+++ The BMW Group continued the positive sales trend of the past months, with sales in May totalling 208,447 vehicles, a 5.1% increase year-on-year. With its 3 premium brands, BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce, the BMW Group sold 988,185 vehicles in the first 5 months, up 5.7%. “Customers around the world are excited by our innovative, new products”, commented Ian Robertson, BMW management board member responsible for sales. “In May, we once again achieved sustainable, profitable growth across our 3 premium automotive brands”, he continued. “Growth at BMW has been in part driven by our expanding electrified range: sales of these vehicles have risen over 80% in the first 5 months. With 8 models, the BMW Group offers its customers the broadest range of electrified premium vehicles available on the market today”. BMW brand sales in the first 5 months increased by 6.0% compared with the same period last year, to 845,147 units. This growth is particularly attributable to the good sales figures of the X family, with the X1 as the most popular: By the end of May, 113,367 units of the X1 were delivered. This reflects a growth of 47.0% compared to the same period last year. Sales of the X3 increased by 8.9% (67,490), while those of the X5 were up 11.1% (73,418). The flagship 7 Series continues to be very popular among customers worldwide: 26,292 vehicles were delivered in the first five months, 37.3% more than the prior year. Customer demand for automobiles with alternative drive trains continues to evolve in an extremely dynamic way: Sales of BMW i and BMW iPerformance models increased by 73.4% in May (7,336 vehicles). Year-to-date deliveries of electrified models reached 33,221, up 80.6%. Among other factors, this strong growth is driven by the 530e iPerformance, which has been available since March. Beginning in late June, the Mini Cooper SE Countryman ALL4 plug-in hybrid will expand the product line-up of electrified vehicles. Europe is the largest sales market for BMW and Mini, with 446,050 deliveries in the first 5 months of the year (up 3.1%). The positive trend in BMW Group worldwide sales since the start of the year is also due to the growing market in Asia. Unusually strong sales growth, with a year-to-date increase of 19.9%, was seen in China (242,683). In May, deliveries there increased by 27.1% (50,986 units). This is largely due to full availability of the X1 and the popularity of the new 1 Series sedan, which is produced exclusively for the Chinese market. Sales in the Americas were significantly influenced by the declining market in the United States. By the end of May, 174,570 vehicles were delivered to customers (down by 3.1%). The sales figures in Mexico and Latin America developed very positively, with growth of 17.3% to 14,558 vehicles. +++
+++ DS , the luxury offshoot of Citroen, plans on releasing a new model every year for the foreseeable future. And each of these new models will be available with a hybrid or fully electric variant. By 2025 the brand expects a third of its sales to come from electrified vehicles. All of the brand’s performance models will motivated by a hybrid drivetrain. These models will reportedly be inspired and informed by the brand’s involvement in Formula E, and there may even be some technology crossover from the racing series to production vehicles. The first model to benefit from the newly announced initiative will be the DS 7 Crossback. In 2019, the luxury crossover will gain an E-Tense variant with a 300 hp all-wheel drive plug-in hybrid setup. The DS 7 Crossback E-Tense’s drivetrain compromises a 204 hp turbocharged petrol engine, an 109 hp electric motor for each of the front and rear axles, and an 8-speed automatic between the petrol engine and front electric motor. Over the last few years, Citroen began upgrading DS from a sub-brand to its standalone marque. This began in the Chinese market in 2012, and spread to Europe in 2015. +++
+++ GOOGLE ’s self-driving division is officially nailing the coffin on its car-making ambitions, as it decided to retire the Firefly model test fleet and instead focus solely on the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid test vehicles. We’re unsure if there’s a parallel to be drawn between the tiny little self-driving pods called “Firefly” and the homonymous Sci-Fi series by Joss Whedon that has gained a cult following as well as the Serenity motion picture, but we do know both were short-lived. Waymo, which until becoming its own company was Google’s self-driving project, has decided to retire the fleet of very cute driverless vehicles after using them since 2014. The pod cars, introduced 3 years ago, were used to test and demonstrate real-world autonomous car technology. While the company says they were never going to be used in the long-term, we’re reading the silver lining here and understanding the company’s strategy has changed since their inception. Collectively, the Firefly pod cars have racked millions of miles without human intervention; and have always been the subject of self-driving humor, right down to the Waymo’s special wiper used to wipe bird poop and other debris off the crucial, roof-mounted LIDAR sensor. Waymo has another fleet to worry about: the 600 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid autonomous cars. +++
