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Europe
Kromberg & Schubert’s Ukrainian unit said on 17 Oct that operations at its Lutsk plant (Volyn oblast) are suspended after Russian drones hit the site on 16 Oct; staff were told a return-to-work date will follow once the situation has been assessed. The plant makes wiring systems for Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Škoda and, per the company’s website, employs about 5,500 people (about 4,300 in production). This comes on top of the K&S plant in the Zhytomyr region, which is shut after repeated strikes and is behind Škoda’s harness shortage that spread to the Kodiaq in Kvasiny (covered 11 Oct). No restart date has been given for either site.
Companies Kromberg & Schubert, Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Škoda
Source: Kyiv Independent (18 Oct) · Ukrainska Pravda (17 Oct) · Interfax-Ukraine (17 Oct, UA)
Global
North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced on 15 Oct that K&S will launch a new investment at its plant in the Žabeni industrial zone near Bitola. The plant will build wiring systems for a new (unnamed) Audi model, with planned output above 3,000 harnesses per day, plus digitalised production and AI applications. K&S employs about 5,300 people in Bitola and just over 1,700 in Skopje, and the project would take its workforce in the country to about 10,000. The company expects exports from its North Macedonian plants to exceed €400m in 2027. Local management said it will recruit locally first and consider the higher foreign-worker quota if needed.
Companies Kromberg & Schubert, Audi
Source: Government of North Macedonia (15 Oct, MK) · MIA (15 Oct) · Republika (15 Oct)
Americas
In the 15 Oct membership vote, 3,135 SITIAVW members voted against and 2,452 in favour (21 void; 5,608 of 6,211 eligible voted). VW de México said it respects the result but called the package ‘the maximum viable effort’. It warned it will not avoid a strike if the cost would put at risk the future of a plant that is almost 70 years old. Activity continues normally until the strike notice expires at 11:00 on 22 Oct. The union’s strike committee has already published a picket-duty schedule from 22 Oct to 8 Nov, to be extended if needed, and Puebla’s business council (CCE) urged both sides to keep negotiating.
Companies Volkswagen
Source: VW de México statement (15 Oct, PDF) · El Universal Puebla (picket rota) · Diario Puntual (16 Oct)
Europe
After the 15 Oct ERTE-RED follow-up committee, Ford Spain set its Q4 stop calendar. The vehicle plant stops 19–30 Oct and 2–11 Nov (about 3.5 weeks), plus 16–18 and 21 Dec. The engine plant stops on 19 and 26 Oct, 9–11 Nov and 21 Dec, giving six full-site stoppages. With the Christmas break starting 24 Dec, 15 Dec is in practice the last production day of the year. The RED mechanism covers the 4,123 staff on rotation at 90% pay and ends 31 Dec. The site is due to move into the Ford (66%) / Geely (34%) JV in H1 2027, with five models planned from 2028.
Companies Ford, Geely
Source: Europa Press (15 Oct) · La Razón (15 Oct)
Europe
Weber Magdeburg GmbH, part of the Albert Weber group (Markdorf), filed at Konstanz district court. On 14 Oct the court appointed Jan Markus Plathner as preliminary administrator; he is examining pre-financing of insolvency pay for about 120 staff and options to stabilise the business. The plant makes cylinder heads and transmission/housing parts. In July, IG Metall had said main customer Porsche would withdraw all orders by 30 Sep. The MZ/dpa report puts it in a wider Saxony-Anhalt supplier squeeze (KmB insolvency in early October; Bohai Harzgerode to close at the end of January 2027).
Companies Weber Automotive, Porsche, Bohai
Source: MDR (16 Oct) · Mitteldeutsche Zeitung / dpa (16 Oct) · Volksstimme (16 Oct)
Europe
In a 16 Oct position paper on the Industrial Accelerator Act and the automotive package, TME asks EU legislators for four main things. (1) Recognise a small set of trusted free-trade and customs-union partners with full reciprocity, naming the UK, Türkiye and Japan. (2) Phase European-content requirements up to 70% after three years, measured on ex-works value and counting engineering, R&D and final assembly. (3) Set the overall vehicle-sales threshold at 70% instead of the proposed 85%. (4) Apply no substantive automotive requirements before 2030. On CO₂ it wants a 2028–2032 five-year compliance window, plus 90% for 2035 with renewable-fuel and green-steel flexibilities; for vans, separate 35% (2030) and 80% (2035) targets. TME has eight European plants, including in the UK and Türkiye.
