January 31, 2023
Volvo Cars has appointed Jeremy Offer as Global Head of Design. “Jeremy is bringing with him 35 years of design experience across multiple industries,” says the press release. Jeremy will report to chief executive Jim Rowan and be part of the Group Management Team. Jeremy Offer will assume the position of Global Head of Design […]
January 31, 2023
Didier Blokland, until December 2022 Marketing Director for Peugeot at Stellantis Belux and active at Peugeot Belgium for 21 years, is the new Director of Communications, PR & Events of the Belgian importer of the French-Italian-US car brands. He succeeds Dominique Fontignies, who left the company a few months ago. Blokland took up his new […]
January 27, 2023
Japanese car manufacturer Toyota has announced a change at the top of the group. Koji Sato, COO of the group and president of the Lexus brand and the motorsport subsidiary Gazoo Racing, will become Toyota’s new president and CEO on 1 April 2023, replacing Akio Toyoda in this role. Toyoda (66), the grandson of group […]
December 09, 2022
As of 1 January 2023, the current CEO of Renault, Luca de Meo, will take over the presidency of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) from BMW’s CEO, Oliver Zipse, who has held the position for the last two years. The Board of Directors announced that on Friday. Once renewable, the ACEA President is elected […]
December 09, 2022
From January 2024, BMW will roll out the much-debated direct sales ‘agency model’ starting for its MINI customers, followed by the BMW brand itself in 2026. Customers will buy their new car online and have a dealer of their choice deliver it, the latter getting a ‘fair’ share of the profit. No more bargaining at […]
September 27, 2022
The car-sharing and mobility organization BattMobility, located in Ghent and only offering electric cars, sees its business boom. The 4-year-old company reached 50 000 shared rides last September and noted a severe increase in car-sharers. BattMobility started as a local initiative in a Ghent neighborhood but has become the city’s market leader for electric car […]
September 02, 2022
As of Thursday, September 1st, Oliver Blume acts as CEO of both Porsche and the Volkswagen Group. He succeeds Herbert Diess as announced and sets the course right from the start. German media has learned that Blume will reduce the Board of Management to take decisions more quickly. Specifically, this concerns Hildegard Wortmann (Sales) and […]
September 01, 2022
As of today, the new CEO of Renault Brand Belux and Renault Belgium Luxembourg is Martin Domise. He is the successor to Jérôme Pannaud, who has been in charge of the region for four years. Martin Domise was born in Amiens (northwest of France) in 1989 and studied at the famous commercial school HEC in […]
August 12, 2022
German automotive veteran Michael Lohscheller who joined American electric truck maker Nikola in February of this year, will succeed Mark Russell as CEO and President of Nikola Corporation when he retires on January 1st, 2023. Before joining the truckmaker, Lohscheller briefly was the CEO of Vietnamese VinFast but decided to return to Europe for personal […]
July 26, 2022
After the stock market’s closing, Volkswagen announced a complete surprise on Friday evening. CEO Herbert Diess is leaving the company at the end of August. On 1 September, Porsche boss Oliver Blume will take over and lead both companies in parallel. The market reacted negatively on Monday, questions arise everywhere if the new CEO will […]
July 25, 2022
Scott Keogh, CEO of Volkswagen Group America, is stepping down to take the wheel at Scout, the brand VW is setting up in the United States for all-electric pickups and rugged SUVs. He will become Scout’s CEO on September 1st. The EV brand is named after the International Harvester Scout, an early precursor to the […]
July 18, 2022
Olivier Sermeus, Chief Operation Officer (COO) at Astara Western Europe since September 2020, moves officially further up to take the wheel as Managing Director of the car distribution group that counts more than 700 selling points and some 375 dealers. As expected, Damien Heymans, the current company’s CEO and MD of Alcomotive, the last member […]
June 09, 2022
Dr. Alexander W. Wehr is moving to Belgium to become President and CEO of BMW Group Belux. He will succeed Eddy Haesendonck, who decided to leave the BMW Group. Stefan Reiff succeeds Wehr as Vice President of Customer, Brand, and Sales at BMW Motorrad. “Due to his extensive international sales expertise, Alexander Wehr is ideally […]
June 07, 2022
As of 1 September 2022, Sigrid de Vries will assume the position as the European car and truck manufacturers association’s new Director-General, following a decision by the ACEA Board of Directors. She will manage the association that unites Europe’s 16 major car, truck, van, and bus makers at the EU level. Concerning the Alternative Fuels […]
May 17, 2022
French start-up of hydrogen cars Hopium wants to appoint Minister of Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari to its board of directors. Djebbari is still serving at the Elysée but has announced that he intends to retire from political life with the formation of a new government at hand. The specific tasks for Djebbari have not been made […]
