Industry Developments

The carmaker DaimlerChrysler has decided to dissolve Smart GmbH after successive attempts to save the loss-making affiliate. As part of a streamlining process, Smart will be integrated... 2006-07-24

The employment conflict at Volkswagen's plant in Navarre, Spain remains shrouded in uncertainty, 19 months after management and trade unions initiated talks aimed at concluding a... 2006-07-20

The success story of CIE Automotive continues. The Basque car component manufacturer has just unveiled a 10% increase in its profit for the first six months of 2006 to EUR411mn. CIE... 2006-07-20

The contraction in the UK domestic passenger car market witnessed in 2004 continued through all but the last month of 2005 and resumed in Q106. The full-year 2005 data would have... 2006-07-10

Commercial vehicle sales performed markedly better than the passenger-car segment in 2005, although still recording a fall of 1.0% to 387,929 units over the rolling 12 months from... 2006-07-10

France's PSA Peugeot Citroen group saw its global sales rise by 0.6% in the first half of 2006 to 1.76mn units. Sales were largely boosted by the group's performance in its home region... 2006-07-10

DaimlerChrysler announced last month that it plans to axe around 750 jobs at two of its Spanish plants over the next three years as part of a restructuring plan. The company's Mercedes... 2006-07-10

European investment in the US heavy commercial vehicle sector is in higher-volume than in the opposite direction. DaimlerChrysler AG and Volvo AB both have substantial North American... 2006-07-07

German carmaker Volkswagen has received around 1,000 applications for voluntary retirement or redundancy so far, which according to a company spokesperson has 'exceeded expectations'.... 2006-06-28

The European Parliament has backed a European Commission proposal to scrap car registration tax in favour of a tax on a vehicle's carbon dioxide emissions.The proposal still has to... 2006-06-26