+++ CADILLAC didn’t have anything to show at the North American International Auto Show, but that didn’t stop president Johan de Nysschen from revealing a handful of new models are on the horizon. De Nysschen said the company is 9 months away from launching its next product offensive which will kick off with the new XT4 crossover. The executive didn’t say much about the model but previous reports have suggested it will debut at the New York Auto Show and be powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that develops around 275 hp. A plug-in hybrid variant has also been seen undergoing testing and it will likely join the lineup shortly after launch. The XT4 will soon be followed by another new crossover which will be “slightly larger” than the XT5. The model will slot beneath the Escalade and should be offered with 3 rows of seats. Speaking of the latter model, the redesigned luxury SUV will be based on the same platform that recently debuted on the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado. Little is known about the next-generation Escalade but it could be significantly lighter than its predecessor as the Silverado dropped up to 204 kg thanks to the use of lightweight materials such as aluminum. Rumors have also suggested the model will debut in 2019 and come equipped with an independent rear suspension as well as a new 4.0-liter V8 engine that is paired to a 10 speed automatic transmission. The company will also introduce the all-new CT5 which will effectively replace the ATS, CTS, and XTS. It will reportedly be joined by a new entry-level sedan before 2021. While the Cadillac ELR was a massive failure, the brand isn’t giving up on eco-friendly vehicles. As de Nysschen stated, “a good chunk” of GM’s upcoming electric vehicles will wear the Cadillac logo. He went on to say “zero-emission propulsion systems will feature very prominently in our medium-term plans”. +++
+++ Car buyers in Europe have begun to shift away from DIESEL in the wake of Volkswagen’s emissions scandal. Diesel sales last year dropped by 17 percent in the United Kingdom and 7 percent in Germany. In France, the share of diesel powertrains in new vehicles dropped below 50 percent after dominating sales for nearly 2 decades. “For heavy-duty vehicles, and for maybe very large cars I could see the diesel surviving for a few more years, but in the small and medium segments it will fade away”, said the International Council for Clean Transportation’s managing director for the EU, Peter Mock. Strong demand in Europe has been driven by cheaper diesel fuel, subsidized by government programs focused on carbon-dioxide emissions rather than pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulates. Volkswagen’s diesel scandal apparently shattered the love affair and fueled a backlash against all internal combustion powertrains. Several EU countries have proposed bans on all new gasoline and diesel vehicles starting as early as 2030. The trend has helped accelerate investment in electric and hybrid powertrains. Several major automakers are now preparing to offer electrified powertrains across their entire lineup by the early- to mid-2020s. +++
+++ JAGUAR LAND ROVER will shrink production output at its Halewood plant amid slowing domestic demand caused by Brexit uncertainty and consumer confusion over diesel. A spokesman told the brand’s Merseyside facility would adopt temporary production schedule changes, which are designed to help “re-balance” the number of Range Rover Evoques and Discovery Sports available in the marketplace. “Jaguar Land Rover has delivered another record breaking year in vehicle sales in what is now the 7th year of successive growth for Britain’s largest car manufacturer”, said the spokesman. “However, the automotive industry continues to face a range of challenges which are adversely affecting consumer confidence”. The UK new car market shrank by 5.7% in 2017, with experts pointing to the ongoing economic uncertainty that shrouds Brexit negotiations, as well as the more recent confusion created by the government’s diesel tax changes, which will increase rates for new models this April. +++
+++ LAND ROVER is planning to unleash a hot Range Rover Velar SVR this year, home to a supercharged 5.0-litre V8. It’s the same unit used in a number of SVR cars across the JLR line-up, boasting 575 hp in the recently refreshed Range Rover Sport SVR. With this engine onboard, the Velar looks set for a significant boost in power over the current range topping P380 model, which makes use of a 380 hp 6-cylinder petrol. Alongside V8 power and slightly sportier looks, the Velar SVR’s suspension will be tweaked to feature adaptive dampers with an SVR specific mode. With Jaguar poised to reveal an SVR version of the F-Pace at the New York Motor Show at the end of March, the Velar SVR’s arrival doesn’t look likely to happen until towards the end of 2018. +++
