+++ BMW and Mercedes-Benz have the crossover segment largely locked down. Both German luxury brands offer a SUV to fit nearly anyone’s space requirements. AUDI can almost say the same, save for one glaring omission: a full-size SUV. The Q7 is as large as the quad-ring brand goes currently, but that could be changing soon. Audi of America’s director of product planning, Barry Hoch, recognized the need for a larger SUV and said his team is pushing to fill the void. “For us, obviously, one request from this side of the ocean is to have an even bigger SUV”, such as a Mercedes GLS competitor, said Hoch. “That’s pure white space that’s out there for us”, he added. “From an American perspective, that’s one we are pushing to get, and I think we’re getting some traction”. Americans do love their large SUVs, but what could Audi do to harness that? One answer could come from its parent company, Volkswagen, and the previously confirmed T-Prime Concept GTE. The T-Prime concept was originally thought to be a preview for the all-new Touareg, but the automaker has confirmed this SUV will be larger. If it actually slots in above the Touareg, the new model could give Audi’s designers and product planners a tempting canvas to build a vehicle above the Q7. Audi isn’t just looking at more crossovers and SUVs, though. It’s also eying more wagons as well. “There is a small group of aficionados who could benefit from an additional wagon from Audi”, Hoch said. “It’s certainly something that we see over in Europe, and I want it”. +++
+++ Not much is missing from the BMW lineup, but one thing shoppers haven’t been able to find in the brand’s showrooms is a SUV with a large third row. That’s all set to change; BMW is ready to bring its upcoming X7 to this fall’s Frankfurt auto show. The oft-spotted BMW behemoth has been testing all over the place and will soon be ready to begin testing dealer lots and buyer wallets. It should hit the market place as a 2019 model vehicle, and word is that it will get a heavy push in the Chinese market. I believe the platform should be that of the CLAR design, which means you can also find it working hard under the skin of the 5- and 7-Series sedans. This utilizes lightweight carbon fiber reinforced plastic to keep weight down and strength and rigidity up. Already, the X7 sounds more advanced than the Mercedes-Benz GLS-Class with which it will compete most heavily. What we’re most curious to learn is what sort of engines will be made available in the X7. There will certainly be some form of turbocharged V8 power offered at the top of the line and an inline-6 for most buyers, but there could be more potent and tantalizing variants boasting a greater cylinder count. A BMW X7 to rival top-tier Range Rovers and the Bentley Bentayga would be just the sort of oddball we’d love to find rocketing down the highway towards some luxurious destination. +++
+++ HYUNDAI has unveiled the Kona, touting the model’s “high tech” styling as a key selling feature as the brand enters the booming subcompact SUV/crossover segment later than its main rivals. Hyundai hopes to woo customers away from vehicles such as the Nissan Juke and Toyota C-HR with what it calls a “striking design”, as well as advanced technological features for the segment such as head-up display. The Kona will be part of an SUV/crossover product offensive from Hyundai with the brand launching a smaller SUV by 2020 and a larger model, bigger than the midsize Sante Fe, said Hyundai vice chairman Euisun Chung. The Kona will go on sale in Korea later this month. It will be launched on the market in Europe in August and in the U.S. in December. Sales targets for a full year are 45,000 units in Korea and 150,000 for export markets. The model will have a wide range of active safety features including autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection and a radar and camera-based collision avoidance system. Its European engine lineup will comprise 2 turbocharged gasoline engines – 1.0-liter and a 1.6-liter units. The 1.6-liter gasoline version will be available with four-wheel-drive. Next summer, a new-generation 1.6-liter diesel, also with a four-wheel-drive option, will be added. A full-electric version will also be launched globally next year with a projected range of 390 km on a full charge. The Kona has a pair of thin horizontal taillights high above the turn signal housings. The Kona will be Hyundai’s smallest SUV sold in Europe joining the Grand Santa Fe, Santa Fe and Tucson. The model is named after the lava-lined coastal district of Hawaii’s Big Island in keeping with Hyundai’s SUV nomenclature that is based on travel destinations. The Kona’s public debut is likely to be at the Frankfurt auto show in September. In Europe, the Kona will be an important model for Hyundai’s goal of becoming the region’s top-selling Asian brand by 2021, said Hyundai Europe’s chief operating officer, Thomas Schmid. In the first four months, the brand was the No. 3 best-selling Asian marque with 174,444 units sold in the EU and EFTA markets as its growth slowed to 2.4 percent, while Toyota brand’s sales surged 17 percent to 245,072 units and Nissan’s volume increased 5.7 percent to 214,430, according to data from industry association ACEA. Hyundai hopes a product offensive in Europe with the launches of 30 new models and derivatives by 2021 will boost its sales momentum. With new models such as the Kona, and its Kia sibling, the upcoming Stonic, Europe’s small SUV/crossover segment is forecast to grow to above 2 million sales next year and to 2.3 million by 2020, according to market analysts at LMC Automotive. +++
