Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard is determined to get the carmaker’s alliance with Japan’s Nissan back on track next year, he said, adding other matters such as a potential tie-up with Fiat Chrysler were less of a priority.

Renault set a gloomy tone for the European car industry by slashing its outlook for revenue and profit, saying weakening economies are weighing on car sales and tougher rules on emissions have increased costs.

Volkswagen and other carmakers have warned that trade tensions risk dragging the global economy into a recession as the fallout starts to hit consumers.

Renault’s Dacia has built a devoted following for its often spartan, low-cost vehicles, making it one of the French manufacturer’s fastest-growing consumer brands.

Prosecutors in Stuttgart are set to fine Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler between €800m and €1bn for diesel- related violations, German magazine Der Spiegel has reported.

BMW’s second-quarter earnings fell by a fifth, hit by exchange rate moves and investments in manufacturing electric and hybrid cars to help meet stricter emissions limits.

Global carmakers as diverse as Japan’s Nissan, Germany’s Mercedes Benz-maker Daimler, and British-based Aston Martin, in new warnings about sales slowdowns, showed the huge challenges facing the industry as they try to buy time to invest in the new generation of electric and self-driving cars.

China has increased its ownership of German car group Daimler by investing a further $2.8bn (€2.5bn) in the Mercedes-Benz maker.

European car registrations fell sharply in June, resuming a downward spiral this year that has seen profit warnings at German manufacturer Daimler and a quarterly division loss at rival BMW.

If BMW boss Harald Krueger has a flaw, it’s that he lacks confidence and isn’t much of a showman — criticisms that nobody has ever levelled at the heiress Paris Hilton.

Elisabeth Behrmann BMW and Daimler will offer cars capable of navigating on highways by themselves starting in 2024, as the luxury-car rivals cooperate to speed up the development of autonomous vehicles.

Taxi app, mytaxi, has rebranded as FREE NOW as part of joining the wider-mobility international “NOW” brand family.

BMW plans to increase sales of electric and plug-in hybrids by 30% every year until 2025 to help meet incoming stringent emission regulations in the EU, prompting the carmaker to accelerate the rollout of battery models.

Weak German economic data and a profit warning from Daimler impacted European stock markets as investors reined in any bets on a fourth week of gains before G20 meetings that may see more trade talks between the US and Chinese presidents.

Daimler shares fell as much as 5% after the German automaker cut its profit forecast for the third time in 12 months, saying it was setting aside hundreds of millions of euros to cover a regulatory crackdown on diesel emissions.

US-Italian car maker Fiat Chrysler has made an all-share merger proposal to French rival Renault as part of a new wave of consolidation in the car industry.

BMW’s automotive car division swung to a loss for the first time in a decade as car prices slumped and a legal provision over alleged collusion ballooned to €1.4bn.

Sales of higher-margin sports utility vehicles and cost cuts helped Volkswagen shrug off a €1bn legal charge to meet first-quarter operating profit forecasts, sending its shares 4% higher.

Peugeot maker PSA Group reported a 1.1% decline in first-quarter revenue, as a sales decline outside Europe and currency challenges outweighed pricing improvements.

German carmaker Daimler has cut its dividend as fourth-quarter operating profit fell 22% as trade wars and rising costs for developing electric and self-driving cars hit profits at its Mercedes-Benz unit.

Volkswagen is buying a controlling stake in Volvo’s WirelessCar, a digital service developer specialising in connected driving, for 1.1bn Swedish crowns (€107m).

Aston Martin, maker of luxury sports cars for the James Bond movies, is moving ahead with a plan to list shares in London, naming Penny Hughes as chairman to end all-male board representation.

The eurozone economy grew faster in the second quarter than initially reported, suggesting some of the worries may have been overdone, while the boom in the big economies in eastern Europe, such as Poland, may be easing.

I’m not a ‘kick ’em while they’re down’ sort of guy, but in the case of Opel over the last five years or so, it has been very hard not to be that person, given the alarming fall from grace we have witnessed at the once great company.

Carmakers failing to cut greenhouse gas emissions risk writing a big cheque to the EU.

ON July 1, Elon Musk went home to sleep. The chief executive of the electric carmaker, Tesla, had been camping out at his electric car factory in Fremont, California, for much of the week.

They are as in love today as they were the day they tied the knot a remarkable 65 years ago and their secret is simple — listen to each other and compromise.

Uber plans to buy up to 24,000 self-driving cars from Volvo, marking the transition of the US firm from an app used to summon a taxi to the owner and operator of a fleet of cars.

Ireland is set to be included, by 2019, in the rollout of a network of fast-charging stations for electric cars being planned for European motorways by a new joint-venture comprising Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, and Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler.

The DB11 is now available with an AMG-sourced V8. Simon Davis headed off to Spain to put the eye-catching new GT through its paces.

BMW is looking to form a joint venture with Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motor.

WE all too easily blame fate for the misfortunes that afflict us. Fate is a convenient catchall that hides behind the fatalism underpinning the Calvinists’ Westminster Confession of Faith which declares that our lives are “freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass”.

A fixation on electric cars risks damaging Europe’s auto supplies industry and handing jobs to China, the region’s car parts manufacturers warned at the Frankfurt motor show.

Ferrari is introducing a new “entry-level” supercar, while Mercedes-Benz is testing the segment’s upper price limit as the rivals vie for the world’s most lucrative customers.

Aston Martin returned to profit, and nearly doubled revenue, in the second quarter. The British luxury car-maker was buoyed by cost cuts and robust demand for its new, DB11 sports car.

The deadlines are set, the clock is ticking — but can motoring manufacturers keep apace with the growing calls to phase out petrol and diesel models completely and convert wholly to electric and hybrid vehicles?

Denis Lynch and Cian O'Connor have completed a remarkable five days for Ireland at the Dublin Horse Show.

Things are not good right now in the German motor industry and last week’s announcement by Audi that they were recalling some 850,000 cars to update the software in Euro 5 and 6 engines, was indicative of how much a mess the likes of Mercedes, Audi and VW find themselves in right now.

Shares in the three biggest German car makers have fallen after a report claimed they colluded for years over diesel emissions technology.

Amongst the business headlines of 2017, the prospect of driverless cars has been a dominant feature, with its promise of an automotive revolution reaching far beyond the most efficient means of getting from A to B.

It is “too early” to tell how many Irish vehicles will be affected by the recall of some 3m Mercedes cars and vans across Europe.

Three million Mercedes cars across Europe are being recalled over concerns about toxic emissions.

The German government summoned Daimler executives to Berlin to explain the carmaker’s role in possible diesel-emissions cheating. Two engines in Mercedes-Benz vehicles have drawn increased scrutiny from prosecutors.

Mercedes-Benz widened its global luxury-car sales lead in the first half of the year, setting back BMW chief executive Harald Krueger’s effort to reclaim the segment’s top spot.