+++ Sales of LARGE LUXURY SALOONS are still growing despite the impending arrival of a number of prestigious SUVs, which threaten to steal market share from their more conventional counterparts. In the first half of 2017, luxury saloon sales grew year on year by 13% worldwide to almost 166,000 units, according to automotive market analyst Jato. That’s only a small part of global car sales, of course, but luxury saloons represent important profit drivers for car makers. The current Jaguar XJ is in 9th place in the segment, selling 5.200 units in the first 6 months, up 1.4%, but far from the top three: the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, (37,500 units sold), BMW 7 Series (29,400) and Cadillac XTS (28,200). China is the largest market for luxury saloons, with 71,300 sold, an increase of 58% over the first 6 months of 2016. Given China’s strict emissions laws, Jaguar’s choice to go electric should help its sales in this region. The US is the second biggest market, with 42,600 cars sold, and third is South Korea, with 13,800 units. Despite the steady growth of luxury saloons, a host of lavish SUVs pose a threat. The Bentley Bentayga, Maserati Levante and new Porsche Cayenne are already here, and models such as the BMW X7, Audi Q8, Lamborghini Urus and Rolls-Royce Cullinan will add to the competition. With non-premium saloons losing out to SUVs, it’s likely the luxury segment will follow suit. +++
+++ MERCEDES has confirmed that it has no more plans to offer diesel powertrains for passenger vehicles in the US. The company claims its next-generation oil burners are much more efficient than existing powertrains, designed 2020 European carbon-dioxide regulations, however there isn’t enough demand in the US to justify importing and certifying the vehicles. “The diesel doesn’t fit into our portfolio in the US”, said Mercedes-Benz Cars R&D head Ola Kallenius. In its best year of diesel sales in the US, the powertrains only accounted for 3 percent of the brand’s sales. The decision does not affect Mercedes-Benz Vans, as the Sprinter continues to be a popular diesel model for business fleet buyers. +++
+++ Why does Carlos Tavares think he can do what General Motors’ best minds failed to do with Opel and turn around a perennially and precariously unprofitable European car company? Because he has done it before. Tavares, 59, was named CEO of PSA Group in 2013, when it was piling up losses and near death. Within the first 3 years of what was supposed to be a 5-year turnaround plan, he had resuscitated France’s second-largest automaker and moved on to a new long-range plan aimed at accelerating its progress. PSA’s 7.4 percent operating profit margin in the first half of last year pushed it into the top5 among global automakers, Tavares said. The Opel/Vauxhall operation he acquired last year for $2.6 billion from GM reminds him of what he found in his early months at PSA. “The numbers I see from Opel and the numbers we were seeing from outside demonstrate that the Opel situation is very similar as the PSA situation back in 2013”, Tavares said. “Opel is PSA 2013. Turning Opel around is my priority No. 1″. The primary attraction of Opel was not the added scale, Tavares said, but the added German-ness to complement PSA’s very French Citroën, Peugeot and DS brands. While French engineers at PSA might wonder why, Tavares said, many consumers around the world place a premium on even mainstream German brands, associating them with the engineering prowess of the leading luxury automakers. “Opel is a German brand”, he said. “Its models will continue to be designed and engineered by German engineers. Thus it perfectly fits our French brand portfolio”. As for the added scale, Tavares said, that only gets you so much: more purchasing power in dealing with suppliers and higher volume on which to amortize new product and technology investments. Beyond that, it could just as well be a liability. More critical than scale, said the longtime race car driver and enthusiast, are speed and agility; being able to quickly adapt in an automotive world where chaos is the norm and the pace of change is dictated by others. A company’s survival depends on that, Tavares said. “The speed we need to adapt to is not chosen by us, but it is imposed by regulators and by changing consumer behaviors”, he said. To keep pace with regulatory pressure, Tavares said, PSA plans to offer electrified powertrain options for its entire car and light-truck lineup by 2025, joining several other automakers that have pledged to widely deploy partial or fully electric powertrains to lower emissions. By then, Tavares said, PSA will offer 40 electrified models across its five brands: Peugeot, Citroen, Opel, Vauxhall and DS. “We want to become the most efficient carmaker, not the largest”, Tavares said. Overall, PSA, which is preparing to return to the U.S., will launch 124 new models across 6 regions worldwide over six years, Tavares said. Tavares said his company also was committed to promoting “freedom of personal mobility” in various forms, including autonomous vehicles. He said 80 percent of the company’s vehicles will have the capability to navigate themselves under limited conditions by 2030, and 10 percent will have up to Level 4 and Level 5 autonomy. PSA’s main weakness now is not being in the North American market, said Tavares, a former head of Nissan’s North American operation. That’s being addressed under the 10-year action plan, which includes introducing mobility services and ultimately auto sales in the U.S., once PSA has figured out what the market needs. “A 10-year plan gives us the appropriate time to properly understand this crucial market and launch the right products and services”, he said. PSA started to offer mobility services in the U.S. last year and this year will launch short-term car rental in 2 to 3 big cities using vehicles from other automakers. It’s also exploring innovative distribution models in advance of introducing its own brands. Tavares declined to say which brand PSA plans to market in the U.S. but said that Opel’s engineering center in Rüsselsheim, near Frankfurt, will be the French group’s competency center for engineering future models to be compliant with U.S. regulations. +++
