Short Torque

Germany buoys European market's auto sales in July

New car sales in Europe rose 5.9 percent in July as a jump in Germany outweighed drops in Britain, France and Italy, European Automobile Manufacturers Association data showed on Thursday. Tesla lost market share for a seventh consecutive month despite a rise in the overall sales of electric cars. It also trailed competitor BYD, which was included in the monthly sales data for the first time. European automakers have booked multibillion losses and issued profit warnings, with several citing the effects of US import tariffs. Sales in the European Union, Britain and the European Free Trade Association rose to 1.09 million cars in July, ACEA data showed. Registrations at Volkswagen and Renault rose 11.6 percent and 8.8 percent year-on-year, respectively, but fell 1.1 percent at Stellantis. Tesla's sales dropped 40.2 percent, squeezing its market share to 0.8 percent from 1.4 percent a year ago. BYD's sales jumped 225.3 percent to give it 1.2 percent of the market.

Chinese cabin technology set to feature in Teslas

Tesla is set to introduce advanced in-car voice assistant functions powered by DeepSeek and ByteDance's Doubao artificial intelligence in the Chinese market, aiming to enhance the user experience and compete with local rivals who offer similar features. The technology will allow drivers to use voice commands to control navigation apps, in-car entertainment, cabin temperature, and receive news updates. Voice commands will be primarily processed by Doubao, while DeepSeek chat will handle AI interactions. Both models are hosted by ByteDance's Volcano Engine cloud service. Foreign carmakers are increasingly turning to domestic suppliers for AI to offer a more localized experience for Chinese drivers. BMW, for instance, has partnered with Alibaba Group to introduce the QWen large language model in China.

Emissions target needs update, say industry chiefs

European Union's targets to cut CO2 emissions from vehicles, including a 100 percent reduction for cars by 2035, are no longer feasible, the heads of the European automobile manufacturers' and automotive suppliers' associations said on Wednesday. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is set to host automotive sector executives on Sept 12 to discuss the future of the sector, which is facing twin threats of Chinese competition in electric vehicles and US tariffs. In a letter to von der Leyen, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kaellenius and Matthias Zink, CEO of Automotive Technologies at Schaeffler, said they were committed to achieving the EU's net-zero goal in 2050. However, they said EU manufacturers now faced near-total dependency on Asia for batteries, as well as uneven charging infrastructure, higher manufacturing costs and US tariffs. The bloc needed to go beyond new-vehicle targets, they argued, such as a 55 percent CO2 emissions reduction from 2021 levels for cars and 50 percent for vans by 2030 and of 100 percent for both by 2035.

Demand fuels Toyota's record performance

Toyota Motor said on Thursday its global sales and production for July hit records for the month as strong overseas demand held firm despite the effect of higher US auto tariffs. Worldwide sales climbed 4.8 percent year-on-year to 899,449 vehicles in July, rising for the seventh straight month, while output gained 5.3 percent from a year earlier to 846,771 units. By region, production in the US rose 28.5 percent to 95,145 units on robust demand. In China, production climbed 17.1 percent to 135,235 units as new EV models drew customers. Earlier this month, the world's largest automaker cut its net profit forecast for the current fiscal year through March 2026, projecting a 44.2 percent drop to 2.66 trillion yen ($18 billion) as the higher US auto tariffs are expected to outweigh cost-cutting and other efforts.

Jobs at risk as Porsche abandons battery plans

German carmaker Porsche has scrapped plans to produce high-performance batteries at its Cellforce unit, citing slow demand for electric vehicles and changed conditions in China and the US. The move will see about 200 of the nearly 300 jobs at the subsidiary cut. It is a further blow to European efforts to challenge Asia's dominance in automotive battery manufacturing. Cellforce will be turned into an independent research and development unit, the company said in a statement last week. "Porsche is not pursuing its own battery cell production for reasons of volume and lack of economies of scale," Oliver Blume, who serves as CEO of both Porsche and majority owner Volkswagen, said.

Motoring - Agencies