+++ Sales of British sports car brand MCLAREN are on the rise, as the brand starts to resonate with buyers who previously had not even considered the storied marque, let alone a purchase. In 2016, the company sold 3.286 cars, almost doubling sales of the previous year, as well as recording its fourth consecutive year of profitability. It’s all part of McLaren’s ‘Track22’ 6-year plan that will see a total of 15 new cars or derivatives delivered by 2022. That doesn’t mean you’re going to start seeing McLarens all day, every day on the daily commute. In fact, they’re considerably rarer than Ferraris and even Lamborghinis, at least for now. This year, McLaren hopes to lift sales to between 3.500-4.000, which isn’t far off the factory’s current production capacity of 5.000 cars. By way of comparison, Ferrari will limit production to around 7.500 cars (up from 7.000 in 2016) while Lamborghini is aiming for similar numbers to McLaren, after racking up 3.487 units in 2016. Despite the recent introduction of the entry-level 540C, McLaren salesboss George Biggs believes the company is focused on exclusivity for its buyers. “At McLaren, we’re focused on making sure our cars come to market at the right time for the right customers, but effectively we’re limited by 4.500-5.000 production capacity”, he said. “Important to our brand is our exclusivity and rarity of seeing a McLaren on the road. That’s what customers are interested in, so that’s what is important to us”. “At the moment we’re just trying to create organic growth, and the biggest thing for us is trust. Anyone who we’re trying to conquest, it’s always trust. We’re not governed by a parent company, we haven’t been in the market for that long, and consumers might question if we are going to be around for the long haul, like any start-up. However, we’ve been able to demonstrate that we are expanding, that our global production is increasing, as our our dealerships”. +++
+++ MITSUBISHI is banking on SUVs as its future, but the company’s operations chief reckons that even some of those high-riding models are on their way out. Trevor Mann, global COO for Mitsubishi, said the large SUV could be on its way out, meaning the Pajero Sport could remain as the biggest SUV you can get from the 3-diamond brand when the Pajero finally bites the dust. Mann said there is no set date to wave goodbye to the Pajero, but when talk turned to a possible alliance solution (following the takeover of Mitsubishi by the Renault-Nissan Alliance) for the successors to the Pajero and Nissan’s Patrol (and therefore the Infiniti QX80), it was clear that those sorts of vehicles are on the nose. “They’re 2 quite different vehicles: the Pajero is smaller, it’s a monocoque; where the Patrol is a framed vehicle and much bigger”, Mann said. “That segment, generally, globally, is dying. Obviously it’s being killed by emissions. If you look where the critical mass of those volumes have been, they’ve been in the US and the middle-east”, he said. “It’s becoming quite prohibitive. What we do in the future is the question”, Mann said, before stating that it was unlikely the company would have an answer at its mid-term strategy announcement later this year. “I’m not sure it will be determined by October; I’m not sure we’ll have squared that circle by then”, he said, before going on to say that there’s only a half-chance of a replacement for the Pajero, longer term. “I think it’s probably fifty-fifty, yeah”, he said. “It’s in the balance. The current Pajero will continue; we haven’t announced an end of production for the current model”, he said. Likewise, Mann made it clear that the sedan body-style is very much on the outs. “It is a global trend, particularly the sedan. The sedan seems to be dying”, he said. “Hatchback in some areas is having a resurgence, but sedans seem to be dying off, in the US. China is also going more towards SUVs. It tends to be the Africas, Indias, Latin Americas that are still strong in sedan vehicles”, he said. Those developing markets do tend to see sedans as status objects, adding to their desirability, but Mann was quick to make sure that the importance of vehicles like the Lancer aren’t understated too soon. “If you look at the US and China, it’s still a significant part of their industry. Similar to like it is in Australia, but like 20 times the scale. There are still relatively large volumes”, he said about sedans. +++
+++ OPEL CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann has stepped down from his role just 3 months after the company, and its UK sister brand Vauxhall, were sold by General Motors to France’s PSA Group for 2.2 billion dollar. Neumann will retain his position as a member of the board of management until the closing of the sale to PSA, but will relinquish the CEO role that he has held since March 2013. Replacing Dr Neumann will be Michael Lohscheller, who has held the role of Opel’s chief financial officer since September 2012. Opel said in a statement that Lohscheller was unanimously appointed as Neumann’s successor with immediate effect by the supervisory board, and that the change at the top would “ensure continuity for the business and its stakeholders as well as a seamless managerial transition with the priority task to build the new strategic plan for Opel”. Neumann said in a