Exclusive: Geely-backed Ecarx in talks with VW to develop smart cars for Europe, US, CEO says
Volkswagen already has a partnership with the Geely-backed firm to manufacture smart cars in Brazil and India with Ecarx's digital cockpit system Antora 1000, which features its proprietary chip and software and offers services such as voice recognition and navigation maps.
The two companies are now looking to extend the partnership to include VW's Skoda-branded cars sold in Europe and also exploring the possibility of launching vehicles that are equipped with Ecarx technologies in the U.S., Ecarx CEO Shen Ziyu told Reuters.
VW did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The plan underscores growing efforts by Western automakers to leverage Chinese prowess in smart driving technologies to hold on to their global market share after sales declined sharply in China in recent years.
Nearly all legacy auto brands now have to contend with Chinese electric vehicle makers, which have upended the auto industry with sleek software-rich cars.
German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE), opens new tab plans to develop smart driving cars for global markets equipped with Chinese firm Hesai's lidar sensors, Reuters reported on Tuesday, the first time a foreign automaker has sought to use such Chinese-made technology for models sold outside China.
Shen said it took more than a year for Volkswagen to decide on the smart technology supplier among 13 other candidates that included South Korean brands, such as LG and Samsung, as well as Chinese rival Desay SV.
"The R&D for the entire technologies of consumer electronics, including semiconductors, is still rooted in Asia," Shen said. "That's the main reason why the progress of developing software capabilities in Europe is not smooth."
Volkswagen has had limited success so far with its in-house software unit Cariad, which plans to lay off almost 30% of staff by the end of the year, the Handelsblatt business daily reported on Tuesday, citing company sources.
Ecarx generates 70% of its revenue from Geely and its affiliated brands and aims to lower its reliance on the Chinese group to below 50% by as early as 2028, Shen said.
Half of its revenue would come from overseas by 2030, as Ecarx has been building its R&D teams abroad, a move Shen expects to help address concerns over geopolitical risks involving the use of Chinese technologies.
"China's brutal cost competition can hammer out a stronger supply chain for us to go global," Shen said. "The product cycle, which may only last three years in China, can be extended to 10 or even 15 years overseas."
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Daily Mirror
12 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Spy balloons that can fly major heights to be developed in UK to keep Brits safe
The Ministry of Defence said the balloons offer low-cost surveillance as they don't need a crew on board and can travel uninterrupted at extreme altitudes for long periods The UK is developing spy balloons that can fly at double the altitude of a commercial flight to conduct intelligence and surveillance missions. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said trials of new high-altitude balloons flying between 60,000 and 80,000 feet above the Earth - higher than most military aircraft operate - have been successful. The balloons offer low-cost surveillance as they don't need a crew on board and can travel uninterrupted at extreme altitudes for long periods. The future use of such balloons could also include support to operations and reliable communication and fast internet connection to disaster zones or remote areas with no coverage, while also providing information for weather forecasting and climate research. The MoD will now develop a fleet of this class of balloon, following the successful trials in South Dakota, USA, earlier this year. It comes two years after the US shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that had been flying over its airspace. At the time, the UK's Tory Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he would carry out a security review to look at the dangers of spy balloons. Defence minister Maria Eagle hailed the UK 'pushing boundaries' with its successful trials of spy balloons. 'This innovation is about giving our Armed Forces the edge – better awareness, better communications, and lower maintenance needs,' she said. 'Stratospheric technology like this could transform how we operate in complex environments, keeping our people safer and better informed than ever before. 'This successful trial is another example of UK defence pushing boundaries, with real potential to strengthen our future capabilities.' James Gavin, head of UK Defence's innovation, prove and exploit team, said: 'These latest trials have been incredibly fruitful and pave the way for more collaborative working with our allies to develop capabilities that will benefit our Armed Forces.'
