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Romania’s agency for consumer protection (ANPC) Says carmaker Dacia, owned by French Renault is recalling 2,032 Duster SUVs in Romania to fix an issue with the horn’s electric wiring.
Says Dacia has identified the possibility of incorrect sizing of the horn’s electrical wire system which could cause loss of function or smoke.
Says issue fix would take about an hour per car.
Tesla said it is expanding its auto service centers and adding 350 mobile service vans as it gears up to support its Model 3 sedan, a mass-market car that is expected to drive a 500 percent increase in the electric car company’s sales. A senior executive speaking on behalf of the company told Reuters that Tesla would be able to triple its global service capacity by increasing efficiency, adding to mobile service, and adding 100 service centers to its current total of more than 150.
Tesla is adding 1,400 technicians this year, and the company plans to continue expanding mobile and service center capacity at a similar pace over then next few years.
Tesla needs to expand service quickly to be able to handle the increase in sales and as the electric car company transforms itself from a luxury vehicle maker into a competitor with mainstream cars.
Expectations for a smooth roll out are particularly high among investors. Tesla has been challenging General Motors (GM.N) for the title of biggest U.S. automaker by market capitalization, even though its output is a fraction of GM’s.
The $35,000 Model 3 is designed for easy production, creating lower service needs, the executive said.
Tesla’s last launch was the Model X SUV in 2015, which had a number of production issues.
Model 3 production began in the last few days and is expected to reach 20,000 per month in December. The first deliveries are expected on July 28.
Tesla had fielded 373,000 Model 3 reservations as of April 2016, the latest date at which it announced a figure.
The company has learned from previous problems including issues with seatbelt latches, seats and a 53,000-vehicle parking brake recall earlier this year, the executive said.
Tesla said it has improved service time by automating paperwork, using cars’ wireless connections to diagnose problems, and expanding mobile support.
Tesla deployed mobile vans to company charging stations to fix the seatbelt latch and cut the procedure to less than 20 minutes.
About 80 percent of fixes on its vehicles do not require a lift and can be done by one of its mobile technicians, which frequently can handle an appointment in less than an hour.
Nissan Motor expects that zero-emission cars will make up to 20 percent of its sales in Europe by 2020, Gareth Dunsmore, Electric Vehicle (EV) Director for Nissan Europe said in a statement on Monday.
Nissan said it welcomed France’s commitment to reward those who choose more sustainable vehicles.
Last week, Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot said France would aim to end the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2040 and become carbon neutral 10 years later.
“By 2020, where the market conditions are right, I’m confident we’ll be selling up to 20 percent of our volume as zero emissions vehicles and this will only grow,” Dunsmore was quoted as saying in an emailed statement.
China’s vehicle sales rebounded in June, the country’s top industry association said, shaking off weakness seen in the previous two months as carmakers grappled with a rollback in tax incentives that drove strong growth last year.
Total vehicle sales hit 2.17 million in June, up 4.5 percent from a year earlier, while sales for the first half of the year rose 3.8 percent to 13.4 million vehicles, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said on Tuesday.
The rise in sales, which industry insiders said was helped by hefty discounting, lends a sheen to the world’s largest auto market, but growth overall is struggling to keep pace with 2016 when the market grew at its fastest pace in three years.
Overall vehicle demand in China would likely grow just 1-4 percent this year, mainly because consumers made purchases last year to benefit from lower tax rates, said Yale Zhang, head of Shanghai-based consultancy Automotive Foresight.
In January, CAAM predicted sales would rise 5 percent this year, slowing from 13.7 percent in 2016, citing the rollback of a tax incentive for small-engine cars and economic pressures. It stuck with that forecast on Tuesday.
June’s rise, however, marks an improvement from April and May, when vehicle sales fell 2.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively, registering two straight months of declines for the first time since 2015.
Peter Fleet, Ford Motor Co’s Asia-Pacific chief, told Reuters average vehicle transaction prices in China had fallen about 4 percent in the first half of this year against 2016. “We continue to see negative industry pricing in China,” he said.
