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The shock announcement of Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo's departure will have a profound effect internally and externally after he transformed a company driven to the brink of collapse by the Covid pandemic.

“Luca de Meo's departure is unequivocally a blow to Renault,” said Stephen Reitman, automotive analyst at the bank Bernstein, of de Meo’s decision to leave the industry altogether for the luxury goods world, specifically as head of Gucci owner Kering. “We are saddened by the loss,” he added.

If Reitman’s response makes it sound more like a death than a resignation, that’s because of the enormous impact de Meo has had on Renault since joining July 2020.

The French company was seemingly unsavable. The loss of sales from Covid shutdowns meant it was losing €15 million a day. The Alliance with Nissan that brought much needed scale was on the rocks, the line-up was unremarkable and morale was low. Immediately the Italian brought to bear his experience at the Volkswagen Group and Fiat and transformed the place. 

“When I came into the design room in 2020, there were 20 concepts. I think three quarters were small cars for very exotic markets,” he said back in 2023. “I changed the whole product plan in six weeks.”

Out went the bulk of the small cars and in their place came bigger SUVs in more profitable compact and mid-size segments, including the Symbioz, Scenic, Austral, Espace and Rafale. Dacia gained the Bigster above the Duster.

He elegantly restructured the long-held Alliance, repairing relations and switching to a less formal partnership between the two companies. He found shared values at Geely and hungrily sought out information and tie-ups in China in the battle to lower costs and speed up development.

Always smartly turned out with his trademark handkerchief points emerging from his suit top pocket, de Meo was a consummate marketeer. ‘Never be dull' might have been his motto. Although costs remained an obsession, he didn’t shy away from spending on projects that made a splash. As recently as May, he was indignant that he should sell the underperforming Alpine Formula 1 team just as the whole long-term Alpine premium brand project was getting going.

De Meo attacked the problem of making money on pricey EVs in the same way he extracted Volkswagen Group brand Seat from the financial doldrums by creating the sexier, sportier Cupra sub-brand. He made cars that people would want to pay more for.

The replacement for the worthy but ordinary Renault Zoe electric car therefore become the sensational Renault 5 reboot, with the bonus Renault 4 small SUV atop the same platform also leveraging an icon of the past. 

That has created the moat needed to protect Renault (for a bit) against the coming onslaught from the east.

“We feel Renault has one of the most coherent responses among legacy auto makers to the challenges posed by Chinese auto makers through its R5 and forthcoming R4 BEVs,” Reitman said.

Analysts have every reason to be pleased with de Meo. Under his leadership, the loss-making company first scraped a profit in 2021, before doubling it to €2.6 billion in 2022 on an operating margin of 5.6%, rising to €4.3bn and a margin of 6.3% in 2023 and €4.3bn at a 7.6% margin in 2024. That last figure was perhaps the most remarkable, given the decline of everyone else’s profits. It showed that de Meo wasn’t just a lucky winner from the post-Covid price bonanza. 

He was also generally well liked. The top comment under the Financial Times story of his departure ran: “Renault employee here. This is bad news for Renault. De Meo was a great CEO!”

Why de Meo left is unknown. He was certainly frustrated that Renault’s shares hadn’t performed better despite his turnaround, with the company’s value based on its share price still lower than that of unprofitable newcomers like Xpeng and Rivian.

Kering might have offered more him more money. Another possibility is that turning around ailing companies is better for the ego than running healthy ones, which can turn unhealthy quickly in this climate. Just ask Carlos Tavares, a saviour turned villain at Stellantis. Kering’s shares have plummeted more than 60% in the past five years, in sharp contrast to the health of rival group LVMH. 

What comes now is the big question. Renault Group’s price lost 8% on Monday on the news of de Meo’s exit (Kering’s climbed 11%). All eyes will be Renault Group chairman Jean-Dominique Senard to make a similarly inspired move as he did hiring de Meo.

Renault hinted at an internal candidate in its press release, saying the board “had initiated the process of appointing a new CEO based on the already defined succession plan”. That suggests a possibility of three candidates: head of Dacia Denis Le Vot, Renault brand boss Fabrice Cambolive and the outside possibility of Philippe Krief, the ex-Ferrari leader of Alpine and the Renault Group's CTO.

Le Vot’s experience of marketing and running less glamorous but financially important markets globally could tip the board in his favour. Cambolive holds a similarly starry CV but is younger. 

Bernstein’s Reitman advocates ringing up Renault Group’s former CFO, Thierry Piéton, who left in March to become CFO of a US medical company.

