Automotive World Magazine – October 2024 | Automotive World

In this issue:

Data

• Global light vehicle sales forecast downgraded
• Mercedes-Benz production forecast to 2028

Strategy

• Daimler Truck appoints new CEO to helm its transformation
• GM and Hyundai pursue peer support strategy
• Volvo Group invests in AI trucking start-up
• Stellantis confirms search underway for Tavares replacement
• Finding balance: Renault/Nissan share buyback update
• Mercedes ends Denza involvement with BYD
• Honda accelerates its Chinese transformation

Brands

• China to the rescue with Faraday’s new FX brand
• Navistar attempts a turnaround as ‘International Motors’

Markets

• The Chinese challenge—learnings from passenger vehicles
• Thailand’s economic woes halve 2024 EV sales forecast
• Europe calls for help as electric vehicle sales fall
• Norway’s “historic” milestone: BEVs outnumber gasoline cars
• Stellantis-Leapmotor JV enters Europe with cheap EVs

Legislation

• Renault CEO says Euro auto isn’t ready for 2025 CO2 targets
• US ups protection against ‘threats from foreign cars’
• Decision time on EU’s China EV tariff

E-Mobility

• Europe’s OEMs struggle with the realities of electrification
• Volvo dilutes 100% EV by 2030 strategy to include hybrids
• Cupra—and Europe—slow from electric to electrified
• Volvo Trucks doubles the range of its FH Electric model
• Quantumscape aims for solid-state in retail EVs before 2030
• GM delays lithium mine investment until after US election
• Japanese automakers make US$7bn push for battery production
• Kia’s PBV programme: vans yes, but not as we have known them
• Economics of BEV ownership is the new market battleground
• BMW turns to AI for better EV batteries
• Mitsubishi Fuso moves into EV battery recycling
• Europe’s battery industry struggles with global overcapacity
• Sweden declines to pull Northvolt out of financial tailspin
• Could EV job creation keep IRA alive under Trump?
• US awards US$3bn in projects to onshore battery supply chain

Autonomous    

• California lawmakers divided on autonomous truck rules
• ACEA’s roadmap for AVs emphasises global harmonisation
• Trust and transparency lie at the heart of the AV roadmap
• Mercedes-Benz upgrades its automated driving system to 95kph

Software-defined vehicle   

• Cerence takes AI-voice assistant to trucks and 2-wheelers

Hydrogen

• BMW and Toyota prepare for ‘an era of FCVs’
• Ballard struggles with hydrogen long game
• Hyundai partners with Skoda to develop hydrogen ecosystem
• GM expands hydrogen play with new fuel cell plant in Detroit

Manufacturing 

• Factory closures: is a battle erupting for the future of VW?
• Volkswagen turns to investors to save Audi’s Brussels plant
• New investments signal Stellantis’ multi-energy future in US
• Stellantis issues four-week shutdown at Fiat 500e plant
• VW moves labour negotiations forward amid strike threats
• Brazil’s automotive industry turns to China
• Politics across the border hit Mexico’s auto industry
• JLR’s factory upgrades keep ICE, PHEV, and BEV options open
• Stellantis faces strikes in Italy amid weakened production
• Nissan: poor financials play out in production cutbacks

Safety  

• BMW issues latest recalls amid ongoing battery defects
• Stellantis recalls 1.2 million vehicles due to ABS fault

Materials

• Politics aside, Rusal leads the charge on green aluminium