+++ RENAULT ’s Zoe has been the best-selling full-electric vehicle in Europe for 3 years in a row, but the automaker is anticipating that the competition will get much tougher, and quickly. Zoe sales in Europe jumped 48 percent to 27,245 through November last year, according to JATO Dynamics. Sales of its nearest competitor, the Leaf, from alliance partner Nissan, were flat, at 16,531. At the end of 2016, Renault doubled the Zoe’s range to 300 km in real-world driving, or 400 km in test conditions, a figure that Renault electric vehicle program director Gilles Normand said crossed a “red line” for buyers. “2017 was about increasing the range”, Normand said in an interview. “We are getting more customers from the mainstream market. It’s no longer just the tech-savvy or eco-sensitive”. “Fundamentally, the idea is to keep on making Zoe competitive in the marketplace, because we are anticipating more competitors will come, especially toward the end of the year”, he said. Audi plans to introduce its e-Tron this year, and Tesla’s Model 3 could appear in significant numbers in Europe, though both cars are likely to be priced well above the Zoe. Volkswagen brand is planning to sell a family of I.D.-badged EVs by the early 2020s. Renault said it would introduce 8 new electric vehicles by 2022 as part of its Drive the Future strategic plan. The next to appear is likely to be an electric version of the Kwid cross-over sold in emerging markets. Normand said that Renault is making a profit on each Zoe “measured on variable costs”. However, he added, “we are not happy in that we are more expensive than internal combustion peer vehicles. We need to keep working hard to reduce costs”. Some of that cost savings will be easier to find in the next generation of electric vehicles from the Renault-Nissan alliance, which will use a common platform, he said. Though Zoe sales have been rising strongly each year since its market debut in late 2012, electric vehicles still make up a tiny fraction of the European market. Renault planned for an annual production of 150,000 units, but many analysts expect the market to surge only in 2020 or 2021, when the next European CO2 emissions standards are rolled out. One country that has jumped ahead of the curve is Norway, where last year 52 percent of vehicles sold were electric or hybrid, thanks to generous government incentives. Volkswagen’s e-Golf was the best-selling model overall, and the Zoe trailed electric offerings from Nissan, Tesla, BMW and Kia. Normand said he was disappointed with the Zoe’s market share in Norway, but he said, “We are looking at this market as a laboratory in to anticipate future trends when the overall European market will grow to be double digits or even more”. One potential side effect as electric vehicles gain popularity is shortages of battery raw materials such as cobalt, which could slow production and drive prices up. Normand said the alliance’s main battery supplier, LG, will be able to meet 2018 deliveries with any major issues. “We are not worried in the short term”, he said. “In the long term, we are looking at how we can develop low-cobalt or cobalt-free technologies”, including solid-state batteries. The first investment of the Renault-Nissan’s $1 billion venture capital fund for mobility startups, announced last week at CES in Las Vegas, is in Ionic Materials, a Massachusetts company that is developing cobalt-free solid-state battery materials. +++
+++ TOYOTA announced that it will invest a further 300 million euro in its car plant in Valenciennes (France), bringing total cumulative investment to 1.4 billion euro. In the coming months, the facility will be progressively upgraded with new equipment, technologies and systems, to prepare the future introduction of the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA). The French plant will in a first step convert 300 temporary contracts into permanent contracts to support the preparation works, and foresees another 400 permanent jobs when full capacity is reached. The investment programme is being supported by incentives from the French State and Local Authorities (Hauts-de-France Region and Valenciennes) for training, innovation and further enhancements of the plant’s environmental performance. Toyota has launched a global programme to gradually upgrade its manufacturing sites to produce next generation, TNGA-based vehicles. In the future, the majority of Toyota’s global models will be built using TNGA platforms. TNGA already underpins the new, fourth generation Prius and the C-HR, vehicles that represent Toyota’s commitment to build ever-better cars for our customers. “This investment highlights the trust of Toyota in all our efforts to produce superior quality cars for our customers. The flexibility agreement signed in 2017 with our local unions contributed to this investment decision. This investment puts us in a position to eventually achieve our aim of 300,000 units/ year in the future”, says Luciano Biondo, CEO of the French plant. +++