Ford is among the foreign brands strong in the small sedan segment that have seen China sales slow this year, others being General Motors Co and Volkswagen AG.
Buyers in China have shied away since the purchase tax on vehicles with engines of 1.6 liters or below rose to 7.5 percent, from 5 percent, at the start of the year.
However, there is one bright spot: sales of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) – all-electric battery vehicles and plug-in electric hybrids – that saw a 33 percent bump in June to 59,000 units, the latest CAAM data shows.
In the first half of this year, sales volume of such NEVs totaled 195,000 vehicles, up 14.4 percent.
China is the world’s largest market for green energy vehicles, with the government aggressively promoting the segment, including spending billions in subsidies, in a bid to fight intense urban air pollution.
Parallel car importer Shandong High Speed Qingdao West Coastport has appointed GAC China its upstream logistics provider. Under the one-year contract, it will handle the receiving and checking, container loading and freight services of an estimated 3,000-4,000 cars exported from Hamburg and Rotterdam to Qingdao and Hong Kong every year.
Simon Xu, managing director of GAC China, is optimistic about the growth of that market and the opportunities that it will generate: “China was ranked as the world’s number one automotive market for the eighth year last year, with a double-digit total sales growth. We are also seeing a rising trend for the direct import of European cars into the country.
“Our partnership with Shandong High Speed marks the beginning of a new chapter for GAC China, that will allow us to leapfrog into a new territory in the contract logistics market for fully assembled automobiles.”
GAC China’s contract logistics team led by manager Tyrone Liu will work closely with GAC’s partners in Hamburg and counterparts at GAC Rotterdam to ensure the safe and prompt delivery of the vehicles.
Chengguang Du, general manager of Shangdong High Speed Qingdao West Coastport says: “When looking for a logistics partner with global resources and extensive experience to handle the shipment of our high value automobiles, GAC came to our mind. We know GAC as a well-known brand in the logistics industry, but it was only when we flew to Hamburg and saw the facility and operations with our own eyes that we were fully convinced.”
GAC China has already handled the first shipment under the contract – two Range Rover HSEs from Germany to Qingdao, China.
Giti Tire, the 10th largest tire company in the world based in Singapore, is on track to open its first first North American manufacturing facility on a 1,100-acre site, 170 miles northeast of Charleston, in Richburg, South Carolina.
The company expects to invest $560 million and create 1,700 new jobs over the next decade in Chester County. The new facility, which will be located on the Carolinas I-77 Mega Site, will combine manufacturing and distribution activities, with total building area estimated to be 1.8 million square feet.
Giti Tire will produce both passenger and light truck tires for the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and replacement markets in the Chester County plant.
“This significant investment represents our strong commitment to customers in North America. This is a key milestone for Giti Tire and an important part of our growth strategy worldwide. Existing business and strong demand for Giti Tire’s passenger and light truck tires in North America has made this significant investment in South Carolina possible,” Enki Tan, executive chairman of Giti Tire Group said.
During the first phase of production, the plant’s capacity is expected to be 5 million tires annually. Giti Tire plans to further increase production capacity in response to future market demand and conditions. The Chester County facility represents Giti’s ninth manufacturing plant in its global system.
“Chester County is an excellent location for Giti Tire, offering extensive and efficient infrastructure network including interstate highways, rail, close proximity to airports and a major metropolitan area to support the company’s needs and growth for many years to come,” Lei Huai Chin, Managing Director of Giti Tire Group said.
According to the State Department of Commerce the company’s decision to locate in South Carolina was driven by a number of factors, including the area’s workforce and training opportunities through the technical college system, proximity to major transportation infrastructure and deep-water port facilities in Charleston, market access to the growing Southeast region and the state’s business-friendly environment.
As an incentive ready SC will be assisting the company with the recruiting and training of its initial workforce.
The Renault-Nissan Alliance reported a 16 percent increase in synergies for 2016 compared to 2015.
The Alliance members secured savings, generated incremental revenues and implemented cost-avoidance measures through the world’s leading automotive partnership.
