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Lookers increased its full-year profit expectations to £75 million and kicked-off a £15m share buyback programnme after reporting strong performance in a Q3 trading update.

The AM100 PLC stated that its new car sales volumes had outperformed the market by 5.6% during the three-month period to September 30, with retail unit sales up 11.5% against the wider UK market in September and underlying profit before tax for the month in line with last year.

Like-for-like used unit sales were down 7.1% – an improvement on the-8.3% decline reported in H1 – but gross margins remained “broadly in line with those reported in the first half”, the group said.

Aftersales revenues remained “robust” and were ahead of last year on a like-for-like basis.

Commenting on the group’s Q3 result and a projected full-year performance which would leave the group 16.8% down on a record 2021, despite “significant cost inflationary pressures”, Lookers chief executive Mark Raban said: “We have built on the strong first half trading momentum, particularly in the important month of September with the arrival of a new registration plate.

“We remain mindful of ongoing supply chain disruption and significant inflationary pressures affecting consumers and businesses alike.

“However, our intense focus on driving self-help operational efficiencies across the business and ensuring ongoing strong vehicle margin retention means that we are increasing our profit expectations for the full year.”

Raban, the AM Awards 2022’s Business Leader of the Year, added: “I would like to thank all of our stakeholders, particularly my fantastic colleagues across the business, for their tireless efforts in serving Lookers customers to produce these strong results.”

The Lookers board celebrated the signing of new franchise agreements with both Great Wall Motors’ Ora electric vehicle (EV) brand and Lotus Cars during Q3.

It will represent Ora in Wolverhampton and Braintree and has secured a Lotus franchise for Northern Ireland, with all operations set to commence trading from existing group facilities during Q4.

The group said that its financial strategy would aim to maintain a good balance of investing in the business and shareholder distributions, while maintaining a leverage ratio of 0.5x Net Debt/EBITDA.

Lookers had a net cash balance of circa £86m at the end of Q3, compared to net cash of circa £33m a year earlier, with a net book value of freehold and leasehold properties of circa £297m.

The combined value of Lookers’ cash and property portfolio is now equivalent to 98p per share (31 December 2021: 78p).

Today’s launch of a share buyback programme aims to reduce the share capital of the company and increase earnings per share, it said.

Delivering its outlook for the remainder of 2022 trading, the Lookers board said it was “encouraged by the strength of trading in Q3 and the early start to Q4”, adding that it would “continue to maintain a strong new car order bank, which is above historical normalised levels”.

Highlighting the ongoing economic uncertainty and inflationary pressures impacting consumers, it added: “Although we are pleased with the recent positive trading performance, the availability of new vehicles continues to be a factor limiting our growth.

“We are also cautious on how consumer spending might be affected during the remainder of this financial year, with inflation, higher interest rates and wider economic uncertainty.

“Notwithstanding these factors, given the strength of performance in the period, the board now expects underlying profit before tax for 2022 to be ahead of its previous expectations and to report no less than £75m.” 

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Let’s say you write a screenplay and get an agent, manager or producer to read it. If they like your script, the first question they’ll ask you is, “What else do you have?” Movie execs prefer to invest in someone they know has more than one good idea.

If the 2023 Nissan Ariya were the script and I was the producer, the first question to Nissan would be, “What else do you have?” I spent a workday behind the wheel of the new battery-electric crossover, and quite enjoyed my first read. Here’s to hoping Nissan’s coming EVs are as good or better.

So much of the good vibe comes from the interior. After expressing a difference of opinion with colleague James Riswick about the Volkswagen ID.4’s infotainment system, I agree with all Riswick had to say about the Ariya cabin, summed up as “fashionable and futuristic while still being functional.” Uncluttered yet inviting. Gorgeous displays with heaps of configurability. Features that are served best by buttons and a knob get buttons and a knob. Excellent material choices, save for one item I’ll get to in a moment. And, huzzah, a real live sunroof that opens with a simple toggle switch.

