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Americas
On 21 Oct the SITIAVW union suspended the remaining divisional assemblies because its negotiating committee was called to the Federal Labour Court for Collective Matters in Mexico City. Late on Wednesday (Mexico time), e-consulta reported that VW de México and the union had agreed a 12-month package worth 8.24% in total: 4.4% on the base wage, 0.25% into the savings fund and a one-off payment of MXN 12,000 (3.59%). Members would still have to vote on it, and no vote date had been set. Neither VW nor the union has published a statement yet, and 24 Horas, updated at about the same time, reported that talks were still going on: VW at 4.2% plus MXN 12,000, the union at 4.8% plus MXN 17,800. VW asked administrative staff to be ready to work from home today. Israel Muñoz, VW’s labour-relations director, told technical staff that the group will look at moving the 2027 Golf project to another plant if the conflict drags on, which would also put at risk the planned rehiring of 611 dismissed workers. The union also says Taos assembly drops from two shifts to one from week 45, with Brazil supplying regional markets and Argentina building its own Taos.
Companies Volkswagen
Source: e-consulta (21 Oct, ES) · 24 Horas (21–22 Oct, ES) · El Universal Puebla (21 Oct, ES) · Telediario (21 Oct, ES)
Europe
ACEA published September data at 06:00 CEST today. EU new-car registrations rose 9.3% to 971,048 in September, the eighth monthly rise in a row, with France +11.6%, Spain +10.2%, Italy +9.8% and Germany +9.0%. Across the EU, EFTA and the UK, September was up 10.2% to about 1.36 million. For January–September, EU registrations are up 5.7% to 8.52 million. Battery-electric cars took 22.7% (1.93 million; 16.1% a year ago), hybrids 36.3% (3.09 million), plug-in hybrids 10.1% (860,000), petrol 21.2% (−19.1%) and diesel 7.1% (−19.5%). BEV growth is concentrated in France (+79.1%), Germany (+58.1%) and Denmark (+40.3%). ACEA’s Sigrid de Vries said the BEV share must more than double in under four years to meet the 2030 CO₂ target. In EU+EFTA+UK, Stellantis grew 4.5% in September but its share slipped to 12.7% from 13.4%, VW Group was down for the month, and BYD and Chery tripled or quadrupled their volumes (Il Sole 24 Ore).
Companies Stellantis, Volkswagen, BYD, Chery
Source: ACEA press release (22 Oct) · ACEA press release (PDF) · Il Sole 24 Ore (22 Oct) · Trading Economics (22 Oct)
Europe
In comments reported by Bloomberg/Automotive News on 21 Oct, Ola Källenius said Europe should not be naive about returning protectionism, but warned that local-content requirements would make production more expensive and disrupt supply chains, because a modern car contains thousands of parts sourced worldwide. He called finding the line between protection and openness a balancing act and urged the EU to sign more trade agreements, for example with South America and India, rather than become an ‘island’. L’Automobile Magazine notes that the extra cost would either squeeze OEM margins or be passed on to buyers, and that struggling European suppliers would gain from the rules. Last week Källenius also warned that excluding the UK from Made in Europe would hurt the whole EU industry.
Companies Mercedes-Benz
Source: Automotive News / Bloomberg (21 Oct) · L’Automobile Magazine (21 Oct, FR) · The Guardian (14 Oct, background)
Global
Aptiv announced on 21 Oct that it will offer production-ready automated-driving products and platforms built on NVIDIA Hyperion and the NVIDIA Halos safety system, inside Aptiv’s modular compute architecture. The open platform can run the carmaker’s own AI models, Aptiv’s, NVIDIA’s or a third party’s, and covers hands-free up to fully autonomous driving. Aptiv says it is the first to run NVIDIA Thor-based compute with air cooling only, which cuts system cost and complexity, ‘particularly on internal combustion vehicles’ that have no liquid-cooling loop. Aptiv plans to show end-to-end AI driving on Hyperion at CES 2027. This follows the expanded NVIDIA deals that Volvo Cars and Mercedes-Benz announced last week.
Companies Aptiv, NVIDIA, Volvo Cars, Mercedes-Benz
Source: Aptiv press release (21 Oct) · Aptiv investor release (21 Oct) · Self Drive News (21 Oct)
Americas
TI reported Q3 revenue of $6.06bn (+28% year on year, +11% on the quarter) on 21 Oct and guided Q4 to $5.80–6.30bn, which is above normal seasonality. On the call, CEO Haviv Ilan said automotive grew in the mid-teens year on year and about 10% sequentially. Car customers had kept little inventory, and when demand rose (‘maybe a little bit more EV, as fuel prices went up’) they were not prepared. TI is now helping them ramp; it sees no inventory build-up and said automotive is the one market where it sees customers struggling to complete parts kits. Growth came mainly from China and the US, and the hybrid-electric and powertrain sector grew about twice as fast as automotive overall. TI said lead times have ticked up, it saw some Analog price increases in the second half, and 2027 pricing talks with customers are under way.
