Valmet Automotive has announced several strategic decisions that will significantly impact its future growth. The Finland-based auto parts supplier and contract vehicle manufacturer plans to offer its expertise beyond the automotive industry. The company expects its special expertise in industrial serial production will benefit other sectors, including the defense sector. Valmet has also decided to divest Ioncor, its subsidiary focused on developing battery systems for hyb...

Stellantis has paused its Level 3 advanced driver-assistance program due to high costs, technological challenges and limited consumer demand, Reuters reported Aug. 26, citing sources familiar with the matter. Although the company announced in February that its AutoDrive system was ready for deployment, it has not been launched. Stellantis confirmed the technology is available but not deployed, without stating if the program is canceled. Former CEO Carlos Tavares had identified AutoDrive as a ...

Ford Motor Co. has announced that it will be investing approximately $5 billion to create or secure nearly 4,000 jobs across its Louisville Assembly Plant and BlueOval Battery Park Michigan. The initiative aims to produce a new pickup and advanced prismatic lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. Ford will invest nearly $2 billion in the Louisville Assembly Plant to assemble the midsize electric truck, securing 2,200 hourly jobs. The Louisville Assembly Plant will see a significant expansion&...

At its Capital Market Day in Frankfurt, Germany, held on June 24, Continental confirmed the planned sale of its ContiTech group sector. This will transform Continental, which is on track to spin off its Automotive group sector into an independent public company by September 2025, into a pure-play tire company. The sale, pending approval from Continental’s supervisory board, is scheduled for 2026, following the sale of ContiTech's Original Equipment Solutions (OESL) business area later in 2025....

On June 11, Marelli Holdings filed Chapter 11 proceedings in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to restructure its long-term debt obligations. “After careful review of the company's strategic alternatives, we have determined that entering the Chapter 11 process is the best path to strengthen Marelli's balance sheet by converting debt to equity, while ensuring we continue operating as usual,” David Slump, president and CEO of Marelli, said in a press release. Marelli said...

US-based sodium-ion battery technology startup Bedrock Materials announced April 5 that it is winding down its operations and stopping development work on sodium-ion batteries. The startup blamed the crash in the price of lithium carbonate and policy tailwinds in the US, leading to uncertainty in the business case of sodium-ion batteries for electric cars. The startup, which secured $9 million in seed funding and opened its R&D headquarters in Chicago in 2024, now plans to return the mone...

The executive board of thyssenkrupp is developing a strategic target model for the future course of the entire group and plans to submit it to its supervisory board before the end of the current financial year 2024/25, ending Sept. 30, 2025. As part of the plan, the Germany-based company — with business interests from automotive to chemicals to oil and gas to shipbuilding — is gearing up to transition into a strategic holding company with independent business segment...

Toyota Motor is exploring the possibility of investing in a potential buyout of Toyota Industries, Reuters reported April 27. “We are currently exploring various possibilities, including partial investment,” the Japanese automaker confirmed in a regulatory filing with the Tokyo Stock Exchange on April 26. Meanwhile, a report from Bloomberg on April 25 said that Akio Toyoda, chairman of Toyota Motor, and his founding family have proposed to acquire Toyota Industries for ¥6 trillion (...

At its CEO Investor Day in Seoul, South Korea, on April 9, Kia Corp. revealed its updated Plan S strategy, setting ambitious goals for the mid-to-long term, including achieving global sales of 4.19 million units by 2030, with 2.33 million of these being hybrid and electric vehicles. Kia's strategy emphasized diversification with the introduction of new models such as purpose-built vehicle (PBVs) and pickup trucks. Ho Sung Song, Kia's CEO, emphasized the company's transformation since 2021 toward...

The executive board of Continental has decided to spin off its ContiTech group sector business into an independent company, the Germany-based company said in a press release on April 8. The company has kicked off the preparatory phase, which it said would involve “analyzing and assessing the possible transaction forms for independence and drawing up a timetable for implementation.” ContiTech is expected to become an independent company by 2026. ContiTech develops and produces rubber and p...

