car maker when gasoline-powered models built under its own badge hit the streets in 2019. Continue reading “Vietnam car maker VinFast to build U.S. battery factory as it goes all-electric”

Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS) envisions an interactive and partly virtual future it calls “metamobility,” where a variety of robotic devices interact with humans to provide a broad range of mobility services, from automated individual transportation to remote control of robots in “smart” factories.

Hyundai executives, led by Chief Executive Euisun Chung, elaborated on that vision in a media briefing at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Continue reading “Beyond cars: Hyundai says ‘metamobility’ will link real and virtual worlds in the future”

Amazon.com Inc and Stellantis NV (STLA.MI) said Wednesday they will collaborate to develop cars and trucks with Amazon software in the dashboards, and deploy electric vans made by Stellantis on Amazon’s delivery network.

The agreements expand Amazon’s efforts to get a bigger foothold in the transportation industry, and could help Stellantis close the gap with Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) in developing vehicles with sophisticated, software-powered infotainment features that are connected to the data processing cloud. Continue reading “Amazon and Stellantis partner to deploy smarter cars, cleaner vans”

The demand for electric vehicles pushed U.S. automakers last year to unveil plans to spend billions of dollars to electrify gasoline models or introduce electric cars and trucks in a bid to catch up with market leader Tesla Inc (TSLA.O).

General Motors Co (GM.N) and Ford Motor Co (F.N) are among those leading the chase. Last week, Ford’s market value rose above GM for the first time in five years in a sign of increasing investor confidence in its electrification strategy. Continue reading “Factbox: U.S. automakers line up EV models to take on Tesla”

Honda Motor Co (7267.T) and its Chinese joint venture partner Dongfeng Motor (0489.HK) said on Thursday they would build a new factory in Wuhan to exclusively manufacture electric vehicles (EVs) from 2024.

The factory would have a production capacity of 120,000 vehicles a year, Honda said in a statement. Continue reading “Honda China JV announces 120,000 units-a-year EV factory”

 Daimler’s (DAIGn.DE) Mercedes-Benz has informed owners of its luxury cars of a technical defect that could spark a fire, the company said on Tuesday, adding a recall was not possible because parts needed to fix the problem are not available.

The issue was traced to possible leakage in the coolant pump that could heat up components, Daimler said. Continue reading “Daimler warns car owners of fire risk it lacks parts to fix”

Our Next Energy (ONE), a two-year-old Michigan startup, said on Wednesday it had tested a prototype of its new battery in a Tesla Model S, driving 752 miles (1,210 kilometers) before recharging.

ONE aims to begin producing battery packs that will deliver similar range — about double that of most existing electric vehicles — by late 2023, according to Mujeeb Ijaz, ONE’s founder and chief executive. Continue reading “Startup ONE says battery prototype delivered 750-mile range”

Japan’s Sony Group Corp (6758.T) plans to launch a company this spring to examine entering the electric vehicle market, looking to harness its strengths in entertainment and sensors to play a bigger role in next-generation mobility.

The new company, Sony Mobility Inc, comes as the Japanese tech giant is “exploring a commercial launch” of electric vehicles, Sony chairman and president Kenichiro Yoshida told a news conference, speaking ahead of the CES technology trade fair in the United States. Continue reading “Sony looks to electric cars for its next big hit”