In this issue:
Data
- Global light vehicle sales forecast downgraded
- Mercedes-Benz production forecast to 2028
Strategy
- Daimler Truck appoints new CEO to helm its transformation
- GM and Hyundai pursue peer support strategy
- Volvo Group invests in AI trucking start-up
- Stellantis confirms search underway for Tavares replacement
- Finding balance: Renault/Nissan share buyback update
- Mercedes ends Denza involvement with BYD
- Honda accelerates its Chinese transformation
Brands
- China to the rescue with Faraday’s new FX brand
- Navistar attempts a turnaround as ‘International Motors’
Markets
- The Chinese challenge—learnings from passenger vehicles
- Thailand’s economic woes halve 2024 EV sales forecast
- Europe calls for help as electric vehicle sales fall
- Norway’s “historic” milestone: BEVs outnumber gasoline cars
- Stellantis-Leapmotor JV enters Europe with cheap EVs
Legislation
- Renault CEO says Euro auto isn’t ready for 2025 CO2 targets
- US ups protection against ‘threats from foreign cars’
- Decision time on EU’s China EV tariff
E-Mobility
- Europe’s OEMs struggle with the realities of electrification
- Volvo dilutes 100% EV by 2030 strategy to include hybrids
- Cupra—and Europe—slow from electric to electrified
- Volvo Trucks doubles the range of its FH Electric model
- Quantumscape aims for solid-state in retail EVs before 2030
- GM delays lithium mine investment until after US election
- Japanese automakers make US$7bn push for battery production
- Kia’s PBV programme: vans yes, but not as we have known them
- Economics of BEV ownership is the new market battleground
- BMW turns to AI for better EV batteries
- Mitsubishi Fuso moves into EV battery recycling
- Europe’s battery industry struggles with global overcapacity
- Sweden declines to pull Northvolt out of financial tailspin
- Could EV job creation keep IRA alive under Trump?
- US awards US$3bn in projects to onshore battery supply chain
Autonomous
- California lawmakers divided on autonomous truck rules
- ACEA’s roadmap for AVs emphasises global harmonisation
- Trust and transparency lie at the heart of the AV roadmap
- Mercedes-Benz upgrades its automated driving system to 95kph
Software-defined vehicle
- Cerence takes AI-voice assistant to trucks and 2-wheelers
Hydrogen
- BMW and Toyota prepare for ‘an era of FCVs’
- Ballard struggles with hydrogen long game
- Hyundai partners with Skoda to develop hydrogen ecosystem
- GM expands hydrogen play with new fuel cell plant in Detroit
Manufacturing
- Factory closures: is a battle erupting for the future of VW?
- Volkswagen turns to investors to save Audi’s Brussels plant
- New investments signal Stellantis’ multi-energy future in US
- Stellantis issues four-week shutdown at Fiat 500e plant
- VW moves labour negotiations forward amid strike threats
- Brazil’s automotive industry turns to China
- Politics across the border hit Mexico’s auto industry
- JLR’s factory upgrades keep ICE, PHEV, and BEV options open
- Stellantis faces strikes in Italy amid weakened production
- Nissan: poor financials play out in production cutbacks
Safety
- BMW issues latest recalls amid ongoing battery defects
- Stellantis recalls 1.2 million vehicles due to ABS fault
Materials
- Politics aside, Rusal leads the charge on green aluminium
