Automotive Industry

Volkswagen brand and Stellantis said they will take over the German government's share of an environmental bonus for electric vehicles after the state's subsidy program was ended prematurely following the adoption of a revised 2024 budget.

• Road vehicles to stay cleaner for longer, to improve air quality
• Lower exhaust emissions limits for buses and trucks
• New measures to limit particle emissions from tyres and brakes and to increase battery durability

At least 18 EV and battery startups that went public in recent years were at risk of running out of cash by the end of 2024 as of their most recent filings, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. They include companies such as Nikola and Fisker, which attracted investors with bold promises to transform the industry and fight climate change with their electric trucks and SUVs.

Volkswagen invested 2.4 billion EUR for a 60% stake in Carizon. Cariad will appoint Carizon’s CEO, and Horizon Robotics will appoint a chief technology officer (CTO). Horizon also announced it is sending a heavy weight to the newly established JV – its cofounder and CTO Huang Chang to lead the level-2 (L2) assisted driving, highway assisted driving, and automated parking teams.

The company is joining foreign brands including Tesla (TSLA.O), BMW (BMWG.DE) and Ford (F.N) that are expanding their exports of China-made cars to exploit the country's lower manufacturing costs and increase the capacity utilisation of their factories.

The announcement comes after the government had to compromise its budget for the coming years. First, it sounded like Germany would phase out EV incentives earlier than planned - now it looks like it will be scrapped entirely in 2024.

Reports of the demise of electric vehicles have been greatly exaggerated, and S&P Global Mobility projects global sales for battery electric passenger vehicles to be on track to post 13.3 million units for 2024 – accounting for an estimated 16.2% of global passenger vehicle sales. For reference, 2023 published an estimated 9.6 million BEVs for a 12% market share.

The Firefly brand will offer smaller models for families, Qin said. He did not give details of pricing.

The Hyundai Group has started construction of its new development centre in Germany. The new 25,000 square metre Hyundai Motor Europe Technical Center (HMETC) building in Rüsselsheim will more than double the HMETC’s existing office and research space and should open in 2025.

Electric cars, solar panels and smartphones - all of them contain critical raw materials. Critical raw materials are pivotal for the EU’s green and digital transitions, and securing their supply is crucial for the European Union’s economic resilience, technological leadership, and strategic autonomy.

Continental and Korean semiconductor company Telechips have joined forces to collaborate on Smart Cockpit High-Performance Computers (HPCs). Telechips is supplying Continental with its Dolphin System on Chip (SoC) family, specifically adapted to Continental's Smart Cockpit HPCs' pre-integrated function set. This collaboration aims to achieve an optimal balance between system performance, cost efficiency, and reduced development time.

Volkswagen (ETR:VOWG_p) software division, Cariad, has reached a significant agreement to reduce its internal development costs by 20% annually until 2028, in an effort to avert compulsory layoffs. This decision comes as part of a major restructuring initiative led by CEO Oliver Blume. The plan includes offering voluntary buyouts if the cost reduction targets are not met, though a specific timeline for these buyouts has not yet been announced.

Further customers in the Netherlands and Sweden are due to receive their vehicles before the end of December. The first deliveries in Germany are planned for early 2024. Zeekr plans to expand its presence to most countries in Western Europe by 2026.

Sales of electric cars and plug-in hybrids in China exceeded the million mark on a monthly basis for the first time in November. According to figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), sales reached around 1,026,000 new energy vehicles last month.

In order to be able to offer the planned small electric car at a base price of less than 20,000 euros, VW is considering a co-operation with a competitor. Initial talks are said to have already taken place - with Renault.

Amid soaring EV sales in the Global North, COP28 sees the first 'coordinated plan' to support developing countries boost zero-emissions vehicles.

Although Tesla doesn’t report monthly sales, the EV leader delivered 435,059 EVs in the third quarter. BYD sold 431,603, coming within 3,500 deliveries of surpassing Tesla as the top-selling EV maker globally.

The group is targeting a production time of nine hours for the upcoming Renault 5 full-electric small car. That would make it competitive with Tesla and full-electric brands from China, for example.

Volkswagen's financial investment in the Chinese electric car manufacturer Xpeng, announced in July, has now been completed. The Chinese company also reported progress in the development of two electric cars.

With TuSimple’s exit, few self-driving truck companies remain, including Aurora and Kodiak Robotics.

Zebra Technologies‘ AI Machine Vision in the Automotive Industry Benchmark Report, which surveyed 250 automotive leaders each in the UK and Germany, found that AI machine vision is being used by 62.5% of tier 1 suppliers in the UK, 44.44% of tier 2 suppliers and 56% of OEMs.

The supplier has announced plans to carve out the user experience business.