press release that he was unsure what his moves were following his departure from Opel. “It was a difficult personal decision to not continue with the Opel/Vauxhall team when it transitions to Groupe PSA”, he said. “I am proud of the team for all we have accomplished so far and have no doubt that the move to PSA will make Opel/Vauxhall an even stronger and more successful company in the future. I am committed to completing this transaction and will then take some time to decide what is next for me”. Neumann was previously CEO and vice-president of Volkswagen Group China from September 2010 to August 2012, and some reports have suggested that he could return to work for his former employer once he finishes with Opel. A trained electrical engineer, he joined VW in 1999 as head of group research and director of electronic strategy, before joining German tyre supplier Continental’s automotive systems division in 2004. He was appointed chairman of Continental in 2008. In December 2009, Neumann returned to Volkswagen Group as chief officer for electric traction before taking up his China role. “We have made tremendous progress in the turnaround of Opel/Vauxhall under Karl-Thomas’ leadership”, Opel supervisory board chairman and president of General Motors, Dan Ammann, said. “We thank him for his significant contributions to Opel/Vauxhall and GM over the past 4 years”. Neumann took over as CEO of Opel during a period of upheaval and was charged with turning around the fortunes of the German brand, which until his arrival had racked up losses of 14 billion dollar over the previous 12 years. Vice-chairman of the supervisory board of Adam Opel GmbH and head of the general works council, Wolfgang Schafer-Klug, credited Neumann with restoring the 155-year-old car-maker’s reputation. “The worker representatives within the Supervisory Board respect Dr Neumann’s decision”, he said. “He has managed to regain recognition with Opel, an improved brand image and a strengthened self-awareness, coupled with competitive, outstanding models. The decision to appoint the current CFO and member of the management board Michael Lohscheller as the new CEO is explicitly supported by us”. Prior to staring with Opel in 2012, Lohscheller was the executive vice-president and CFO of Volkswagen Group of America from early 2008 to August 2012, and from 2004 to 2007 was the head of corporate marketing and sales at Volkswagen. He also held the CFO and executive vice-president roles at Mitsubishi Europe from 2001 to 2004 after spending a year with Daimler Chrysler Rail. PSA Group chairman of the managing board Carlos Tavares said he supported the new appointment as the company transitions from a GM-owned brand into the Peugeot-Citroen fold. “We fully support the decision to appoint Mr Lohscheller who will be surrounded by Opel’s best talents to bring Opel/Vauxhall to new horizons for the benefit of its employees, customers and partners”, he said. “My personal interactions with Michael have been extremely positive, where he has shown a great deal of insight of Opel and Vauxhall, as well as a solid understanding of the international marketplace. I am enthusiastic about the idea of contributing to the rebirth of Opel as a sustainable German-based company within Groupe PSA”. +++
+++ Disruption from the tech industry is not a concern for the RENAULT – Nissan Alliance, according to company chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn, who said the automotive sector is not profitable enough for the likes of Apple and Google. Ghosn, who was speaking at a special presentation on the future of the auto industry, said he believed technology companies and start-ups would not encroach into the automotive sector due to high costs and low return. “That’s why we have companies like Apple, Google, Uber all interested into the car business, not because they want to become a car manufacturer, but they want to have a piece in the transformation of the product with a lot of economical impacts. Uber is asking us to develop cars for them, for the robo-taxi for the future because their vision is not, they don’t want to become a car-maker”, he said. “They don’t want to become a car-maker because business people usually, when they want to move to another industry, they usually move up. This means they move from an industry with a certain level of profitability to an industry with a higher level of profitability. The case of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, we have 480,000 people, we invest every year 15 billion dollar and we have, when we are very good, we make 7 to 8 percent margin. You look at the margin of Google or you look at the margin of Apple, these guys don’t take anything below 40 percent margin. So why do you want to go into a business when you’re doing already 40 percent margin? You’re going to go compete for an 8 percent margin? It doesn’t fly… It doesn’t make sense, no matter how excited you are about technology”. Tech giants including Google and Apple have long been developing their own self-driving vehicle technology, with rumours also indicating the companies could release their own stand-alone models to compete against the traditional car manufacturers. However, Ghosn said the companies are only interested in the technology and the role they can play in revolutionising a vehicle from a transport solution to a ‘personal mobile space’. “The transformation of the car from a just transportation device to a personal