Lotus owner Geely to develop smart car technology with Tencent January 19, 2021 Lotus and Volvo owner Geely announced this morning it has signed an agreement with Tencent to develop smart vehicle technology. The company said it aims to transform car cockpits to enable more mobility service applications, alongside testing autonomous driving. The Geely and Tencent partnership is the latest in a series of tech and auto companies [...]
Audi latest carmaker to delay production amid parts shortages January 18, 2021 Audi has become the latest carmaker to be forced into delaying production due to a global shortage of semi-conductors. The German auto giant has had to put more than 10,000 of its staff on furlough as a result of the lack of chips, chief executive Markus Duesmann told the FT. The production pause comes after [...]
Britishvolt: The batterymaker leading the charge towards the 2030 diesel car ban January 14, 2021 2020 was a dire year for the UK car industry, but buried amid the reports of tumbling vehicle sales was one piece of promising news. For the first time ever, sales of electric vehicles comprised 10 per cent of all new car sales, figures from auto body the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) [...]
European car giants count cost of dire year for auto industry January 12, 2021 European car giants this morning began to lay out of the full cost of the coronavirus pandemic on their performances in 2020. Over the course of the year, vehicle sales plummeted as factories and showrooms were shuttered around the world. French auto firm Renault said that worldwide sales fell 21.3 per cent last year as [...]
Jaguar Land Rover secures second straight quarter of sales growth January 11, 2021 Jaguar Land Rover closed out a brutal year for the car industry with a second successive quarter of sales growth, the luxury car brand reported today. The auto firm sold 128,469 cars in the last quarter, up 13.1 per cent from 113,569 vehicles sold in the preceding quarter. However, as a result of the pandemic, [...]
UK can still be gateway to Europe for car giants after Brexit, says auto boss January 6, 2021 The UK can still be the gateway to Europe for foreign carmakers despite the challenges of leaving the EU, the head of the country’s biggest auto trade body has said. Mike Hawes, the chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said that the UK would still be able to compete with [...]
Honda halts Swindon car production for second time in a month due to supply chain disruption January 5, 2021 Honda this afternoon said that it would halt production at its plant in Swindon due to supply chain disruption – the second time it has done so in a month. In a statement, the carmaker said that production would stop today and tomorrow, with a view to starting again on Thursday. It said that the [...]
Stars in their eyes: PSA and Fiat shareholders approve mega-merger January 4, 2021 Shareholders in Peugeot-owner PSA and Fiat Chrysler (FCA) have today approved the mega-merger of the two firms, a deal which will create the world’s fourth-largest auto firm. The new entity, called Stellantis, will comprise 14 different brands, including FCA’s Fiat, Maserati and US-focused Jeep, Dodge and Ram to PSA’s Peugeot, Citroen, Opel and DS. Stellantis [...]
UK PMIs: Manufacturing beats forecasts again on Brexit stockpiling boom January 4, 2021 UK manufacturing activity increased for the seventh straight month in December as factories brushed off the impact of the second national lockdown. The IHS Markit/Cips manufacturing purchasing managers (PMI) index stood at 57.5 in December, with any score above the 50 mark indicating growth. The figure, a 37-month high, beat economists’ forecasts of a reading of 57.3 [...]
McLaren considering listing in bid to raise £500m – report December 10, 2020 British supercar firm McLaren is mulling a public listing in a bid to raise cash in order to shore up its finances after taking a battering from the coronavirus pandemic. The carmaker is looking to raise up to £500m over the next 12 months, and is considering going public via a deal with a special [...]