Aston Martin’s largest shareholder set to boost stake with bargain swoop

Aston Martin’s biggest shareholder has revved up plans to increase its stake in the car maker whose shares have sunk since its stock market listing in October.If completed, the sale would represent a discount of about £60m on the price Investindustrial received when it flipped the shares as part of the listing….

Schaeffler to sell plant in Hamm to management

HAMM, June 30 (Press Release) – The automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler and the management team of Schaeffler Friction Products Hamm GmbH signed an agreement last Friday under which the management of Schaeffler Friction Products Hamm will take over the ownership of the company, effective today. The management buyout will save all 110 jobs at the Hamm location. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. The sale is not subject to competition regulatory approval and the transaction is expected to be completed in the near future. The resulting new company will be named INNO FRICTION GmbH.
Schaeffler Friction Products Hamm currently makes carrier plate-type friction linings for dry dual-clutch systems especially for the Schaeffler Group. At its peak, production of this part accounted for about 60 percent of the company’s revenues, but in recent times there has been a sustained and significant fall-off in demand.
Alongside friction linings, the Hamm plant supplie..

Honda issues recall for 1.6M vehicles in US

Roughly 1.6 million vehicles were recalled by Honda on Friday relating to Takata replacement front air bag inflators.Honda is offering free replacements for inflators that don’t have “a moisture absorbing desiccant” in Honda and Acura vehicles in the U.S..The affected parts were either used as replacements during past Takata recall work “or were part of whole airbag modules replaced for other reasons prior to February 2017”.

Croatia could be center of auto industry in Europe: Rimac

ZAGREB, June 28 (Xinhua) — Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, accompanied by five ministers, visited on Friday the headquarters of Rimac Automobili in the suburb of Zagreb, where the company's CEO Mate Rimac presented an analysis on how to attract automotive industry in Croatia.
Rimac, the founder of the electric vehicle technology company, believed that Croatia could be the center of the future automotive industry in Europe.
“The automotive industry is changing like never before. In the next 10 to 20 years, the industry will change more than it has changed in the last 100 years. And that is an opportunity for Croatia,” Mate Rimac said at a press conference after the meeting.
Rimac Automobili is very successful, he explained, because it started producing electrical vehicle technology at the right time when it was still a new thing on the market. He stressed the significance of the auto industry and the huge impact it could have on the Croatian economy.
Croatian Prime Minis..

Electric carmaker NIO recalls 4,803 vehicles

China’s electric car startup NIO recalled 4,803 ES8 vehicles, about one-third of the company’s first batch for delivery, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Friday.Starting from June 27, the company recalled the 4,803 ES8 electric vehicles with power battery packs manufactured between April 2, 2018, and Oct 19, 2018.The power battery pack used in the vehicle within this recall range is equipped with a module of the specification model NEV-P50, which has the voltage sampling harness in an improper position, where it could cause a fire.

Macron rules out changing French stake in Renault-Nissan

FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron said “nothing justifies” changing the cross-shareholding structure between Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co, underscoring the difficulty the Japanese carmaker has had in its efforts to reduce its partner’s influence over their global car alliance.The French state is Renault’s most powerful shareholder and its presence on the board has long created friction with Nissan.Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard, who is travelling with Mr Macron, has pushed for a merger with Nissan.

Ride-hailing app Yango launches in Bucharest

Yango, an digital e-hailing app currently operating in 16 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, was launched in Bucharest on Thursday.With the launch of the app, a dedicated driver’s center was recently opened by a Yango partner in Bucharest.Best rated drivers get more orders, while drivers with low ratings will receive fewer rides or may even be denied access to the service if their rating is very low (temporarily or permanently).