Short torque
Year-on-year sales dip across Germany in April
This April saw 290,700 new vehicles sold in Germany, the federal transport authority KBA reported, a fall of 8 percent compared with April 2016. The Easter holidays meant there were three fewer working days in the month, contributing to the decline in sales, the German Association of the Automotive Industry noted in a separate statement. All German manufacturers saw falling sales last month, with double-digit drops for luxury brands BMW and Mercedes, as well as generalists Volkswagen and Opel.
Tesla's revenues soar 135% on high deliveries
Tesla's revenues in the first quarter of the year reached $2.69 billion, a 135 percent surge from the same period last year, of which $2.29 billion was from its electric car business. Tesla delivered more than 25,000 vehicles in the first quarter, a jump of 69 percent from a year ago. The California-based firm said its Model 3 will start production as scheduled in July. The company expects to produce 5,000 of the cars per week at some point this year and 10,000 per week in 2018.
Peugeot, nuTonomy set to test self-driving fleet
French carmaker Peugeot is partnering with Boston, Massachusetts-based tech firm nuTonomy to test self-driving cars in Singapore. NuTonomy's software, sensors and computing platforms will be installed in Peugeot 3008 models as part of plans to develop the technology needed for large fleets of autonomous cars, the two said in a statement on Wednesday. The partnership is the latest between technology and automotive companies after Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz, last month unveiled an autonomous cars development partnership with supplier Robert Bosch. BMW has announced an alliance with chip maker Intel and Israel's Mobileye.
Motoring - agencies
(China Daily 05/08/2017 page19)