Author: Automotive News n Feed

Jujiro Matsuda establishes Toyo Cork Kogyo, a business that makes cork, in Hiroshima, Japan, on Jan. 30, 1920. The company produced its first automobile just over a decade later and eventually changed its name to Mazda.

Mitsu takes profit hit from mileage scandal; Toyota winding down in Australia; Car2Go adds Benz cars; Saab buyer gets OK to make EVs in China; Snyder: Solid start to ’17 sales.

Fiat Chrysler unit Automotive Lighting LLC plans to invest $35 million into a new production line in suburban Detroit, creating 362 jobs over five years, the state of Michigan said Monday.

VW Group’s departing compliance chief, Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt, will receive a payout of up to 15 million euros after quitting the automaker over policy differences, German press reports said.

Mitsubishi’s operating profit tumbled 81 percent in the latest quarter, hit by falling sales, foreign exchange rate losses and costs from a fuel economy scandal.

Germany’s ambassador to China, Michael Clauss, is a vocal opponent of Beijing’s environmental plans to force foreign automakers to develop and build EVs under local joint ventures.

National Electric Vehicle Sweden, which acquired the assets of bankrupt Swedish automaker Saab, has received permission from China to start producing EVs at a plant being built in the country that is expected to produce up to 200,000 cars annually.