Renault board examining £28bn merger proposal from Fiat Chrysler May 27, 2019 The board of French carmaker Renault are studying a proposed £28bn merger plan put to them by American-Italian rival Fiat Chrysler (FCA) today. The deal would create the third-largest car company worldwide behind Japan’s Toyota and Germany’s Volkswagen with sales of 8.7m per year. Investors in both companies welcomed the proposed deal which aims to [...]
Global stocks reverse falls after reports Trump will delay auto tariffs May 15, 2019 Global stock markets have rallied after US President Donald Trump was reported to be planning to delay tariffs on car imports by up to six months. Read more: US stocks fall as industrial sector contracts for third time in four months Investors had been in sell-off mode amid heightened trade tensions between the US and [...]
Dieselgate: Porsche hit with €535m fine after selling cars with emissions cheating Volkswagen and Audi engines May 7, 2019 Prosecutors in Germany have slapped a €535m (£485m) fine on sports car maker Porsche, as punishment for lapses in supervision which let the company cheat diesel emissions tests. Read more: Former VW boss faces criminal charges for emissions scandal The company’s development department neglected its legal obligations, said prosecutors in Stuttgart, which ultimately led to [...]
BMW profits crash 76 per cent as it gears up for €1.4bn EU antitrust fine May 7, 2019 German car manufacturer BMW has posted a steep fall in first-quarter profits after it put aside €1.4bn (£1.2bn) for a possible EU antitrust fine. Read more: BMW flashes warning lights as mounting costs hit forecasts The figures Group revenues slipped a marginal 0.9 per cent to €22.5bn in the first quarter. Pre-tax profit plunged 76 [...]
Car maker shares fall on Donald Trump tariff hike threats as US – China trade war escalates May 6, 2019 Shares in European car makers tumbled today after Donald Trump threatened to hike up tariffs on Chinese imports to the US, marking an escalation in the ongoing trade war between the two countries. The Stoxx Europe 600 Automobiles and Parts index was down 3.3 per cent following Trump’s remarks as all of its 16 component [...]
Volkswagen squirrels away €1bn contingency fund to pay emissions scandal legal fees May 2, 2019 Volkswagen has set aside €1bn (£858m) for the ongoing legal battle surrounding its emissions cheating scandal, it revealed this morning. Read more: Volkswagen to build Tesla-style gigafactories for electric car batteries Europe’s biggest car maker said the contingency fund had hit its operating profit in its first quarter trading update, adding that it expects the [...]
Leadership needs a rethink to keep up with the modern world April 16, 2019 The problems in leadership won’t have escaped you. They’re all around – from Oxfam and the Catholic Church in the not-for-profit world, to Bernie Madoff, Libor-rigging, and Volkswagen in the private sector. What do all these have in common? Was it a lack of information? No – in the age of data, all these organisations knew [...]
Former VW boss Martin Winterkorn faces criminal charges for emissions scandal April 15, 2019 German prosecutors have charged former chief executive of Volkswagen Martin Winterkorn with fraud for his alleged part in the car maker’s diesel emissions testing scandal. Read more: Volkswagen to build Tesla-style gigafactories for electric car batteries Today, just a stone’s throw away from the firm’s Wolfsburg base, prosecutors in Braunschweig said they were pressing charges [...]
You can’t blame Brexit for the British car industry’s woes April 15, 2019 Quizzed by Nick Hewer on Honda’s decision to close its Swindon plant earlier this month on BBC radio, I suggested that blaming Brexit for the demise of the Japanese auto makers factory with the loss of 3,500 jobs was not the whole story. Certainly, Brexit plays havoc with the vehicle industry’s sophisticated just-in-time supply chain. [...]
Volkswagen to build Tesla-style gigafactories as it ramps up electric car production April 15, 2019 Volkswagen is pushing its electric battery suppliers to build factories with at least one Gigawatt manufacturing capacity, according to its chief executive. Read more: Panasonic reviews plans for expansion of Tesla Gigafactory Joint venture partners such as South Korean firm SK Innovation (SKI) would need to build a so-called gigafactory because “anything below that amount [...]