Andrea Malan

Alfa Romeo hopes the GTA variants family will help revive interest in the sporty sedan, a niche that has been slumping in Europe.

The drive toward zero emissions is challenging suppliers to reduce the weight of every component. Grupo Antolin CEO Jesus Pascual is working to keep pace with that trend while protecting the supplier's bottom line despite facing tougher cost-cutting demands from automakers and the chip shortage.

Hyundai, Kia, Seat and Opel all made big gains last month, while losers included Ford and Alfa Romeo.

Short-term rental growth was boosted by companies restocking their fleets ahead of an expected recovery in tourism.

David Powels has been appointed finance boss while Kai Vogler will head sales and marketing at the VW Group subsidiary. Both will directly report to Seat CEO Wayne Griffiths.

The rear-drive, two-seat 296 GTB is Ferrari's second plug-in hybrid and has an all-new V6 engine. 

Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos, former head of design at VW's Spanish brand Seat and briefly head of design at Dacia, will help lead Alfa Romeo's reboot under Stellantis.

Stellantis plans to go to one production line from two at its assembly plant in Melfi, southern Italy, but will still have capacity to produce about 400,000 vehicles a year, according to Italian unions. That output level would top the plant's peak of 393,000 units assembled in 2015.

Reviving Lancia, which only sells the Ypsilon small car in Italy, "is a truly exciting challenge," Ploue said, promising to restore the brand "to its central historical position in Europe, leveraging on its huge potential."

To remain competitive, Brembo Executive Deputy Chairman Matteo Tiraboschi says the company has to grow through aquistions in key areas, but he has given up on his goal of doubling annual revenue to 5 billion euros. He outlined his new plan in an interview with Automotive News Europe.

While the choice of Benedetto Vigna, a man who has spent his career working in microelectronics, might seem an odd fit for Ferrari, he will bring key software/hardware competences to the automaker as it moves into the electrification and digitalization era.

Plug-in hybrids are selling well, particularly in large European markets where generous government incentives slash the cars' high starting prices. But green groups call them "fake electrics." We did a test to determine how environmentally friend plug-in hybrids are.

The plug-in hybrid variant accounted for 31 percent of the Compass' sales in Italy through May, making it the country's most popular model with that powertrain.

Roberto Fedeli is the new chief technology officer at Silk-FAW, a joint venture between Chinese automaker FAW and Silk EV, a U.S.-based automotive engineering and design company.

Travel restrictions and lockdowns in place since March to fight COVID are easing, but monthly sales remained below pre-pandemic levels from 2019.