Auto News 5

News 29 Apr, 2019

JLR's ‘Smart Wallet’ software will provide drivers with monetary rewards for sharing information on traffic jams and potholes

Autoliv has reported first quarter operating down 29% at USD173m as it said a labour conflict in Mexico caused temporary costs of over USD20m - although the issue is now 'resolved and production returning to normal levels'.

Valeo has reported consolidated first-quarter sales of EUR4,841m down 1% (or 3% on a like-for-like basis).

News of a 200 mile range electric DS drew a lot of reader interest this week. When PSA Group adds a fully electric variant to its new DS 3 Crossback range later this year, the car will come with a claimed range on full battery charge of 200 miles (on the WLTP drive cycle, 267 miles on NEDC). The car (the variant will be called E-Tense) will be equipped with a 50kWh lithium-ion battery and a system for recovering energy during deceleration and braking.

Daimler has posted first-quarter profit down 16% on last year and warned that its financial targets have become harder to achieve.

Gilles Le Borgne, executive PSA Group's vice president of quality and engineering has decided to leave on 2 May "for personal reasons".

Subaru of Indiana Automotive (SIA) has produced its four millionth Subaru branded vehicle - the plant has previously also assembled the Camry under contract to Toyota.

Tesla production in China could reach 2,000 vehicles a week by the end of the year, CEO Elon Musk has said.

Features 27 Apr, 2019

To celebrate 20 years of the BMW SUV, we take a tour of BMW's gigantic Spartanburg factory in the US

Renault plans to propose to Nissan Motor the companies merge under a new holding company, a media report said, citing "people familiar with the proposal".

The 750,000th truck kit from the Completely Knocked Down (CKD) centre at the Mercedes-Benz Woerth plant was packed in a 40-foot sea container for its journey overseas.

General Motors is adding a second shift and more than 400 hourly jobs at its Bowling Green (Kentucky) Assembly plant to support production of the Next Generation Corvette, which will be revealed on 18 July 2019.

Dana Incorporated and Motiv Power Systems announced a collaboration to integrate Dana's Spicer Electrified eS9000r e-Axle on the Ford F-550 chassis for use in commercial fleet applications.

Denso revenue for the financial year to 31 March, 2019 rose 5% year on year to JPY5,362.8bn. Operating profit fell 23.4% to JPY316.2bn and net profit was off 20.6% to JPY254.5bn.

Opinion 28 Apr, 2019

Jaguar and Ian Callum have both proved that the UK motor industry is not on its knees after all, says Mike Rutherford

Renault has said that its Q1 revenue fell 4.8% to EUR12.5bn as global deliveries declined by 5.6%, including the adverse impact of the company's withdrawal from Iran last year.

Ford surprised investors with a strong set of financial results for the first-quarter and said that it expects 2019 to be better than the previous year despite a 'volatile environment'. The results will be very welcome for Ford CEO Jim Hackett as evidence that his turnaround strategy ('global redesign') is gaining traction. Ford shares were up in after-market trading last night.

A well funded revival of this once dormant German make initially saw Borgward going from nowhere to huge popularity in China. Alas, the early success was not to last and the brand crashed to earth in 2018. Now with a new owner, sales are rising once more and fresh models are on the way.

Until now, Europe's B-SUV segment has been missing the biggest brand of all. Volkswagen has timed the arrival of the T-Cross well too, as not one of the most successful incumbents is even close to being new.

July will mark the second anniversary of Karoq production so to maintain the sales momentum, Skoda continues to add variants to the range. The most recent one is the Scout, which unlike competitors such as the Peugeot 3008, offers all-wheel drive.