Companies Texas Instruments
Source: TI Q3 release (21 Oct) · TI Q3 call transcript (StockAnalysis/Quartr) · Reuters via TradingView (21 Oct)
Europe
Tesla’s Q3 update (21 Oct) shows revenue of $28.0bn (flat year on year), GAAP operating income of $718m and GAAP net income of $787m (−44%; $0.22 a share), non-GAAP EPS of $0.48, operating cash flow of $6.3bn and free cash flow of $1.5bn. Tesla says battery availability was again ‘the limiting factor in increasing auto volumes’, although it ended the quarter with its largest passenger-car backlog in four years and has made progress securing future cell supply. Gigafactory Berlin reached record production. Tesla began Cybercab robotaxi rides in Austin on 3 Sep, started output at Megafactory Texas (50 GWh planned) and shipped the first Megapacks with LFP cells made in Nevada. CNBC reports that Tesla blamed weak automotive revenue and profit on lower average prices and on trouble securing enough batteries to fill its order backlog.
Companies Tesla
Source: Tesla Q3 update, SEC Exhibit 99.1 (21 Oct) · Tesla 8-K, SEC (21 Oct) · CNBC (21 Oct)
Europe
Saxony’s state premier Michael Kretschmer (CDU) presented a rescue plan for VW Zwickau-Mosel on 21 Oct (dpa). Production there is currently due to end in 2031. A new company, working title AutoUnion Sachsen GmbH, with Volkswagen as a shareholder alongside other partners, would take over the plant and build cars at internationally competitive costs. The state itself would not take a stake. The plan includes self-managed teams, flat hierarchies, profit-sharing for staff and an ‘innovative collective agreement’ outside the current VW tariff structure. Saxony and the federal government are also proposing Zwickau as the site of a ‘humanoid robotics’ cluster of excellence, with robots to be trained at AutoUnion. Kretschmer complained that talks with VW are stuck, with about 8,000 jobs in Zwickau at stake, and wants negotiations within weeks.
Companies Volkswagen
Source: Süddeutsche Zeitung / dpa (21 Oct, DE) · Sachsen News / dpa (21 Oct)
Europe
Stellantis told the works council at Vigo-Balaídos that System 1, which builds passenger cars including the Peugeot 2008, will not run on any of its three shifts on 29 and 30 Oct because some parts or equipment will be missing. The company did not say which components. The van line (System 2) keeps running. The stop comes on top of the October idles at four French plants: Mulhouse until 30 Oct, Poissy this week and next, and Sochaux and Rennes from 23 to 30 Oct, partly because of a shortage of long-range batteries.
Companies Stellantis
Source: La Voz de Galicia (20 Oct, ES) · Faro de Vigo (20 Oct, ES) · Cadena SER (20 Oct, ES)
Europe
Magna Mirrors broke off negotiations with the works council on a reconciliation of interests for the planned mid-2027 closure of its mirror plant in Dorfprozelten (Main-Echo, 19 Oct). IG Metall accused the company of declaring the talks failed without making its own counter-proposals. On 21 Oct about 150 people joined a warning strike and protest outside the plant; talks on severance pay and job-search support continued at the same time. The works council is considering an arbitration board (Einigungsstelle). About 216 jobs are affected.
Companies Magna
Source: Main-Echo (19 Oct, DE) · Primavera24 (21 Oct, DE) · Dr. Web (DE)
Europe
Grammer Jifeng Automotive Seating, a joint venture of Germany’s Grammer AG and China’s Jifeng Group, opened a 27,676 m² plant in Park Cheb South on 15 Oct. It is a converted logistics building close to the German border. The plant will make seats for BMW’s fully electric iX1 and includes seat testing, measurement and a development centre for seat covers. The investment exceeds CZK 1bn (about €40m), and Czech media report up to 500 jobs.
Companies BMW
Source: Accolade (15 Oct) · iDNES.cz (15 Oct, CZ) · ČeskéNoviny / ČTK (CZ)
Americas
US precision-components maker NN, Inc. (NASDAQ: NNBR) announced on 16 Oct a new cable assembly and wire harness product line: engineered wiring, cable assemblies, bus-bar assemblies and box-build. Production will be centred in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. It targets data centre, defence, electric grid, medical and ‘high-value vehicle’ markets, and will use automated cutting, stripping, crimping and termination, digital work instructions, virtual assembly boards and carousel assembly, with flexible low- and high-voltage cells. NN gave no start date, customers or revenue target.
Source: NN, Inc. press release (16 Oct) · Investing.com (16 Oct) · MoneyMakers (16 Oct)