+++ ALFA ROMEO could return to the hatchback market, CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato has suggested. The Italian brand left it in 2020, axing the Giulietta after 10 years on sale. The Alfa Romeo Tonale was said to serve as its indirect replacement, but Imparato has refused to rule out building a more closely related new model, despite Alfa’s requirements within the Stellantis group to return premium-level profit margins. “I’m not sure that we don’t make money, even on a hatchback”, Imparato told. The Giulietta was a success for Alfa Romeo, selling 78.911 units across Europe in its best year, before newer rivals eclipsed it in handling, technology and packaging terms. The news comes after the Italian marque hinted that it could stretch into the lucrative luxury electric MPV market too. If Alfa Romeo were to build a new hatchback, the possible Giulietta replacement would most likely sit on the new STLA Medium platform. This way it could take advantage of the economies of scale offered by the 14-brand Stellantis group. Up to 2 million cars can be built on the platform every year, Stellantis has said. The platform was designed principally for electric car drivetrains but with the possibility to add combustion engines. Cars coming to the platform look set to include the Opel Insignia replacement and the upcoming Peugeot E-3008. EVs based on it can drive up to 700 km on a single charge from a 98 kWh battery, with maximum power pegged at 390 hp for now. STLA Medium is natively front-driven, but 4-wheel drive is possible through a motor on each axle. Despite the platform allowing for combustion power, a new petrol-engined hatchback is unlikely, given that Alfa Romeo has said it will be an electric-only brand from 2027. +++
+++ Add Tesla to the list of automakers pumping the brakes on the prospects of ELECTRIC PICK-UP TRUCKS . “We dug our own grave with the Cybertruck”, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during the company’s Q3 earnings call on Wednesday night. “Special products that come along once in a long while are just incredibly difficult to bring to market, to reach volume, to be prosperous. It’s fundamental to the nature of the newness”. Despite the company finally revealing a November 30 delivery date for the Cybertruck, for at least a few select customers, Musk warned of “enormous challenges” in ramping up Cybertruck production and that volume production of 250.000 units would not be reached until 2025. While Tesla and Musk are confident in the Cybertruck demand story, it seems that hasn’t been the case for other EV pickups that are currently on the market. The Lightning has been well-received as a product, though not without some challenges, including a battery defect that affected production earlier this year and other teething pains. While the truck sold well following its release last year, recently sales have been challenged. Ford reported in Q3 that Lightning sales fell 46% year over year to 3.503 vehicles sold. This subsequently led to Ford temporarily cutting a shift at its F-150 Lightning electric pickup plant in Detroit. Though Ford didn’t indicate demand was a problem, the Wall Street Journal reported a United Auto Workers (UAW) official connected with the Lightning’s Rouge assembly plant claiming that “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that our sales for the Lightning have tanked”. Cost may be the biggest issue for Ford at the moment. “Consumers might be hesitant to pay 24% more for an EV pickup versus a petrol-powered truck, which could be causing automakers to rethink their EV pickup strategy until they can make them more cost competitive”, online car shopping site CarGurus CEO Kevin Roberts said. Roberts notes the average new listing price at the end of September for a F-150 Lightning was nearly $76,000, while a regular gas-powered F-150 was around $61,000. Ford’s crosstown rival GM (GM) has also been hearing the rumblings of demand drying for EV pickups. GM said it will delay the conversion of its Orion Assembly plant in Michigan, which was supposed to be repurposed for the production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV pickups, and will push production to late 2025 in order to “better manage capital investment while aligning with evolving EV demand”. “Evolving EV demand” is the key phrase here, as GM just started deliveries of its Silverado EV work truck for commercial customers. “Brands like Chevrolet, Ford and GMC made assumptions about what percentage of their future truck sales would be electric trucks. It’s clear those assumptions were unrealistic based on the current and near-term future demand for these models”, iSeeCars analyst and longtime industry watcher Karl Brauer said. Brauer noted electric trucks, compared to standard EVs, cost more up front and require an even larger dedicated space to store and charge. “Now roll in their compromised real-world functionality, with shorter ranges even before adding passengers, payload or a trailer, and your potential buyers get pretty scarce compared to tractional trucks”, he said. Ford addressed pricing concerns recently with new incentives in the form of $7.500 cash rebates for certain trim levels of the Lightning. With Ford already burning through billions on its EV efforts, price cuts like these will only eat deeper into Ford’s already negative margins for EVs. However, it’s not all lost for the EV pickup sector, if lifestyle trucks like Rivian’s pickup are taken into consideration. Rivian with its pickup and just released R1S (a SUV version) have seen deliveries pickup recently, even as it raised prices after selling out its initial cheaper orders. Rivian delivered 15.564 vehicles in the third quarter, beating Wall Street estimates and up 23% from the second quarter. Rivian also confirmed its 52.000 unit 2023 production goal, as it tries to meet demand for its trucks. Rivian never tried to address the work truck market like Ford