Hyundai Motor Group has introduced its new mobility software brand Pleos at the Pleos 25 developer conference in Seoul, South Korea, marking a pivotal shift toward becoming a mobility technology company. Pleos aims to enhance the in-vehicle app ecosystem and mobility experiences by integrating software-defined vehicles (SDVs) with Hyundai's next-generation infotainment system. Chang Song, president of Hyundai Motor and Kia's Advanced Vehicle Platform Division, highlighted Pleos' role in ach...

Toyota Motor Corp. is set to start operations at its first in-house battery manufacturing plant outside Japan, the Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina (TBMNC). Set to begin production in April, this nearly $14 billion facility will produce batteries for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery-electric vehicles (BEVs). The plant, located in North Carolina, US, is expected to create approximately 5,000 jobs, reinforcing Toyota's commitment...

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has unveiled advancements that are shaking up the global AI landscape, particularly in the automotive sector. By leveraging software to optimize its large language model performance, DeepSeek has created a technological workaround to the restrictions placed on Nvidia's chips, notably the H1000. This development signals a potential game changer for the deployment of Level 4 (L4) autonomous vehicles and robo-taxis, which heavily rely on cloud computing infrastructur...

Lyten, the California-based material applications company, has received multiple letters of interest from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) in support of a funding package of up to $650 million, the company announced Dec. 18. The new funding support is aimed at expanding Lyten’s lithium-sulfur battery manufacturing capacity in Silicon Valley in California and Reno in Nevada, as well as to help fund the company deliver its lithium-sulfur batteries to international customers....

Struggling to contain large capital requirements and increasing debt, Volkswagen-backed Swedish battery cell-maker Northvolt AB has filed for bankruptcy in the US, the company announced Nov. 21. “Northvolt AB and certain of its subsidiaries voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in the United States,” the company said in a statement. It further said that the decision will enable the company to restructure its debt, appropriately scale the business to current customer needs a...

Hyundai Mobis has unveiled its "Value-up" business strategy during the 2024 CEO Investor Day, held in Seoul, South Korea, on Nov. 19. The mid-to-long term business strategy aims to achieve an average annual revenue growth of 8% and an operating margin ranging from 5% to 7% by 2027. Under the new business strategy, Hyundai Mobis plans to significantly expand its revenue outside its parent, Hyundai Motor Group (HMG), and also the owners of Hyundai, Genesis and Kia. The leading South Korean auto...

After a successful public listing on India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Oct. 22, subcontinent’s second-largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (HMIL), said that the company plans to work on localizing the electric vehicle supply network for battery systems, battery cells and drive systems. Hyundai Motor India, which is a subsidiary of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co., also plans to invest in building EV charging infrastructure to encourage customers for wider adoption of EVs across...

South Korean consumer electronics major LG Electronics plans to accelerate its growth in new emerging business areas, including the company’s electric vehicle charger business, the company announced on the sidelines of a press conference organized on Oct. 10 at LG Digital Park in South Korea. LG, which claimed that its EV charger business is turning out to be an emerging unicorn within the LG umbrella, is looking to aggressively expand its presence in the global EV charger market through st...

Human Horizons, the parent company of the premium electric vehicle brand HiPhi, has declared bankruptcy in mainland China, Autocar reported, citing the official announcement made by the Yancheng's Economic and Technological Development Zone court on Aug. 8. The move by the EV startup brought an end to its efforts to secure investments for reviving production. In February, HiPhi decided to suspend the production of its luxury EVs as a part of a restructuring initiative aimed at salvaging the f...

As reported in a press release on Aug. 5, Continental announced that its executive board is considering the potential spin-off of its Automotive group sector to form two independent companies to maximize value and growth. The decision, set for the fourth quarter of 2024, is aimed at responding to the dynamic changes in the automotive industry, particularly in light of recent technological shifts and market demands for greater flexibility. If the executive board and supervisory board approve, ...

