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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

Spanish rolling-stock manufacturer Talgo faces the potential collapse of a €350 million contract to supply up to ten Avril high-speed trainsets to French private operator Le Train, after state-backed Renfe shelved its planned expansion into the French market, removing the only live pathway to certifying the fleet north of the Pyrenees. The Basque manufacturer's 2023 preliminary agreement with Le Train, which aims to launch high-speed services in western France, was explicitly

Lufthansa Group is closing its regional subsidiary CityLine with immediate effect, the clearest sign yet that Europe's flag carriers are being forced into structural cutbacks by the jet fuel crisis triggered by the Iran war. The German carrier said on 16 April that CityLine's 27 Canadair CRJ aircraft would be permanently removed from the flight programme from 18 April, accelerating a closure previously scheduled for 2027. Shares in Lufthansa fell more than 3.5% in Frankfurt o

Commercial transit through the Strait of Hormuz ground to a halt on Sunday, just 48 hours after Iran's foreign minister declared the waterway reopened, leaving Europe's biggest container lines and tanker operators weighing whether to risk the passage. Observed crossings fell to zero on 19 April, according to Bloomberg ship-tracking data, after at least 13 oil tankers turned back toward the Persian Gulf on Saturday amid reports of gunfire and fresh warnings from Tehran. The re

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

Alstom has taken the rail hydrogen fuel-cell business of Cummins in-house, concluding a deal that underscores how Europe's flagship alternative-traction programme is shifting from a growth story to a maintenance commitment. The French train manufacturer confirmed on 2 April that it had acquired the engineering, product and support operations supplying fuel cells for its Coradia iLint trains, including the Herten assembly site in north-west Germany and the Hydrogenics entity t

Europe's aviation industry is confronting its most acute supply shock since the pandemic, as the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz drains jet fuel reserves at airports across the continent and forces carriers to begin cutting flights weeks before the peak summer season. Airports Council International Europe, which represents airports across the European Union, warned the bloc on 9 April that unless stable transit through the Strait resumes within roughly three weeks,

The China-Europe rail corridor has staged a sharp recovery in early 2026, as shipping disruptions in the Middle East and rising ocean freight rates push European importers back toward overland freight and drive up the cost of moving goods by train. China State Railway Group recorded 3,501 freight train trips on the China-Europe route in January and February, a 31.7 per cent increase year on year, with cargo volumes rising 25.2 per cent to 352,100 TEU. The figures reverse a di

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

Germany's state rail operator books a second consecutive billion-euro loss, with no quick fix in sight Deutsche Bahn ended 2025 with a net loss of 2.3 billion euros, widening from 1.8 billion euros the previous year, as decades of underinvestment in Germany's rail network continued to erode the group's finances and test the patience of its passengers. The headline figure was heavily shaped by a 1.4 billion euro impairment charge at DB Long-Distance, reflecting reduced revenue

Deutsche Lufthansa AG has entered the most turbulent stretch of industrial action in years, with a full week of strikes threatening to inflict significant financial damage on Europe's largest carrier and casting a shadow over what should have been a landmark centenary celebration. The Vereinigung Cockpit pilots' union launched a two-day walkout on Monday and Tuesday, grounding the majority of flights at Lufthansa's Frankfurt and Munich hubs and affecting operations across Luf

European shipping executives are confronting a compounding crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, with no clear resolution in sight and costs mounting across every major trade lane connecting the continent to the Gulf. The strait has been effectively closed to commercial traffic since late February, when US and Israeli strikes on Iran triggered retaliatory IRGC attacks on merchant vessels and the laying of sea mines across key shipping channels. For the first time in modern history,