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The world is witnessing unprecedented levels of both collaboration and competition between traditional automotive companies and high-tech newcomers such as Google, Uber and Tesla, which increasingly share a conviction that an opportunity has arrived...

Germany's Federal Court of Justice banned Mercedes from selling its Airscarf headrest heating system for convertible cars in Germany because of a dispute over patents.

German regulators investigating car emissions summoned representatives of Fiat Chrysler and Opel for a meeting next week.

Apple is investing $1 billion in Didi, giving the Chinese ride-hailing startup a powerful ally and dealing a blow to Uber as it tries to build its business in the country.

News 16 May, 2016

BMW M140i and M240i replace M135i and M235i, with more power and better efficiency

VW Group sales were flat last month as growth at Audi and Skoda failed to offset a decline in deliveries at the scandal-hit VW brand.

Led by strong growth in Spain and Italy, new car registrations in Europe's 'big five' markets grew by 8.6% to 958,400 units in April 2016, according to JATO Dynamics. After the UK's traditional volume peak in March, which saw registrations rise to 1.36m, April produced further gains across the top five European markets with SUVs driving higher volume and counting for 24.4% and 24.9% of April's and YTD's totals respectively. The Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) came in at 11.35m, up from March registrations of 11.04m and significantly higher than the 10.48m in April 2015.

Apple is investing $1 billion in Chinese ride-sharing service Didi Chuxing, which dominates Uber Technologies in the world's biggest market. Here are five things to know about Didi:

Schaeffler has posted first quarter revue of EUR3.3bn (US$3.7bn), slightly above the prior year level, with growth of 2.4% at constant currency.

Schaeffler Group is increasing its capacity at two US locations by building new manufacturing halls and administration buildings.

There was more automaker consolidation in the news this week as Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors agreed a strategic alliance that will see the former take a 34% stake in the latter and become the biggest shareholder with nominating dibs on the new board chairman. MMC has been struggling with yet another major product quality cover-up scandal in recent weeks, this time because it has overstated the fuel-efficiency of its vehicles for over two decades. Many of those were built on an OEM basis for Nissan. The company's share price has fallen by around 50% since the scandal first came to light last month and orders for new vehicles have dropped sharply since it admitted falsifying fuel-efficiency tests.

Fuji Heavy Industries will officially change its name to Subaru Corporation on 1 April, 2017, as part of a plan to increase the recognition of the Subaru brand.

BMW, Mini and BMW Motorrad (motorcycles) all achieved new sales records in April as 179,285 group automobiles were delivered to customers around the world, up 1.9% year on year.

In the first four months of the year Volkswagen commercial vehicles delivered 154,600 vehicles to customers worldwide - growth of 4.7%. With 41,500 vehicles, the brand's deliveries in April also exceeded the previous year's level (+5.8%).

With the roll-out of its Push to Pass growth plan and the upcoming expiry of the New Social Contract, PSA Group's management acted early to launch a new round of negotiations with employee representatives.

The Latin and Global New Car Assessment Programmes have welcomed the Mexican government's publication of new vehicle safety standards but said they were "very disappointed" by the long delay in full implementation of new crash test regulations which will not be fully applied to all new cars sold in Mexico until 2020.

Kia Motors America said the 2017 Sportage and 2016 Optima, when equipped with a compatible navigation system or UVO3, will be offered with Apple CarPlay compatibility during this second quarter of 2016.

Novelis has reported net income of US$29m for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016.

BMW's Chennai plant has assembled its 50,000th car - a 7 Series.