Trade News

Hyundai Motor Group is doubling down on its contrarian bet that hydrogen is the wave of the future, unveiling a bold rollout plan for fuel cell technology in everything from sports cars to commercial trucks and drones while targeting price parity with battery electrics by 2030.

The strategy, unveiled Tuesday under the banner of Hydrogen Wave, spells out the South Korean automaker’s ambition to popularize hydrogen power for “everyone, everything and everywhere” by 2040, not only in cars and trucks, but in public transport, industry, infrastructure and homes.

“Hyundai Motor Group’s vision is to apply hydrogen energy in all areas of life and industry such as our homes, work-places and factories,” Hyundai Group Chairman Euisun Chung said while announcing the road map in an online forum, which will be followed by an on-site exhibition of the hydrogen technologies, vehicles and concepts this month in Goyang, South Korea.

“We want to offer practical solutions …

MUNICH -- Volkswagen plans to crack an industry barrier and offer used-vehicle leases on its ID family of electric vehicles, including those in North America, as a strategy to keep control over their valuable batteries, VW executives told Automotive News.

Speaking on Monday with journalists here at the Munich auto show, Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess said the secondary leases would allow VW to recycle the valuable battery packs into new uses, including home power centers and fast chargers.

"In Europe, we are trying to get a second lease and even a third lease, and keep the car in our hands," Diess told a group of American automotive journalists, adding later that the same plan would be rolled out in North America. "Battery life, we think today is about 1,000 charging cycles and around 350,000 kilometers [about 215,000 miles], something like that. So, the battery would probably live longer than the car, and we want to get hold of the battery. We don't want t…

BEIJING -- Japanese automakers Honda Motor Co., Nissan Motor Corp. and Toyota Motor Coirp. saw their sales in China tumble in August as a chip shortage hit vehicle production in the world's biggest car market.

Honda said it sold 91,694 vehicles in China last month, down 38 percent from a year earlier due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a shortage of components.

Nissan said it sold 113,166 cars in China in August, down 11 percent, due to "external headwinds including on-going pandemic, material shortage and natural disasters across the country".

Toyota said it sold 144,800 cars last month there, down 12 percent from the same month last year.

A prolonged global chip shortage has caught major automakers including Ford Motor, General Motors and Volkswagen off guard, forcing many to idle or curtail production.

The shortage was unlikely to be resolved soon as the pandemic rages on in many parts of the world, China's top auto industry body said last …

BEIJING -- Geely has hired Stefan Sielaff, the former design chief of British luxury brand Bentley, as China's manufacturers increasingly turn to new styles to boost sales in the world's biggest car market.

Sielaff, who also worked for Volkswagen Group and Daimler AG, will be based in Sweden's Gothenburg and lead design of the domestic Geely, Zeekr, Lynk & Co and Geometry brands, the company said in a statement.

He will not manage design for Geely's Volvo and Polestar brands.

Chinese car companies historically rolled out models that looked similar to foreign brands. But as sales increased, many -- including Geely, Great Wall and BYD -- have built up their own studios, usually led by international designers, to create fresh designs.

Hangzhou-based Geely, which owns Volvo Cars and a 9.7 percent stake in Daimler, has turned to more sporty designs to boost car prices. Sales at rival Changan jumped this year thanks to its more futuristic designs, w…

China needs to adapt regulatory measures to guard against Internet and data security risks associated with the development of intelligent vehicles, such as the unauthorized collection of personal information, according to an official at the information technology ministry.

“If regulatory measures cannot keep up in time, network security issues such as network attacks and network intrusions may post major security risks,”  Xin Guobin, a vice minister with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at a forum in the city of Tianjin on Saturday.

Industry regulators will require companies to conduct self-inspections on automobile data security, network security and software upgrades, Xin said. It will study entrance standards for access to the intelligent-car network, according to the vice minister.

Xin, who forecast China’s sales of alternate-energy vehicles may rise to more than 1.7 million in the first eight months of this year and acc…

MUNICH -- Mercedes-Benz previewed the EQS large full-electric SUV with a concept for the ultraluxury Maybach brand.

The Concept Mercedes-Maybach EQS was unveiled at the Munich auto show on Monday.

It's a physical concept with a virtual interior designed to recreates the "feel-good atmosphere of an elegant yacht," Mercedes said in a statement.

The concept is a "near production" preview of the first full-electric model from Maybach, Mercedes said.

