MOTORING

New York, United States | AFP | Ford and Volkswagen are preparing to announce a strategic partnership, including in areas such as self-driving and electric autos, a person with knowledge of the matter told AFP on Wednesday. The announcement could come Tuesday during this year’s Detroit auto show, the person …

Tokyo, Japan | AFP | Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn is likely to appear in a Japanese court next Tuesday to hear the reasons for his detention, after his lawyers deployed a little-used article of the Constitution. The shock move was the latest in a series of unexpected twists in …

Chicago, United States | AFP | Major auto makers announced their end-of-year US sales totals Thursday, showing a slowing market even as Americans’ demand for more expensive SUVs and trucks drove up priaces. US consumers continued the trend away from small cars and sedans, but appeared increasingly squeezed by higher …

Frankfurt am Main, Germany | AFP | Some 372,000 German owners of Volkswagen cars fitted with motors that cheated emissions tests have joined a collective legal action against the auto giant, official figures showed Thursday. Hundreds of thousands of people signed up to the collective action between late November and …

Maranello, Italy | AFP | Ferrari issued an emotional message on Thursday to mark the 50th birthday of Michael Schumacher, who has not been seen in public since he suffered head injuries in a skiing accident five years ago. The German, who won a record seven Formula One drivers’ championships …

Race between Rav4, Subaru Forester, Kluger, Harrier Kampala, Uganda | MOTORING GURU | When The Independent’s motoring guru did a column in December 2017 predicting the popular car of 2018, the focus was on the evergreen compact SUV; the Toyota RAV4. Buried deep in that review was mention of an emerging …

Kampala, Uganda | AGENCIES | The organizers of the 2019 European Car of the Year (ECOTY) have announced the seven finalists of this year’s competition that will fight for the ECOTY crown. The seven finalists in alphabetic order are; Alpine A110, Citroen C5 Aircross, Ford Focus, Jaguar I-Pace, Kia Ceed, Mercedes-Benz …

Maranello, Italy | AFP | Formula One legend Michael Schumacher will be honoured by Ferrari with a special exhibition to mark his 50th birthday on January 3, the Italian team confirmed on Monday. Schumacher — a seven-time Formule One world champion — suffered severe head injuries in a skiing accident …

New York, United States | AFP | Ford is recalling 874,000 of its best-selling F-series pickup trucks due to fire risk from the engine block heater system, the company announced Friday. The problem occurs when there is corrosion in a connector in the engine block heater, which is used in …

Paris, France | AFP | France’s data protection agency said Thursday that it had fined the US ride-hailing group Uber 400,000 euros ($460,000) over a 2016 data breach that exposed the personal data of some 57 million clients and drivers worldwide. Uber drew the wrath of users and regulators after …