Newsflash: Skoda komt pas in 2026 met nieuw elektrisch model

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+++ BMW M celebrated its 50th year in 2022. That milestone was marked by a new sales record: 177.257 BMW vehicles were sold during the 2022 financial year, which represents an 8.4 percent increase when compared to the previous year. The United States was BMW M’s bestselling market, while the German domestic market follows. The United Kingdom is the third market where BMW M sold well. But perhaps the interesting part is that the bestselling BMW M vehicle in 2022 was the all-electric i4 M50, which suggests that the high-performance division going electric isn’t a bad idea after all. The exact number of units sold was not disclosed. “For us, this is a clear signal that the unique M feeling has arrived in the world of electrified vehicles”, says Timo Resch, Head of Customer, Brand and Sales at BMW M. The i4 M50 isn’t the only electrified M model. The standalone XM also made its debut last year with its 670 hp M Hybrid drive, while the iX M60 also made a successful launch. Meanwhile, BMW M is expected to introduce the i7 M70 this year. The BMW M division promises a continuous offensive in terms of electrified performance models, claiming that “further transformation towards electric mobility has also already been mapped out”. An electric M xDrive all-wheel drive system with 4 electric motors is also on the table. Needless to say, BMW M’s sales success in 2022 includes great numbers from staple names like the M3 and M4, including the M3 Touring. The second-generation M2 also made a splash last year with its straight-6, 6-speed stick shift and rear-wheel drive, evoking classic BMW M driving pleasure. “The new sales record for BMW M Automobiles is based on our successful presence in a broad range of vehicle segments”, added Resch. “With our wide-ranging product portfolio, we are also ideally positioned for the future”. BMW also reminds us that the M3 CS will make its debut at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. It will also be the competition debut for the BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh race car. +++

+++ GLOBAL car sales have been facing several challenges over the last 3 years. First, it was the pandemic and the lockdowns. Then came the semiconductor and supply chain issues. In 2022, the Russian invasion in Ukraine made life even more difficult for the health of the industry. In the new year the industry is heading into another complex year due to the continuous geopolitical tensions and inflation around the world. According to my own research and forecast, the global sales volume of passenger cars, light commercial vehicles and pickups is due to remain stable in the mature markets and with mixed results in the developing world. In 2022 the estimations for global vehicle sales are around 79.4 million units, or down 1.9% than in 2021. In 2023, under several assumptions, the sales are expected to total between 79 and 81 million units. The positive forecast is mainly explained by increases expected in China and India, the world’s first and fourth largest new vehicle markets. In China the stronger push on electrified vehicles, the wider offer, and the recent re-opening of the economy after months of lockdowns, should boost sales by 8% and 12% by the end of the year. India is set to accelerate its growth and get even closer to Japan, the world’s third largest market. As the government goes ahead with economic reforms, and a big part of the population hits the middle class, the vehicle market should keep expanding. The Indian car market is already getting a lot of Chinese investment and more Chinese car brands are due to arrive soon. The situation in some of the mature markets is not really promising. As inflation issues continue in USA and Europe, their sales are due to remain stable, or grow by very small percentages. In the United States, the volume should not exceed 14 million units. Although demand is positively responding to the new electric vehicles available, the majority of the consumers are still reluctant to the shift from ICE to EV. In Europe, there is still uncertainty about economic growth, the war in Ukraine, and the rising prices of cars. Growth should not exceed 3% by the end of 2023. Despite the strong EV boom, partly boosted by public incentives and more competitive offers, the consumer is increasingly struggling to afford more expensive cars. Russia and its deteriorating economy will be responsible for a big part of the negative side of this story. In 2022, the preliminary sales volume was down by 65% compared to 2021. In 2023, sales should continue to fall but at a more moderated rate, between -10% and -15%. However, it will become the year of the Chinese car invasion in this country. +++

+++ JAGUAR LAND ROVER is happy to report sales are picking up and 2023 is looking particularly strong. As of December 31, the automotive conglomerate owned by Tata Motors had a whopping 215.000 client orders, with about 10.000 orders added since the end of September. As expected, the increased interest is fueled by fresh products such as the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, both of which can be had with a twin-turbo 4.4-litre V8 from BMW. In addition, the Defender remains a popular choice, especially now with an 8-seat version. From October until December, JLR’s wholesale volumes rose to 79.591 units or 5.7 percent more compared to the previous quarter and by 15 percent compared to the same quarter of 2021. Deliveries in North America increased by 17 percent while shipments to the United Kingdom were up by 10 percent. Demand dropped by 13 percent in China due to the coronavirus pandemic and by three percent in Europe. Despite positive results, Jaguar Land Rover’s CEO Thierry Bollore unexpectedly decided to step down at the end of last year, citing personal reasons. Let’s keep in mind Jaguar will be reinvented as a purely electric brand as early as 2025, but without any new products launched until then. The transition to an EV-only marque was announced by the former head honcho with the “Reimagine” global strategy presented in February 2021. One of the first decisions taken by Thierry Bollore after he was appointed CEO was to cancel the electric XJ, which was just about to be revealed. Like the aborted J-Pace large SUV, it was supposed to ride on the MLA platform and take on the likes of the Mercedes EQS and BMW i7. As to why it was axed at the last minute, JLR “concluded that the planned XJ replacement does not fit with our vision for a reimaged Jaguar brand”. As a refresher, the Reimagine plan also calls for no fewer than 6 electric Land Rover models based on the Range Rover, Discovery and Defender. The first of the bunch is scheduled to arrive in 2024, with 60 percent of all Land Rover sales to be represented by EVs by the end of the decade. It’s too soon to say whether the agenda will be changed under the new management. +++