"We are extending our leadership aspirations in the high-end segment to the area of electric mobility," said Philipp Schiemer, head of the Top End Vehicle Group at Mercedes Cars. The Top End group includes Maybach, AMG and the G-Class.

The concept has Maybach's signature two-tone paint finish but otherwise presents a "completely new appearance" for the brand with its smooth exterior design, Mercedes design chief Gorden Wagener said in the statement.

"We are completely redefining the luxury S…

China's Great Wall Motors is returning to Europe with a new premium strategy after failing to win over customers for budget vehicles.

Great Wall Europe launched a plug-in hybrid under the premium Wey brand and a more youth-focused electric small car from its Ora brand at the Munich IAA auto show on Monday.

The launch country for Wey will be Germany, followed by either Italy or Spain, then a Europewide rollout, Johnson Qiang, Great Wall's executive vice president for Europe, told Automotive News Europe on the eve of the show.

Qiang said Germany was chosen because it is Europe's largest vehicle market and because Wey wants to establish itself as a premium automotive brand. To do that it needs to compete against powerhouses such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

"We have confidence in the product," he said.

Qiang said Ora will debut in one of Europe's five largest markets -- Germany, the U.K., France, Italy and Spain -- or in one of the Nordic …

BMW's i Vision Circular concept previews "a sustainable car of the future," CEO Oliver Zipse said.

The concept is built almost entirely from recyclable materials, Zipse said at the car's unveiling at the IAA Munich auto show on Monday.

The four-seat electric car shows the automaker's mindset when it comes to sustainable mobility, Zipse said.

Its design is optimized to use materials that have already completed a product life cycle alongside organic raw materials.

The concept's solid-state battery is 100 percent recyclable.

"It will achieve much higher energy density with significantly reduced use of the most valuable resources," BMW said in a statement.

Zipse said the concept does not preview the automaker's upcoming electric cars based on the Neue Klasse (German for New Class) architecture.

Instead, BMW is looking ahead to a compact model for the year 2040 with the i Vision Circular concept.

"We appreciate there are m…

Mitsubishi needed a big hit with the new-generation Outlander that launched this year. And for a small automaker struggling to maintain its relevance in the U.S. , it was pretty much a home run.

But Mitsubishi also needed a smaller hit. And it got that with a freshened Eclipse Cross crossover that allowed it to play in the same ballpark as its Asian rivals. The Cross, a large-ish subcompact — or small-ish compact — is a modest success.

The problem now for Mitsubishi is the brand doesn't have any big hitters coming up to bat anytime soon. There will be a plug-in hybrid version of the new-generation Outlander in the second half of 2022, but there's little sign of other new metal coming behind it.

The redesigned 2022 Outlander has been well received, partly because it's heavily based on the new-generation Nissan Rogue, which is Nissan's top seller. The game plan that some Mitsubishi dealers were betting on was that a series of vehicles…

Mazda's rapidly evolving lineup is moving in several different directions at once.

Smaller vehicles are getting more luxurious on the high trims but remaining affordable at the base. A new rear-wheel-drive, large-product platform is being developed to take on premium brands. And there's a greater focus on all-wheel drive, even on cars.

Meanwhile, the Japanese brand is planning hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, some likely using technology from automotive partner Toyota. The two automakers are near completion of a joint-venture assembly plant in Alabama that will build distinct vehicles for each of them.

For Mazda's current small-platform vehicles, the Mazda3 sedan/hatchback was redesigned for 2019, and the CX-30 crossover was new for 2020. The top-selling CX-5 is ready for a significant freshening. And the Mazda6 midsize sedan and CX-3 subcompact crossover are discontinued.

Mazda's large-product platform under development will use …

The new Tesla Roadster, CEO Elon Musk said at its unveiling, will be the quickest street-legal production car ever.

But there's nothing quick about production of the Roadster itself. Musk last week said the car, first shown in 2017, "should ship" starting in 2023. And that's only "assuming 2022 is not mega drama," he tweeted.

Mega drama, of course, is an apt description of Musk's history with deadlines. He even used to miss the bus as a kid, so his brother, Kimbal, would lie to get Elon outside on time, according to a 2018 story in The Washington Post.

"I think I do have, like, an issue with time," Musk said at Tesla's 2018 annual shareholders meeting. "I'm a naturally optimistic person. I wouldn't have done cars or rockets if I wasn't. I'm trying to recalibrate as much as possible."

Still, six years from the Roadster's unveiling to production is a long wait, even by the standards of "Elon time." The latest delay is more …