The value of annualized synergies realized by the Alliance rose to €5 billion last year, up from €4.3 billion in 2015. Converged operations in purchasing, engineering and manufacturing contributed most of the €700 million synergy improvement.
“The growing cooperation across the Alliance is delivering strong benefits for the members of the Alliance, reflected by the economies of scale, technological breakthroughs and innovations that are being shared between Renault and Nissan,” said Carlos Ghosn, chairman and chief executive officer of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. “We are on track to realize synergies of €5.5 billion in 2018, even before taking into account the contributions from Mitsubishi Motors, our new Alliance partner.”
With the addition of Mitsubishi Motors, which became the third full member of the Alliance at the end of 2016, annual sales have reached 10 million units. The addition of Mitsubishi Motors comes two years after Renault and Nissan deepened their partnership by converging four key functions: Engineering, Manufacturing & Supply Chain Management, Purchasing and Human Resources. Each such functions is led by a common Alliance Executive Vice President.
“We continue seeing tangible results of this major convergence,” added Ghosn. “Our growing synergies are helping Renault, Nissan and now Mitsubishi Motors meet their financial objectives and deliver higher-value vehicles to customers in the new era of mobility.”
In the current year, the Alliance members are expected to introduce more next-generation technologies in electric vehicles, autonomous driving and connected cars and will increase commonalities in platforms, powertrain and parts to boost competitiveness and identify new synergies.
In April 2017, the Alliance created a light commercial vehicle business unit that will deliver additional synergies in vans and light trucks. The new unit will maximize shared product development and cross-manufacturing, technology sharing and cost-reduction, while preserving brand differentiation among Alliance members.
Foreign car firms can smell the burning of engine oil as the Vietnamese market heats up.
Vietnam will emerge as the second fastest-growing production hub for cars in Southeast Asia after the Philippines between 2017 and 2021, according to BMI Research, a part of Fitch Group.
Output of passenger cars is expected to surge over 60 percent to 84,000 units during the period.
BMI analysts predict Vietnam’s average annual car output growth could reach 10 percent over the next five years, thanks to increased investment from foreign manufacturers.
French automaker Groupe PSA, which owns brands such as Citroen and Peugeot, and Korea’s Hyundai Motors are among those looking to take advantage of the country’s increasingly affluent population and low existing car ownership. Only 2 percent of Vietnamese households own a car, according to Pew Research Center.
Aside from these investments, there are also growing challenges to Vietnam’s role as a regional production hub.
The cost of vehicle production in Vietnam is around 20 percent higher than in other regional countries due to the country’s heavy reliance on imported parts.
When it comes to the localization rate in car manufacturing, Vietnam performs poorly with 20-40 percent, compared to 90 percent in neighboring Thailand.
From 2018, import tariffs on automobiles imported from Southeast Asian countries will be cut from the current 30 percent to zero, which is likely to hurt the local auto manufacturing industry, said BMI.
Volkswagen is recalling 766,000 vehicles of its core passenger car brand worldwide for a software update to their braking control systems, a spokesman said.
The braking control system may not function properly in certain driving conditions, such as when the driver over-steers, under-steers or slams on the brakes, the spokesman said.
The car maker is recalling 288,000 VW-brand cars in Germany over the issue. Including the Audi and Skoda brands, the German recall impacts about 385,000 cars, the spokesman said.
The recall in Germany was first reported by news agency DPA on Saturday.
South Australia has picked Tesla to install the world’s largest grid-scale battery that would be paired with a wind farm provided by France’s Neoen, as the state battles to keep the lights on.
South Australia has raced ahead of the rest of the country in turning to wind power, triggering a shutdown of coal-fired plants that has led to outages across the eastern part of the nation, driving up energy prices.
The drawback to South Australia’s heavy reliance on renewables has been an inability to adequately store that energy, leading to vulnerabilities when the wind doesn’t blow.
Under the terms of the agreement, Tesla must deliver the 10-battery within 100 days of a contract being signed or it’s free, matching a commitment made by Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk in a Twitter post in March.
