Automotive Meets Tech

Finally, all OEM manufacturing plants have entered the new normal as Volkswagen and Audi in Puebla returned to production. An automotive colossus meets tech giant as Apple and BMW announce their partnership. Meanwhile, heavy-vehicle production and exports have also been affected by COVID-19. Ready to hit the road? Here’s the Week in Automotive!

Audi and Volkswagen Resume Operations.

For almost three months, Audi and Volkswagen production lines remained idle. Even in June, when most other OEMs started to resume production, both companies were still shut down due to Puebla's government guidelines. Earlier this week, both production plants have resumed production at 30 percent of their capacity and under one shift. 

You can read the full story here.

Automotive Meets Tech

BMW is constantly betting on cutting-edge technological features to go with its premium models. During Apple's WWDC, the Californian company announced a partnership with BMW to incorporate CarKey into its iPhones. CarKey is BMW's Digital Key that will allow users to lock, unlock and start their vehicles manufactured from July 2020 onwards. 

You can read all the details here.

Heavy-Vehicle Segment Affected by COVID-19

ANPACT released the figures for production and exports during April for the heavy-vehicle segment. Regarding production, the organization reports an annual 85.1 drop and a 39.5 percent fall in accumulated figures for the first four months of the year. "If today we support owner-operators and SMEs, we will boost all economic sectors, keeping job positions and spilling well-being to millions of families," said ANPACT's president, Miguel Elizalde.

You can read the full story here

Featured Interviews

In this week's featured' interviews, ARIDRA's president shares the challenges and opportunities for the aftermarket segment in a post-COVID-19 scenario.

E•DRIVE is totally embracing the electrification revolution in the country by installing around 250 new plug-in EV chargers a month. 

International Roads

In Europe, the PSA-FCA merger carries on as planned. "The merger with FCA is the best among the solutions to cope with the crisis and its uncertainties," told PSA's CEO Carlos Tavares to Reuters.  Moving on to Italy, FCA is precisely closing all the necessary procedures to receive €$6.3 billion (US$7.1 billion) from a state-backed loan.

Meanwhile, in Germany, Volkswagen expects a V-shaped recovery that will last until 2022, according to Christian Dahlheim, head of sales for the group. In the UK, North American giant Ford signed a deal with telecommunications company Vodafone to install a private 5G network at Ford's UK facilities.