Newsflash

+++ AUDI is preparing to counter the new Mercedes-Benz CLA with its very own style-led coupé: a new 5-door A3 liftback model. The most powerful version, which is set to make more than 400 hp, is described by Audi officials as a spiritual successor to the original Sport Quattro. The secret new Audi was granted production approval by former Audi chairman Rupert Stadler earlier this year and forms part of a future 4-model A3 line-up. When it reaches the showrooms in 2020, it will be sold alongside successors to today’s 5-door hatchback, 2-door Cabriolet and 4-door Limousine A3s. Sources told the new 5-door A3 coupé could use the Sportback name to draw a link between it and the A5 Sportback, although that branding has previously been used for the 5-door A3 hatchback. As well as rivalling the new Mercedes CLA, the upcoming Audi A3 Liftback will face competition from a future BMW 2 Series Gran Coupé in what is shaping up as a potentially lucrative market segment for the 3 German car makers. The word from Audi’s Ingolstadt headquarters in Germany suggests that the new A3 model has been drafted into the line-up as a possible replacement for the TT, sales of which have plummeted in recent years as buyers have abandoned compact 2-door models in search of more versatile offerings. However, this is denied by highly placed Audi sources in Ingolstadt, who suggest the future of the TT Coupé and Roadster remains open for the time being. Further details about the new A3 model are scarce at this early stage, but insiders have told that the A3 Liftback measures more than 4.400 mm in length. By comparison, the existing A5 Sportback is 4.730 mm long. More affordable versions of the new Audi are set to run either a 1.4-litre petrol or 2.0-litre diesel engine in combination with a 48V electric system to provide them with mild-hybrid properties. However, plans have already been drawn up for a more powerful 2.0-litre model in the form of the S3 Liftback. Set to rival the Mercedes-AMG CLA 35, this 4-wheeldrive version is expected to offer 306 hp. The most powerful of Audi’s new 5-door models will be an exciting RS3 Liftback that’s planned for launch in 2021. Fitted with a revised version of the 2.5-litre 5-cylinder petrol engine that powers existing RS3 models, with a particulate filter among the other changes, it will go up against the new Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 wielding more than 400 hp. In a move that’s intended to link the new liftback with the iconic short-wheelbase Sport Quattro launched in 1983, the RS3 liftback is claimed to receive a number of traditional styling touches, including air vents within the leading edge of the bonnet, flared wheel arches and a pronounced spoiler within the trailing edge of an angled liftback-style tailgate. Together with the range-topping S3 and RS3 models, Audi is also planning to provide its upcoming Liftback with a newly configured plug-in petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain, which will offer an electric-only range of up to 50 kilometres, as part of an extended range of new electrified A3 e-Tron models. +++ 

+++ Adrian Hallmark’s Twitter biog simply proclaims ‘Bentley Boy Again’. Following a stint as sales and marketing boss at BENTLEY from 2003, he left for Volkswagen in the US and then the Far East. After a short spell at Saab he joined Jaguar  Land Rover before returning to Crewe in February as Chairman and CEO. “I’m like a pig in the proverbial”, he tells me. “But the role’s not without its challenges. He returns to Bentley with the company in the red for the first time since 2009, but is clear about the reasons why and what needs to be done to return to profitability. “2 problems have driven us into the red”, he explains. “The GT Continental was delayed 9 months; it just wasn’t ready for launch. But we’d paid for it, we’d paid all the money out, but not got any money back in. The second factor was, just when we thought we had the GT right and production flowing, WLTP comes along so we had further delays”. With an honesty that has endeared him to the workforce, he admits that Bentley wasn’t prepared for WLTP. But he’s also honest about what the future holds. “Next year we have to be back in the black. The Continental GT will be flowing, the GTC convertible is coming, Bentayga will be on full chat with the V8 and the hybrid, that’s been delayed because of WLTP too, should be here in the first half of next year, maybe even first quarter”. Hallmark tells me that Bentley’s first fully electric vehicle will be with us by 2025 at the latest, but until then it’s about making every model available as a plug-in hybrid. “We could’ve done something off