There will be a lot of people that will look at this, ‘did they get it done within 100 days? Did it work?’” Musk told reporters in South Australia’s capital city of Adelaide.
“We are going to make sure it does.”
Dozens of companies from 10 countries had expressed interest in the South Australian project, which is viewed as a major test for the reliability of large-scale renewable energy use.
Tesla said in a statement that upon completion by December 2017, the system would be the largest lithium-ion battery storage project in the world, overtaking an 80 megawatt-hour power station at Mira Loma in Ontario, Calif., also built using Tesla batteries.
After closing its $20 million Series C round of funding last week, Droom, an online marketplace for used automobiles, plans to announce a few acquisitions by the end of this year, founder Sandeep Aggarwal said.
“We are planning 2-3 acquisitions this year and will probably spend about $8-10 million. We have been in talks with several companies,” he added.
Droom will also expand into Indonesia this year, a year later than its earlier planned foray into Southeast Asia. When asked on the deferred timelines, Aggarwal admitted the plan had been ‘delayed’ as the company had stayed focused on its operations in India.
“We stayed focused on India because if we capture India, then we can capture many other countries. After Diwali (this year), we will expand internationally and Indonesia will be the first country. After that, we will be expanding to Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore,” he said.
After SEA, Droom will consider Middle East and Western Europe for expansion. It expects international expansion to contribute 10-15 per cent of the total revenues in calendar year 2018. In 2019, overseas revenue could increase to 20-25 per cent, Aggarwal added.
The company’s recently closed Series C round was lower than than the quantum it had raised as part of its earlier Series B financing.
At a press briefing announcing the funding last week, Aggarwal had said: “Series C is smaller than Series B in terms of quantum of money – it is not because we could not get more money – in fact more money was available, but we are still sitting on 70-80 per cent of our Series B. We feel bad that we could have raised the same money now at a much higher valuation now (when compared to Series B), and seen a lesser dilution.”
The company says it was unable to spend its Series B funding entirely as it had achieved at least three times more its internal target. It also claims to be the first e-commerce company that had achieved low single-digit dilution in Series C.
Droom will be launching two new services — RTO services and test drive at doorstep in the coming months. By December this year, it aims to cross Rs 5,000 crore in gross revenues and close to Rs 125 crore in net revenues. Droom has 1,79,000 auto dealers and has sold 1,50,000 vehicles since its inception.
Aggarwal has recently been locked in a bitter spat with the top management of Shopclues, another online marketplace he co-founded.
He had handed over the reins of Shopclues to his now-estranged wife Radhika Aggarwal in 2013, when he was arrested by the FBI for his alleged involvement in an insider trading case in the US in 2013. In March this year, Aggarwal took to social media to accuse his wife of pushing him out of Shopclues, in collusion with co-founder Sanjay Sethi.
Tesla Inc’s Model S did not get the top score in certain tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the agency said on Thursday.
Chevrolet Impala, Ford Motor Co’s Taurus and Tesla’s Model S were the three sedans that got “only an acceptable rating” in a test designed to simulate what happens when the front driver-side corner of a vehicle strikes a tree or another vehicle, the IIHS said.
Ford’s Lincoln Continental, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Toyota Motor Corp’s Avalon received the highest rating overall, the agency said.
In the test, the seat belt in Tesla’s Model S was not effective and could lead to the driver’s head striking the steering wheel hard through the air bag, according to the report.
Tesla’s Model S received the highest rating in IIHS’s crash testing in every category except one, the small overlap front crash test, where it received the second highest rating available, a Tesla spokesperson said in an email.
“IIHS and dozens of other private industry groups around the world have methods and motivations that suit their own subjective purposes,” the spokesperson said.
Tesla said the most objective and accurate independent vehicle safety test is done by the U.S. government, which found Model S and Model X to have the lowest probability of injury of any cars that it has ever tested.
In order to get the top IIHS rating, automakers must have a frontal crash prevention system with automatic braking capabilities to prevent a rear-end collision.
