Net zero could kill off EU car industry, Mercedes warns

Times

4 days ago

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Ola Kaellenius said that banning vehicles that emit CO₂ from 2035 would leave carmakers 'heading at full speed against a wall'.
We need a net zero reality check, the Mercedes boss has warned, as he said that net zero policies could lead to a collapse of European Union's car industry.
The EU ban is up for review in the second half of 2025, with critics saying it would handicap European carmakers already struggling with weak demand, Chinese competition and disappointing electric vehicle sales.
'We need a reality check. Otherwise we are heading at full speed against a wall,' Kaellenius told the Handelsblatt newspaper, adding that Europe's car market could 'collapse' if it the ban is implemented.
'Of course we have to decarbonise, but it has to be done in a technology-neutral way. We must not lose sight of our economy,' he said.
The FTSE 250-listed US oil and gas producer has reported a doubling in adjusted profits in the second quarter to $280 million on a 73 per cent increase in revenue to $510 million.
The company was founded in 2001 by Rusty Hutson Jr in his native state of West Virginia. It is now the largest owner of gas wells in the US, having amassed more than 70,000, predominantly in the southern and Appalachian regions. It has been helped by the 'dash for shale' among big US producers, acquiring older wells from the energy majors aiming to release cash to invest in drilling for new discoveries.
Hutson, the chief executive, said: 'Diversified continues to deliver consistent returns on our assets, along with the expansion of our asset portfolio, reinforcing our position as the US.'
The company was initially on London's junior market before moving to the main market. It has positioned itself as rare and different prospect from the other oil and gas minnows. Shares in Diversified rose 11 per cent, or 119p, to £11.89.
Shares in the UK pavements, paviors and roofing company Marshalls drifted down to fresh 11-year lows after it warned it does not expect any imminent improvement on the macroeconomic horizon.
Marshalls had already put out an unexpected profit warning last month. A 46 per cent decline at the pre-tax level to £11.7 million for the first half was down to a near collapse of profits in its landscaping products division. The firm also cut the dividend by 15 per cent to 2.2p a share.
In early trading the stock dropped 5p to 201½p, a fall of more than 2 per cent. The shares are off 30 per cent since May.
The world's biggest offshore wind farm developer is to carry out a $9.4 billion rights issue, sending its shares down by more than a quarter.
Orsted said it would tap investors — including its biggest shareholder, the Danish state — for the cash after scrapping plans to sell a stake in an American offshore wind farm.
The company said the 'recent material adverse development in the US offshore wind market' meant it could not complete the partial divestment of its Sunrise Wind project off New York, and associated project financing, on the terms it would like.
• Orsted sinks after Trump moves to block new turbines in the US
The absence of the sale proceeds, combined with the need to fund the entire project from its own balance sheet, 'leads to an incremental funding requirement of approximately DKK 40 billion', it said. To 'support a robust capital structure' it is seeking a total equity raise of DKK 60 billion, or about $9.4 billion.
The UK's busiest airport reported only a slight rise in passenger numbers last month.
Heathrow said 7,981,137 passengers travelled through its terminals in July, compared with 7,980,455 during the same month last year.
Across the first seven months of 2025, the airport recorded year-on-year growth of just 0.2 per cent.
Heathrow's two runways are being used at almost full capacity. The airport has unveiled plans to build a third runway, which it claims would enable an additional 276,000 flights per year, from 480,000 today to 756,000.
• Heathrow to announce third runway plans as PM unveils airport expansion
The founders of the UK's biggest toy chain, the Entertainer, are handing control of the business to his 1,900 workers.
Gary and Catherine Grant founded the company in 1981 when they opened a toy shop in Amersham, Buckinghamshire.
The Entertainer is 100 per cent family owned, but the Grants are transferring ownership to an employee trust, the BBC reported. It means staff will get a share of the profits and a say in how the firm is run.
'If the business had been sold just for money that would not have been passing on the baton in the way in which the family would have wanted,' Grant said.
London's leading share index has opened higher this morning on optimism about a potential Ukraine peace deal.
The FTSE 100 rose 31 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 9,127.21, still down from its all-time closing high of 9,164.31 points last Wednesday. Markets in Germany and France were largely flat.
There was little corporate news this morning.
The pound was trading flat against the dollar at $1.345. Brent crude fell 44 cents, or 0.7 per cent, to $66.17 a barrel on hope that peace could end sanctions on Russian oil, which would incrase global supply.
