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Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer to leave in favor of AMG chief Tobias Moers

Aston Martin Chief Executive Andy Palmer is leaving the business as part of a management shake-up and will be replaced by Tobias Moers, CEO of Mercedes-AMG, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday. The luxury carmaker said in an emailed statement that it is reviewing its management team but declined to comment on Palmer's fate. Palmer and Germany's Daimler, which owns a 5% stake in Aston Martin and supplies the carmaker with Mercedes-AMG engines, also declined to comment. The Financial Times newspaper had reported earlier that the Aston Martin chief was going to leave as part of a shake-up of its leadership, with an official announcement expected on Tuesday. Palmer had not been informed of the upcoming announcement, the newspaper reported. Aston Martin, famed for being fictional secret agent James Bond's car of choice, has seen its share price plummet since floating in October 2018. The 107-year old British luxury carmaker earlier this month posted a deep first-quarter loss after sales dropped by almost a third due to the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The company has been banking on its sport utility vehicle to drive sales in a new segment, and said production was on track. In January, dire conditions forced the company to bring in Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll who bought a roughly 20% stake for nearly 200 million pounds ($263 million), as the ailing carmaker sought to raise funds. The coronavirus pandemic and shutdowns caused by it have hit demand and forced factories around the world to suspend production, negatively impacting many industries, including car manufacturers. "We were obviously fairly significantly hit by COVID-19, starting with China in January but more clearly in what we saw as it came across towards Europe and the United States," Palmer told Reuters earlier in May. Related Video:

Mercedes recalling 33k C-Class and CLS-Class models in separate campaigns

Mercedes-Benz is recalling over 33,000 vehicles in the US in separate actions affecting two of its model lines. The larger campaign covers 30,141 examples of the 2015 CLS400 and CLS400 4Matic; 2012-2015 CLS550 and CLS550 4Matic; 2012-2014 CLS63 AMG and 2014-2015 CLS63P AMG. On these vehicles, the LED taillights do not sufficiently illuminate around the sides, and therefore they run afoul of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard. According to documents posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (as a PDF, here), "this is due to a software coding issue which leads to the non-activation of a certain LED in both taillamp units." An update of the programming by the dealer fixes the problem. The other recall covers 3,039 units of the 2015 C300 4Matic and C400 4Matic for two possible problems with the fuel delivery module of the fuel tank. First, the locking plate for the part might loosen on some of these vehicles, and that can cause a fuel leak, which is obviously dangerous. Also, the electric wires going into the component might be pinched, which can lead to failure of the fuel pump. Dealers will inspect the models for both issues and will repair any faults they find. Mercedes did not tell NHTSA when owners would receive notification about either of these campaigns when the company submitted the documentation to the agency on March 10. Autoblog reached out to company spokesperson Christian Bokich via email for more information. "We currently expect to be in touch with customers by late March. Customers may continue to drive their vehicles until the recall is performed," he said. Related Video: RECALL Subject : Rear Side Marker Illumination/FMVSS 108 Report Receipt Date: MAR 10, 2015 NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V137000 Component(s): EXTERIOR LIGHTING Potential Number of Units Affected: 30,141 All Products Associated with this Recall Vehicle Make Model Model Year(s) MERCEDES BENZ CLS400 2015 MERCEDES BENZ CLS550 2012-2015 MERCEDES BENZ CLS63 2012-2015 Details Manufacturer: Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. SUMMARY: Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. (MBUSA) is recalling certain model year 2015 CLS 400 and CLS 400 4matic, 2012-2015 CLS 550 and CLS 550 4matic, 2012-2013 CLS 63, 2014 CLS 63, and 2014-2015 CLS 63P. The affected vehicles have LED tail lights that may not light on the sides, reducing the rear side visibility of the vehicle. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No.

Mercedes rules out hybrid supercar, promises SLS successor

The recent Geneva Motor Show was a festival of hypercars, with the presence of not one, but three over-the-top debuts: the Lamborghini Veneno, McLaren P1 and Ferrari LeFerrari. The latter two have hitched their carbon fiber bumpers to the electrification bandwagon by using hybrid-electric powertrains not entirely unlike the propulsion systems we've come to know in cars like the Toyota Prius and Chevrolet Volt. Does that mean the flow of electrons up the four-wheeled food chain will eventually consume our hallowed supercars? Not if AMG has anything to say about it.
AMG Director of Vehicle Development Tobias Moers recently confirmed that not only will there be a successor to the Mercedes-Benz performance division's SLS AMG, he notes that its internal combustion engine will most definitely not be sharing living quarters with an electric drivetrain. Instead, AMG plans to focus on further pushing the power and efficiency envelope of the internal combustion engine and advancing the use of lightweight materials to achieve their goals. The first example of this effort can be seen in the new SLS AMG Black Series that incorporates many weight-saving techniques to shed some 154 pounds from the SLS AMG GT (above), which itself is lighter than the standard SLS AMG.
Furthermore, Moers remarks that his company is happy to leave the hypercar segment to companies like Ferrari and McLaren. He admits that, "Ferrari in the hyper-car segment is still a different brand than AMG. We have to be honest..." So rather than taking the SLS further upmarket to do battle with bulls and stallions, Moers hinted that the next-generation SLS may be joined by another performance model that fits neatly between itself and the C63 AMG.