+++ BMW will produce more large luxury cars than ever before in order to drive profits to fund the development of future autonomous, electrified and connected technologies. To that end, BMW sales and marketing boss Ian Robertson confirmed that the firm would launch the already-announced i8 Roadster, 8 Series, X7, Z4 and M8 models in the near future, with more set to follow, including the potential of SUVs even larger and more luxurious than the X7. The increase in luxury models and the greater profits they generate was part of a long-term strategy to help fund development of the kinds of cars and technologies that BMW saw as the future of the industry. “We are intent on expanding our footprint in the luxury segment”, said Robertson. “We see it as a growth engine, and an ability to be more profitable. We need to generate new ideas for the business model, as we go through the transition to a technology business from a car company. It requires investment. Expanding the luxury segment is key to this strategy”. To prepare for the launch of more electric models, 11 of which will come from BMW by 2025, Robertson confirmed that BMW had trademarked every model name between i1 and i9, and between iX1 and iX9 to go with trademarks from X1 to X9 as part of plans to ensure it has a consistent naming strategy as and when it is able to launch more electric cars. “You can anticipate further products we’ll talk about in the future”, said Robertson, who said that SUVs of all sizes were the only types of cars growing sales across the globe, which is why BMW was focusing so much on facilitating this growth. The investment in future autonomous, electrified and connected car technology is greater than any R&D investment made in BMW’s history, according to Robertson, with 2.000 engineers currently working on it. “Clearly, there’s no other strategic investment that’s so important”, he said. BMW will introduce 25 electrified vehicles by 2025, 12 of them pure electric cars, and 1 of the 12 a Mini. That leaves 11 BMWs, the first of which will be the electric X3 due in 2020, that will introduce BMW’s 5th-generation electric car technology that will go on to underpin all of its electric vehicles. A production version of the iVision Dynamics concept will follow in 2021 that will bring Level 3 autonomous technology to a BMW, and be future-proofed for Level 4 and Level 5 when legislation allows. “The how, why, what, when is to be seen”, said Robertson, “but the technology and investment will be there”. While BMW is investing heavily in autonomous technology, Robertson confirmed that every BMW in the future would still come with a steering wheel as driving pleasure remained the key part of any BMW’s appeal. +++
+++ A hybrid version of the all-new LAMBORGHINI Urus is “necessary” according to a company insider, and could launch before the end of the decade. Initially debuting with only one engine and gearbox configuration, an electrified option for the Urus is apparently next in line. Such technology is essential for the car’s success, in fact, especially in emerging markets like China. Speaking from the reveal of the company’s new SUV in Italy, I was told in no uncertain terms that hybridisation would feature in cars like the Urus in the future. “We have to provide hybrid as an option”, I was told. By basing the Urus on the same platform as the latest Porsche Panamera, it’s likely any hybrid Lambo would use the same twin-turbo plug-in V8 as the flagship Turbo S E-Hybrid. That would give it worthy super-SUV credentials, with almost 680 hp and 850 Nm of torque. That power boost should see performance improvements, with the Urus plug-in shaving up to half a second from its standard sibling’s 0-100 km/h sprint. Different drive modes would allow customers to tailor their car’s character to suit the situation in hand. Crucially, however, it could see emissions drop to around 70 gram/km, which would give the car a big boost in heavily-taxed regions like China and Japan; the latter, it seems, is a huge market for Lamborghini. Official fuel economy numbers for the newly launched V8-engined Urus haven’t been revealed. Of course, another part of the hybrid’s appeal would be a small all-electric range. The Panamera can manage around 50 kilometers on a single charge, and I expect the Urus PHEV to deliver similar numbers. +++
+++ LAND ROVER is considering another entry into the burgeoning super-luxury SUV market, with design boss Gerry McGovern hinting that an exclusive 3-door, SVO-built Range Rover could be on the way. When asked about the brand’s intentions for the segment, McGovern said: “Watch this space. I can’t say when or what, but there are opportunities. We have proven with Range Rover that there are opportunities to offer derivations of these vehicles, to offer them in a way to bring something new to the market”. The brand also patented the Range Stormer name earlier this year; the original Range Stormer was a concept revealed at the Detroit motor show in early 2004 as a muscular 3-door prelude to the Range Rover Sport, which entered production later that year. Land Rover has a history of 2 and 3-door models. It currently sells the 3-door Range Rover Evoque and Evoque Convertible, while the original Range Rover was