Auto Car
20 hours ago
- Auto Car
The Caterham Seven now has literal Horse power... I was first to try the sports car firm's new engine
The Caterham Seven's future is now assured thanks to a new engine from a firm formed by Renault and Geely Open gallery Prior put the Caterham's Horse prototype through its paces around Brands Hatch Horse-engined sevens will not weigh more than today's Duratec ones Laishley (right) tells Prior: 'We've searched high and low' for the right engine Close Caterham has been at a set of figurative crossroads for some time, pondering what will replace the Ford Sigma and Duratec engines it has been using for yonks. Neither the Sigma, a 1.6-litre used in Caterham's Academy racing cars, nor the 2.0-litre Duratec, used in its road and fastest race cars, has been made for several years. Caterham bought a batch of Sigma blocks and has been assembling completed engines using those and spare parts, but they will shortly run out. It still has considerable stock of complete Duratec engines – 1200 of them – but it doesn't believe Ford has used the unit in over four years. Ultimately, both need replacing, but the Academy race car is a priority, so that's what's being addressed first. The Academy series, designed for new race drivers, results in 34-40 Caterhams being built and raced per year. Over the past 30 years, more than 1400 people have become racers through the programme. The cars are mostly home-finished and all have to be road-registered. At a literal crossroads, a Caterham isn't the world's most convenient vehicle: you sit a long way from its nose, low, and with iffy visibility. But in corporate terms, things are brighter. In Bob Laishley, the company has a CEO with decades of OEM experience and a vast contact book, although he modestly says that wasn't a necessity because it quickly became apparent that plenty of engine manufacturers would be happy to supply the company. Combustion engine production, even development, is in no danger of imminently ceasing. The conundrum has been finding an engine that fits, that's available, reliable and sufficiently light, and is priced correctly. Or, at least, correctly enough. 'We have searched high and low,' says Laishley, and the answer has come from Horse, a relatively new joint venture between Renault and Geely that 'is looking to sell engines'. Horse has the capacity to make more than three million engines a year and wants automotive customers. Caterham has settled on its lightly turbocharged 1.3-litre four-cylinder, badged HR13DDT, made in Spain and already used in more than 20 models including the Renault Megane, Nissan Qashqai and Mercedes A-Class. So 'it has been used in a number of cars and Horse has guaranteed supply well into the next decade', says Laishley. In existing production cars, the HR13DDT unit has standard outputs as little as 115bhp and as much as 160bhp, higher still where it's already used in saloon car racing. It has 1332cc capacity, a 72.2mm by 81.3mm bore/stroke, an aluminium block and head, direct injection, twin overhead cams, a lifetime timing chain and mirror bore coating, in which cylinders receive approximately 0.2mm of friction-reducing coating rather than a cast-iron cylinder liner (the sort that has a circa 2mm wall thickness). It's tech the R35-generation Nissan GT-R received first and it gives 'a lot of weight-saving in the block', says Laishley. The upshot, I'm told, is that the HR13 engine weighs 35kg less than a Duratec motor (around 15-25kg less than a Sigma, by my estimates), although some of that will be undone by the need for an intercooler and associated pipework and ducting. Complete, it certainly won't weigh more than the Duratec, according to Laishley. The final advantage is that 'it fits', says Laishley, although these things are somewhat relative. Most of it fits. A fuel pump and rail sprouts from the top of the engine, which the Caterham bonnet will have to be sculpted to clear. It's a tiny piece of the engine but one of the most critical. Various teams have contemplated rejigging it, but that it pressurises petrol to 350 bar has inclined them to leave it as designed. I've come to Brands Hatch, where it's binning down with rain, to try the first Caterham Horse prototype, an SV (wide-body) chassis in left-hand drive. The wider chassis gives Caterham's team a bit more space to work with, and the exhaust and catalytic converter would foul the steering column on a right-hand-drive model, so they're using this left-hooker while redesigning the exhaust. A second prototype, an Academy race car, which has a narrow (Series 3) chassis in right-hand drive – and is thus representative of the first production versions – is in build at the factory. I've seen some CAD mock-ups of the bonnet and the finished version will look much sleeker than the strictly functional add-on you see pictured here. It will want some additional cooling vents too. Caterham's engineers say that beyond ensuring the engine fits, they have done precious little to it. It makes 130bhp at around 5750rpm and builds in very linear fashion from 2000rpm, with