There’s plenty of room for people, and there’s plenty of room for the notions and trifles people carry, although not in the usual places. The sliding console between the seats doesn’t house the capacious bin we’ve begun to expect in EVs. The only item under the armrest is a slim dock for the wireless charging pad. The cubbies live under the instrument panel — a manually retractable pocket-slash-tiny-table under the HVAC controls, a glove compartment in the usual location. A note on that sliding console: It moves about 5 inches fore and aft, but it’s not a disappearing console, so the room gained by occupants in the front seats is subtracted for occupants in the rear seats. The area forward of it is also open, not unlike an old-school van or BMW i3, meaning that only items too heavy or weirdly shaped to roll into the driver’s area can be put on the floor. Some may prefer an enclosed bin like what you’ll find in a Kia EV6, even as an accessory.

Roominess takes a hit behind the second row, however, as designers stressed occupant room and an arced greenhouse over cargo space and the arced greenhouse. There’s but 22.8 cubic-feet of storage behind the second row, which is small for the segment. That’s 7 cubes less than found in the Ford Mustang Mach-E, and 7.5 cubes less than in the ID.4. It’s equal to the Kia Niro EV. Putting the second row down improves load space to 59.7 cubic-feet, matching the Mach-E, but falling 4.5 cubic-feet short of the ID.4. The ICE-powered Nissan Rogue Sport, which is 10 inches shorter than the Ariya, can hold 22.9 cubic feet behind the second row, 61.1 cubic feet with the second row folded.

That one questionable materials decision mentioned above concerns the crosshatch motif inspired by Japanese Kumiko lanterns placed throughout the cabin, including on the doors, the speaker grilles and a rectangular panel under the dash (it’s the thing that looks like a cold air return in the below right photo). When dark outside, a soft glowing light comes through the pattern and as shown in the below right photo, is a nice touch. When light outside, however, the plastic pieces look like a low-res imitation of wicker. That’s less nice. At least the pattern carpet looks modern and expensive regardless of the time of day. 

Rumor alleges the Ariya was meant to be an Infiniti. As a Nissan, however, it makes a superb reset for what the brand can do after previous leadership starved it of vision, attention and resources for so long. The Ariya’s quarters are premium enough to suit the elevated expectations and MSRP of an electric vehicle, still leaving plenty of room for an Infiniti variant to express genuine luxury.

One other quibble: the shifter required a moment of attention to figure out the button on the side was for getting into Reverse but not Park, and then another moment to find the “B” mode that calls up additional regen braking. Owners will learn the mechanism and never think about it again. It’s only worth calling out because the shifter was the only item in the cabin that seemed like a functional issue. Everything else is intuitive.

There were no such hitches on the road. Nissan engineers said their guiding ethos was to make the Ariya easily comprehensible to someone making the switch from an ICE vehicle. The battery level charge icon, for instance, is a gas pump with a plug sticking out.

The transitional brief comes through in the driving experience. The Ariya cabin lets in a wee bit more wind noise on the highway than the ID.4 driven the previous day, a bit of ruffle at the cowl and around the mirrors. The margin is small enough that anyone not listening for it won’t notice it. The upside is that the driver picks up more subconscious cues about speed. It wasn’t necessary to glance at the speedo to realize we were doing well over the speed limit moving with the flow of traffic.

Our Empower+ FWD tester — starting at $54,985 with $1,295 in destination charges — packed a motor on the front axle making 238 horsepower — 24 horses up on the $44,485 base spec — and 221 pound-feet of torque. The battery holds 91 kilowatt-hours total, 87 kWh of that usable. In a 4,608-pound crossover, this was plenty of gumption to have fun, never enough to be frightening. In relation to the kinds of crossovers buyers will come from and make comparisons to, the Ariya’s 7.2-second trot to 60 miles per hour is 2.6 seconds faster than the Nissan Rogue Sport, 0.7s second faster than the Rogue, and around a half-second quicker than the 201-hp ID.4.