+++ When INFINITI presented the Q60 Project Black S at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, it was tipped to be nothing more than a concept vehicle, a muscle-flexing opportunity of sorts to show what Nissan’s premium brand is capable of. Three months later, the Q60 Project Black S is back in the news, only this time it’s been loaded with appropriate Formula One technology that’s opening the door to the possibility of a production version in the future. Does it mean then that we’ll see more of the Q60 Project Black S soon? That’s still a matter of debate, but the recent return of the concept sporting specially developed Pirelli P Zero rubber tires is an indication that something’s brewing within Infiniti that’s giving execs reason to reconsider its position on the 500-horsepower coupe concept. Even Tommaso Volpe, the head decision-maker of Infiniti’s motorsport division, isn’t shutting the door on the concept’s production future. “Pirelli’s input and knowledge, both motorsport and automotive, will be invaluable”, he said, referring to Infiniti exploring the feasibility of the Q60 Project Black S. It’s easy to get optimistic, especially with all the activity surrounding the concept these days. But like everything else, it might be best to not get those hopes up just yet. Remember, we all know what Infiniti’s recent history with these things has been. Shout out to the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge. We’re still waiting for you. On the surface, this doesn’t appear to be anything significant. Some people might even scoff at this news saying, “great! it’s just tires”. But that rationale doesn’t take into account the importance of tires to a concept coupe like the Q60 Project Black S. In a lot of ways, it’s just as significant of a feature as anything that the car has. More importantly is the fact that these tires are aided by Formula One technology, which includes the colored markings on the tires that help pit crews identify the type of tire compound they’re fitting into the race cars. Now the question is what kind of effect do these tires have on the possibility of the Q60 Project Black S getting green-lit for production. It’s too early to say at this point what Infiniti’s plans are, but rest assured, they’re not doing all of this research, development, and partnership with Pirelli if it was intent on keeping the concept in the garage for the foreseeable future. Something’s going on here and you can even point to the company hinting on the possibility of a Black S badge being used sometime in the future. And for those who don’t remember what the Q60 Project Black S is all about, this is a coupe that’s the closest thing the company has had to a performance car since the Q50 Eau Rouge. It comes powered by a 3.0-liter bi-turbo V6 engine that works in tandem with electric motors to produce a total of 500 horsepower. More to it, the electrified section of the powertrain also features motor generator units that are capable of harvesting exhaust gas heat and regenerative breaking. In other words, the Q60 Project Black S has F1 technology dripping all over it. For all that’s worth, the concept car could put Infiniti on the map as a breeder of fine performance machines. Here’s to hoping then that the Q60 Project Black S doesn’t get the same fate as the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge, the GT-R-powered performance sedan that was supposed to be the company’s most significant venture into the world of performance machinery. +++
+++ Sales of the MINI brand continue to show stable growth: 141,767 vehicles were delivered in the first five months of the year, an increase of 3.8%. The main growth drivers here remain the Cabrio with 14,373 units sold (up 52.3%) and the Clubman with 23,899 vehicles sold (+13.3%) in the first 5 months of the year. The Countryman, which had its market launch in March, also contributed to the positive trend with 7,035 vehicles sold in May (up 26.4%). +++
+++ MITSUBISHI Motors Corporation (MMC) will slash investment into next-generation diesel engines from 2020, with the company’s chief operating officer Trevor Mann admitting that the fuel type is “probably” on the way out. Mann further admitted that it is not a matter of if the diesel engine would survive but rather “the question is when” it will be killed off. This is despite the fuel type still being seen as useful in SUVs and pick-ups, a Mitsubishi specialty, without a like-for-like replacement. “This is the dilemma for the industry because what’s driving the diesel death is the cost to achieve the emissions”, he explained. “When you try to achieve Euro5 and Euro6 (emissions standards) the amount of investment that you have to put into the vehicle becomes prohibitive. Is it going to die tomorrow or the next 3 years? Probably not. But I think that we will start to see an erosion from a development cost point of view as much as it’s being driven by the emissions”. Asked whether MMC, in its role as a new Renault-Nissan Alliance partner, would reduce its investment in the diesel engine after 2020, Mann replied: “Certainly. And if you look at the manufacturers who are big in terms of diesel currently, you’re already seeing that reduced investment”, he added. “I think that you’ll see a lot of the manufacturers, I wouldn’t say stopping, but they’ll certainly be curtailing their diesel investment”. Part of the appeal of Mitsubishi being bought by the Renault-Nissan Alliance is its specialty in the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) space, with the Outlander PHEV being one of the most successful examples of the breed globally. Where Renault and Nissan have focused on pure EV models such as the Zoe and Leaf respectively, Mr Mann said he believed that hybridisation could help the diesel survive longer, particularly in rugged applications where he suggested petrol engines were still not able to achieve the driveability characteristics of diesel. “You have also got the emissions and anti-diesel people going around, but then you have to ask what the alternative is”, he continued. “To get the same torque and driving performance, you’ve got to need quite a big petrol engine to replace a diesel and most manufacturers don’t make large petrol engines any longer. And then you say the only other alternative is an electric motor where you can get the same or more torque from an electric motor, but then you have the all-electric discussion, the all-electric range and the (lack of) infrastructure. So I think that hybrids can play a part. Certainly plug-in hybrids on bigger vehicles you’ll start to see more of coming in”. Mitsubishi last year revealed its GT-PHEV concept, a large SUV precursor to a possible production model complete with a petrol-electric drivetrain to provide diesel-rivalling torque with fewer emissions. Mann said that although MMC would hand down a report to the media in October this year outlining its mid-term product plans, communication of any