produced in 2-door form. McGovern alluded to SVO’s involvement in the project, saying: “The good thing with SVO is that it’s a self-funding business, so there are opportunities within SVO that don’t necessarily have to be mainstream and small-volume vehicles lend themselves beautifully to that. A limited-edition model that pays for itself (and makes JLR profit) is far easier to create a business case for”. Furthering the exclusivity aspect of the model, McGovern alluded to 3-door models’ now relative small number compared with their 5-door counterparts as the car industry moves away from less practical and slower-selling 3-doors. A 3-door Range Rover would certainly be exclusive; the super-luxury SUV market currently contains no 3-door cars, while the recently introduced Lamborghini Urus resembling a coupé the closest, despite having 5 doors. The Bentley Bentayga and Rolls-Royce Cullinan both have 5 doors, while no specifics are yet known about the upcoming Ferrari SUV. The new model would likely sit atop the Range Rover line-up, higher even than the extended-wheelbase Range Rover SVAutobiography. +++
+++ 2 months after it completed the purchase of LOTUS , Geely is laying out its plans for the British sports car manufacturer, and I have to say: they’re pretty ambitious. Although it hasn’t been officially announced yet, Lotus is planning to launch its first SUV, which is probably going to be based on the CMA modular platform that also underpins the Volvo XC40 and Lynk&Co 01. The platform is designed to host high-performance powertrains and of course all-wheel drive, which is obviously good news for Lotus. The Chinese company wants Lotus not only to keep making sports cars, but also intends to up its game considerably. “We are making plans; we want to bring back the heritage of Lotus to be one of the top performers in the luxury sports car segment. Lotus used to be ranked alongside Ferrari and Porsche, so we need to come back in that rank again”, its boss, An Cong Hui, said. After years of uncertainty, Lotus has recently returned to profitability and now appears to be finally in good hands. Rivaling Ferrari, though? That’s setting the bar perhaps too high, but hey, the guys have made a great job with Volvo, so they might just do the same for Lotus. +++
+++ Earlier this year, Shanghai Automotive Industries Corporation produced the 1-millionth car born out of the wreckage of MG Rover. Its Roewe and MG brands sold 320,000 cars last year, and this year the brands’ sales are up 78 percent in a Chinese market that has grown by only around 4 percent. You can’t call those sales results anything other than successful and Britain’s contribution to them is not insubstantial, SAIC’s Birmingham-based design and engineering centre providing plenty of input for both brands. The UK fortunes of MG Motor, by contrast, have been rather less stellar. It has been 10 years since production of the MG TF sports car restarted at what was MG Rover’s factory in Longbridge, Birmingham. That tentative MG restart was enabled by Chinese company Nanjing, which bought the assets, while compatriot company Shanghai Automotive Industries Corporation (SAIC) bought the intellectual property rights to certain MG Rover models. Not long after, the Chinese government did the sensible thing and had the 2 enterprises merge. Since then, we have seen and mostly ignored the MG 6, liked the MG 3 rather more and been unmoved by the very ordinary MG GS SUV. MG is now launching the ZS, another SUV and a car that impresses more than any MG Motor product to date. UK sales were 4.192 cars in 2016, up from 3.152 the year before, and over the first 10 months of this year amount to 3.515, its 0.16 percent market share fractionally up in a sinking market. So the numbers are heading in the right direction, but MG Motor sales are only just ahead of Ssangyong’s. Not great for a still well-known British brand in domestic territory and not enough to continue justifying the small-scale completion of cars in Longbridge’s enormous car assembly buildings. So it’s good to hear that a fresh direction is being taken. It’s not a complete change of plan but a promising adjustment and one that also includes a sports model, as discussions with SAIC’s UK managing director, David Lindley, UK design chief Carl Gotham and sales and marketing boss Matthew Cheyne confirm. Early signs of the direction change are to be found in the design of the new ZS, a more shapely car whose new grille design presents a fresh face for MG. Gotham says: “The ZS is the first car from our new design language, which has this emotional dynamism. It’s part of a plan to make MG more emotional in terms of its connection with customers. We feel that it’s definitely got that emotional tie to a lot of people around the world”. Not that this means we’ll be seeing reheated design themes from the past. “We’re not looking to make a retrospective or heritage brand. That would be wrong”, says Gotham. “However, MG has got huge brand equity, which needs to be leveraged. So the design language is going to be more emotional, and less aggressive. We’re trying to dial that out a bit but also raise the design quality. In China, customers do demand a good quality level and they’re getting more