The controls are super light. The steering is injected with far too much Novocaine, but neither too fast nor too slow. The throttle and brake pedals deliver easily modulated responses. The 19-inch 235/55 Dunlop Grand Trek rubber puts ample contact patch on the ground for the kind of driving an Ariya buyer would engage in. Those contact patches are well spaced, too. The Ariya’s overall length is 0.1 inches short of the Rogue; its wheelbase 2.8 inches longer, and its track 2 inches wider front and back. Coupled with instant torque delivery, a near 50/50 weight balance and a well-damped suspension, whisking the Ariya through back roads reveals crisp dynamics and copious pep. It’s quick, fluid and never asks too much of you. 

That’s especially true when using the available Nissan ProPilot 2.0 system that enables hands-free driving on approved stretches of HD-mapped divided highway. On top of the second shark fin it puts on the roof and the hands-free functionality, new features in the five-year-old safety suite include lane change prompts, automatic lane changes and lane-specific guidance when using the crossover’s native navigation system. Drivers are notified of Pro Pilot’s operational level via a colored dashboard display. A white ADAS display means adaptive cruise control only, green means Steering Assist is also activated, blue gets those two plus hands-free. Regrettably, the system in our car had been accidentally disabled for the first part of the drive. Even after activation, though, green was as good as it got for the rest of the day, despite driving a corridor of I-65 where the system said it should have been able to go hands-free. High marks go to the standard lane keeping assist, at least, which never felt intrusive.

The Nissan Ariya isn’t a follow-up to the Leaf, it’s a reboot of the automaker’s EV franchise and the most interesting Nissan I’ve driven in too long. The automaker’s Ambition 2030 plan aims to get 15 new all-electric vehicles on the roads in the next five years, the Ariya being the first, and a very good start. The sequel can’t come soon enough.

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LONDON — BYD on Wednesday received a coveted five-star Euro NCAP safety rating for its electric ATTO 3 crossover SUV, the latest Chinese carmaker to receive top marks as it seeks to gain a foothold in Europe’s competitive car market.

Two other Chinese-made cars — the eCitroën C5 X, built by a joint venture between Stellantis and Dongfeng and the Mobilize Limo, an electric sedan made by Renault together with Jiangling Motors — received four-star ratings.

Ratings from the European New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) are not binding, as it does not certify vehicles for road use. But European consumers pay attention to Euro NCAP’s safety tests, and carmakers aggressively market good ratings.

Last month Chinese rival Great Wall Motor received five-star ratings for its WEY brand Coffee 01 hybrid SUV and its ORA brand Funky Cat electric sedan (respectively, below).

Just this week BYD launched the ATTO 3 in India, which sells in China as the Yuan Plus.

Last week, German car rental company Sixt said it has committed to buying around 100,000 electric vehicles from China’s BYD in the coming years.

Among the other cars receiving a five-star rating on Wednesday was Mercedes-Benz’s EQE electric sedan (below).

The EQE’s driver assistance system — including one that moves the car to the slowest lane on a highway and brings it to a halt if the driver becomes unresponsive — made it the highest-scoring car so far for assisted-driving functions, Euro NCAP said.

SUZUKA, Japan — Max Verstappen is now a two-time Formula One world champion, both titles awarded under bizarre and unprecedented circumstances long after he crossed the finish line.

The Red Bull driver won the rain-shortened Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday and didn’t learn he was champion until F1‘s governing body penalized Charles Leclerc after the race.

“The championship obviously did not come the way this time around,” Verstappen initially said after climbing from his car following his 12th victory of the season. The Dutchman even apologized to the crowd on the track’s public address system.

Seconds later, Verstappen was told he was a two-time world champion and crew members and friends suffocated him with hugs.

“Once I crossed the line I thought: ‘It was an amazing race, good points again. But I’m not world champion yet.’”