No one is attributing any hidden malaise within Renault to explain the departures of two top executives in three months. But de Meo had become a figurehead at the company, and it will keenly feel his absence.

Leaving it on a high guarantees de Meo a place in the pantheon of Renault leaders. His own stock is firmly investment grade. Renault’s stock is now the problem of his replacement.

Honda will show a concept car hinting at a new city-focused EV at next month’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Named the Super EV Concept, it is an A-segment hatchback to rival the Hyundai Inster, Fiat 500e and upcoming Renault Twingo, with styling that draws on the previous Honda E supermini.

Technical details remain thin on the ground, but Honda said it is intended to show how a small, affordable EV can be fun to drive. It has already been tested in the UK as part of a broader international roll-out.

The Super EV Concept will be unveiled in full at the Festival of Speed, which will take place between 10 and 13 July in West Sussex. 

Honda will also use the event to showcase the radical 0 Series SUV concept in Europe for the first time, as well as the Civic Type R Ultimate Edition. The new Prelude coupé will also run up the famed Goodwood hillclimb.

The Super EV Concept represents another string in the bow of Honda’s future EV line-up, likely bookening the new 0 Series range. 

The Japanese brand plans to launch seven new EVs in the coming years, with these using a new platform, new batteries and new motor technologies, in an effective reset of its approach to electrification compared with the old E and current e:Ny1.

“As society is starting to move from the early stage to the widespread adoption stage, the time has come to invest in our EV strategy,” Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe told Autocar last year.

However, Honda is also going big on partial electrification, with 13 new hybrids due globally by 2030 in a bid to bridge the gap to mass-adoption of battery-electric cars.

These will use what the brand has claimed to be the most efficient combustion-engined powertrains yet.

US president Donald Trump and UK prime minister Keir Starmer have officially signed the deal that rubber stamps the UK's reduced 10% levy when importing cars to the states.

As agreed last month, UK-made vehicles will be hit with a reduced tariff for the first 100,000 cars that touch ground in the US.

It follows more than a month of negotiations between British and American officials after Trump announced sweeping import  tariffs on foreign-made products, including a 25% tariff on new cars.

All tariffs were due to start on 1 April, but a 90-day reprieve was given so that negotiations could take place.

The two leaders have now announced the signing of the order on Tuesday during their visits to the G7 summit in Canada. Starmer called it "a very important day" for both countries.

Details on the new deal are still currently sparse, but the US confirmed that the 10% tariff - which brings it in line with the levy on other foreign goods – will apply to "100,000 cars", suggesting that anything over that number will be hit by the higher 25% rate. Previously, before Trump's March announcement, the tariff was 2.5%. 

When it was announced in May, Starmer said the 10% rate represented "a huge and important reduction" and confirmed that "we have scope now to increase that quota; this is not final". 

Last year, the UK sent some 102,000 cars to the US.  The US is the British car industry's second largest export market, behind the EU. It received 27% of all UK-made vehicles  in 2024, accounting for some £9 billion a year.

No details were given on the proposed 25% tariff on car parts, which was due to begin in the coming months.

While details have yet to be fully confirmed, new deals on food, chemicals, machinery and industry have been struck. Tariffs on steel and aluminum have been reduced to 0%.

The UK is the first nation to reach an agreement with the US following president Trump's tariff announcement in March. China will be the next, according to American officials.

Announcing the deal from the White House, Trump said: "I’m thrilled to announce a breakthrough trade deal. The agreement with one our closest and most cherished allies.

"Final details are being written up and will be detailed in the coming weeks."

He added that the deal gets rid of many unspecified UK tariffs that “unfairly discriminated” against US, saying: “They are opening up their country. Their current is a little closed."

Starmer said: "This is a really fantastic, historic day – a real tribute to the history we have of working together. This [deal] is going to boost trade."

In response to the news, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders boss Mike Hawes said: "The agreement to reduce tariffs on UK car exports into the US is great news for the industry and consumers.

"The application of these tariffs was a severe and immediate threat to UK automotive exporters, so this deal will provide much needed relief, allowing both the industry and those that work in it to approach the future more positively."

The news marks a major step down from Trump's March announcement, when he signed a bill that penalised all car makers importing cars into the US market.

At the time, Trump said the decision was made because of the imbalance of American-made car sales in other markets and claimed the move would lead to "tremendous growth" for the US automotive industry. 

Around eight million cars were imported into the US last year, approximately half the total sold in the market. Most were from Mexico, Canada, Germany and Japan.