demanding”. What they’re also wanting more of is electric vehicles, and for very good reasons, as Gotham explains: “The country is taking a very aggressive stance towards electric vehicles with heavy subsidies. You may be aware that a licence plate is around 9.000 euro in China (it’s a one-off payment for life) whereas with an EV, the licence is free. So China’s drive for EVs is not just a statement of intent. They’re putting things in place to make it very real”. As is MG. The E-Motion concept coupé, unveiled at the Shanghai show in April, “is conceptual”, says Gotham, “but it’s done with intent. I can’t confirm any timing but there is a real intention to turn it into something”. According to other SAIC executives, the E-Motion is scheduled for launch in 2019. SAIC claims a sub 4.0 seconds 0-100 km/h time and a 500 kilometer range for the car, which is based around a pure EV platform despite proportions that are deliberately similar to those of a conventional petrol-engined model. “It has a little bit of British flavour and more of the recognisable British premium cues in terms of proportion”, says Gotham. “It feels expensive and has a presence that people will recognise. It’s not a sports car, but a 2+2 EV sports car”. The UK flavour appears for good commercial reasons, too. “Britishness has a premium value around the world”, says Gotham, “particularly with Chinese consumers. So the positioning of MG as a British brand offering a premium product experience is something we’re looking into it”. That dovetails well with the re-oriented activities of SAIC Motor UK’s technical centre at Longbridge. Lindley is its managing director. He has been with SAIC’s UK operation from the beginning, and before that with both MG Rover and the Rover Group. So he has seen massive change, and he’s seeing plenty more with the intensifying shift towards electric cars and the quickening pace of development at SAIC. During this decade-old relationship, SAIC has amassed a 4000-strong engineering and design operation in Shanghai and the Longbridge centre is now a fully integrated satellite with particular collaborative missions, as Lindley explains. “The major focus now is primarily the front end of the product development process”, he says. “It’s not exclusively what we do but we are really focused on innovation, advanced technology, architecture and design. That breaks down into three key areas and the first is design. Our team’s time and energy next year is involved in understanding our customers around the world in order to determine how we should move MG’s design language. “The second area is vehicle engineering. The key work here is vehicle architecture definition. The idea is very much like Volkswagen’s (SAIC is a major maker of VWs in China) in that we’re looking at how we can design in flexibility across different market sectors and different product segments. The third area is focused on internal-combustion engine design and research”. Although SAIC is making use of GM’s 3-cylinder turbo, as in the ZS, Lindley says this is a “one-off” and the company is currently developing a new modular engine family. The UK tech centre is “focused on technology around friction improvements, thermal efficiency during warm-up and e-boosting. We work hand in hand with a counterpart organisation in Shanghai. It doesn’t mean that the UK team wouldn’t go out and look at opportunities for combustion, but our role would be to find the opportunity, share it and make sure that it’s encompassed within research programmes in China”. Lindley is keen to emphasise that the bulk of SAIC’s efforts over the past decade have been directed at Roewe, and establishing this brand as a successful and profitable one in China. Which it has. “Then our plan is to become an internationally renowned brand making innovative products”, he says. “We’re putting a lot more focus on international sales. That will include growth close to home and much more visible efforts to make MG successful”. +++
+++ POLESTAR is going at it full-steam, or with a full charge, I should say. Not only is it launching as a stand-alone brand, it’s also rethinking the ownership experience, but it’s launching a whole raft of new products; the scope of which I’m just beginning to see now. Volvo’s newly emancipated electric performance division is preparing to roll out not 1, not 2, but 4 models all within the next 3 years. First up is the Polestar 1 we’ve already seen: a plug-in hybrid luxury performance coupe that looks like a sleeker, more futuristic version of the new Volvo S90. That’s set to launch by the end of next year. The Polestar 2 will arrive by the end of 2019 as an all-electric midsize sedan to take on the Tesla Model 3. After that, we’re told to expect the Polestar 3 to launch early in 2020 as an electric crossover, with an as-yet undisclosed Polestar 4 to follow later in 2020. Word has it that model could take the form of a convertible, likely closely based on the Polestar 1. What of the Polestar-branded performance Volvo’s we’ve seen to date, you wonder? Those will continue, with performance packages offered straight from the Volvo factory (instead of as dealer-installed equipment) and the occasional full-on performance vehicle (like the S60/V60 Polestar) to pop up from time to time. But Polestar’s main focus will remain on its own dedicated line of electrified vehicles. Just how we’ll acquire them is still a matter of discussion. The initial idea is to pursue a subscription model almost exclusively, but strategists will watch to see how the Care by Volvo model is adapted (to say nothing of rivals like Book by Cadillac, Porsche Passport, and Lincoln’s forthcoming pilot as well). +++