a very flat torque plateau of a little under 130lb ft from 2000rpm to 5500rpm (bhp and lb ft being equal at 5252rpm). The rev limit is 6500rpm but they say there's no need to take it there, because torque and power both ebb away after the peak. Caterham will use its own ECU (it's more reliable than using an OEM ECU that requires 'turning things off that don't want to be', says Laishley) and the base power might eventually go up or down a bit so that Academy race cars retain lap times as close as possible to those of today's Sigma-engined cars. In the meantime, there's plenty else to be getting on with. Not only will there be a new engine, but also a new gearbox and limited-slip differential. Gearboxes are becoming the latest six- rather than five-speed Mazda MX-5 units and there will be a bespoke Caterham-specced LSD in place of the BMW one used now. The gearbox is a bit heavier than the five-speed but the LSD is lighter, so overall weight is the same. Because of the new engine, gearbox and differential, the 2026 set of Academy cars won't be available to home-build: the procedures simply won't be finely honed enough, so Caterham will complete them all at the factory. As I write, pricing has still to be confirmed, but I'm told it will be a little – but not prohibitively or mick-takingly – more expensive than a Sigma-engined car. The bits just cost more. Those will be the first and, for the time being, only Horse-engined Caterhams. Historically, Academy cars typically become 'Roadsport Championship' race cars the year after they have competed in the Academy and then can be upgraded to 270 and 310 race cars thereafter: those championships, then, will have a mix of Horse and Sigma engines from 2028. Entry-level 170s will still use the small Suzuki engine. Other road-going Caterhams will continue with Duratec engines until stocks run out. You can speculate that, with its various power options and obvious tuning capability, the Horse engine will become the norm thereafter: Caterham clearly hasn't signed up a new engine maker to build just 34 cars a year. The other point to note is that if you want to have a naturally aspirated Seven, the time is now. Caterham would like the new engine to feel as naturally aspirated as is possible, though. So at Brands I sink into the driver's seat to receive a briefing, although there's not much to tell. There's a light to warn of the impending rev limiter, but unless I deliberately take it there, I'll have probably naturally felt the urge to shift up a gear by then. And while the sound is all authentic, there is a symposer (a tube and a vibrating membrane) to accentuate the induction noise. By today's standards, 100bhp per litre is modest and so is a redline in the mid-6000s. That redline and power output are figures an old 1.7-litre Ford Kent Crossflow would be familiar with. And if I told you that the Horse engine reminded me a bit of one of those, I wouldn't mean it as an insult. This is, I don't think it's unkind to say, a functional rather than spectacular sort of engine. It will pull at any revs because it has modern electronics but there's notable response from 2000rpm and it pulls very keenly from 3000-5000rpm. If there is turbo lag, and even at low boost pressures I suppose there must be some, you don't really notice it in a car as light as a Seven. Perhaps it would be more notable in the dry, but in the wet there's sufficient response to light up the rear tyres out of Druids hairpin easily, and even in higher-speed corners enough to straighten the car's line without feeling like you're waiting for the engine to do your bidding. It's just linear, progressive and responsive, and I think the symposer takes the edge off some gravelliness, to add some gruff induction 'bwoap'. It's geared for around 3000rpm at 60mph in sixth, and while it's hard to gauge how the large expanse of a race circuit totally matches the road, that and the ratios – with a gearshift every bit as tight and slick as the Mazda five-speed's – feels 'about right'. In truth the whole package does. Would it be nicer if it was a super-light, naturally aspirated 1.6-litre that revved to 9000rpm and made 160bhp while it was getting there? Perhaps, but people don't make engines like that which meet regulatory requirements any more. The Horse engine hits the right numbers. And, in its delivery, in its responses, and even in its aural appeal, it largely hits the mark too. I think Academy drivers are going to have as much fun as ever. The future supply is pleasingly secure. And if you must have a naturally aspirated Seven, you know who to call. Join our WhatsApp community and be the first to read about the latest news and reviews wowing the car world. Our community is the best, easiest and most direct place to tap into the minds of Autocar, and if you join you'll also be treated to unique WhatsApp content. You can leave at any time after joining - check our full privacy policy here. Caterham Seven 420 CUP S3 Next Prev In partnership with
The Herald Scotland
21 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Trump's trip to Scotland reopens old wounds for some of his neighbors