new diesel engine would be “an Alliance announcement” for a later date. “What we’ll be doing will be deciding what the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance engines will be”, he continued. “There will be some Mitsubishi engines that will become Alliance engines. That’ s the thing that we are going through. I don’t think that we’ll say that there won’t be diesel engines for the Alliance because obviously there’s a demand and requirement for diesel engines. But what we would do is see which is the best: we could be talking about powertrains, we could (also) be talking about platforms and which, technically, is the best platform as well as which is the most cost effective”. Within the Mitsubishi and Nissan line-ups in Australia, the diesel engine is most prolific in the L200 and Navara pick-ups. That does not necessarily mean that next-generation versions of each pick-up will be the same vehicle, however, despite an earlier announcement that Nissan and Mitsubishi would, in future, share an Alliance platform. Nor would the stronger selling of the duo necessarily take a lead role in next-gen development. “What Mitsubishi wants as its key attributes for its pick-up will be engineered by Mitsubishi”, Mann explained. “What Nissan wants as its key attributes for its pick-up will be engineered by Nissan and, from a technical point of view, what you normally have is a quality target table at the beginning of joint development, and of course you can’t tick all of your boxes. So certain manufacturers see certain things are important because of their customer base. Perhaps Nissan and Mitsubishi could skew some areas of the design, the size and balance the distribution of size between the compartments of the vehicle based on its own feedback and wants. But as far as what the customer sees, feels and touches, that will be Mitsubishi”. +++
+++ TESLA could now confidently say that its Model X is the safest SUV and perhaps the safest electric vehicle so far. After all, no other SUV or vehicle could surpass the recent ratings scored by the Tesla Model X (2017 model year) in the latest round of independent tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Of course, there is nothing that exceeds the maximum 5 stars awarded by NHTSA to vehicles following testing. This means other SUVs or vehicles could, at best, match the ratings earned by the Tesla Model X. Overall, 5 variants of the Model X were tested: 60D AWD, 75D AWD, 90D AWD, P90D AWD and P100D AWD. All these variants were made to undergo 3 test categories: front crash, overall side crash (both side barrier and pole crashes) and rollover resistance. According to NHTSA, the frontal barrier test is a simulation of a head-on collision between 2 similar vehicles, each travelling at speeds of 55 km/h. Using a crash dummy, NHTSA measures the force of impact to the head, neck, chest, pelvis, legs and feet of both the driver and the front passenger. All tested versions of the Tesla Model X aced the frontal barrier test and scored five stars for each sub-category (front driver side and front passenger side). On the other hand, the side crash tests are simulations of intersection collisions where a vehicle hits another vehicle on the driver’s side. This test entails having a 1,400 kilo moving barrier crashing into stationary vehicle at speeds of 60 km/h. NHTSA then measures the force of impact to the head, chest, abdomen and pelvis. Meanwhile, side crash tests are also simulations of crashes into fixed objects like utility pole or a tree. Here, the vehicle, angled at 75 degrees, is pulled sideways at speeds of 20 mph into a pole at the driver’s side. NHTSA then evaluates force of impact to the head, chest, lower spine, abdomen and pelvis. Tesla’s 2017 Model X (all variants) was able to earn an overall side crash rating of 5 stars, after achieving the same scores in every sub-category: side crash driver side, side crash passenger side, front seat rating, combined rear seat rating, side barrier rating and overall side pole star rating. Meanwhile, the rollover resistance test simulates a scenario in which the driver losses control of the vehicle, like when moving too fast while negotiating a corner. The test measures the risk of rollover in such a scenario. The rating is derived from the so-called Static Stability Factor (SSF) and a driving maneuver that evaluates whether a vehicle would tip up on the road. As tested by NHTSA, the Tesla Model X earned 5 stars. This is thanks to the fact that the battery pack of the Model X is mounted beneath the floor, resulting to very lower center of gravity and a very low risk of rollover. As per Tesla, the results of the tests by NHTSA show that in case of a serious crash, occupants of the Model X have a 93-percent chance of walking away from the crash without incurring a serious injury. +++
+++ TOYOTA considers acquisitions to ‘survive’ industry changes. President Akio Toyoda suggests the automaker must become more aggressive to compete against rivals. Toyota has promised to embrace a more aggressive strategy to retain its position as the automotive industry experiences significant changes. Speaking at the company’s annual investor gathering, Toyota chief executive Akio Toyoda acknowledged a need to more quickly prepare for the looming shift toward electric vehicles and autonomous technology. “The auto industry is undergoing big changes, and issues and ideas which we may have thought were far off in the future could affect us tomorrow”, he said. “That’s why we need to go on the offensive while also preserving our areas of strength”. Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, will consider mergers and acquisitions if such investments are deemed critical to “survive in the future”, Toyoda says. Other automakers have been teaming with or acquiring Silicon Valley tech companies in recent years. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently cited the coinciding disruption from self-driving technology, electrification and ride-sharing services as the company’s primary reason for entering the automotive industry. Toyota has not yet disclosed any potential buyout targets. +++