The 25-year-old said he was tipped off when his mechanics started to cheer, but said he was still confused.

“I don’t mind it was a little confusing,” he said. “I find it actually quite … funny.”

Verstappen’s first title was won in last year’s season finale at Abu Dhabi, where seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton dominated the race until a late caution. It was then that race control set in motion an unprecedented sequence of events when since-fired race director Michael Masi allowed for a late restart.

Verstappen passed Hamilton to win the race and his first championship, but Mercedes disputed the way the race ended and the teams argued with the FIA for hours before Verstappen was finally, officially, named champion and able to celebrate.

Two titles for Verstappen signals a changing of the guard in F1, even if Verstappen’s championship-clinching races will forever be remembered for their controversial endings.

In Suzuka, Verstappen started from the pole in pouring rain only for the race to be stopped after two laps as several cars crashed. The race resumed two hours later, but only 28 of the 53 laps were completed and Verstappen led the entire way.

The Belgian Grand Prix a year ago was not completed in the rain and F1 for the sixth time in history awarded only half points for that shortened event. So nearly all the teams figured Sunday’s race was only going to be worth half points again.

The entire paddock seemed surprised when the FIA then ruled full points would be awarded. But even that wasn’t enough: Leclerc received a post-race penalty that dropped the Ferrari driver from second to third and officially gave Verstappen the points margin needed to clinch the title with four races remaining.

“So then we had enough points, so we were world champions again,” summarized Verstappen. “It’s a great feeling, but when I crossed the line I didn’t believe that we would have won the title right there.”

The race was messy from the start in the rain when Carlos Sainz Jr. spun and was knocked out of the race, and Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu also had a dramatic spin but continued.

Organizers stopped the race after two laps.

Pierre Gasly complained on his radio that he passed a recovery vehicle that was improperly on the track as the safety car emerged just as the race was red-flagged. It triggered rage throughout the paddock because in 2014, French driver Jules Bianchi collided with a recovery vehicle on the Suzuka track. Bianchi was placed in an induced coma and died nine months later, and he was one of Gasly’s closest friends.

“What is this tractor on track? I passed next to it,” Gasly radioed his AlphaTauri team. “This is unacceptable. Remember what has happened. Can’t believe this.”

The FIA said after the race that it is investigating the deployment of safety vehicles.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and Perez were also incensed.

“We lost Jules Bianchi here and that should never, ever happen, so there needs to be a full investigation as to why there was a recovery vehicle on the circuit,” Horner said.

And on social media Perez complained: “How can we make it clear that we never want to see a crane on track? We lost Jules because of that mistake. What happened today is totally unacceptable! I hope this is the last time ever I see a crane on track!”

Even Bianchi’s father, Philippe, chimed in with an Instagram post.

“No respect for the life of the driver, no respect for Jules’ memory. Incredible,” he wrote.

Long after the race, Gasly was penalized for speeding under red flag conditions.

Meanwhile, Verstappen never looked back even when he wasn’t sure he’d clinch the title Sunday.

But just like last year, when Mercedes threatened for four days to take the Abu Dhabi finish to the highest sporting appeals panel, Verstappen is again waiting to see if his two titles are intact.

The FIA is investigating if Red Bull exceeded last year’s spending cap and a decision is expected to be announced Monday. It could involve financial penalties, or even strip Verstappen of his 2021 title. After the mess in Suzuka, stripping Verstappen of last year’s title would be a public relations nightmare for F1 and the FIA.

Regardless, Verstappen has proved his worth on the track over the last two seasons and this year has been unstoppable.

Best driver.

Best car.

Best team.

Verstappen has won in all fashions this season — from the back of the field, driving through traffic and even recovering from an in-race spin. Sunday’s race was another example of his dexterity as mistakes, errors and poor racing conditions never slowed him.

