Peter Campbell

Aston Martin has named Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark as its next chief executive, the third change of leadership at the UK luxury-car maker in the space of four years. Hallmark, who also previously worked at JLR, has overseen a turnaround at Bentley in which profits have risen 10-fold in the past five years, and the company has set out a strategy to sell only electric models early next decade. Bentley, owned by Volkswagen, announced Hallmark’s immediate departure on Friday. He was leaving “at hi…

A quarter of electric vehicles sold in the EU this year will be made in China, as the country’s new entrants continue to take sales from local rivals, according to analysis from policy group Transport & Environment. About 19.5 per cent of battery cars sold in the bloc last year were manufactured in China, according to the company’s research, owing to rising European sales of Chinese-owned brands such as MG and BYD and factors such as US group Tesla using its Shanghai factory to supply parts of…

As global electric vehicle sales growth slows, carmakers and regulators are asking an existential question: is the current slowdown a blip? One scenario sees mass market buyers, who currently balk at higher prices of EVs, eventually come around and flock to the technology. EVs are silent, accelerate like sports cars and can save money in the long run. Once they are cheaper than petrol cars, and there are enough chargers, most consumers will never turn back. The other scenario is more worrying.…

Tesla Motors will this month send a team to scout locations in India for a proposed $2bn-$3bn electric car plant, according to two people with direct knowledge of the electric vehicle company’s plans. The step towards making vehicles in India comes after New Delhi last month lowered tariffs on higher-priced imported EVs for companies that commit to making them in the country within three years. The tariff cut was a concession Tesla had been pushing for as a precondition for investing. The peo…

Ferrari’s chief executive Benedetto Vigna says he hopes one day to sell a $10bn car. He is joking, but it is an idea based on a genuine industry phenomenon: super-rich customers prepared to pay sky-high prices to create their own unique supercar. “This is a dream . . . but this would be the extreme of luxury,” Vigna told the Financial Times. Until recently, options for personalising cars such as a new Rolls-Royce, Bentley or Aston Martin were limited to choices such as paint colour and the typ…

Sales of electric vehicles will “grow strongly” this year and could see battery and hybrid models account for one in five cars sold worldwide, according to a bullish forecast from the International Energy Agency that runs counter to carmakers’ concerns over consumers’ appetite for EVs. Despite “challenges in some markets”, the “share of EVs on the roads is expected to continue to climb rapidly” in the coming years, the IEA said in its annual outlook report. Sales of battery electric and plug-i…

Facing one of the worst stock slumps in Tesla’s 14-year history, Elon Musk was under pressure this week to deliver a reassuring message to investors about its next generation of electric vehicles and a persuasive vision for an AI-driven, automated future. Instead, what the chief executive offered — alongside even worse than expected first-quarter profits and the company’s first cash outflow since the start of the pandemic — was a classic Muskian fudge. Tesla would “accelerate the launch of new…

Britain’s electric vehicle policy is “terrible” and threatens to bankrupt carmakers, the head of Vauxhall owner Stellantis warned on Thursday. Carlos Tavares said the UK’s quota regime, which requires manufacturers to meet EV sales targets that rise annually, was set at “double the natural demand of the market” and would mean carmakers would have to sell vehicles at a loss to avoid fines. “To survive, companies have to stay in the black,” he said. “I will not sell cars at a loss.” He had urge…

The head of Chrysler has warned that tampering with the US-Mexico trade agreement risked making pick-up trucks unaffordable for Americans, after a suggestion from Donald Trump that he could curtail imports across the southern border if re-elected. Trump hinted he would prevent cars built by Chinese companies coming in from Mexico if he became president again, in response to China’s BYD planning a new electric vehicle plant south of the US border. “You’re not going to be able to sell those cars…

Dyson is axing about 1,000 jobs in the UK, more than a quarter of its workforce in the country. Staff at the vacuum cleaner and air filter manufacturer were told on Tuesday morning about the redundancies, which are part of a wider move to reduce the company’s 15,000-strong global workforce, according to people familiar with the matter. The job cuts are a blow to the UK and come on the same day that the new secretary of state for business, Jonathan Reynolds, gathered more than 100 business lead…