+++ ROLLS-ROYCE is likely to launch an EV version of the new Phantom, according to CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös, but there will be no hybrid model. “We will go full electric, we don’t do any interim steps”, Müller-Ötvös told journalists. “Emissions-free is emissions-free”. Müller-Ötvös admitted that electrification isn’t being demanded by the brand’s well-heeled clients (“I haven’t seen a single cheque landing on my desk saying ‘build me one’ ”) but will likely be enforced by legislative changes, especially in Asia where the company predicts some cities will soon ban internal combustion completely. Müller-Ötvös confirmed there will not be a ‘Black Badge’ performance version of the Phantom (“It’s not right for that car”) and that Rolls-Royce has no plans to offer BMW’s semi-autonomous CoPilot system. He said the brand is waiting for more sophisticated ‘hand off’ systems, “when it is advanced enough that it is a real effortless experience for customers…not needing to keep your finger on the steering wheel”. Rolls-Royce is also keen to offer much more bespoke content in its cars, potentially including the ability to customise digital screen displays and even to alter bodywork through 3D printed components. “Our long-term goal is to print bigger parts”. Müller-Ötvös said. “Maybe even bodies are possible. For me, the future of luxury is that you have to get more and more bespoke”.
+++ SUBARU ’s first battery-electric car, due to launch in 2020, will likely be a variant of an existing bodystyle, the firm’s chief designer has revealed. It is not clear which bodystyle will be used, however, because the new Global Platform, which has been designed for use for combustion-engined, hybrid and battery-electric vehicles, will underpin all of Subarus cars by then. “Subaru cars are designed to support people’s lifestyles, so it should not be a case of designing the car for the powertrain”, he said. “If customers want change we’ll respond; our cars are about customers loving using them how they are designed, but we are not going to change our design focus just to highlight a new way of powering the car”. Ishii declined to say how advanced work was on Subaru’s first electric vehicle, but insiders have previously told Autocar that crash test work to ensure that the battery location offers maximum safety has already begun. Toyota will launch its first electric car at the end of 2018. +++
+++ TOYOTA recently introduced the FT-AC concept at the Los Angeles Auto Show and a new report is suggesting it could preview a production model. Toyota’s North American Group Vice President and General Manager, Jack Hollis, confirmed the automaker will launch a new subcompact crossover in the next 2 or 3 years. Hollis went on to say the model will be based on the TNGA platform that underpins everything from the C-HR to the Prius. Toyota has introduced a number of crossover concepts in the past year and Hollis said the FT-AC, FT-4X, and TJ Cruiser concepts were all created to “test the waters in the market and get feedback from consumers”. He didn’t say which direction the company is leaning but confirmed the upcoming crossover will be offered with all-wheel drive and have a base price that could start at under 23,000 euro. If the company is able to hit that price point, the model would be more affordable than the CH-R which starts at 25,995 euro in The Netherlands. +++
+++ VOLKSWAGEN is planning to launch a family of electric models by the end of the decade, with 2 new SUVs and a saloon following the 2019 I.D. hatchback and arriving before the 2022 I.D. Buzz Microbus. VW’s design boss Klaus Bischoff revealed details about the production I.D. hatch and also confirmed that we’ll see 2 variants of SUVs in showrooms by 2020. One will be a conventional SUV, while a production version of the I.D. Crozz coupe-SUV concept will also feature. The first SUV will take inspiration from the smaller T-Roc and similarly-sized Tiguan visually. A more upright roof shape than the I.D. Crozz concept will allow greater headroom and bootspace, although the front-end shape will be similar to that car. The 2 SUVs will be offered with both rear-wheel drive (like the hatchback) and a new twin motor set-up with a larger motor mounted on the rear axle and a smaller one powering the front wheels. With a total output for the latter in excess of 300 hp likely, the extra energy required could mean it has a slightly shorter range than its hatchback cousin, which will be capable of about 500 kilometers to a charge. VW boss Herbert Diess admitted that, alongside this range of EVs, the firm is considering “more emotional” electric models for early in the next decade, including a sports coupe that could serve as a replacement for the Scirocco. An all-electric Beetle is also being proposed. +++