The role of a former U.S. deputy attorney general appointed to monitor VW's compliance with a diesel-rigging settlement is expected to end in September.

The CEO is on precarious footing after missteps around the new Golf and other issues.

Buyers of full-electric cars priced up to 40,000 euros ($44,815) will be eligible for a grant of 9,000 euros ($10,083) under the plan to boost auto sales hit by the coronavirus crisis.

Advisory companies representing BMW investors are demanding better oversight at the automaker, which has set aside $1.5 billion for an expected EU cartel fine.

The subsidies will be part of a new "Marshall Plan" to help Europe recover from the coronavirus pandemic. In the U.S., there has not yet been movement toward a similar "Cash for Clunkers" initiative.

Germans want to know why taxpayer funds should go toward helping the automakers when they are not canceling shareholder dividends that will benefit the wealthy families that control BMW and VW.

The brand was on its way to reaching the target before the coronavirus pandemic hit the economy, VW Group CFO Frank Witter said.

VW Group is reconsidering which of its brands will develop a new family of small electric cars after Spanish unit Seat lost the project. Seat was partnering with JAC Automobile Group on the EVs as part of plans to resume sales in China, though its reentry has been postponed.

The eyes-off feature, called Traffic Jam Pilot, was the most significant technological breakthrough added to the latest-generation A8 when it debuted in 2017.

Daimler will run out production of the Mercedes GLC F-CELL, its only fuel cell model, and focus on using the technology in heavy-duty vehicles.

The automaker  provided new, more precise guidance for the production ramp-up of the battery-powered hatchback, the first of its new generation of mass-market, long-range EVs.

The strategy to overhaul Skoda, the only VW Group brand to post a volume decline in China last year, will resemble what the VW brand did in the mid-2010s, which included a new crossover and EV offensive and the mass rollout of fully connected models to appeal to the country's tech-savvy buyers.

VW Group expects to more than double sales of plug-in hybrids in China, but it may still need to purchase emissions credits from other automakers to meet CO2 requirements.

German auto lobby groups welcomed the move. They had warned that many dealerships faced bankruptcy after building up high inventories that cannot be sold to customers.