Companies Toyota
Source: Toyota Motor Europe newsroom (16 Oct) · Just Auto (16 Oct)
Asia
In an Autocar interview at the Paris show (published 17 Oct), VW brand CEO Thomas Schäfer said VW has radically cut material and engineering cost in its ‘in China for China’ models. Exports to the global south (e.g. These would be selected imports to test demand, not replacements for existing models. Autocar names the Xpeng-co-developed ID. Unyx 09 saloon and the ID. Aura T6 SUV as candidates. No model, date or volume has been confirmed. VW had flatly denied China-to-Europe import reports in early May.
Companies Volkswagen, XPeng
Source: Autocar (17 Oct) · auto motor und sport (4 May, earlier denial)
Asia
On 12 Oct the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration announced a 4-point cut, from 1 Apr 2027, in the export VAT rebate for battery-electric and plug-in hybrid cars, plus e-buses and electric tractor units. The rate is set by the export date on the customs declaration. China Daily quotes analysts saying the cut aims to curb low-price export competition and favour firms with overseas production. CnEVPost cites a Deutsche Bank estimate of about ¥5,000 less net profit per exported BYD vehicle from Q2 2027. China’s NEV exports rose 130% YoY to 4.006m units in Jan–Sep (CAAM). The rebate on batteries was already cut to 6% and is due to be scrapped from 1 Jan 2027. (Held out on 13 Oct for weak sourcing; now confirmed by official-media and specialist sources.)
Companies BYD
Source: China Daily via People’s Daily (14 Oct) · CnEVPost (12 Oct)
Global
Under the deal announced on 16 Oct, MB.OS will work with NVIDIA Hyperion in-vehicle computing and sensor architecture and with the Alpamayo Stack, a full-stack AI driving software for urban point-to-point assistance, active safety and automated parking. NVIDIA Halos adds a parallel safety stack for redundancy and guardrails. Targets include advanced ADAS and future SAE Level 4 applications, including ‘robolimousines’. Mercedes also uses NVIDIA for engineering simulation and in MO360, its digital production system. No timing or vehicle programmes were given. Volvo announced a similar Hyperion/Halos/Alpamayo expansion a day earlier (covered 16 Oct).
Companies Mercedes-Benz, Volvo Cars, NVIDIA
Source: Mercedes-Benz Group (16 Oct) · NVIDIA Newsroom (16 Oct)
Asia
Toyota officials said on 16 Oct that Arene, Toyota’s in-vehicle software platform first used in the RAV4 launched in 2025, will be rolled out across its roughly 50 models by 2030. That covers about 10 million new vehicles a year, with revenue from paid software updates after delivery, and Toyota will later offer Arene to partner automakers (Jiji). Reuters, citing Nikkei, reported the same 10-million-vehicle target. In Japan, Honda and Nissan have agreed to develop in-vehicle software jointly.
Companies Toyota, Honda, Nissan
Source: Jiji Press (16 Oct) · Reuters via TradingView (Nikkei)
Europe
BMW will invest more than €100m in its Steyr (Austria) plant to make inverter power modules in-house from summer 2029, including upstream supply-chain steps. A new cleanroom line will join ten individual parts using large-area soldering and ultrasonic welding, a first for the group. BMW says this lets it source semiconductors flexibly worldwide and reduces dependence in a geopolitically sensitive area. Steyr already builds Gen6 e-motors on two lines for the Debrecen-built iX3; e-cars.hu reports a second shift and more than 4,000 motors a week. Separately, on 15 Oct BMW started series production of Gen6 high-voltage batteries in Shenyang, its third Gen6 battery site after Debrecen and Irlbach-Straßkirchen. Woodruff (US) and San Luis Potosí (Mexico) follow ‘in the coming months’.
Companies BMW
Source: e-cars.hu · electrive.net (14 Oct, DE) · e-cars.hu (14 Oct, HU) · BMW Group PressClub (15 Oct)
Americas
Yura Corporation said on 13 Oct it will invest $5m and create 55 jobs in Bloomingdale (Chatham County, Georgia), its first US Southeast site. It will start as a distribution centre, with manufacturing to be added later, supplying wiring harnesses and electronic modules to Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America. In Michigan, Sterling Heights powertrain-parts maker J.G. Kern Enterprises filed a WARN notice for a permanent closure affecting all 156 workers after Ford pulled its business. A source told the Detroit News some of the work is going to India and some stays in the US. Ford said its sourcing decisions weigh quality, delivery, financial stability and operational risk.
Companies Hyundai Motor, Ford
Source: SEDA / Yura (13 Oct) · Macomb Daily / Oakland Press (16 Oct) · Ford Authority (16 Oct, Ford statement)