Frankfurt am Main, Germany | AFP | Luxury automaker Daimler on Friday said it was scrapping “thousands” of jobs to help fund the switch to electric vehicles, in the latest layoffs to hit the stuttering German car industry. The Mercedes-Benz maker said it wanted to save 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 …
Read More »Volkswagen unveils new Golf as end of era nears
Francfort, Germany | AFP | Volkswagen unveiled the newest incarnation of its iconic Golf hatchback on Thursday, counting on the bestseller to help fund a costly switch to the electric era and bridge the gap to the cars of the future. The eighth generation of the unglamourous but trusted …
Read More »Blame game as wheels come off India’s auto sector
New Delhi, India | AFP | When India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed that a preference by millennials for ride-hailing apps was contributing to a painful slump in car sales, it sparked an online backlash from furious youngsters. They started a campaign using ironic hashtags such as #BoycottMillennials and #SayItLikeNirmalaTai …
Read More »Ghosn to appear in court: what happens next?
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | The case of auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn has gripped Japan and the business world since his stunning arrest in November, and now he is finally getting his day in court. Ghosn will be able to make his first public statement at a brief hearing on …
Read More »Ghosn set for court hearing in Japan over detention
Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn is likely to appear in a Japanese court next Tuesday to hear the reasons for his detention, after his lawyers deployed a little-used article of the Constitution. The shock move was the latest in a series of unexpected twists in …
Read More »372,000 German drivers join legal action against Volkswagen
Frankfurt am Main, Germany | AFP | Some 372,000 German owners of Volkswagen cars fitted with motors that cheated emissions tests have joined a collective legal action against the auto giant, official figures showed Thursday. Hundreds of thousands of people signed up to the collective action between late November and …
Read More »Ford recalls 874,000 pickups in US, Canada on fire risk
New York, United States | AFP | Ford is recalling 874,000 of its best-selling F-series pickup trucks due to fire risk from the engine block heater system, the company announced Friday. The problem occurs when there is corrosion in a connector in the engine block heater, which is used in …
Read More »Daimler, BMW win green light for car-sharing merger
Frankfurt am Main, Germany | AFP | German carmakers Daimler and BMW said Wednesday they had won final approval to merge their car-sharing services Car2Go and DriveNow, paving the way for the creation of a European giant to challenge the likes of Uber. In a joint statement, the companies said …
Read More »Pennsylvania lets Uber self-driving cars back on roads
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Authorities in the US state of Pennsylvania have given Uber the green light to resume testing self-driving cars, the ride-sharing giant said Tuesday, after a fatal crash in Arizona prompted a pause. Uber said it had received authorization to put autonomous cars back …
Read More »EU agrees to cut emissions from new cars by 37 percent by 2030
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | European Union members and the European Parliament on Monday agreed to slash carbon dioxide emissions from new cars by 37.5 percent by 2030, the European Commission announced. The announcement comes two days after the end of the COP24 summit in Poland where one of the …
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