Verstappen essentially had the title wrapped up before the summer break, and it was never a question of if he would win — but when and in how many races.

Winning two titles in a row moves Verstappen into elite company. It also marks a changing of the guard that could mark the end of the Hamilton era.

Some of the modern-era drivers who have won at least two in a row include Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, and Alain Prost.

Jackie Stewart and Nelson Piquet won multiple titles, but never back-to-back.

Verstappen has edged past Hamilton as Formula One’s main man. The 37-year-old Hamilton, whose Mercedes has been disappointing this year, has not won a race since Saudi Arabia, the penultimate race of 2021.

Verstappen has racing is his blood. His father, Jos Verstappen, ran more than 100 races in F1, but failed to ever win. The elder Verstappen was once a teammate of Schumacher with Benetton for part of the 1994 season.

His mother, Sophie, was a top-ranked kart racer and a skilled driver in her own right.

Verstappen, who was born in Belgium and learned racing there, drives under the flag of the Netherlands, where after school each day he’d cross the border to his father’s race shop and work on becoming a future F1 champion.

He is the youngest driver to ever make a Formula One debut, at 17 driving for Toro Rosso in 2015.

With 12 victories this season he is nearing the season record of Schumacher and Vettel, both with 13. Schumacher won 13 races in 2004, Vettel did it in 2013.

Schumacher had one of the most dominating seasons in 2002 when he won the title at the French Grand Prix with six races still to go. That was when F1 was a 17-race season.

___

More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Well, it was nice while it lasted. Toyota had seemed to just be getting its mojo back with the Gazoo Racing sub-brand. GR has been on a roll in recent years, with rapid-fire releases of driver-oriented performance cars like the GR Supra, GR Yaris, GR86 and GR Corolla. Unfortunately, if the GR86’s chief engineer Yasunori Suezawa is correct, fans shouldn’t hold their breaths for another.

Speaking through a translator to Australia’s Drive about future GR models, Suezawa said, “There is [sic] none left actually, so this [the GR86] is the last.” It’s not clear if he meant the absolute last ever, full stop, or if there are no longer any more in the works at the moment. It’s also possible that future sports cars may not fall under the Gazoo Racing brand. It was less than a year ago that Toyota showed what appeared to be a concept for an electric sports car with a mid-“engine” profile. 

Suezawa went on to pitch the GR Sport lineup, which dresses up more pedestrian models with sportier wheels, aero bits and sometimes suspension tuning á la BMW’s M Sport or Mercedes’s AMG-Line. “For the GR [performance brand], basically this [the GR86] is the last,” he said. “But we have a GR Sport [brand] that we will be [widening] with models like the Corolla, Yaris Cross and C-HR.”

That’s small consolation for those expecting a revival of, say, the MR2. It also calls into question whether there will be successive generations of the current crop of GR-branded cars. If the GR86 follows in the footsteps of the previous generation, it might have a nine-year lifespan. The GR Supra’s fate will probably be tied to the BMW Z4‘s. The GR Yaris and GR Corolla will likely depend what the next generation brings for the non-GR variants of those cars, and whether Toyota sticks with WRC. 

It would come as a shock if Toyota let Gazoo Racing just peter out. Not because enthusiasts love the GR brand necessarily, but because Toyota has made such a big deal about unifying its sport models and racing activities under this one banner. As long as interesting products keep coming, though, Toyota can call them whatever they want.

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The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has awarded a total of $59 million in grants to improve safety at highway-railway crossings in four states: California, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania.  The grants are made possible by the FHWA’s Commuter Authority Rail Safety Improvement (CARSI) program.

In 2021 alone, there were 2,145 collisions, 235 fatalities, and 669 injuries at highway-rail crossings nationwide, according to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).  The objective of the CARSI grants is to improve safety at highway-rail crossings for all travelers — drivers, passengers, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. 