For nearly 20 years, Forbes and several other families who live in Balmedie have resisted what they describe as bullying efforts by Trump to buy their land. (He has denied the allegations.) They and others also say he's failed to deliver on his promises to bring thousands of jobs to the area. Those old wounds are being reopened as Trump returns to Scotland for a four-day visit beginning July 25. It's the country where his mother was born. He appears to have great affection for it. Trump is visiting his golf resorts at Turnberry, on the west coast about 50 miles from Glasgow, and at Balmedie, where Forbes' 23 acres of jumbled, tractor-strewn land, which he shares with roaming chickens and three Highland cows, abut Trump's glossy and manicured golf resort. On July 28, Trump will briefly meet in Balmedie with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "refine" a recent U.S.-U.K. trade deal, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Golf, a little diplomacy: Trump heads to Scotland In Scotland, where estimates from the National Library of Scotland suggest that as many as 34 out of the 45 American presidents have Scottish ancestry, opinions hew toward the he's-ill-suited-for-the-job, according to surveys. "Trump? He just doesn't know how to treat people," said Forbes, who refuses to sell. What Trump's teed up in Scotland Part of the Balmedie community's grievances relate to Trump's failure to deliver on his promises. According to planning documents, public accounts and his own statements, Trump promised, beginning in 2006, to inject $1.5 billion into his golf project six miles north of Aberdeen. He has spent about $120 million. Approval for the development, he vowed, came with more than 1,000 permanent jobs and 5,000 construction gigs attached. Instead, there were 84, meaning fewer than the 100 jobs that already existed when the land he bought was a shooting range. Instead of a 450-room luxury hotel and hundreds of homes that Trump pledged to build for the broader community, there is a 19-room boutique hotel and a small clubhouse with a restaurant and shop that sells Trump-branded whisky, leather hip flasks and golf paraphernalia. Financial filings show that his course on the Menie Estate in Balmedie lost $1.9 million in 2023 - its 11th consecutive financial loss since he acquired the 1,400-acre grounds in 2006. Residents who live and work near the course say that most days, even in the height of summer, the fairway appears to be less than half full. Representatives for Trump International say the plan all along has been to gradually phase in the development at Balmedie and that it is not realistic or fair to expect everything to be built overnight. There's also support for Trump from some residents who live nearby, and in the wider Aberdeen business community. One Balmedie resident who lives in the shadow of Trump's course said that before Trump the area was nothing but featureless sand dunes and that his development, carved between those dunes, made the entire landscape look more attractive. Fergus Mutch, a policy advisor for the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, said Trump's golf resort has become a "key bit of the tourism offer" that attracts "significant spenders" to a region gripped by economic turmoil, steep job cuts and a prolonged downturn in its North Sea oil and gas industry. Trump in Scotland: Liked or loathed? Still, recent surveys show that 70% of Scots hold an unfavorable opinion of Trump. Despite his familial ties and deepening investments in Scotland, Trump is more unpopular among Scots than with the British public overall, according to an Ipsos survey from March. It shows 57% of people in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland don't view Trump positively. King Charles invites Trump: American president snags another UK state visit While in Balmedie this time, Trump will open a new 18-hole golf course on his property dedicated to his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was a native of Lewis, in Scotland's Western Isles. He is likely to be met with a wave of protests around the resort, as well as the one in Turnberry. The Stop Trump Coalition, a group of campaigners who oppose most of Trump's domestic and foreign policies and the way he conducts his private and business affairs, is organizing a protest in Aberdeen and outside the U.S. consulate in Edinburgh. During Trump's initial visit to Scotland as president, in his first term, thousands of protesters sought to disrupt his visit, lining key routes and booing him. One protester even flew a powered paraglider into the restricted airspace over his Turnberry resort that bore a banner that read, "Trump: well below par #resist." 