Porsche’s Mission E and it would’ve worked, but that’s not what I want from Bentley”, he says. “So we want to wait until the battery technology works for the types of cars that we build. In the meantime we’ll go hybrid and performance hybrid. Mid 2020s is when we think the technology will meet the needs of the bigger cars we need to build”. He promises a decent range from the hybrids, though: “A 50 kilometre range plug-in hybrid is very transitional. But a 100 or 120 kilometre hybrid starts to get interesting. We want to create a package that works and gives real customer benefit”. So electrification is coming, but Hallmark says Bentley customers don’t want autonomous cars. They appreciate the safety benefits of advanced driver assistance, so the company won’t lead on that driverless technology but it is working hard on 5G and new connectivity systems. He also sees real benefit for the Bentley brand beyond cars. “We’re doing 26 Bentley designed apartments in the Porsche Tower in Miami and a fleet of Bentleys to be used on demand. There’s the Bentley home collection: we’re getting into architecture, furniture as well as the jewellery business; our relationship with Breitling has just been renewed. But mobility and providing people who don’t buy cars the opportunity to experience the brand in the right way I think there’s huge potential”. The cars will remain the core business though, with Hallmark promising one new launch every year. “We don’t do enough limited or special editions, slightly different body styles or limited run cars”, he admits. “We’ve got to do more variation on what we have and we’ll use Mulliner to do that. Then in terms of bodystyle, Bentayga we will facelift it in the not too distant future. We can innovate with Bentayga and we will. I can’t say how, but you can work it out probably. We’ll also add at least one nameplate in the future, and that will probably be as the transition between conventional products and battery electrical products”. +++

+++ The proposed alliance between FORD and Volkswagen shows that the days of carmakers going it alone are over, as tariffs, new technology and tougher emissions rules fragment markets that were once global. It and similar tie-ups may be the fulfillment of late Fiat chief executive Sergio Marchionne’s 2015 prediction of a new era of auto industry consolidation. Firms that once sought a vehicle with universal global appeal to create economies of scale are now seeking advantages in specific market segments like hybrid SUVs, North American pickup trucks or European city cars. The shift toward electric and autonomous vehicles and a trade war that is forcing carmakers to build separate factories for Europe, the United States and China are helping accelerate the trend. So is the global clampdown on emissions following VW’s 2015 diesel cheating scandal. Carmakers long aspired to follow Henry Ford’s ideal of using one set of production tools to supply markets all over the world at the lowest possible cost. They now see standardization of some technologies (particularly engines and vehicle underpinnings, known as platforms) as a potential source of cost savings, with other features used to lure consumers. “Economies of scale matter in architecture and powertrain”, industry veteran Carl-Peter Forster, now a director of Volvo Cars, told. “In theory you can keep costs down through lower tooling costs, but you need to make the product in different places in the world, which means double-tooling”. Ford and VW are not attempting a merger but want to share costs by joining forces in markets and technologies they have found problematic but do not want to retreat from. After struggling to make money from passenger cars in South America, China and Europe, Ford has dropped its focus on the Mondeo as a model for the world and abandoned new sedans. Volkswagen meanwhile remains a niche player in the profitable U.S. pickup truck segment. In September, it said it will cease producing its iconic Beetle as it readies for a future of mass-market electric cars. Similar tie-ups point to a trend. Honda and General Motors have agreed to split development costs on autonomous driving while Toyota and Mazda plan to follow Mercedes-Benz and Nissan in sharing a factory to serve the NAFTA markets. Jaguar Land Rover is looking at alliances in the area of powertrains. Forster, who declined to comment on Ford and VW’s proposed deal, said focused partnerships can work better than formal mergers, based on his experiences overseeing transformational takeovers and alliances at Tata, BMW and GM Europe. Speaking about the merits of consolidation to Reuters in 2015, Forster said there were limits to economies of