The vehicles must stop or slow down without driver intervention before hitting a target in tests at 12 or 25 miles per hour among other factors, IIHS said.
Toyota said in a statement it is committed to developing safe and reliable vehicles.
General Motors Co declined to comment, while Ford and Mercedes were not immediately available for comment.
The IIHS is a research arm of the insurance industry, and its crash tests are increasingly influential in guiding vehicle safety design. Automakers strive for top ratings in IIHS tests as they do on federal crash tests.
Ford Motor Co said its China sales surged 15 percent in June, their strongest pace of the year, as the industry puts the phasing out of a tax cut behind it, adding that it was optimistic about the outlook for the second half.
Peter Fleet, Ford’s Asia-Pacific chief, said the first quarter had been difficult after a tax on car purchases rose to 7.5 percent from 5 percent previously.
Although Ford’s China sales declined 7 percent in the first-half from the same period a year ago, they were up 7 percent in the second quarter. Sales for June alone climbed to more than 100,000 vehicles.
“I would expect to see for the third-quarter strong single digit percentage growth (for) the industry. That’s certainly how it looks to us based on the run rate and how the month of July has opened up,” Fleet said.
Ford’s level of discounting tracked an overall 4 percent price decline for the industry so far this year, he said.
“I’m not interested in driving our prices down to drive market share,” Fleet said.
Geely-owned Volvo Car Group said on Wednesday all new models launched from 2019 will be fully electric or hybrids, spelling the eventual end to nearly a century of Volvos powered solely by the internal combustion engine.
The Gothenburg-based company will continue to produce pure combustion-engine Volvos from models launched before that date, but said it would introduce cars across its model line-up that ranged from fully electric cars to plug-in hybrids.
Volvo’s plans make it the first major traditional automaker to set a date for the complete phase-out of combustion-engine-only models though electrification has long been a buzzword across the industry and Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors has been a pure-play battery carmaker from day one.
“This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car,” Volvo Cars Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said in a statement.
Five new models set to be launched in 2019 through 2021 – three of them Volvos and two Polestar-branded – will all be fully electric.
“These five cars will be supplemented by a range of petrol and diesel plug in hybrid and mild hybrid 48-volt options on all models,” Volvo said.
“This means that there will in future be no Volvo cars without an electric motor.”
Volvo has invested heavily in new models and plants since being bought by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group from Ford Motor Co. in 2010, establishing a niche in a premium auto market dominated by larger rivals such as Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
Part of its strategy has also been to embrace emerging technologies which allow higher performance electric vehicles as well as, eventually, self-driving cars.
Only last month, Volvo said it would reshape its Polestar business into a standalone brand, focused on high-performance electric cars aimed at competing with Tesla and the Mercedes AMG division.
Volvo has also taken steps towards an eventual listing, raising 5 billion crowns from Swedish institutional investors through the sale of newly issued preference shares last year, though the company has said no decision on an IPO has been made.
Australian new vehicle sales jumped to a record in June, a second straight month of bumper results that augured well for consumer demand across the economy.
The Australian Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries’ VFACTS report out on Wednesday showed 134,171 new vehicles were sold in June, up 4.4 percent on the same month last year. Both months had the same number of selling days.
June is typically a strong month as dealers clear stock for the end of the financial year.
Sales of sports utilities alone surged 11.7 percent in June, with the upper large segment rising almost 21 percent. Sales of light commercial vehicles climbed 12.2 percent while the heavy vehicle market gained 9.2 percent.
The willingness to splash out on big-ticket items follows upbeat reports on retail sales for both April and May and points to a likely rebound in consumption for the second quarter after a muted start to the year.
Toyota Motor Corp retained first place on the sales ladder with 18.3 percent of the market, while Mazda Motor Corp had another strong month taking 9.3 percent.
Hyundai Motor took third spot with an improved share of 9.1 percent. The Holden unit of General Motors tied with Mitsubishi on 6.9 percent, while Ford trailed with 6.6 percent.