Automotive News
Italy’s DR Auto faces probe for allegedly misleading consumers
Italian automaker DR Automobiles is facing an antitrust investigation for allegedly misleading consumers over where its DR and EVO-branded vehicles are made, the Italian competition authority (AGCM) said on Thursday.
The company incorrectly represented, both on its corporate website and in advertising campaigns, information over the country where some of its models are manufactured, AGCM said.
Headquartered in the southern Italian region of Molise, DR assembles low-cost cars from the Chinese automakers Chery, JAC, BAIC, including full-electric ones, in Italy with components imported from those companies.
DR and EVO sold around 24,200 vehicles in Italy in the first nine months of 2023, up 48 percent from a year earlier, with a market share of 2 percent.
AGCM and Italian tax police officials carried out inspections at the headquarters of DR Automobiles and of its parent company Donington, the watchdog said in a statement.
“In some cases, they would omit relevant information on their (the vehicles’) origin, suggesting that they are entirely produced in Italy, while they seem to be vehicles of Chinese production,” AGCM said.
DR Automobile did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Volvo software issue stalls EX30 small SUV deliveries
Volvo has delayed deliveries of the EX30 due to an issue with the full-electric small SUV’s software.
It is the second Volvo EV stung by software trouble after the EX90.
“We confirm that Volvo is working tirelessly to resolve the problem,” the automaker said in a correspondence to its dealers seen by Automotive News Europe. “Important progress has been made but the software version 1.2 does not yet meet all the requirements necessary to be released.”
When asked about the delay, a Volvo spokesperson said in an email: “A limited number of customers have had to wait a few extra days for their cars to be delivered while we address some minor details, but with these now solved, we look forward to rapidly scaling up EX30 deliveries.”
The correspondence contradicates that assessment, as it mentions multiple delays that have lasted roughly two weeks.
The EX30s are registered and ready to be driven off dealers’ lots as soon as the software issue is fixed, a source close to the company said, adding that the issue is affecting deliveries of the small SUV in markets around the world.
The source said the update could not be performed over the air, it
Continental CFO won’t extend contract
Continental’s CFO, Katja Garcia Vila, will not extend her contract and plans to leave the auto supplier she joined nearly three decades ago.
Garcia Vila, 51, became CFO in December 2021 and will stay on until a successor has been found, the company said Monday. Her contract expires in December.
Continental is going through a major revamp to improve returns at its struggling auto unit, including more than 7,000 job cuts and site closures.
Garcia Vila is leaving “because of her own career planning,” the supplier said in a news release.
She started her career at Continental in 1997 and held positions in information technology, marketing, sales, logistics, auditing and purchasing before becoming head of systems and standards in corporate finance in 2008. She was named head of group audit worldwide in 2013, and in 2018 moved to the ContiTech business area as head of finance, controlling and IT. Garcia Vila was named CFO in December 2021 and joined the executive board.
“Katja Garcia Vila played a key role in developing the company’s strategy for realignment and launching it over the past year, thus laying the foundation for our successful future” CEO Nikolai Setzer said in the release.
Continental late
As used EV prices fall, automakers repay leasing firms
Fueled by generous subsidies and tax breaks, corporate cars are especially popular in Europe, with Volkswagen, Stellantis and BMW leading a market with nearly 13 million deliveries last year. Fully electric cars made up nearly 16 percent of sales then.
Carmakers need to comply with tightening fleet emission levels, or pay fines. In the European Union, the permissible level of carbon dioxide emissions will drop next year with Volkswagen still some way off, according to an analysis by market researcher Jato. In the UK, zero-emissions vehicles should make up 22 percent of sales this year, rising to 28 percent the year after.
But without stable pricing in the used-EV market, Europe’s target for phasing out sales of new combustion-engine cars by 2035 looks less likely. To recover the drop in second-hand values, EV leasing rates have started to go up to exceed those for combustion-engine cars, according to a study by the CAR Institute that focused on Germany.
“There will not be an EV transition without structured and liquid markets where EVs hold their second- and third-hand values,” Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois said in a note. “In the end it is the difference between new and used price that is
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SUVs surge to new milestone helped by EVs
The SUV is now the dominant body type across Europe. Figures for 2023 reveal that combined volumes for models such as the Tesla Model Y and the Volkswagen T-Roc accounted for more than half of all sales in the region for the first time.
SUVs outpaced the market, with sales rising 19 percent last year to 6.63 million to take a 51 percent share of a European vehicle market that rose 14 percent overall, figures from market researcher Dataforce show.
The Model Y premium midsize SUV was Europe’s No. 1-seller overall.
Small, compact cars fall
SUVs have eclipsed Europe’s traditional hatchback and wagon body styles.
The small SUV segment was Europe’s largest last year with nearly 2.2 million sales followed by compact SUVs at more than 1.9 million, according to the Dataforce figures.
The biggest growth among SUVs last year came from the premium segment.
Sales of premium midsize SUVs increased 31 percent to 843,939, which made it Europe’s fifth-largest segment. The biggest contributors were the Model Y, which grew 85 percent to 254,822, and the Mercedes-Benz GLC’s 32 percent sales gain to 91,259.
Also seeing strong growth in the sixth spot was the premium compact SUV segment, which rose
Why Alfa Romeo is closely watching Trump versus Biden
Alfa Romeo on April 10 will unveil its first full-electric car, the Milano small crossover. It will go on sale in September in markets where EV demand is strong, including France, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries.
A 48-volt mild hybrid version will be launched by the end of the year, targeting markets where electrification is lagging such as Italy and Spain. The Milano will be sold in Turkey, North Africa and Latin America starting in 2025.
Stellantis is preparing its plant in Cassino, central Italy, to build cars on the STLA Large platform, including the second-generation Alfa Romeo Stelvio midsize SUV expected in the second half of 2025. It will be followed by the replacement for the Giulia midsize sedan .
Cassino, which already builds the Giulia and the Stelvio, as well as the related Maserati Grecale midsize SUV, will be the only Stellantis plant in Europe to build STLA Large-based vehicles. The platform will feature an 800-volt electric architecture and offer a range of more than 700 km (435 miles) for SUVs and an even longer range for sedans.
The Giulia and Stelvio replacements will be only electric, Alfa Romeo said, even though the STLA Large platform also
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VW, Renault, Stellantis face China pressure to team up on EVs
As pressure builds on European automakers to sell more EVs, China’s state-supported manufacturers are entering the cooling market with models that are often better and cheaper.
BYD’s Dolphin, for example, is listed at about €7,000 less than a similarly equipped VW ID 3, which the German automaker originally pitched as the Beetle of the EV era.
The Chinese manufacturer will underscore its European ambitions by showing off several electric models at the Geneva auto show next week, including a luxury SUV rivaling the Mercedes-Benz G-Class.
Failure for Europe’s automakers to come up with a working Plan B risks rising in an industry that employs about 13 million people and accounts for 7 percent of the EU economy.
“We have spent billions as an industry to make electric mobility possible,” said Holger Klein, who heads the supplier ZF Friedrichshafen which employs around 165,000 people worldwide.
“Now the question is: Do we have the right parameters?”
Renault CEO Luca de Meo has been advocating an alliance akin to the tie-up that created a European planemaker to vie with Boeing by pooling assets in Germany, France, Spain and the UK
The executive has argued that an “Airbus of autos” would help share the
How Michigan’s mobility plans are taking shape
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