scale. “With scale you reach a point when you no longer reap the benefits of lower cost per unit because of the added challenges of management complexity and bureaucracy”, he said, citing an engine factory as an example. Forster confirmed through a spokesman this week that his remarks are still current. Marchionne, who died in July, is part of the reason Ford’s shareholders are demanding it undertake a radical rethink of its global footprint and put greater emphasis on profitability. In an April 2015 presentation entitled ‘Confessions of a Capital Junkie’, the Italian accused the auto industry of wasting billions on duplicate products. He argued that about half of all investment spending went on developing technologies like 4-cylinder engines, which customers mostly can’t distinguish from each other and which are now secondary to styling and connectivity in driving purchases. “Broadly speaking, I think it is reasonable that people are trying to establish alliances to get access to both markets and technologies to lower the cost of execution”, Marchionne told journalists at the Geneva car show last March. The advent of electric and autonomous cars, which shift the marketing focus to vehicles as cleaner and more intelligent, reinforces the case for alliances and consolidation, he said. “If we are moving to a world where powertrains will significantly change, the question then is: could that development be shared efficiently? The answer is yes”, Marchionne said. Ford Chief Executive Jim Hackett is bearing those comments in mind as he considers investments in expensive hybrid and electric technologies. “The capital it takes, and God bless Sergio, there is something wrong with that that we think we can fix,” Hackett told. Volkswagen also needs to bring down the cost of developing new cars, while at the same boosting sales of zero-emission vehicles to some 30 % of new car sales by 2030 to meet new European clean air rules. To tempt customers away from diesels, VW Chief Executive Herbert Diess wants to sell an electric car for less than 30,000 euros. That gives scope for Ford to broaden its alliance with VW from commercial vehicles into passenger cars, helping VW create more economies of scale in production and R&D. VW may free up capacity for electric cars at its Hannover plant by shifting production of transporter vans to a Ford plant in Turkey, a person familiar with VW’s plans told. It could offer Ford access to its electric cars platform in exchange for help developing the next Amarok pickup. New competitors from China and the U.S. tech sector and the need to accelerate investments have prompted VW to abandon its approach of developing everything in-house. “We need a massive increase in our competencies, partnerships and acquisitions”, Diess said recently, identifying software and autonomous driving as key areas to catch up in. Last March, months before his death, Marchionne warned about overspending on autonomous driving, which he compared to the 19th century development of British railways. “How much capital needs to be wasted to provide progress is a very good question. There is not a single railway company that built the network in the UK which is alive today”. Although the technology endured, “it was overbuilt, overspent, overburdened, most of them economically failed”, Marchionne said. “Maybe we are living through a similar process”. +++ 

+++ Chery Jaguar Land Rover, the British firm’s Chinese arm, has announced a €900 million investment towards the development and production of electric cars in the region. The joint venture, created by JAGUAR LAND ROVER (JLR) and Chinese manufacturer Chery Automobile in 2012, already produces upwards of 200,000 cars annually at its Changshu facility. This latest investment will transform the factory into a research and manufacturing hub for all of JLR’s future hybrid and electric cars. The recently revealed second-generation Range Rover Evoque is the first Land Rover model to use a mild hybrid engine, with a plug-in variant due to arrive in 2020, alongside an electric XJ as Jaguar’s new flagship saloon. Future models are expected to follow suit, ahead of a 2020 target for making all JLR models either mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid or electric. The news also follows our earlier report of JLR executives considering turning Jaguar into an EV-only brand, following the warm reception of the I-Pace and relative downturn in interest in traditional saloon cars. Land Rover currently plans to launch its first electric car by 2024. As part of the Chery investment, the existing factory will be refitted, with an electric powertrain plant and vehicle body workshop being joined by a research centre. It will also gain a track for vehicle testing. Jaguar has already made strong in-roads to electrification with the I-Pace, which was the first electric car from a premium brand to directly challenge Tesla. The I-Pace is currently built under contract by Magna Steyr at its Austrian facility. +++ 

