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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

Europe's automotive industry has a crisis and a potential lifeline, and they happen to share the same factory floor. As slumping car sales hollow out production capacity across the continent, a growing number of manufacturers are turning to defence contracts to fill the gap. Analysts at Citi have taken to calling it the "anything but autos" trade. Renault has moved furthest and fastest. The French carmaker confirmed earlier this year that it will produce long-range strike dro

Europe's automotive industry, battered by Chinese competition and stalling electric vehicle demand, is seeking an unlikely lifeline: the arms industry. Analysts at Citi have christened the shift the "anything but autos" trade, and the name fits. Volkswagen, the continent's largest carmaker, is in advanced discussions with Israeli defense firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems to convert its Osnabrück plant in Germany into a production site for components of the Iron Dome air-de

A year on from the first wave of US import duties, the true financial toll on Europe's automotive industry is coming into sharp relief, and the numbers are sobering. Combined tariff costs across the major German manufacturers alone exceeded six billion dollars in 2025, with no meaningful relief in sight as producers brace for a heavier bill in the year ahead. Volkswagen Group, Europe's largest carmaker by volume, absorbed approximately €2.9 billion in tariff-related costs las

US court filings allege that Casper Benteler, heir to a German manufacturing dynasty, made false claims to fraudulently borrow $30 million from a US company to pay off relatives as part of a deal to assume control of the family business. Casper Benteler then assumed control of the multibillion-euro Benteler Group in March, just months after he was accused by former partner Beep of diverting $30 million from their business collaboration to pay off relatives. Beep's September

Volkswagen Group has announced it will eliminate 50,000 jobs across its German operations by 2030, accelerating a restructuring programme that has become one of the most consequential in the European automotive industry's recent history. The announcement accompanied full-year 2025 results that made for uncomfortable reading in Wolfsburg. Operating profit fell 53 per cent to €8.9 billion, the group's lowest margin since the Dieselgate scandal a decade ago. Revenue held broadly

The EU softens its near-term emissions rules for heavy vehicles, citing a charging network that has not kept pace with policy ambition. The European Council formally adopted a targeted amendment to CO2 emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles on Monday, handing truck and bus manufacturers additional compliance flexibility ahead of the bloc's 2030 reduction targets, in a move that underscores the widening gap between Brussels' climate ambitions and the infrastructure needed

As EU ministers debate the 2035 emissions target, the real battle is over who benefits from the rewrite The numbers tell a story Brussels would rather not headline. Battery-electric cars accounted for 19.3% of the EU market in January 2026, up from a low base of 14.9% a year earlier, yet current forecasts suggest the bloc will reach only 37.9% electric penetration by 2030, far short of the 57% that existing regulation demands. Something has to give, and this month, EU environ

A new survey lays bare the structural rot spreading through the continent's component industry The numbers published this week by CLEPA, the Brussels-based association representing Europe's automotive suppliers, amount to a quiet industrial emergency. Some 24% of suppliers now expect negative profitability in 2026, a sharp rise from 15% in the previous survey, meaning one in four companies supplying parts to Europe's carmakers is bracing for a loss-making year. The data, comp

Brussels, 19 March 2026 — Europe's automotive industry is entering a decisive legislative stretch as the European Parliament and Council work through the Commission's December 2025 Automotive Package — a sweeping revision of CO₂ emissions rules that has exposed deep fault lines between manufacturers, environmental groups, and member states. The timing is uncomfortable. New EU car registrations fell 3.9% in January compared with a year earlier, marking a second consecutive di

The Chinese electric vehicle maker is gaining ground on the continent's legacy manufacturers at a moment when they can least afford it Europe's car market has started 2026 in retreat — but not everyone is losing. As the continent's traditional automakers navigate one of the most challenging demand environments in years, BYD is accelerating in the opposite direction. New vehicle registrations across the European Union fell 3.9 per cent in January, continuing a pattern of weakn