+++ Approximately 5,5 years have passed since MERCEDES-AMG took the Frankfurt Motor Show by storm with the unveiling of the Project One concept. It wasn’t until June 2022 when the subsequent production version was unveiled, without the word “Project” anymore. And now, deliveries of the F1-engined machine have finally started. The peeps from Affalterbach took to social media to reveal a trio of images depicting the first customer car. Wearing German “ON1” plates, the hypercar is mostly black but with Petronas green accents and numerous white three-pointed stars in the rear section. I also notice the tip of the roof scoop is finished in red and there’s prominent white “AMG” lettering on the front grille. Truly a race car for the road, the fastest street-legal production vehicle around the Nürburgring, Hockenheim, and the Red Bull Ring is limited to only 275 copies. It is not known who owns the first One, but F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and David Coulthard have signed their names on the dotted line to buy the hand-made electrified beast. As a matter of fact, The Sun wrote back in September 2017 when the Project One was revealed that LH is expecting to take delivery of 2 cars, one of which will be gifted to his father Anthony. It has also been reported that real estate mogul Manny Khoshbin, actor Mark Wahlberg and tennis star Ion Țiriac are among the 275 customers. As previously reported, production kicked off in August 2022 and the cars are assembled at AMG’s facility in Coventry. The intricate hybrid powertrain with a turbocharged 1.6-litre V6 engine and 4 electric motors comes from the Mercedes‑AMG High Performance Powertrains division in Brixworth. A dedicated production facility had to be created with help from Multimatic, with each One having to go through 16 assembly and testing stations. Certainly one of the most spectacular cars of our time, the all-wheel-drive AMG One had a bumpy road on its way to production. Making the 575 hp ICE meet Euro 6 regulations was one of the biggest hurdles encountered by the engineers, a V6 that idles at 1.200 rpm instead of 5.000 rpm as it’s the case in the F1 car. The combustion engine revs up to 11.000 rpm and has to be rebuilt once every 50.000 kilometers but we highly doubt many Ones will be used extensively. +++

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+++ Toyota is one of the largest and most successful automakers in the world, and POLESTAR is just an emerging startup selling “niche” cars of the future. However, that didn’t stop the EV brand’s head of sustainability from targeting Toyota’s anti-EV strategy during a recent media event. Fredricka Klaren, an executive responsible for sustainability at Polestar, has a clear look at what the future should bring, and she shared some words with the media about Polestar’s role in it. Klaren also has strong opinions about what other companies should be doing, and she used Toyota as an example of what not to do. According to Klaren, there’s no exception: We must stop burning fossil fuels. Toyota believes that its hybrids are proving more successful at reducing emissions, likely because they’re more efficient than standard petrol-powered cars, and the automaker sells loads of them. However, no matter how you present the facts, there’s no denying that those loads of hybrid vehicles across the globe are spewing harmful tailpipe emissions. Toyota currently has one fully electric car, and it hasn’t been on the market long. The bZ4x was recalled almost immediately, it’s short on range, it’s pricey, it has racked up plenty of negative reviews, and Toyota has only sold just over 1.200 copies. To put it into perspective, Electrek writes that the Japanese automaker has contributed less than 1% to US sales of emissions-free vehicles and currently has the worst supply chain for reducing emissions. Polestar only delivered 50,000 vehicles in 2022, but it’s growing and has plans to become climate-neutral as soon as possible. While talking with the media in Sydney, Klaren made it clear that automakers must be focusing on EVs. She believes there shouldn’t be anything mass-produced aside from EVs by 2030. Some fear that even 2030 is too late, and waiting any longer will mean we’ve completely ignored the science. Klaren went on to emphasize that there are only seven years remaining before global warming hits 1.5 degrees. She targeted Toyota, saying that its hybrid vehicle technology is simply not enough. The Polestar executive shared: “To me, you’re still putting gasoline in the car, so don’t focus on that technology at all. If you keep focusing and having that in your business plan, you’re not going to level up in the way you need to do in terms of this new technology”. With the leadership of Klaren, Polestar is strongly encouraging automotive companies to work together to help reverse climate change, and sooner rather than later. She suggests companies set their goals and share them with the world. Meanwhile, it seems Toyota and its executives are promoting the opposite. +++