May 13, 2022
Wednesday, a new president for the board was elected at the Autoworld museum in Brussels. Ex-Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, now still a member of the European Parliament, has accepted to succeed to another well-known Open-Vld politician, Herman De Croo, who has been heading the museum for 36 years. The entire Autoworld team is very grateful […]
April 26, 2022
Already wanted in Japan (where he fled jurisdiction in December 2019) and searched for by Interpol, former Alliance President Carlos Ghosn is now also persecuted in France. French justice wants to investigate alleged misuse of public goods, money laundering, and corruption. The now 68-year-old car tycoon fell from grace in 2018 when he was at […]
April 26, 2022
The board of directors at Twitter has accepted Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s buy-out deal of 44 billion dollars to obtain complete control of the company. As a result, Musk is now set to own his most cherished communication channel. “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter because that is what free speech […]
April 06, 2022
Almost a fortnight ago, Elon Musk posted critical tweets on Twitter about the social media platform. Still, it didn’t stop the Tesla boss from becoming Twitter’s biggest shareholder buying a 9,2% stake. After the announcement, the messaging service’s shares rose 26% in premarket trading. A day later, Twitter announced it welcomed Musk to its Advisory […]
February 23, 2022
Former Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller is changing seats again. A few months after being appointed CEO of Vietnamese VinFast, he joins American electric truck builder Nikola Motors as President. After four months in Vietnam, he stepped down in December to return to Europe for personal reasons. According to the Nikola press release, he will be […]
February 09, 2022
The specialized car magazines AutoGids and AutoWereld are becoming the only magazine. It will appear 22 times per year and be closely related to the French ‘pendant’ Le Moniteur Automobile. The first issue will be in the press shop from Wednesday, 9 February. The printed press is living difficult times. Publicity income through the magazines […]
January 05, 2022
After ten years at the top of Volvo Cars, Håkan Samuelsson passes his CEO chair in March to Jim Rowan, currently CEO at Ember Technologies, and former CEO of Dyson and COO at BlackBerry. Volvo’s board announced the latter on Tuesday. They see in Rowan a man bringing in a backpack full of experiences for […]
December 14, 2021
Time Magazine has declared the American billionaire Elon Musk ‘Person of the Year’. According to the magazine, Musk is a clown, a visionary, and a genius, but above all the man who wants to save the planet and find a new one to live on. He’s one of the few individuals who considerably influenced life […]
August 25, 2021
Ford gives ten E-Transit prototypes to partners in the UK, Germany, and Norway to start real-world customer trials. Over six to twelve months, different versions of the new electric van will be tested in intensive real-world conditions. Following development at Ford’s proving grounds and engineering facilities, the carmaker is keen to get feedback on usage […]
August 02, 2021
Johan van Zyl, former boss of Toyota Motor Europe (TME), has died at the age of 63 in its home country of South Africa, slain by the complications of the Covid-19 infection he caught in July. The news was made public by Toyota on Sunday. “It is with great sadness that we inform you of […]
July 28, 2021
The leaving Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller is to become CEO of the Vietnamese car manufacturer VinFast LLC. After his departure from Stellantis, set at the end of August, the Opel CEO will be charged with expanding VinFast’s operations and its presence around the globe, as the company announced. Lohscheller’s departure from Opel/Stellantis has been known […]
June 09, 2021
“As of June 3, 2021, Jerome Guillen, President, Tesla Heavy Trucking, of Tesla, Inc. (“Tesla”), departed Tesla. We thank him for his many contributions and wish him well in his future career.” Nope, that’s not a tweet by Elon Musk. Instead, via a filing for the American Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), Tesla announced officially […]
May 21, 2021
Former Renault and Alliance boss Carlos Ghosn has to refund € 5 million to the Alliance (Renault/Nissan/Mitsubishi) he was leading until the end of 2018. As the Alliance has its registered office in Amsterdam, the ruling comes from a Dutch court. Carlos Ghosn had sued the Alliance before the Dutch court because he found himself […]
January 22, 2021
The Father of the Michel Vaillant cartoon, Jean Graton, has passed away in Brussels this Thursday, aged 97. Graton, who was born in France in 1923, settled in Belgium in the late forties, where he published the first adventures of his racing driver character, Michel Vaillant, in Tintin’s journal in 1957. He leaves a legacy […]
January 12, 2021
The Belgian Alain Visser is Lynk & Co’s CEO, the Chinese Geely daughter who intends to change things on the car market. Many new and sometimes controversial ideas come from or are stimulated by the CEO — no better reason for having a chat with him. We’ve known Alain Visser for a long time. Already […]
