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"The backlash, like a boomerang, can be bigger than what one imagined," he said, referring to potential retaliation by China on European carmakers. While 90% of BMW cars sold in China are produced locally, some materials are shipped from Europe to China, Mertl said. China has condemned the EU investigation, which formally began on Thursday, as out of line with World Trade Organization rules and detrimental to the global growth of EV sales. Asked whether the premium carmaker was seeing dampened demand for EVs reported by Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) in recent weeks, Mertl said EV sales were rising and the company was on track to hit its goal of 15% fully-electric sales for the year. Some supply chain problems in logistics and transport persisted and could carry on for the next six months, he added.

Persons: Angelika Warmuth, Walter Mertl, Mertl, Victoria Waldersee, Christina Amann, Friederike Heine, Mark Potter Organizations: BMW, REUTERS, Rights, World Trade Organization, Volkswagen Locations: Munich, Germany, China, Europe, Beijing, European

"Chinese manufacturers will adapt vehicles to the European market step by step through user experience and customer orientation," Bosch (ROBG.UL) CEO Stefan Hartung told Reuters at Munich's IAA mobility show. Bosch's Chinese partnerships include developing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) for most of Chinese EV maker BYD's (002594.SZ) cars, electric motors for luxury EV maker Human Horizons and is a supplier for Nio (9866.HK). Chinese EV makers including BYD, Nio, Xpeng (9868.HK) and Leapmotor (9863.HK) are all targeting Europe's EV market, where sales soared nearly 55% to about 820,000 vehicles in the first seven months of 2023, making up about 13% of all car sales. "When we talk to our Chinese customers, there are very concrete plans to build plants in Europe," ZF CEO Holger Klein told Reuters. Continental CEO Nikolai Setzer told Reuters the supplier expects "the Chinese to go global and build plants in Europe."

Persons: Leonhard Simon, Bosch, Stefan Hartung, Hartung, Holger Klein, Nikolai Setzer, Setzer, Nick Carey, Victoria Waldersee, Christina Amann, Zoey Zhang, David Evans Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Reuters, BYD's, Human, HK, Europe's EV, Jato Dynamics, Friedrichshafen, ZF, Continental, Thomson Locations: Munich, Germany, China, Europe

We view it as more important to get back raw materials from cars and other products," Chief Financial Officer Nicolas Peter said in an interview. Some, such as Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), are betting big on expanding their own battery production and investing in mines to secure control down the supply chain. Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE) said on Thursday it had made a "fundamental decision" to allocate capital to mining and had set up a raw material office in Canada, where it signed a raw materials agreement last year. "With our business development, we are creating the motivation to invest - but we do not need to develop big recycling facilities for battery cells ourselves." Investing in technologies requiring fewer critical raw minerals, including hydrogen-powered cars, is another way BMW plans to bring down costs.

We view it as more important to get back raw materials from cars and other products," finance chief Nicolas Peter said in an interview. BMW has its own battery cell research centre in Germany, but has left large-scale development to partners, placing multi-billion-euro orders with CATL (300750.SZ) and EVE Energy (300014.SZ) to produce battery cells in China and Europe. Mercedes-Benz said on Thursday it had made a "fundamental decision" to allocate capital to mining and had set up a raw material office in Canada, where it signed a raw materials agreement last year. Investing in technologies requiring less raw critical minerals, including hydrogen-powered cars, was another way to bring down costs, Peter said. The carmaker has a battery cell recycling facility via its joint venture in China, but does also not see the need to develop large cell recycling facilities of its own, Peter said.

The future of the Saarlouis site has been unclear since last June when Ford picked a site in Spain to assemble its next-generation electric vehicle (EV) over the German plant, which will stop producing its current model, the Ford Focus, from 2025. Separately, union representatives for Ford's largest German site in Cologne will meet with Ford's management on Saturday to negotiate on planned job cuts across Europe announced by management to workers on Monday. Management figures presented a worst-case scenario to 12,000 workers in a packed assembly hall of up to 2,500 job cuts in product development and a further 700 in administration. The carmaker has committed to an all-electric lineup in Europe by 2030 and its U.S. leadership has repeatedly flagged that EVs require less labour. Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Christina Amann; Editing by Paul Carrel, Alexander Smith and Andrea RicciOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The company wants to axe up to 2,500 jobs in product development and up to 700 in administrative roles, with German locations most affected, IG Metall said. Ford last year announced a $2 billion investment to expand production at its Cologne plant to make an all-electric model for the mass market. It also has a partnership with Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) to produce 1.2 million vehicles on the German carmaker's MEB electric platform over six years. That partnership remains in place, Ford and Volkswagen representatives said, though Ford's U.S. spokesperson added that Volkswagen's role in Ford's next generation of European electric vehicles was still to be determined. "We will not hold back from measures that could seriously impact the company, not just in Germany but Europe-wide."

At a separate meeting between management and workers representatives, Ford said it was planning a reduction of 65% in development jobs and around 20% in administrative jobs in Europe, a spokesperson for IG Metall said. We will not hold back from measures that could seriously impact the company not just in Germany but Europe-wide," IG Metall said. Ford of Europe produces, sells and services Ford brand vehicles in 50 markets, employing around 45,000 people at its own facilities and consolidated joint ventures, according to its website. The U.S. carmaker has committed to selling exclusively electric passenger cars in Europe by 2030, and is planning three new electric passenger vehicles and four new electric commercial vehicles in Europe by 2024. Writing by Rachel More and Victoria Waldersee; editing by Matthias Williams and Louise HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

LEIPZIG, Oct 21 (Reuters) - BMW (BMWG.DE) production chief Milan Nedeljkovic expects stabilising supply chains to lead to a clear improvement in profitability next year, he said in an interview at the carmaker's Leipzig plant in Germany. From a production perspective, Nedeljkovic said he did not expect margins to fall. Europe is falling behind the United States in its ambitions to become more independent in semiconductor supply, the production chief added, with both expressing the same intention but less tangible action from Europe. But with Europe's energy market and supply chain situation uncertain, Nedeljkovic was hesitant to pin down forecasts for next year's output. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Victoria Waldersee and Christina Amann Editing by Rachel More and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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