Car Manufacturing
Automotive manufacturing Volkswagen has announced Tuesday that it is rebranding its US branch to Voltswagen.
"We know, 66 is an unusual age to change your name, but we’ve always been young at heart. Introducing Voltswagen. Similar to Volkswagen, but with a renewed focus on electric driving. Starting with our all-new, all-electric SUV the ID.4 - available today. #Voltswagen #ID4," the company wrote on Twitter.
The automotive company has since announced that they won't rebrand Volkswagen to Voltswagen.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has asked Tesla to recall 158,000 Model S and Model X vehicles that could suffer from failing display consoles. The "media control units" allow owners to access their vehicle’s backup camera, climate controls, and Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system. Failure would increase the risk of a crash, the safety agency says.
According to SPIEGEL information, the law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein filed a lawsuit on behalf of Porsche drivers a few days ago. Porsche has alleged sold vehicles that use more petrol on the road and emit CO2 into the air than on the test bench. In order to manipulate the values, the group allegedly installed transmission parts and software in test vehicles, which reduced emissions in the laboratory.
The Austrian car sales are heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to a -67% and -65% decline in sales in March and April. The market since then recovered to a low of -18% in June and went back to -20% in August.
The statistics are based on the registration number of new cars per month.
Under the name "Car.Software.Org" VW aims to develop its own operating system for all VW car models and increase the team to around 10,000 employees. On July 1, Christian Senger officially became head of "Car.Software.Org".
Among other things, he is on the board of directors of the core Volkswagen brand and has headed the development of the electric vehicles series "ID". Since March 2019 he has been working on the "Car.Software.Org" project. Now he was released after only 14 days, due to discrepancies with other VW managers. Audi boss Markus Duesmann will develop the VW software now. Volkswagen did not comment on the conflict.
For the third time, Ford will recall cars, SUVs and vans to fix a defect with their doors, that could open while the vehicle is moving. The recall will cover 2.1 million vehicles in the US and Canada.
The company said Wednesday the previous door latch recalls were done because of defective pawl spring tabs that could crack and fail in high temperatures. The previously recalled vehicles may not have had the latches replaced, or repairs may not have been done correctly, the company said in a statement.
Volkswagen announced Ralf Brandstätter as the new CEO of the VW brand, to lead cost-cutting efforts at the company’s largest plants in Germany.
Brandstaetter, current COO of VW, replaces Herbert Diess who will retain his title of CEO of Volkswagen Group.
As part of the countries economic recovery plan from the Covid-19 pandemic, Germany has announced that it aims to boost the usage and sales of electric cars. One planned measure will require all petrol stations to offer charging options for electric vehicles.
Ferrari Formula One team principal Mattia Binotto said on Thursday that the Scuderia is exploring the possibility of entering the IndyCar series.
Formula One’s new budget cap of $145 million for teams from 2021 would lead to staff being made redundant and the Italian carmaker was looking at options to ensure its employees retain their jobs.
"Ferrari feels a lot of social responsibility towards its employees and we want to be sure that for each of them there will be a workspace in the future," Binotto told Sky in Italy.
Elon Musk has announced on Twitter that Tesla has reopened its factory in California and that he'll work "on the line with everyone else", claiming in a second tweet that the state of California has permitted the re-opening, but claims that "an unelected county official illegally overrode" the decision without providing further proof.
The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, has announced in a tweet that the company will move its headquarters from California to Nevada, Texas. Musk also questioned if the manufacturing plant in Fremont will keep operating in the future after he complained about the Alameda county regulation that all but essential businesses are not allowed to operate until the end of May, due to the coronavirus.