Individual grants for five specific projects across four states range from $4.4 million to $15 million. The five recipients of the latest CARSI grants include:

The Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA), operator of Metrolink, will receive a $12.5 million grant to bring three high-volume at-grade highway-railway crossings in Ventura County up to current SCRAA Grade Crossing Safety Standards and in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The project will add wider medians and signal features that help drivers move away from the track before a train arrives. For pedestrians, it will add emergency swing gates and right-of-way fencing. Also noteworthy, the crossings are located in or near impoverished or disadvantaged communities.

The Southern Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) will receive $12.9 million to modernize 25 rail crossings with improved lighting and other safety features on its Tri-Rail commuter rail line in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties. The rail line is in an area where vehicular traffic has increased and where train traffic is expected to increase over the next several years as well.

The New York State Department of Transportation and the Metro North Railroad (MNR) is awarded a $4.4 million grant to make accessibility improvements for pedestrians and warning systems upgrades and to implement other safety improvements at five grade crossings located in Dutchess and Putnam Counties on the MNR’s Hudson and Harlem Lines, which have substantial train volumes.

The New York State Department of Transportation and the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) will receive $14.9 million in funding for work on nine grade crossings located in Nassau and Suffolk Counties on the LIRR’s Central, Main Line, and West Hempstead Branches, including interconnection to traffic signal systems, updates to railroad flashing light signals, installation of audible warning devices, enhanced pedestrian treatments and pathways, signs, and pavement markings for vehicles approaching the grade crossing, and roadway resurfacing and sidewalk expansion.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is awarded a $15 million grant to install gates, add pavement markings, and make other improvements at 22 highway-railway grade crossings in Philadelphia and in Bucks, Delaware, and Montgomery counties on its regional commuter rail system, which shares significant trackage with freight carriers.

Highway-rail grade crossing collisions and pedestrian trespass on tracks together account for over 95% of all railroad fatalities, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration.

• At Tesla’s AI Day event, Elon Musk touted the benefits of Tesla being a publicly traded company.
• Musk seems to have changed his stance since tweeting that he was considering taking Tesla private in 2018.
• Part of Musk’s initial $44 billion bid to buy Twitter was financed by a huge loan against his Tesla shares. 

Over the last four years, Elon Musk seems to have changed his tune about being a private company. 

In more than one instance during Tesla’s AI Day event on Friday, Musk touted the benefits of Tesla being a publicly traded company, a very different stance than he has held in the past. 

“Tesla… being a single class of stock owned by the public is very important and should not be overlooked. I think this is essential because if the public does not like what Tesla is doing … the public could buy shares in Tesla and vote differently,” Musk said. 

“This is a big deal. It’s very important that I can’t just do what I want. Sometimes people think that, but it’s not true,” he added when discussing Tesla’s plans to develop its humanoid AI robot. 

Just over four years ago, the Tesla CEO made waves when he tweeted that he was considering taking the company private. 

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

August 7, 2018

One month after sending that tweet, Musk settled fraud charges with the SEC for allegedly “false and misleading statements.” Musk neither admitted nor denied the allegations, but he resigned as Tesla’s chairman and paid a $20 million fine. 

Musk is currently embroiled in a legal battle with Twitter over whether he will buy the social media company for $44 billion. Musk’s initial takeover bid was financed by a huge loan against his Tesla shares. Tesla’s shares are down more than 30% this year, which puts him in a potentially shakier financial position should his agreement to buy Twitter be ruled legally binding. 

Motor retailers need to maintain the digital momentum they had accelerated during the pandemic to avoid potential lost sales at a time when the market is constricting, Marketing Delivery managing director Jeremy Evans will advise attendees at the 2022 Automotive Management Live show.

Evans (pictured below right), who will be heading one of the digital best practice sessions when AM Live takes place at Birmingham NEC on November 10th, will be exploring how retailers can return to basics when it comes to communicating with customers with the advantages of high tech.

“The pandemic created more tech savvy customers and dealers adopted technological processes at an accelerated rate,” said Evans.