+++ MERCEDES-BENZ has confirmed for the first time that it will launch successors to the CLA and CLA Shooting Brake, as well as an eighth compact model, the GLB (a SUV), in 2019. The new models were detailed within an official so-called product roadmap graphic. The graphic appeared in a presentation announcing the marque’s 2018 sales to the end of September and it pinpoints six to-be-revealed Mercedes passenger car models. Joining the CLA, CLA Shooting Brake and the GLB will be facelifted versions of the GLC and GLC Coupé as well as the third-generation GLS, itself due to appear at this month’s Los Angeles motor show. The exact timing of the CLA and CLA Shooting Brake unveiling is yet to be revealed. However, it is understood the CLA is likely to make an appearance at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January and the CLA Shooting Brake is expected to take pride of place on Merccedes’ stand at the Geneva motor show in March. Details of the CLA, which is planned to be produced at Mercedes’ factory in Hungary, remain scarce. But prototype test cars reveal that it has a distinctly more sporting appearance than the recently unveiled A-Class Saloon. The pair will sit below the C-Class in Mercedes’ growing saloon range. The CLA will feature a more tapered look to its front end, a more heavily angled windscreen, greater curvature to its roofline, a shallower glasshouse with frameless door windows and a more shapely rear end. The new look is a further evolution of Mercedes’ so-called ‘sensual purity’ design lineage, with smoother and fuller forms set to replace the taut surfacing treatment and heavily etched swage lines of the first-generation CLA. The design-led focus is what will distinguish the CLA from the A-Class saloon, similar to how the larger CLS sits alongside the E-Class. At this stage, it is not known if the new model will manage to match the outstanding aerodynamic efficiency of the first-generation CLA, which remains the most aerodynamically efficient car to have been placed into larger-scale production, with a drag co-efficient of just 0.22 in CLA 180 BlueEfficiency guise. If the test prototypes are any guide, the 2019-model-year CLA will be quite a bit larger than its predecessor, with a longer wheelbase that’s set to provide more length to the rear door apertures to ease entry to the rear along with improved rear leg room. The interior will share a great deal with the latest A-Class. It will have a near-identical dashboard design and Mercedes’ latest MBUX interface, with two screens mounted on the dashboard top to display driving information, media and navigation functions. Recently-seen prototypes also point the way to the look of the second-generation CLA Shooting Brake. Like its predecessor, it is expected to receive a heavily stylised appearance, with a sloping roofline and heavily angled tailgate set to prioritise styling ahead of ultimate load-carrying capacity. The new CLA and CLA Shooting Brake will be the 5th and 6th models to use Mercedes’ MFA2 platform, following on from the A-Class, A-Class Saloon, long-wheelbase A-Class Saloon and recently unveiled B-Class. The MFA2 platform supports front- and four-wheel drive and can accommodate either a torsion beam or multi-link rear suspension. The CLA and CLA Shooting Brake form part of a future 8-model compact car line-up that will also include Mercedes’ new rival to the BMW X1 and Audi Q3, the GLB, which, the roadmap hints, will be unveiled during the second half of 2019, as well as a successor to the GLA, set to be launched in 2020. Power for the new CLA pair will come from a range of 4-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, including a powered-up version of Mercedes’ latest M260 petrol unit in new four-wheel-drive CLA 35 4Matic and CLA 35 4Matic Shooting Brake models from AMG. A more highly tuned version of the M260 engine with 412 hp will be used for range-topping CLA 45 and CLA 45 Shooting Brake models, according to Mercedes-AMG officials. Those variants will, like the upcoming A45, use an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox and a newly developed all-wheel drive system that features an electronically controlled ‘drift mode’. Other new Mercedes models confirmed for sale in 2019 include the fourth-generation GLE, the third-generation B-Class and the first model from Mercedes’ EQ electric car division, the EQC – all of which have already been revealed. +++