January 05, 2021
On Monday, the shareholders of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Peugeot S.A. (PSA) approved the merger of FCA and Groupe PSA to create Stellantis N.V. by an overwhelming majority (with more than 99% of the votes cast in favor of the transaction). Following today’s approval by shareholders and receipt of the final regulatory clearances over […]
December 11, 2020
Oliver Zipse, the CEO of the German car manufacturer BMW Group, will lead the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) in 2021. Mr. Zipse was appointed President of the association during a meeting of its Board of Directors, composed of the CEOs of Europe’s car, van, truck, and bus manufacturers. As of January, he will take […]
December 11, 2020
Roland D’Ieteren, the enigmatic car lover and former CEO and President of the family company D’Ieteren, has died on Thursday from the coronavirus’s effects. For 30 years, he was the CEO of his family business, founded by Jean-Joseph D’Ieteren in Brussels in 1805. Roland D’Ieteren was the sixth generation in the company and stayed on […]
November 04, 2020
In March of this year, Belgian car designer Luc Donckerwolke seemed to be leaving Hyundai through the back door. Today, he’s coming back as Chief Creative Officer (CCO), a new prominent position apparently created for him. Donckerwolke resumes his career as Executive Vice president, but his office will now be located at the Hyundai Motor […]
November 02, 2020
From the 1st of December, Volvo Belux will have a new Managing Director. Elfi Janssens will succeed Wim Maes, who left his Belgian position to become MD of Volvo Russia. We messaged about his departure in mid-September. Elfi Janssens (54) studied applied economics at the University of Antwerp. She started her professional career in 1990 […]
September 17, 2020
Brussels Airport expects the first large loads of corona vaccines to arrive as soon as mid-October. The Belgian airport has major trump cards to become an important hub for the intercontinental transport of corona vaccines, they believe. Last week, the international aviation organization, IATA, tried to draw a picture of the challenge. No less than […]
September 16, 2020
Wim Maes, the current managing director of Volvo car Belux, will be assuming the same function as MD at Volvo Cars Russia as of the 1st of November. Wim Maes became the Belux MD in April 2013. “I’m sure that Volvo is now well-positioned to cope with the challenges of the future,” he declared. “I’m […]
September 08, 2020
There seems to be a bromance growing between Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, and Volkswagen Group CEO, Herbert Diess. During his last visit to Germany, Elon Musk’s private plane left Berlin for a small detour to the airport of Braunschweig. There, VW CEO Herbert Diess was waiting for him with a prototype of the electric ID.4 […]
September 08, 2020
Ashwani Gupta, a lively Indian in his early fifties, has the most difficult task at Nissan: making the failing Japanese number two profitable again. At Nissan, he’s COO, member of the board, director of operations, and performance. In short, he’s the duty fire officer. Gupta and the newly appointed Luca de Meo at Renault have […]
September 01, 2020
Osamu Masuko, the man who has led Mitsubishi Motors for the last 15 years, has died last week (on Thursday) at the age of 71. In a press release, the company said Masuko died of heart failure. On the 7th of last month, he had stepped down as Chairman for health reasons and became Special […]
August 28, 2020
Trevor Milton, 38-year old founder and chairman of electric truck maker Nikola, has given away six million of his specific shares in the company to the first few employees who joined him. At the current rate, the shares represent a value of $233 million (€197 million) distributed over some 50 people. In a press release […]
August 24, 2020
The family-owned Antwerp wholesaler Deldo is a top name in the world of car tires. It’s the second-largest tire dealer in Europe but few consumers know the name.”We rather not show off and prefer to operate in the shadow,” the family tells newspaper De Tijd. The company buys large batches of premium tires directly from […]
August 05, 2020
Jim Hackett, Ford’s CEO since 2017, is leaving the company and will be succeeded by James D. Farley, at the moment COO of the Dearborn-based car manufacturer. Farley is a real ‘car guy’ who began his career at Ford in 2007, coming from Toyota. The one Jim has to take over from the other in […]
August 03, 2020
The Belgian Federal government has appointed Benoît Gilson (46) as Infrabel’s new CEO. He follows in the footsteps of Luc Lallemand, who left for the French railway infrastructure operator at the beginning of this year. Ann Billiau has since led the company that manages the Belgian railway network. Benoît Gilson, a former journalist, has been […]
July 30, 2020
Luca de Meo is officially the new CEO of Renault since the 1st of July. He has started his new job with a bang. After taking the chief designer of Seat, Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos, with him (announced last Monday), he has now lured PSA star designer Gilles Vidal into stepping over to Renault. Gilles Vidal Gilles […]
