VENTURE CAPITAL POST

A trial program allowing unauthorized dealers to sell imported cars will be extended to the northern city of Tianjin, China's state media said on Sunday, as the government moves to rein in high-end car prices.

Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) first leadership crisis in a decade has burst into the open with Chairman Ferdinand Piech's surprise public denunciation of CEO Martin Winterkorn -- but the standoff is now more likely to play out behind closed doors.

Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) has plunged into a full-blown leadership crisis after Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn let it be known on Saturday he will fight for his job even though the carmaker's chairman has reportedly withdrawn confidence in the CEO.

German carmakers are shifting their focus toward high-end electric vehicles such as the Audi R8 e-tron and away from cheap city cars, in the latest effort to revive environmentally-friendly but unpopular zero-emission vehicles.

China is taking aim again at foreign luxury car makers such as Audi (NSUG.DE), BMW (BMWG.DE) and Mercedes-Benz (DAIGn.DE) by allowing unauthorized dealers to sell imported cars - so-called 'parallel imports' - in a move to rein in high-end car prices.

German luxury carmaker Audi could reach its goal of 2 million sales a year before its 2020 target, helped by revamped models and new sport-utility vehicles, its chief executive told Reuters.

German car maker Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) will recall 80,000 cars from its luxury division Audi due to issues with the fuel injection system, Audi said on Saturday, adding that around 35,000 of the affected vehicles are from China.

Germany's Daimler AG wants to reset consumers' expectations about self-driving cars with its futuristic Mercedes-Benz F 015 concept, unveiled Monday evening at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) Audi luxury division said on Saturday it will increase spending on new models, plants and technology by 2 billion euros ($2.44 billion) to a record 24 billion euros over the next five years.

Volvo Car Corp said it will start selling vehicles online as it rolls out new models to compete with German luxury rivals such as BMW (BMWG.DE).

Daimler's (DAIGn.DE) Mercedes-Benz needs to catch up with German rivals BMW and Audi in China to meet its goal of becoming the world's largest maker of luxury cars by 2020, a company executive said on Wednesday.

Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE) has opened a research and development (R&D) center in Beijing tasked with further tuning its Mercedes-Benz brand to wealthy Chinese tastes and closing the sales gap with Audi AG (NSUG.DE) and BMW AG (BMWG.DE).

When he attended design preview meetings for the Genesis luxury sedan, Hyundai Motor heir-apparent Chung Eui-sun suggested features he'd seen on high-end European rivals, such as a pop-up navigation screen and a gearshift that rises and retracts.

BMW (BMWG.DE) has hired Ferrari's former chief engineer as it seeks to strengthen its technical prowess amid intensifying competition with rival German luxury carmakers Audi and Mercedes-Benz.

Car sales in Europe rose 1.8 percent in August with volume makers Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), Ford (F.N) and Opel (GM.N) benefiting from improved demand in Spain, Portugal and Ireland, while premium makers lost ground due to a drop in sales in Germany.