The news will offer relief to the UK’s car makers, especially JLR (Jaguar Land Rover), which counts the US as its biggest market, having sent 130,000 cars there in 2024. It last month paused shipments to the US as it worked to “address the new trading terms”.

Speaking today, JLR CEO Adrian Mardell said: “The car industry is vital to the UK’s economic prosperity, sustaining 250,000 jobs. We warmly welcome this deal which brings greater certainty for our sector and the communities it supports.

"We would like to thank the UK and US Governments for agreeing this deal at pace and look forward to continued engagement over the coming months.”

Mini will also welcome the news, given that the Mini Cooper hatchback, which has recorded a near-doubling in US sales so far this year, is made at Oxford.

However, the Countryman SUV, made bigger in its most recent generation as part of a US market push, is made in Germany, which remains subject to the 25 tariff.

Tariff negotiations between the EU (of which Germany is a member) and US are still ongoing.

Looking out from the bridge of the Morning Christina, the view is filled with thousands and thousands of factory-fresh Hyundai cars.

Up to 6000 of them are being loaded onto the 11 decks of the 380-metre-long vessel, bound for California, across the Pacific Ocean. “It’ll take about 13 days,” says the ship’s captain. “Then we’ll come back and do it again.”

This is the final step of a unique process in car manufacturing that is based here at Hyundai’s Ulsan plant on the south-eastern coast of South Korea. With a dock literally on site, cars are built, tested and shipped all in one seamless operation. 

How many cars are produced here? A staggering 1.5 million a year – that’s almost double the UK’s 2024 output from 25 factories, and it would have been enough to fulfil 98% of all new car sales in Italy last year. Welcome, then, to the world’s largest vehicle plant.

Set on a 1200-acre site (the same size as the pretty Bedfordshire town of Tilsworth), the Ulsan plant’s positioning is crucial to its effectiveness. As well as being home to five factories plus an engine and transmission plant, it is the only automotive production facility in the world to have a dedicated on-site port – one that ships 75% of its yearly output to more than 200 countries around the globe.

On site, 17 different models are produced, from the Hyundai Santa Fe and Tucson to the entire Genesis line-up. Production lines run for 18 hours a day. A sixth EV-only plant is on schedule to open next year, and it will build the upcoming Genesis GV90. 

The Ulsan plant was opened in 1968 just a year after Hyundai itself was formed, and the site was originally established as a small Ford assembly facility, where Cortinas were hand-built for the local market. 

Today, Ulsan is a behemoth, and on entering the site its size is immediately obvious. Factory after factory rolls past our window, as well as a lot of trees (around 600,000 of them), until we pull up at Plant 5. Built in 1979, the facility originally produced golf carts – by hand. 

Today, the Genesis G70, G80 and G90 saloons are made alongside the Hyundai Palisade and hydrogen-fuelled Nexo. Electric batteries for the G80 are also made here.

After they roll off the production line, and following a quality control check, finished cars are darted away to a huge car park at the dockside. We follow their very short route and pull up alongside the huge Eukor roll-on/roll-off transport vessel. Such is the size of the ship that a Suzuki Carry is used for transport inside.

Cars are being loaded onto the ship via a steep ramp at the rear. Just minutes after a number of Elantras have blasted up it, the drivers – now on foot – race back down the ramp and jump into a Hyundai Staria to be driven to their next machines.

It’s a daily process, with one ship leaving the port every 24 hours. This unique way of producing and exporting cars saves both money and time, a factory manager tells us, and is a key reason why Hyundai can make so many vehicles each year. 

The city of Ulsan that has grown around the plant is now home to 1.1 million people (roughly the same population as Birmingham). When ground was broken on the factory site in 1968, just 30,000 lived in the area – fewer than the 34,000 employed by the plant alone today. 

Five years prior, Ulsan was primarily a fishing port. Now it is South Korea’s industrial hub, formed by Hyundai Ulsan, neighbouring Hyundai Heavy Industries – the world’s largest ship-building company that was spun off from its parent in 2002 – and the world’s third-largest oil refinery, owned by SK Energy.

The company’s importance is visible across the city: there’s a motorway named after Hyundai’s founder and many institutions – a hospital, a school, restaurants – bear the Hyundai name. And, of course, there’s the vast port facility. 

The port, the factory and the city that’s grown around it are testament to Hyundai’s incredible ambition. Our guide sums it up: “Ulsan is the city that made Hyundai what it is today.”