July 29, 2020
Thierry Bolloré, the former CEO of Renault, has been appointed as the new CEO of the Tata-owned car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover. The Indian group Tata Motors has communicated that Mr. Bolloré will take over from Ralph Speth on the 10th of September. Speth has led the company for more than ten years but had […]
July 14, 2020
The American company Fisker, which is working on the development of the Ocean, an electric urban 4×4 (SUV), announced on Monday that it would go public via a merger with a subsidiary of the investment company Apollo, valuing it at 2,9 billion dollars. Business plan The announcement of the company’s arrival on Wall Street comes […]
July 07, 2020
Elon Musk celebrates his victory against critical short-sellers in a typical way. Anyone visiting Tesla’s webshop will find a striking addition: bright red shorts. The shorts are provided with the car manufacturer’s logo at the front and the inscription ‘sexy’ at the back. And they are an instant hit. Fans pay $69,420 (€75 in Europe) […]
July 03, 2020
Citroën’s new, small, two-seater EV is now available for sale in 39 shops of the French electronics and book retailer Fnac Darty. Starting from 6 000 euros or 20 euros per month, the Citroën Ami is a microcar aimed at a young clientele for urban trips. At Citroën, they describe their Ami as ‘disruptive urban […]
July 01, 2020
On Wednesday, Luca de Meo, former head of Seat, is taking control of Renault as the new CEO. The Italian-born 53-year-old gets the difficult task of putting back on its feet a company traumatized by the fall of Ghosn, shaken by its first net losses for ten years and in the midst of a 2 […]
June 18, 2020
The nine billion euros rescue package that Lufthansa has negotiated with the German state council could fail for lack of sufficient support from its shareholders. The German billionaire, Heinz Hermann Thiele, who recently increased his stake in Lufthansa to 15%, opposes the plans. The decision will be taken at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on 25 […]
June 17, 2020
The next Lotus sports car to be launched in 2021 will be powered by an internal combustion engine (ICE). But after that last gasoline hurrah, all of the brand’s future products will be EVs, starting with the Evija hypercar. Lotus says it wants to take advantage of the flexibility of the EV architecture. In an […]
June 15, 2020
How is the car business waking up after the corona confinement? Belgian newspaper L’Echo asked Stéphane Sertang, CEO of the car dealer group Ginion, how he sees things. Ginion Group covers a certain amount of (usually premium or high-end luxury) brands. There is Mini, BMW, and Volvo, but also Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, McLaren, Pininfarina, or […]
June 10, 2020
There’s a possibility that the VW Group CEO Herbert Diess will be gently led to the exit. On Monday, Volkswagen announced that COO Ralf Brandstätter (51) will take over as CEO of the Volkswagen brand, starting the 1st of July. Diess will “therefore receive greater leeway for his tasks as Group CEO,” a press release […]
February 19, 2020
Today, MG launches an electric SUV model in the B-segment on the Belgian market. Apart from the British name tag, it is the first fully Chinese EV-SUV available here. We drove it, and it is something to reckon with. With a base price of just under 31 000 euros, this MG ZS EV offers a […]
January 16, 2020
Both visionary and controversially, Elon Musk has more than a reason to dance these days, as it looks he is ‘on schedule’ to cash his first 346 million dollars bonus of the 50 billion he will get if all targets are met by 2028. Combined with his shares of Tesla and other companies like SpaceX, […]
January 09, 2020
Axel Miller (54), ex-CEO of D’Ieteren, and former CEO of Belgium’s now state-owned Dexia Bank found a new job as Chief of Cabinet at the Belgian liberal party MR. He fills in the vacancy Gaëlle Smet left when she moved to the European Parliament. Apparently, Miller was ‘seduced’ by young MR president Georges-Louis Bouchez who […]
December 26, 2017
Ferdinand Porsche, legendary figure from last century’s automobile history, didn’t hesitate a moment to get help from the Nazi party without any compromise to reach his goals. Wolfram Pyta, director of the center for research on Nazi crimes in Ludwigsburg (Germany) wrote a tarnishing book about it. SS member “For opportunistic reasons Ferdinand Porsche enlisted […]
December 14, 2017
German’s most famous captain of industry, Dieter Zetsche (64), head of Mercedes-Benz Cars since 2006 and chairman of the board of management at Daimler AG, will no longer be part of the car company. Next year he will replace Klaus Mangold (74) as chairman of the board at travel organization TUI. Vehicle business In 1976 […]
October 23, 2017
At the age of 59, Toyota’s no.2 worldwide is French, native from Lille, close to the Belgian border: Didier Leroy. He saw Toyota predicting the switch from the combustion engine to electric 15 years ago. Financial newspaper L’Echo interviewed the man on the eve of the Tokyo Motor Show. Leroy’s career at Toyota got a […]