Porsche has cut down its sales outlook for the fiscal year 2024 due to a significant supply shortage of aluminum components, which are used by the German sports-car maker in all its models, the company announced July 23. “The supply shortage is the result of the flooding of a production facility of an important European aluminum supplier who has informed its customers in writing of the occurrence of a force majeure event,” the Volkswagen-backed luxury performance carmaker said in a statem...

In a press briefing May 16, Honda outlined its investment and technology development strategy for this decade. The automaker said the mid-2020s will be the transitional period, from internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric vehicles, emphasizing its flexibility in responding to changes in demand, business environment and the need to ensure profitability. Honda confirmed its electrification target to make EVs and fuel-cell EVs represent 100% of its global vehicle sales by 2040. As of 2030, Ho...

Samsung Electronics has halted its autonomous vehicle research, joining Apple and other global automakers in abandoning Level 4 autonomous driving, according to a report by Business Korea on May 10. The company has shifted its development personnel to the robotics field as part of a strategy of selection and concentration. The decision comes amid a challenging landscape for autonomous driving technology, with numerous companies facing difficulties in development and lack of business prof...

South Korean carmaker Kia Corp. organized its 2024 CEO Investor Day in Seoul, South Korea, on April 5, sharing updates on its future strategies, goals for 2030, business roadmap to achieve those, as well as financial targets through the decade, according to a press release dated April 5. At the CEO Investor Day, Kia updated its mid-to-long term business strategy with a focus on electrification and its Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV) business. The company reiterated its 2030 annual sales target ...

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the leading global producer of advanced semiconductor chips, halted certain chip manufacturing equipment and evacuated personnel following the most powerful earthquake to strike the island of Taiwan in 25 years, according to a Bloomberg report on April 3. As the primary contract chip manufacturer for tech giants such as Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp., TSMC relocated staff from specific areas and is evaluating the repercussions of the 7.4 magnitude q...

In a recent test conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), 13 out of 14 automated driving systems were found to have marginal or poor performance. The IIHS developed this rating system to evaluate the safety of these systems and their ability to keep drivers focused, according to a report published by IIHS on March 12. The ratings assess various aspects including driver monitoring, involvement and the encouragement of safety feature usage. Among the tested systems, only ...

French automotive supplier Forvia Hella has further expanded its market position in the field of digital access systems with additional customer orders, with a series production goal of 2025 in Romania and Mexico. The Smart Car Access system from Forvia Hella is based on ultrawide-band (UWB) technology, allowing the end user to open and close the car completely hands-free and start the engine without having to pick up their smartphone. The integrated UWB technology also protects the vehi...

Toyota Motor Corp. (TMC) and Panasonic Holdings Corp. (Panasonic HD) have mutually agreed to let the carmaker acquire Panasonic’s stake in Primearth EV Energy Co. Ltd. (PEVE) to make it a wholly owned subsidiary, Toyota announced March 5. The acquisition, which is scheduled to take place later in March, will help Toyota in strengthening its capabilities in mass-producing automotive batteries. PEVE was first established in December 1996 by the two companies, where Panasonic HD had a ...

AMS Osram has revised its microLED strategy following an "unexpected cancellation of [a] cornerstone project," it said in a press release dated Feb. 28. The supplier announced that it expects a non-cash impairment charge of between €600 million-€900 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2024. AMS Osram also revised its mid-term revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6-8% on a like-for-like basis and expects a positive impact to its cash-flow profile within the next 24 month...

Stellantis plans to commence the production of its medium-size electric vans at its Luton-based manufacturing plant in the UK from the first half of 2025, the vehicle manufacturer announced Feb. 22. Significance: The company said that it aims to begin limited production of the group’s all-electric, medium-size vans from spring 2025 at its Luton factory, making the facility the second Stellantis plant in the UK to manufacture electric vehicles, and contributing to meet the growing deman...