The retailer's shares have edge higher this morning after it resumed taking click and collect orders for clothing for the first time in nearly four months after a major cyberattack hit the retailer in April.
The company suspended online orders via its website and mobile app on April 25 after disruption over the Easter weekend as contactless payments and click and collect systems stopped working in stores.
It resumed taking online orders for delivery on June 10 but click and collect services, which allow customers to order items online and pick up in stores, had remained suspended. M&S forecast that cyberattack would cost it about £300 million in lost operating profit.
• M&S restores click and collect after cyberattack disruption
Gemfields, which mines coloured gemstones in Africa, has agreed to sell Fabergé, the luxury brand famed for its lavishly decorated 'Imperial' Easter eggs, to SMG Capital, for a total consideration of $50 million, including royalties.
Fabergé, which was founded in 1882 by Peter Carl Fabergé, sells jewellery and objets d'art through its website, boutiques and via international wholesale partners. It was acquired by Gemfields in 2013 from Pallinghurst, the private equity firm founded by the former BHP Billiton boss Brian Gilbertson, for $142 million.
Gemfield said in December that it was evaluating options for the jeweller as it weighed up cost-cutting measures to help it to 'streamline the business'. Fabergé has been hit by softness in the luxury market.
The Online trading platform Plus500 has reported slightly higher half-year operating profits and launched a $165 million share buyback.
Plus500 operating profits edged up to $182.4 million in the six months to the end of June, from $180.2 million in the same half last year. Revenue was 4 per cent higher at $415.1 million. Active customers rose 2 per cent to 179,931.
The company said the further $165 million shareholder returns reflected the group's 'robust balance sheet and highly cash generative business model'. Plus500 expects full-year results to be in-line with current market expectations.
The advertising company founded and chaired by Sir Martin Sorrell has confirmed that it has received a proposal about a 'possible combination' with MSQ Partners, a company controlled by the private equity firm One Equity Partners.
The combination, if agreed, would be structured as an acquisition of MSQ by S4Capital and not an offer under the takeover code for S4Capital by MSQ.
S4 said: 'These discussions are at a very preliminary stage and there can be no certainty that a transaction will be forthcoming.'
Sorrell launched S4 in 2018 after his controversial departure from WPP, the FTSE 100 advertising group he formed in 1985, amid allegations of misconduct. Sorrell has denied wrongdoing and was allowed to depart as a 'good leaver'.
The FTSE 250 gene-sequencing company, has announced that its chief executive, Gordon Sanghera, plan to step down by the end of 2026, after more than 20 years in the role.
The company has started a formal search for his successor.
Sanghera co-founded Oxford Nanopore in 2005. He has helped to build from a University of Oxford spin-out to a company valued at £2 billion.
He floated the company in 2021 at 425p a share, valuing the company at £3.4 billion. However the shares have fallen since then. However, over the past year they have risen 75 per cent and currently trade at 213½p.
European markets are expected to open higher this morning and the oil price has dropped on hopes that the meeting between presidents Trump and Putin will increase the chances of ending the war in Ukraine and increase global crude supply.
London's FTSE 100 is forecast to edge up around 5 points, with Germany's DAX and France's CAC gaining 56 points and 11 points respectively. Asian markets were higher. Japanese markets were closed today for a holiday.
The oil price fell, extending declines of more than 4 per cent last week, as investors awaited the outcome of talks between the US and Russia later this week. Brent crude futures fell 33 cents, or 0.5 per cent, to $66.26 a barrel. Expectations have risen for a potential end to sanctions on Russian oil.
Nvidia and AMD are reported to have agreed to give the US government 15 per cent of revenue from sales to China of advanced computer chips are used for artificial intelligence applications.
President Trump's administration halted sales of Nvidia's H20 chips to China in April, but Nvidia last month announced the US would allow the company to resume sales and it hoped to start deliveries soon.
The news, first reported by the Financial Times, is attributed to sources and US officials. When asked if Nvidia had agreed to pay 15 per cent of revenues to the US, a Nvidia spokesperson said: 'We follow rules the US government sets for our participation in worldwide markets.'
The spokesperson added: 'While we haven't shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide.'
AMD did not respond to a request for comment on the news. The US Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FT said the chipmakers agreed to the arrangement as a condition for obtaining the export licences for their semiconductors, including AMD's MI308 chips. The report said the Trump administration had yet to determine how to use the money.