David Jolley

Hyundai's luxury brand appointed industry veteran Lawrence Hamilton as its new Europe boss.

Russia's top-selling brands all reported strong results last month, with sales at market leader Lada rising 43 percent and No. 2 Hyundai up 44 percent.

Tesla had the biggest monthly gain, followed by Smart and Suzuki. Among the losers were Honda, Ford, Mitsubishi and Volvo.

Ford is one of only a few automakers still offering pickups in Europe and its only model, the midsize Ford Ranger, is currently the best-selling pickup in the region.

The fifth-generation Sportage will be unveiled in July in Korea, with the European variant arriving in September.

Ford has confirmed that it will build a VW MEB-based electric car in Cologne but has not said what type of vehicle it will be.

VW released sketches of a possible design for the open top EV that brand CEO Ralf Brandstätter called "a very tempting idea."

Demand fell to 95,213 last month after a drop in December that ended a three-month bounce back from the fallout of coronavirus measures.

Sales plunged again last month in Europe's biggest market as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic continue to subdue demand. 

The automaker has used the summer break to make changes to the factory ahead of the electric van’s launch in 2022.

Chinese EV maker Nio hopes to enter the European market next year, bringing with it not only its SUVs, but also its battery swapping technology.

Christian Vollmer, former production and logistics boss at Seat, will take the same role at the VW brand.

Britishvolt aims to start building the 30 gigawatt-hours factory in the second quarter of 2021 and begin production in 2023.

BMW will idle production until the end of April because it expects a further decline in demand while dealerships remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ford's factory in Cologne, Germany, will build fewer Fiestas this year because of weaker demand for the small hatchback in the UK.