+++ Even though last year was not record-breaking for PORSCHE , the Stuttgart-based company had a solid 2022 in terms of sales. The sports car automaker delivered a total of 309.884 vehicles to customers around the world, an increase of 3 percent compared to 2021. The brand’s SUVs remained its most popular products. The Cayenne was Porsche’s bestseller in 2022 with a total of 95.604 deliveries on the global markets, followed by the Macan with 86.724 units. Third came the Porsche 911 with 40.410 examples, followed by the Taycan with 34.801 deliveries and the Panamera with 34.142 deliveries. It’s worth pointing out that the electric saloon outsold the Panamera for the second consecutive year despite its 16 percent decrease in sales. “On the sales side, results have been positive in 2022”, says Detlev von Platen, one of Porsche’s highest-ranked sales and marketing execs, comments. “Porsche is in a solid position. And we’re building on that basis.” It’s interesting to note that the Taycan saw a decrease of 16 percent compared to 2021 and Porsche says this negative trend was a result of supply chain issues. On the other hand, the 911 saw a 5 percent increase, while the Panamera registered 13 percent higher demand compared to the previous year. China remained Porsche’s biggest market in 2022 with 93.286 cars (-2%) delivered to customers despite the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic. North America was the second largest market for the German automaker with 79.260 units sold (0% change), while Europe (despite its solid 7 percent increase) remained third with 62.685 cars. Germany alone saw 29.512 (+3%) new Porsches delivered to customers. Overseas and Emerging Markets brought 45.141 customers (+13%). Porsche is currently working on a number of new and refreshed products. These include a revised version of the 911, as well as an updated Cayenne. There’s also an electric Boxster under development, but it won’t debut until the middle of the decade. +++

+++ SEAT launched the Cupra performance sub-brand in 2018, and it ended 2022 by hitting an all-time sales high. Cupra almost saw its sales double last year, with more than 150.000 vehicles delivered. While that’s excellent news for Cupra, it wasn’t enough to offset SEAT’s overall sales decline, which ended 2022 down compared to 2021. The Cupra Formentor, the brand’s first standalone model, accounted for the majority of Cupra sales: 63.8 percent, or 97.600 vehicles. The Cupra Born had its first full sales year in 2022 and achieved 31.400 deliveries. Since its creation, Cupra has sold close to 300.000 vehicles, with 152.900 finding homes last year, up 92.7 percent from 79.300. The Seat brand wasn’t as lucky, with the automaker prioritising building higher-margin Cupra models over its mainstream products due to supply chain shortages, which affected sales. The brand saw them fall 40.5 percent to 232.700 vehicles, with overall Seat sales down 18.1 percent for the year. The automaker sold 385.600 cars in 2022 between the 2 brands compared to 470.500 in 2021. The SEAT Arona maintained its position as the brand’s best-selling model, although sales declined 33.5 percent to 71,000 units. The brand sold 51,300 Ibizas, down 46.4 percent, and 41,500 Leons, down 47.3 percent. “2022 was an unpredictable year, but we certainly made the best out of it”, said Wayne Griffiths, CEO of Seat and Cupra, adding, “Cupra continued to exceed expectations and cemented its position as Europe’s fastest-growing automotive brand”. Cupra’s largest market last year was Germany, selling 58.400 vehicles in the country; up 89.9 percent. Spain led Seat’s sales, with 49.200 cars sold, down 30.4 percent. While Seat’s sales were down, the company’s global production rate remained nearly unchanged. The automaker built 478.954 vehicles in 2022, including the Audi A1. That’s down 1.1 percent from the 484.046 cars it made in 2021. This year will see Cupra launch its first all-electric SUV, the Tavascan, but it’s just a sliver of the updates coming to the brand. The sub-brand will also increase its global network in Berlin, Madrid and Paris. “Demand for both Seat and Cupra remains very high, with a record order bank for both,” said Kai Vogler, Seat’s executive vice president for sales and marketing. +++