“However, the focus on digital communications, particularly data capture whatever the customer’s purchase timescale, is even more important with ongoing new car supply issues. The sector cannot afford for the ensuing pent-up demand to lead to complacency.

“When dealers were practically solely reliant on digital tools, pretty much every enquiry was managed properly.

“With demand outstripping supply, there could well be the temptation to ignore longer term enquiries. If these go unrecorded, the communications processes which keeps those prospects warm, is derailed.

“As the market constricts, these leads could be the difference between weathering the storm or going under.”

Marketing Delivery is about to launch a new stage of consumer research to understand how dealers are managing enquiries in the post-pandemic market and to what extent the technological processes adopted during the lockdowns have been maintained, improved or, in some cases, forgotten.

The findings will be published in time to coincide with AM Live.

Evans added: “The more forward-thinking retailers have deployed an extensive array of digital tools making it easier for consumers to do business with them. They continue to develop a seamless digital and physical experience by ensuring every enquiry is entered on the system with the correct data preferences in place so an automated communications system can maintain contact.

“Against the backdrop of ongoing supply issues, the rising cost of living creating more cautious consumers, inflation and recession, every lead needs to be nurtured.

“We are now entering a period where the digitally astute dealers will be the ones capturing sales and aftersales custom at the expense of their counterparts who allow bad habits to creep back.”

Marketing Delivery’s session will explore how technology can help dealers to keep prospects warm and by using its data and real-life case studies will demonstrate the difference such an approach can make to a dealer’s bottom line. The company will use the event to officially launch its digital marketing solution Voicebox which manages its suite of eCRM products in one place.

AM Live is in its seventh year and is free for retailer and manufacturer delegates who book an entry pass at https://www.automotivemanagementlive.co.uk/

Volkswagen AG is exploring ways to counter a shortage in natural gas, including shifting production around its network of global facilities, signaling how the energy crisis unleashed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to upend Europe’s industrial landscape.

Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, said Thursday that reallocating some of its production was one of the options available in the medium term if gas shortages last much beyond this winter. The company has major factories in Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which are among European countries most reliant on Russian gas, as well as facilities in southern Europe that source energy from elsewhere.

“As mid-term alternatives, we are focusing on greater localization, relocation of manufacturing capacity, or technical alternatives, similar to what is already common practice in the context of challenges related to semiconductor shortages and other recent supply chain disruptions,” Geng Wu, Volkswagen’s head of purchasing, said in a statement. 

Russia’s decision to throttle gas supplies to Europe has raised concerns that Germany might be forced to ration its fuel. Recent news that gas storage levels hit 90% ahead of schedule has soothed fears of acute shortages this winter, but Germany faces a challenge in replenishing depleted reserves next summer without contributions from Russia.

Southwestern Europe or coastal zones of northern Europe, both of which have better access to seaborne liquefied natural gas cargoes, could be the beneficiaries of any production shift, a Volkswagen spokesman said by phone. The Volkswagen group already operates car factories in Portugal, Spain and Belgium, countries that host LNG terminals.

Labor hurdles

To be sure, any major production shift away from Europe’s biggest economy would face significant hurdles. VW has some 295,000 employees in Germany and worker representatives account for around half the company’s 20-member supervisory board. Any shift in production would likely involve a limited number of vehicles rather than wholesale factory shutdowns.

While gas supplies for VW’s plants are currently secured, the company has identified potential savings at its European sites to cut gas consumption by a “mid-double-digit percentage,” said Michael Heinemann, managing director of VW’s power-plant unit.

Still, the carmaker said it was concerned about the effect high gas prices could have on its suppliers.

“Politicians must also curb the currently uncontrolled explosion in gas and electricity prices,” said Thomas Steg, the company’s head of external relations. “Otherwise small and medium-sized energy-intensive companies in particular will have major problems in the supply chain and will have to reduce or stop production.”

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