+++ A plan to save the future of VAUXHALL ’s UK production plants is being drafted up by its parent company, the PSA Group, and Unite, the trade union that represents its workforce. PSA boss Carlos Tavares met with Unite general secretary Len McCluskey to discuss a plan “to study how to regain the competitiveness of the Vauxhall manufacturing sites in the UK”. PSA said the leaders, whose meeting took place just two weeks after Vauxhall’s second phase of job cuts at its Ellesmere Port plant was announced, are working alongside each other to “build Vauxhall’s industrial footprint” within the PSA Group “after years of degradation”. McCluskey said that “Tavares repeated his desire not to close UK plants” and that Unite is focused on safeguarding the UK plant employees. He stated that Unite would be prepared to “disrupt PSA’s UK market share if the company fails to support this loyal workforce”. McCluskey said that he will be “pressing business secretary Greg Clark to ensure that the Government does all it can to create the climate for PSA investment”. He admitted ongoing uncertainty surrounding Brexit negotiations is hampering progress but said that he “remains optimistic”. Vauxhall recently offered 250 members of its Ellesmere Port staff voluntary redundancies in a bid to reduce costs and improve efficiency at the site. This followed the first wave of cuts in October last year, with the total number of jobs Vauxhall plans to have removed from its Cheshire site by September 2018 amounting to 650. Ellesmere Port employs 1.800 of the company’s 4.500 British workers. Vauxhall has begun a 45-day consultancy, as per legal requirements, in order to aid its departing employees with new opportunities. Vauxhall said production of the Opel Astra would continue at the facility but that production would be downgraded from operating 2 to 1 shift per day. It was revealed last year that Ellesmere Port’s cost efficiency was lower than other plants within the group, which includes those used by its other brands, Peugeot, Citroën and DS. PSA aims to return Vauxhall and Opel to profit by 2020. Tavares said late last year that he has no intention to close any company factories during this process. He also revealed that Vauxhall and Opel would shift to using PSA platforms to enhance research and development sustainability. +++
+++ The VOLKSWAGEN ID hatchback will enter production in November 2019, the brand has confirmed. The EV will ignite Volkswagen’s electric car offensive as a contemporary rear-wheel drive, 5-door hatchback. The ID concept, which was revealed at the Paris motor show in 2016, is claimed to closely preview the German car maker’s first dedicated electric model. The hatchback is due on sale early in 2020 at what is being billed as “an attractive price”. With an electric motor providing it with 170 hp, the ID is claimed to boast a range of between 400 and 600 kilometres, easily eclipsing the 320 kilometres range of the facelifted version of the e-Golf. By packaging its electric motor at the rear, Volkswagen has freed up space within the front section of the ID in a move that endows it with an impressively tight turning circle of just 9.9 metres and the promise of excellent manoeuvrability in tight urban driving environments. One of the stars of the 2016 Paris motor show, the ID is the first of up to 5 new electric models planned by Volkswagen, including a MPV similar to the earlier Budd-e concept wheeled out at the Consumer Electronics Show back in January 2016, the ID Crozz SUV, ID Buzz Microbus concept, as well as a saloon and more. Built to showcase the individual design lineage, electric drive technology and modular platform architecture set to underpinVolkswagen’s electric car offensive, the new concept also provides an insight to the fully autonomous driving functions the company is developing for introduction on selected models from 2025 onwards. Among its more intriguing features is a multi-function steering wheel which stows away within the dashboard when the driver’s switches into autonomous driving mode via the Volkswagen emblem set within its boss. Styled at Volkswagen’s main design studio in Wolfsburg, Germany, the ID sports a highly contemporary appearance that is claimed to set the tone for all of the company’s new electric cars. Commenting on the design process, the head of Volkswagen brand design, Klaus Bischoff, said: “We had the unique chance to lead Volkswagen into a new age. Electric drive provides greater freedom for designers. We minimize the cooling holes; the axes move further apart and generate stunning proportions”. With an illuminated badge making it easily identifiable as a Volkswagen, the new car departs quite radically from existing models from the German car makers. Key elements include a largely unadorned front end, ultra-short front overhang, steeply rising bonnet line, heavily raked