'Terrific guy': The Trump-Epstein party boy friendship lasted a decade, ended badly Trump's course in Turnberry has triggered less uproar than his Balmedie one because locals say that he's invested millions of dollars to restore the glamour of its 101-year-old hotel and three golf courses after he bought the site in 2014. Trump versus the families Three families still live directly on or adjacent to Trump's Balmedie golf resort. They say that long before the world had any clue about what type of president a billionaire New York real estate mogul and reality-TV star would become, they had a pretty good idea. Forbes is one of them. He said that shortly after Trump first tried to persuade him and his late wife to sell him their farm, workers he hired deliberately sabotaged an underground water pipe that left the Forbes - and his mother, then in her 90s, lived in her own nearby house - without clean drinking water for five years. Trump International declined to provide a fresh comment on those allegations, but a spokesperson previously told USA TODAY it "vigorously refutes" them. It said that when workers unintentionally disrupted a pipe that ran into an "antiquated" makeshift "well" jointly owned by the Forbeses on Trump's land, it was repaired immediately. Trump has previously called Forbes a "disgrace" who "lives like a pig." 'I don't have a big enough flagpole' David Milne, 61, another of Trump's seething Balmedie neighbors, lives in a converted coast guard station with views overlooking Trump's course and of the dunes and the North Sea beyond. In 2009, Trump offered him and his wife about $260,000 for his house and its one-fifth acre of land, Milne said. Trump was caught on camera saying he wanted to remove it because it was "ugly." Trump, he said, "threw in some jewelry," a golf club membership (Milne doesn't play), use of a spa (not yet built) and the right to buy, at cost, a house in a related development (not yet constructed). Milne valued the offer at about half the market rate. When Milne refused that offer, he said that landscapers working for Trump partially blocked the views from his house by planting a row of trees and sent Milne a $3,500 bill for a fence they'd built around his garden. Milne refused to pay. Over the years, Milne has pushed back. He flew a Mexican flag at his house for most of 2016, after Trump vowed to build a wall on the southern American border and make Mexico pay for it. Milne, a health and safety consultant in the energy industry, has hosted scores of journalists and TV crews at his home, where he has patiently explained the pros and cons - mostly cons, in his view, notwithstanding his own personal stake in the matter - of Trump's development for the local area. Milne said that because of his public feud with Trump, he's a little worried a freelance MAGA supporter could target him or his home. He has asked police to provide protection for him and his wife at his home while Trump is in the area. He also said he won't be flying any flags this time, apart from the Saltire, Scotland's national flag. "I don't have a big enough flagpole. I would need one from Mexico, Canada, Palestine. I would need Greenland, Denmark - you name it," he said, running through some of the places toward which Trump has adopted what critics view as aggressive and adversarial policies. Dunes of great natural importance Martin Ford was the local Aberdeen government official who originally oversaw Trump's planning application to build the Balmedie resort in 2006. He was part of a planning committee that rejected it over environmental concerns because the course would be built between sand dunes that were designated what the UK calls a Site of Special Scientific Interest due to the way they shift over time. The Scottish government swiftly overturned that ruling on the grounds that Trump's investment in the area would bring a much-needed economic boost. Neil Hobday, who was the project director for Trump's course in Balmedie, last year told the BBC he was "hoodwinked" by Trump over his claim that he would spend more than a billion dollars on it. Hobday said he felt "ashamed that I fell for it and Scotland fell for it. We all fell for it." The dunes lost their special status in 2020, according to Nature Scot, the agency that oversees such designations. It concluded that their special features had been "partially destroyed" by Trump's resort. Trump International disputes that finding, saying the issue became "highly politicized." For years, Trump also fought to block the installation of a wind farm off his resort's coast. He lost that fight. The first one was built in 2018. There are now 11 turbines. Ford has since retired but stands by his belief that allowing approval for the Trump resort was a mistake. "I feel cheated out of a very important natural habitat, which we said we would protect and we haven't," he said. "Trump came here and made a lot of promises that haven't materialized. In return, he was allowed to effectively destroy a nature site of great conservation value. It's not the proper behavior of a decent person." Forbes, the former quarry worker and fisherman, said he viewed Trump in similar terms. He said that Trump "will never ever get his hands on his farm." He said that wasn't just idle talk. He said he's put his land in a trust that specified that when he dies, it can't be sold for at least 125 years.