+++ MINI will mark its 60th anniversary next year by launching the most radical model in its history: the Hatch Electric. It will be the brand’s first mass-produced EV following a trial of 600 Mini Es back in 2007, and will launch next summer ahead of customers taking delivery in early 2020. Crucially, it will also be one of the first premium, small EV hatchbacks on sale. It will sit above the likes of the Renault Zoé when it arrives, ahead of Volkswagen’s eagerly anticipated I.D. Neo hatchback. Prototypes of the Mini Hatch Electric have been undergoing development testing in the Austrian Alps, where engineers are busy fine-tuning the car’s mechanical set-up. Previous spy images show the electric version will be based on an entry-level 3-door Hatch, and there are currently no plans to offer the car as a larger 5-door model. While some manufacturers, such as Nissan with its pioneering Leaf, choose not to highlight the car’s EV credentials from the outside, Mini’s head of design Oliver Heilmer told it’s important that the firm’s first electric vehicle stands out. “For the production Mini Hatch Electric we have carried over some of the details from the concept car, features like the wheels and grille”, Heilmer told me. “This is important as the car is all about the details”. This means distinctive LED headlamps, alloy wheels and flashes of yellow bodywork. Heilmer added: “We are in a transition phase from combustion-engined cars to electrified ones. During this time we need to show the difference between these cars. Our electric cars need to be like the difference we already have between the standard car and the John Cooper Works cars; noticeably different”. Under the skin the Mini Hatch Electric will use familiar technology from parent company BMW; the EV is expected to make use of the larger 42 kWh battery that has just been introduced to the BMW i3 line-up. The battery will power an electric motor on the front axle and should deliver a range of just under 320 kilometres on the new WLTP cycle. Much like Mini’s only current electrified vehicle, the Countryman Cooper S E hybrid, the fully-electric supermini is expected to offer similar performance to the petrol-powered Cooper S Hatch. With full torque available from a standstill, that means a 0-100 km/h time of less than 7 seconds could be on the cards. However, Heilmer hinted that Mini’s future EVs could go even further and pair up with the more potent JCW-badged cars. “Can electric cars and John Cooper Works cars come together?” Heilmer asked. “Why not? When you look at the performance of our Mini Countryman, performance and electrification work well together”. +++ 

+++ MITSUBISHI said its board removed Carlos Ghosn from his role as chairman, following his arrest and ouster from alliance partner Nissan last week for alleged financial misconduct. Ghosn’s sacking in a unanimous board vote marks the end of his chairmanship of Japanese automakers, just 2 years after he was praised for bringing a steadying hand to Mitsubishi following a cheating scandal in 2016. CEO Osamu Masuko will become temporary chairman, the automaker said. “Ghosn has lost the confidence of Nissan” and it is “difficult for him to fulfill his duties”, spurring the dismissal, Mitsubishi said in a statement. Nissan holds a controlling 34 % stake in Mitsubishi and has 2 executives on the board. The move comes amid discontent over French partner Renault’s role in the 19-year Franco-Japanese alliance of which Ghosn was the driving force. Sealed in 1999 when Nissan was rescued from near-bankruptcy, it was enlarged in 2016 to include Mitsubishi and enabled the members to jointly develop products and control costs. The alliance vies with Volkswagen and Toyota for the ranking of the world’s biggest automaker. Even as Nissan has recovered and grown rapidly, it remains a junior partner in the shareholding structure. Renault owns 43 % of Nissan and the Japanese automaker holds a 15 % non-voting stake in the French firm. And Nissan is almost 60 % bigger than Renault by sales. Top alliance executives are meeting this week in Amsterdam, aiming to shield their joint operations from the fallout of Ghosn’s arrest as a power struggle between Nissan and Renault looms. Renault has refrained from firing him as chairman and CEO. Mitsubishi already had plans to discuss its position in the alliance with Ghosn and, following the ouster, it needs to consider focusing on regions and technology where it can retain competitiveness, CEO Masuko told reporters after the board meeting. Cooperation among alliance members is needed amid the rise of new technology like automated and internet-connected vehicles, he said. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa told staff that power was too concentrated with Ghosn and that in future better communication between alliance board members and executives would help preserve independence and generate synergies among the automakers, a Nissan spokesman said. Ghosn was pushing for a deeper tie-up, including potentially a full merger between Renault and Nissan at the French government’s urging, despite strong reservations at the Japanese firm. Nissan removed Ghosn at a high-stakes board meeting last week after alleging he understated his income and used company money for personal use. Ghosn has denied the allegations. Mitsubishi is conducting its own probe into potential wrongdoing by Ghosn, and plans to announce the results at its December board meeting. While the automakers have stressed that operations and business are proceeding as normal, Nissan has postponed the launch of its high-performance Leaf electric car “to ensure that this important product unveiling could receive the coverage it merits”, a Nissan spokesman said. +++ 

+++ NISSAN and RENAULT will meet to ward off the potential of a power struggle within their alliance, following last week’s sensational arrest of chairman and CEO, Carlos Ghosn. The executive, who until last week was one of the highest paid, most respected figures in the automotive world, is accused of under-reporting his income on the Japanese stock exchange, and misusing company funds. Those funds were used, in part at least, to allegedly fund houses in Amsterdam, Beirut, Paris and Rio de Janeiro for Ghosn to use rent-free. A Mitsubishi spokesperson said “there is no change” in the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance relationship. Renault and Nissan’s CEOs will this week meet in Amsterdam for the first time since Ghosn’s ousting. That’s in contrast with what Nissan CEO, Hiroto Saikawa, has indicated. He’s made it clear Nissan wants to end Renault’s control of the alliance, having moved quickly to end Ghosn’s reign at the Japanese company. Over at Renault, the embattled executive has maintained his post as CEO and chairman, with his 2IC stepping up to fill the role while the Japanese investigation plays out. Nissan has wanted to force Renault to sell down its controlling stake in the alliance, given its smaller global sales figure. Renault was actually planning to appoint another director to the alliance board in the lead-up to Ghosn’s ousting, a move rebuffed by Nissan. Even the French Government, the largest Renault shareholder, has weighed into the scandal, calling for a separate audit of his behaviour by Renault, and arguing it hadn’t yet seen evidence of his wrongdoings. Nissan reportedly hasn’t shared its 400 page internal report into Ghosn’s misdeeds with its French partner. +++ 

+++ SEAT and Volkswagen are set to formally recall around 75,000 cars as a temporary fix for a seatbelt issue has been replaced by a permanent solution. Consumer group Which? condemned VW for initially only offering an “informal recall” and temporary fix for what it described as a “potentially lethal fault” where the centre-rear seatbelt could fail and unfasten itself if the car turned or changed lanes at high speed. The organisation estimates that the Volkswagen Group has sold around 55,000 cars with the problem since being made aware of it a few months ago. The temporary fix involved the use of cable ties to secure the faulty seatbelt; a solution which the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) rejected. VW still advised drivers not to use the centre-rear seat even with the temporary fix. Which? has been contacted by Polo owners who said they were only notified of the fault 4 weeks after purchasing the car after receiving a letter from VW. A permanent solution is now being rolled out, but Which? managing director of home products and services Alex Neill described VW’s handling of the issue as being “completely unsatisfactory” and called for DVSA to investigate. In a statement, a VW spokesperson said “The Volkswagen Group’s top priority is its customers’ safety”, and said both VW and SEAT are taking “a number of steps to ensure their customers’ safety in the context of the seatbelt issue”. The company says it has written to all registered keepers of the affect vehicles to inform them of the fault, provided them with dashboard stickers to shown the rear-centre seatbelt must not be used and informed them when they came to the dealer to receive the temporary cable tie fix that the issue was still present and that the dashboard sticker was necessary. It added that its communication with the DVSA over the issue