The proposed joint venture EV platform underpinning next generation Nissan LEAF and Renault Zoe models will be used by Mitsubishi as well, says Japanese media.
Mitsubishi was recently acquired by Nissan after it got into financial difficulties and has its own EV platform in the Outlander, so the future models to carry its tri-diamond badge are unknown.
European makers did better than the EU mandated goal for CO2 emissions in 2015, an official report shows, but Ferrari and Aston Martin face penalties for failing to hit their individual goals.
Four other automakers – Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Opel, Ford Motor and BMW will have to reduce emissions at a faster pace to meet the EU’s CO2 reduction target for 2021 even though they met their 2015 goals.
Opel is reorganizing output of key small cars at its plants in Germany and Spain to improve production efficiency.
The General Motors’ unit will move Adam minicar to its factory in Zaragoza, Spain, from Eisenach, Germany, Corsa subcompact hatchback will be built exclusively in Spain and the next-generation Mokka X subcompact crossover will move to Eisenach from Zaragoza.
Toyota Motor plans to open up its powertrain technology to rivals, hoping this will boost sales and speed up the industry’s shift to lower-emissions vehicles.
Announcing it would expand its gasoline hybrid technology development, Toyota said it would consider selling complete powertrain modules of engines, transmissions and other drive components to competitors.
Volkswagen AG has agreed to pay more than $200 million into a fund created to cut diesel pollution, part of its agreement over about 80,000 3.0-liter diesel vehicles that emitted more than the U.S. legal limit, said Reuters.
The agreement is in addition to $2.7 billion that VW previously agreed to pay to offset emissions from about 475,000 2.0-liter diesel vehicles.