All Volkswagen articles

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    VW sets up new components division to drive efficiency

    2019-01-28T15:23:04Z

    Volkswagen has established a new division – Volkswagen Group Components – tasked with reducing costs by €2 billion ($2.27 billion) while improving efficiency and taking on board the increasing importance of electric vehicles. Thomas Schmall (right), chairman of VW’s new Group Components division, with Stefan Sommer, VW Group board member ...

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    Renault plans home delivery for online sales in Russia

    2019-01-25T12:56:22Z

    Renault has announced plans to start a home delivery service in Russia for vehicles sold via its online showroom.The French carmaker told Russian newspaper Vedomosti that the start of the home delivery service would coincide with the release of the Renault Arkana (pictured) in May this year. It will make ...

  • Finished vehicle logistics was disrupted this year in Poland feature
    Feature

    Hanging in the balance

    2019-01-21T16:55:00Z

    Lower production output, slower growth in export markets and several regulatory and operational issues are threatening to unbalance Poland’s finished vehicle market

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    Mexican car industry calls for action on fuel shortage

    2019-01-16T12:15:00Z

    Mexico’s new federal government has launched a radical strategy to combat the country's long-term problem of fuel theft. However, this has led to fuel shortages in central regions, which have closed gas stations, and is now threatening the transport and logistics supporting the automotive sector.States including Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacan, Guanajuato ...

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    Feature

    US considers lifting sanctions against Gaz

    2019-01-14T14:51:38Z

    The US is planning to lift sanctions imposed on companies owned or controlled by Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and has once again postponed the introduction of sanctions against the Russian carmaker Gaz Group, in which Deripaska has a controlling interest.The US Treasury department’s office for Foreign Assets Control (FAC) notified ...

  • ChinaCars5 Toyota feature
    Feature

    A billion reasons to try

    2019-01-14T14:27:27Z

    For the past ten years, a rising number of Chinese OEMs have appeared on African roads. Bearing cheerful names such as Geely, Chery, Hafei, Chana and Foton, some managed to land on their feet and build a healthy presence. Others, though, have gone down face-first.Foton, a Beijing-based manufacturer that produces ...

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    Dealing with change

    2019-01-03T17:16:00Z

    In recent years, a number of shifts in the industry have begun to affect traditional dealership models, changing the types of relationships that exist between dealers, OEMs and customers. As OEMs move increasingly towards selling more vehicles directly to customers, there are growing indications of significant impacts for traditional dealers. ...

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    Feature

    Connecting the dots

    2019-01-03T12:06:00Z

    Buy a new BMW, and it’s no surprise to find it stuffed with hi-tech telematics. Real-time traffic information, GPS navigation, automatic speed limit display, rear vision display, parking assistance, smartphone integration, intelligent diagnostics and status display – all of these and more are fast becoming part of the modern driving ...

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    Sovac starts assembling SKD kits for Audi in Algeria

    2018-12-12T09:40:18Z

    Audi has begun assembling vehicles at the Relizane plant run by its long-time Algerian partner, Sovac, from semi-knockdown (SKD) kits prepared at the OEM’s Ingolstadt plant in Germany.“[All models] are built at the main plant in Ingolstadt and transported to Barcelona, where they are knocked down into individual assembly groups ...

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    Feature

    VW Autoeuropa plant forced to ship via Leixões

    2018-12-04T11:33:05Z

    Strikes at the Portuguese port of Setúbal that are expected to continue into January have forced Volkswagen to switch exports of its T-Roc SUV, made at the Autoeuropa plant in Palmela, to the northern port of Leixões.According to the ports administration of Douro, Leixões and Viana do Castelo (APDL), the ...

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    WLTP hits sales and profits in Germany

    2018-11-06T11:02:44Z

    Carmaker VW Group and parts supplier Schaeffler have both put weaker third-quarter financial performance down to the effects of the new Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP).As manufacturers have phased out older passenger car models in advance of the more stringent emissions testing procedure coming into effect on September ...

  • Anna Komarova
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    Rewriting the rules

    2018-11-05T12:11:23Z

    Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry wants OEMs to make huge investments in new production capacity in Russia over the coming decade, in order to continue qualifying for state aid. A bill laying down the basis of a new national localisation strategy was published in August that is designed to replace ...

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    Energising the synergising

    2018-10-26T17:02:49Z

    Renault and Nissan began their wide-ranging alliance and set up cross-shareholdings in each other back in 1999, and since then Daimler, Avtovaz and most recently Mitsubishi have also become part of this evolving structure. Numerous shared vehicle platforms, manufacturing and logistics operations and back-office functions have been developed. Furthermore, impressive ...

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    VW starts making Seat Tarraco at Wolfsburg

    2018-10-24T14:38:48Z

    Spanish carmaker Seat, part of the VW Group, has begun producing its Tarraco SUV on assembly lines at VW’s Wolfsburg factory – the first time in 20 years a non-VW vehicle has been built at the plant in northern Germany.Designed and developed in Barcelona, the Tarraco is built on the ...

  • Auto Energy - Picture courtesy of UECC
    Feature

    Hitting the gas

    2018-10-18T16:20:03Z

    Environmental regulations covering the shipping industry are set to tighten across a range of parameters, from the sulphur content in fuel to CO2 emissions. In response, some shipping operators have begun to explore the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in place of traditional marine fuel oil. Offering a reduction ...

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    Brazilian auto association adjusts forecast

    2018-10-16T15:15:43Z

    Brazil’s National Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea), has adjusted predictions for how the year will end for the finished vehicle sector in the country – upwards for domestic registrations and production, downwards for exports.In updated forecasts, Anfavea projected a 13.7% rise to 2.54m units in vehicles licensed, up from ...

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    Feature

    WLTP causes sharp shift in German car sales

    2018-10-16T13:55:42Z

    New passenger car registrations in Germany fell 31% year-on-year to an estimated 200,100 in September. In August, the figure was a 25% increase to 316,400.German automotive industry association, the VDA, said the volatility was because of distortions caused by the new Worldwide Light-Duty Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP), which is intended ...

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    Showing robots the ropes

    2018-10-12T16:03:00Z

    Volkswagen’s Transparent Factory in the eastern German city of Dresden is arguably one of the more unusual automotive manufacturing sites in the world. Named due to its highly glazed exterior, it is not only the production location for the company’s e-Golf but also home to a number of other related ...

  • Audi 2018
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    Taking cover from the heat

    2018-10-12T12:32:03Z

    In late August 2017, Hurricane Harvey – the storm that devastated the Caribbean, flattening Puerto Rico – made landfall on the Texas coast. The second-costliest tropical cyclone on record and the third hurricane of the exceptionally active 2017 hurricane season, it inflicted a reported $125 billion in damage and, according ...

  • Audi A1 production
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    VW Group highlights gains from making Audi A1 in Spain

    2018-10-10T11:20:14Z

    Volkswagen Group has said it expects substantial logistics benefits to follow, now that it is producing the new-look Audi A1 in Seat’s Martorell factory in Spain.“[It] joins Seat vehicles in most distribution transport flows, which enables us to achieve cost and lead time synergies, both for Seat and Audi,” Seat ...