windscreen, large wheel houses housing 20-inch wheels, prominent sill elements, cantilever style rear doors, an extended roofline, prominent rear spoiler element and glass tailgate. By eschewing a traditional grille, using flush fitting glass for the side windows and extending the roofline beyond the top of the tailgate, Volkswagen’s designers have clearly attempted boost the aerodynamic efficiency of the new concept. At 4.100 mm in length, 1.800 mm in width and 1.530 mm in height, the ID is 155 mm longer, 9 mm wider and 77 mm higher than the existing 7th-generation Golf. It also rides on a wheelbase that is 130 mm longer than that of Europe’s perennial best seller at 2.750 mm. With interactive LED headlamps that have been conceived to mimic the action of a human eye by giving the impression of being able to open and close and LED units concealed within various parts of the exterior, the lighting properties and overall visual character of the ID alters depending on the drive mode. When parked, the headlamp graphic is designed to provide an impression of a closed eye – as if to signal it is asleep. At start-up, the headlamps blink and the graphic is altered to convey the action of an eye opening. At the same time, the Volkswagen logos front and rear are illuminated in white, while the lower section of the front bumper, side sills and rear diffuser are lit up in a shade of blue. When drive is selected, the LED daytime driving lights are automatically switched on and the Volkswagen logos remain lit up in white. In autonomous drive mode, a laser scanner deploys from the roof and the front bumper, side sills and rear diffuser are once again illuminated in blue. During recharging the LED units pulsate in a simulation of the flow of energy being provided to the battery. Inside, Volkswagen has exploited the packaging advantages inherent in pure electric drivetrains to provide its latest concept car with an impressively roomy four-seat cabin offering levels of accommodation similar to today’s larger Passat as well as a comprehensive connectivity package the German car makers suggests will be part and parcelled of all its upcoming electric models. “Before we took a pen in the hand for the ID project, we intensively discussed the importance of future mobility. One thing is certain: the car for the day after tomorrow will be a place of mobile communication. The open space offered by the ID is such a place”, says Bischoff. While the ID provides seating for 4 on individual seats, the production version will offer a more conventional layout with space for up to 5. Volkswagen is yet to reveal nominal boot capacity but says it new concept offers up to 980 litres of luggage space when the rear seats are folded down. Despite its highly contemporary appearance, Volkswagen suggests the upcoming production version of the new electric vehicle will rely on existing unibody construction techniques using a combination of hot formed high strength steel, aluminium and magnesium. This will allow it to build the new car in existing factories without the need for significant investment in production infrastructure. Underpinning the ID is Volkswagen’s newly developed MEB (Modularen Elektrifizierungsbaukasten – Modular Electric Architecture) platform originally showcased on the Budd-e concept at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last January. Providing the ID with zero emission capability is a 125 kW brushless electric motor mounted within the rear axle housing. The in-house developed unit drives the concept car’s rear wheels via a fixed ratio gearbox. Although Volkswagen is yet to hint at a kerb weight for the first of its dedicated electric cars, computer simulations suggest the production version of the ID is set to possess a 0-100 km/h time of under 8.0sec and a top speed limited to 160 km/h. Electrical energy used to drive the electric motor is drawn from a lithium ion battery mounted low down in the floor of the MEB platform wholly within the wheelbase for the best possible weight distribution. Volkswagen is yet to confirm the capacity of the lithium ion unit, which Autocar sources say will be produced in-house for the production version of the new car. However, it describes the battery used by the ID as being scalable and hints at differing capacities for each of its upcoming electric models in much the same way it offers differing power outputs in today’s combustion engine models. Little is being said about the charging system for the ID although going on Volkswagen’s claims that its battery can be recharged to an 80 percent state of charge within 30 minutes, it appears the German car maker may be considering a 800 volt system similar to that employed by its daughter company Porsche on the Mission E concept revealed at the Frankfurt motor show in 2015. Despite mounting the electric motor at the rear, Volkswagen says there is sufficient space to provide the ID with a multi-link rear-suspension similar to that used by the Golf. It is also key to endowing the new car with a weight distribution put at 48:50 front-to-rear. Reiterating an earlier mission statement on its electric car offensive, Volkswagen used the stage at Paris to confirm it is targeting 1 million electric car sales annually by 2025. +++