February was a month of mixed results for the automotive industry, on the one hand, with an increase in domestic production, but also a continued drop in exports, Inegi reported on Friday. In the second month of the year, 240,479 vehicles were manufactured in the country, which represented an increase of only 0.66 percent with respect to the same period last year, thus reversing a seven-month trend of annual contractions. However, Mexican car shipments abroad totaled 201,868 units, which represented a 5.66% contraction, adding eight consecutive months of annual rate declines. In its monthly

Italian supercar maker Lamborghini has outlined a sweeping $1.8 billion plan to slash its vehicles’ emissions in coming years — including its first-ever all-electric vehicle. Stephan Winkelmann, the brand’s CEO, told Bloomberg that the initiative — the most expensive in company history — will cut those emissions in half by 2025, one year after the company’s deadline to introduce a plug-in hybrid version of each of its models. The brand’s first fully battery-powered car, meanwhile, is set to be rolled out in the second half of the decade. Numerous makers of supercars are already producing

Canadian headquartered automotive holding Magna International Inc has signed a deal to buy Italy’s OLSA S.p.A. The transaction is valued at $354 million (230 million euros). OLSA, based in Turin, Italy, employs about 2,500 people and has manufacturing operations in Italy, Poland, Brazil, China, and Mexico. Its customers include the Volkswagen Group, the BMW Group, Daimler, and FCA. The deal, which requires regulatory approval and other standard closing conditions, is expected to close before the end of the year. Magna says the deal will make the company a global lighting supplier and expand

By: Ivet Rodríguez The installation of Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz-Infinit plants in Mexico is an opportunity to raise the level of automotive production in the country. However, on the road to premium quality, there are several challenges to overcome, such as the consolidation of a competitive supplier base. Armando Bravo, Director of the Center for the Development of the Automotive Industry in Mexico (Cediam), believes that in the start-up phase of their plants, these companies - with the exception of BMW, which already has a base of 64 suppliers in the country - will be supplied by imports