+++ Tucked away in a press release about 2022 global sales results is news from SKODA about plans to unveil the next-generation Superb and Kodiaq later this year. We also get to find out that the Kamiq and Scala will undergo a facelift in 2023. The Mladá Boleslav brand part of the Volkswagen Group has “other projects” planned for this year, along with 3 purely electric models coming by 2026. Already confirmed in liftback and estate body styles, the 4th generation Superb (fifth if you’re counting the original model from the 1930s and 1940s) will ride on an evolution of the MQB platform. News about the Czech flagship coming in 2023 likely means the mechanically related VW Passat will also switch to its next iteration in the next 12 months. Both will be made at the plant in Bratislava (Slovakia) but the VW-badged car is believed to come exclusively in estate format. A new Kodiaq likely implies the next Tiguan is also right around the corner taking into account the current generation of Volkswagen’s SUV hit the market about a year before the equivalent Skoda. While the Tiguan has been spied repeatedly hiding a bigger and rounder body, the Kodiaq has been more camera-shy. Expect the final development of VW Group’s petrol and diesel engines to power these 4 models. Since we mentioned Skoda’s sales results in the beginning, 2022 was not a great year. Demand dropped by 16.7 percent to 878.200 vehicles. Once again, the Octavia was the bestselling product despite a 29.7 percent drop in deliveries to 141.100 units. It was followed by the Kamiq (96.300, -20.3 percent) and the Kodiaq (94.500, -4.2 percent). The only model with positive year-over-year results was the Enyaq as deliveries of the electric SUV grew by 20 percent to 53.700 units. Unsurprisingly, sales of the Rapid plummeted by 72.8 percent to 17.300 cars since the parent company VW Group decided early in the year to halt production at the Kaluga plant following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Except for India where sales grew by 127.7 percent, demand dropped in all other regions. Skoda plans to enter the Vietnamese market by teaming up with Thanh Cong Motor Vietnam (TC Motor) to sell some European models from the first half of this year. +++

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+++ We’ve been seeing a switch to electrification since even before the start of the decade. But we aren’t even midway into it: by the end of the decade, a lot of automakers have already pledged to stop selling vehicles with an internal combustion engine (ICE). For what purpose? To curb the world’s carbon emissions and hopefully prevent climate change. But Akio TOYODA believes that this isn’t enough. According to Toyota’s CEO, this will still do little to cut the emissions of the already millions of ICE-equipped cars, even if all new cars to be sold someday are electric. Toyota’s solution is to convert existing vehicles to carbon-neutral propulsion, either by converting them into full electric or with a hydrogen engine. Toyota has shown how it’s done at the Tokyo Auto Salon where the automaker showcased two AE86 Concepts. One’s all-electric while the other is powered by hydrogen. Dressed up with the iconic black and white body, the hydrogen-powered AE86 H2 Concept was equipped with 2 Mirai-sourced hydrogen storages positioned in the trunk. The 4-cylinder engine under the bonnet came with modified fuel injectors, fuel pipes, and spark plugs to meet the specifications of the hydrogen system. The Toyota AE86 BEV Concept, on the other hand, used an electric motor sourced from a Tundra hybrid, a battery pack from a Prius plug-in hybrid, and components from other production Toyota and Lexus models. Surprisingly, it came with a manual transmission. The 2 concepts should provide proof that Toyoda’s vision can be done, though Toyota admits that talking about this is just the first step in a long development process. “Many automakers target a 100 percent shift to battery EVs, anywhere between 2030 to 2040”, Toyoda said. “But the reality is that we cannot achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 simply by shifting all new-car sales to EVs. It is important to provide options for cars that are already owned”. +++

+++ Even though TOYOTA is one of the automakers whose top brass have said repeatedly they don’t want to fully commit to EVs, that doesn’t mean they won’t be produced. The Japanese giant currently only makes the BZ4X, but it has plans for many more models, which could use some of the names it recently trademarked. 4 new potential model names were trademarked. The names are BZ1C, BZ2C, BZ3C and BZ4C and we don’t really know what the “C” stands for. It could be to designate models that only have 2 doors (actual coupes), although this seems unlikely. The more obvious answer would be that it could be used for coupe-like models, given that it seems to be the most common use of the term in the last decade in the automotive industry. However, it could just simply refer to the fact that the models it would designate are cars, not crossovers or SUVs. If we break down the BZ4X’s name, the first 2 letters signify “beyond zero”, the number refers to the vehicle’s size and then the final letter tells you that it’s a high-riding crossover. The letter “X” is now very common in the automotive industry and it almost exclusively is used to designate some type of taller vehicle that looks like it could go off-road. In early December 2022, Toyota announced that it was planning to launch five BZ-branded EVs in Europe by 2026. One of them is the production version of the BZ Small Crossover Concept, which has a fastback (or coupe-like) rear end, and it could use one of the newly trademarked names. And since it is expected to slot below the bZ4X in the lineup, perhaps its production name will be BZ2C or BZ3C. Keep in mind that even though manufacturers trademark certain names, they don’t necessarily plan on using all of them and this could be the case this time; Toyota may have done this to make sure another company doesn’t get the rights to these names. +++

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