had been “open, regular and transparent”. SEAT and Volkswagen are continuing to sell cars with a potentially dangerous seatbelt fault, despite a recall being in place. The issue was identified in May and affects 2018 examples of the Polo, Ibiza and Arona. If 3 people are in the rear seats of either car, during a high-speed lane change the middle socket seatbelt socket can push down on the rear-left seatbelt socket’s release button, unlatching the seatbelt. But affected cars are still being sold to customers with a temporary fix in place, rather than a permanent one. The temporary patch involves simply securing the central and back-left seatbelts together, changing their heights relative to each other, and minimising the chances of the buckle being inadvertently released. A permanent fix involving a redesigned seatbelt lock has been designed, but is not due to be rolled out until November, and cars are still being sold with the temporary patch in place. New customers are asked to sign a disclaimer when buying the affected cars, warning them not to carry 3 rear passengers, and are also provided with a warning sticker for their cars. A joint statement by VW and SEAT said the 2 companies “have confirmed a technical issue on the new Polo, Ibiza and Arona (model year 2018)”. Because of this, “the brands advise their customers not to use the middle seat of affected vehicles until they are equipped with the redesigned belt lock fixture”. VW and SEAT have stressed the circumstances in which the rear seatbelt could unlatch represented an “extremely low risk” which could occur during “exceptionally specific and rare driving conditions”. They also emphasised that safety remains a “top priority”, and that “the Polo, Ibiza and Arona are legally homologated and safe to drive”. When the issue was discovered, Caroline Hicks from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), the government organisation responsible for administering recalls, said the DVSA was “is in discussion with VW Group over the seatbelt defect and a full recall will be made when a suitable fix is agreed”. Road testers from Finish auto magazine Tekniikan Maailma first noticed the issue when group testing the Arona, and subsequently replicated it in the Ibiza and Polo, all of which are based on MQB A0 Volkswagen Group architecture and are fitted with seatbelts made by Takata. Tekniikan Maailma was unable to replicate the fault in the T-Roc, which has a similar rear buckle arrangement, but features seatbelts made by a different company. As a result of this, the magazine concluded: “The reason for unlatching is a combination of buckle layout and too sensitive release buttons in the buckles manufactured by Takata”. Having investigated the issue, SEAT later admitted the Finnish publication was right. A company statement at the time read: “SEAT has confirmed a technical issue on the new Ibiza (2017 and 2018 models) and Arona (2018 model year): there is the possibility that in rare situations (e.g. sudden quick lane changes with 5 passengers on board) and when the rear center seat and the rear left seat are occupied at the same time, the left seat belt could be unintentionally released. At SEAT safety remains a main priority and the brand has already identified a technical solution which will prevent this from happening”. +++ 

+++ At SKODA and VOLKSWAGEN , VW brand’s German union is fighting with Skoda over leadership of a factory that parent Volkswagen Group plans to open in eastern Europe. VW Group CEO Herbert Diess said on Nov. 18 that the automaker is looking for a location for a new multi-brand plant in eastern Europe to start production after 2022. The need for the factory arises because VW is converting its Emden factory in Germany to build electric vehicles and shifting production of the Passat to Skoda’s lower-cost factory in Kvasiny, which builds the related Superb. The new plant will build the Skoda Karoq and Seat Ateca that are currently produced in Kvasiny. Locations in Bulgaria and Romania are currently being examined for the plant, which will create 4,000 to 5,000 new jobs. VW brand’s works council has told management it wants the factory to be controlled by the core VW passenger cars business. VW Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said the company has not yet made a decision on which brand will lead the factory. “Skoda is one of the options”, he told. Skoda’s home base of the Czech Republic is not in the running because of its high wage costs, sources said. Another option under consideration is to convert in an engine plant to build cars. VW’s engine plants in Polkowice, Poland, and Gyor, Hungary, are potential candidates, sources said. +++