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The European Union's retreat from a hard 2035 combustion-engine cutoff is gathering momentum in Parliament, handing the bloc's beleaguered carmakers a tactical win while reigniting a fight over the credibility of the green transition. The European Parliament rapporteur's report on the review of the CO2 regulation for cars and vans, published on 12 May, was welcomed by the manufacturers' association ACEA as a move toward a more balanced and technology-neutral framework. It bui

The families that control Volkswagen demanded a fundamental overhaul of Europe's largest carmaker on Wednesday, after first-quarter weakness at the Wolfsburg group dragged the Porsche-Piech holding company to a €923mn loss. Porsche SE, which owns 31.9 per cent of Volkswagen and controls 53.3 per cent of its voting rights, posted adjusted profit after tax of €382mn for January to March, down 21 per cent year on year. A €1.3bn non-cash writedown hit the unadjusted result on the

European Economic Area nations and Switzerland have committed nearly €200bn to building out the continent's electric vehicle ecosystem, fresh data shows, underlining the scale of the bloc's effort to wrestle battery supremacy back from China and shore up its strategic autonomy. The figures, published on 11 May by research group New Automotive, capture investments stretching across the battery supply chain, manufacturing plants and charging infrastructure. Some €109bn has been

BMW absorbed a near 25 per cent drop in first-quarter pre-tax profit while reaffirming full-year guidance, sending its shares almost 5 per cent higher as the German premium carmaker leaned on record European order intake and the rollout of its Neue Klasse electric platform to offset the bite of US tariffs and a contracting Chinese market. Group earnings before tax fell to €2.35bn for the three months to March, down from around €3.1bn a year earlier but ahead of the €2.2bn con

European auto manufacturers are pushing for a swift conclusion to EU-US trade trilogues opening in Brussels on Wednesday, as Donald Trump's threat to lift tariffs on EU-made vehicles to 25 per cent raises the stakes for a sector already facing margin pressure from Chinese competitors. The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), whose members include Volkswagen, Stellantis, Renault and BMW, urged co-legislators on Monday to find common ground and finalise the le

Stellantis shares were languishing near 52-week lows this week as investors digested a Q1 print that beat at the operating line but raised fresh questions over the Franco-Italian-American group's cash generation, just three weeks before chief executive Antonio Filosa unveils his strategic reset. The owner of Peugeot, Fiat, Citroën, Opel and Jeep posted net revenues of €38.1bn for the first quarter, up 6 per cent year on year, with adjusted operating income nearly tripling to

Volkswagen on Thursday reported a sharper-than-expected drop in first-quarter profit, with Europe's largest automaker citing US tariffs and intensifying Chinese competition as headwinds that dragged operating earnings down by double digits. The Wolfsburg-based group posted operating profit of €2.5bn for the three months to March, down 14.3% year on year and well short of analyst expectations of nearly €4bn. Sales revenue eased 2.5% to €75.7bn, marginally above consensus, whil

Beijing, 28 April. Auto China 2026 opens to the public on Tuesday with the centre of gravity in the global automotive industry shifting decisively away from Europe, as Chinese manufacturers extend their challenge from mass-market electric vehicles into the premium and sports car segments long considered defensible ground for European groups. The biennial Beijing show, which alternates annually with Shanghai, has become the largest motor exhibition in the world, spanning a rec

Workers at Stellantis's Poissy plant outside Paris walked out on Thursday in the first open confrontation since the carmaker confirmed it will halt vehicle assembly at the site by the end of 2028, a decision that turns the last passenger-car factory in the Île-de-France region into a parts and recycling hub. The CGT, SUD and UNSA unions called the 23 April stoppage and rally after Stellantis informed works councils on 16 April that production of the DS 3 and Opel Mokka would

Nissan is in early-stage discussions with China's Chery over shared use of its Sunderland manufacturing complex, the Financial Times reported last week, in a move that crystallises a broader pattern of Chinese automakers exploiting underused European capacity to sidestep the EU's tariff regime on imported electric vehicles. The Japanese group's Sunderland site, which employs around 6,000 workers and has annual capacity of roughly 600,000 vehicles, is currently running at abou

Stellantis has signed a five-year strategic collaboration with Microsoft to embed artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure across its operations, the latest sign that Europe's legacy carmakers are leaning on US tech platforms to close a widening capability gap with Chinese rivals. The Amsterdam-listed group, whose brands include Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, Opel and Jeep, said on Thursday that joint teams would co-develop more than 100 AI initiatives across

With Chinese rivals flooding showrooms and EV targets in flux, Renault and Volkswagen are looking to rearmament to fill their idle factories Europe's automotive industry has spent the better part of three years searching for a way out of a structural slump. It may have found a temporary answer in a rather unexpected place: the arms industry. The shift is being driven by a convergence of pressures. Chinese electric vehicle makers, led by BYD, have taken an increasingly aggress