mobile space where you can transport yourself and work is going to a very, very important transformation of the product”, he said. “That’s why we have companies like Apple, Google, Uber all interested into the car business, not because they want to become a car manufacturer, but they want to have a piece in the transformation of the product with a lot of economical impact”. Ghosn said he believed the push for autonomous technologies and self-driving cars would come from within the automotive industry by car-makers themselves because they are open and willing to embrace change. “Today with autonomous cars, with all the innovation coming from tech companies, we’re looking very seriously at it and we are adapting the technology and we are partnering with the tech company to make this happen”, he said. “That’s why I don’t buy the theory that breakthroughs are going to come from outside the industry because industry is open and because we know that the risk for us is not to be open to the transformation of our industry and if we want to be relevant into the future, we need to be very open”. Ghosn used the example of the electric vehicle (EV) to prove his point, with many in the early 2000s predicting the first mass-market emissions-free vehicle would come from the likes of General Electric or Microsoft. However, it was Nissan and its Leaf which was the first to arrive in 2010, followed by the Renault Zoe soon after. “Usually, breakthroughs come from outside your industry when you have very arrogant positioning”, Ghosn said. “Everything on the perimeter of your industry you’ve just neglected, you don’t pay attention, you’re going to say it’ s not going to ever happen. That’s not our case”. +++
+++ A preliminary spec sheet for the TESLA Model 3 has found its way onto the internet. The sheet details the differences between the upcoming Model 3 and the existing Model S, and seemingly points out how employees can upsell clients from a Model 3 to Model S. The Model 3 is listed as being 4.694 mm long, considerably shorter than the Model S, which is 4.978 mm from nose to tail. Unlike the Model S, which is available with 2 rearward facing jump seats, the Model 3 will be sold exclusively as a 5-seater vehicle. The Model 3 has a more traditional sedan-style boot, rather than its bigger sibling’s liftback rear. Between its front and rear boots, the Model 3 has a total of 396 liter worth of luggage space. That’s considerably less than the 850 liter offered by the Model S. In launch trim, at least, the Model 3 will have a 0-100 km/h time of 5.8 seconds. As noted on the sheet, that’s considerably slower than the range-topping Model S P100D with Ludicrous Mode, which can reel off that standard in a mere 2.5 seconds. Thanks to the Model 3’s smaller battery pack, the new car is estimated to have a range of over 346 km. According to the US EPA’s standard, the Model S can do between 400 and 540 km between charges, depending on the model. Like the Model 3 concept presented last year, the production car will do without an instrumentation panel ahead of the driver. Instead there will be a single 15.0-inch touchscreen in the centre of the dashboard. As revealed earlier, the Model 3 won’t have free access to the company’s networking of Supercharger fast charging stations. The sheet also lists a number of premium features that seemingly won’t be available on the Model 3 at launch. These include an aluminium body, HEPA filtration system, smart air suspension, glass roof, panoramic sunroof, auto-presenting door handles, and 21-inch performance wheels. Possibly as part of the company’s efforts to guide customers towards the more expensive, but already available, Model S, the sheet notes: “As we continue to build out our production capacity to meet the high number of advanced reservations, deliveries for Model 3 orders placed today are not expected until mid-2018”. Buyers who can afford to step up to the bigger car can get a vehicle within 30 days. +++
+++ VOLVO ’s Polestar performance division previously dropped hints about its electrified future, but it has bigger plans: it’s going to build its own electric sports car. Polestar will debut a preview of its electric sports car later this year and it’s likely to use the same powertrain unit found in the upcoming electric variants of Volvo V90 and S90. Henrik Fries, vice president of product strategy and R&D for Volvo’s Polestar division, previously told one of the divisions’ areas of expertise won’t exactly be swapping in larger batteries or motors, but tuning the internal combustion side of a plug-in vehicle. “You will see more electrification. All companies are moving in that direction”, Fries said. “You will see both plug-in hybrids and fully electric cars. Performance electrification will take many different types of forms in the future. We will be aiming to spearhead and drive technology inside Volvo”. Polestar’s standalone electric sports car plans are certainly ambitious, but Volvo’s versatile SPA and CMA architectures may be the ticket to keeping things cost effective. There’s an interesting twist on this news: Volvo’s parent company, Geely, most recently acquired British sports car maker Lotus. Lotus has focused on creating plenty of sharp, fun-to-drive sports cars for decades, albeit not in the most consistent manner. Its areas of expertise could help Polestar’s electric sports car ambitions. Volvo has already said its open to having a dialogue between the sports car maker. +++