and GM; Rivian targeted coastal and higher income buyers who were more interested in recreational activities. Though Rivian is far from profitable, it has been cutting costs and predicts gross profits by 2024. Brauer says Rivian’s success illustrates the variation in market appetite between electric SUVs and adventure pickups, and electric work trucks. “The overwhelming majority of truck buyers purchase their vehicles to satisfy real-world demands that no other vehicle can satisfy. It appears electric trucks aren’t yet capable of satisfying those needs”. While Ford and GM look to invest in their EV future and try to cater to both professional and recreational electric truck buyers, they have other problems at hand which may be curtailing ambitions EV plans. General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, are still embroiled in a bitter UAW contract negotiation. “Uncertainty regarding the UAW strike, and the potential cost of the next labor contract, could be leading to General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis looking to closely watch expenses until a new contract is agreed upon”, CarGurus’ Roberts said. One company that’s targeting that adventure and recreational user, and doesn’t have the UAW contract overhang, is the aforementioned Tesla. And this may provide it a leg up in the unfolding EV pickup wars. “The elephant in the room is the coming Cybertruck”, Roberts said. “If it’s a hit then we’ll probably see OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) get more aggressive with launches”. Brauer predicts a big initial reaction for the Cybertruck, but mass adoption isn’t likely. “Tesla’s customer profile is all about early adopting, ensuring plenty of initial excitement for its first truck. But when it comes to long-term demand and sales volume, it will not be another Model Y”, Brauer said. “Tesla’s buyers are not, by nature, truck buyers. And truck buyers, as we now know, are not by nature electric vehicle buyers. After the initial rush, Cybertruck sales will be like Model S and Model X sales; a fraction of Tesla’s total volume”. Tesla, and its legacy rivals Ford and GM, will be hoping truck buyers will eventually embrace EV pickups as pricing comes down and charging infrastructure improves. It just may not come soon enough as precious capital is allocated for products that consumers want right now, or at least in the near future. +++
+++ JLR (formerly Jaguar Land Rover) workshops are at a “breaking point” due to a GLOBAL PARTS SHORTAGE and the firm has exhausted its fleet of courtesy cars. Around 10.000 customer cars across the United Kingdom are waiting for parts. Around 5.000 are off the road at dealerships. The news came from UK client care director Andrew Woolliscroft, who was speaking to dealerships at the British Motor Museum during a network summit earlier this month. It’s believed the Range Rover Velar is one of the affected models, as is the Land Rover Discovery. The problems originated at the firm’s newest parts facility, Mercia Park. “Mercia is a bottleneck and we have a backlog of orders”, Woolliscroft told the summit. “We have a backlog in inbound. As of today, we have 80 lorries waiting to unload. We have a backlog in packing, as those parts are unboxed and packed into the warehouse”. In a statement, JLR said: “As we deliver our commitment to become carbon-net-zero across our supply chain, products and operations by 2039, we’re streamlining parts distribution from multiple locations to one global super centre. This transition has unfortunately caused some temporary delays to the delivery of parts to our retailers. We’re working closely with our distribution partner, Unipart, to quickly resolve the issue and ensure the service returns to normal as soon as possible for our clients”. Wooliscroft labeled the situation as “unacceptable” and said that it had “nearly stopped workshops from being able to operate”. JLR anticipates that it will be another 6 weeks before the problems will begin to ease. “We’ve run out of cars to put clients into and we’ve run out of space to park the cars waiting on parts”, Wooliscroft said. Some franchise leaders and dealerships also raised concerns at the network summit, saying the issues had been going on for months and that many customers were “unhappy” with the situation. Woolliscroft went on to tell the summit that JLR was “throwing everything” at resolving the problem, with the UK market said to be the “number-one priority”. It isn’t clear at this stage if other international markets are similarly affected. +++
+++ JLR has opened a new facility in Coventry dedicated to developing electric car drive units. The new Future Energy Lab at Whitley (one of JLR’s engineering centres) features test rigs for electrical systems, including cold-weather chambers and capacity for drive-unit production. JLR says the battery-electric Range Rover is among the new cars currently undergoing testing at the facility, ahead of its launch next year. Some 200 engineers are already employed at the Future Energy Lab and JLR said it will create a further 150 roles going forward. +++
+++ JLR says it needs to completely reinvent the LAND ROVER DISCOVERYfor its 4th decade and is starting from a clean sheet. However, with it vying for space alongside the Defender, Range Rover and to a lesser extent Jaguar, this looks like a significant task. It was hard not to raise an eyebrow when JLR’s new CEO, Adrian Mardell, told in August that one of the company’s 4 ‘brand pillars’ was about to undergo a complete rethink. “The brand equity in Discovery is less today, and lots of people have lots of views on why that might be,” he said. “They’re interesting, but they’re only interesting if they’re informative about what [we] do next. We need a dedicated think tank to do that. I’m a great believer in deep and meaningful thinking and giving people the time to do that”. For keen JLR watchers, Mardell’s revelation was something of a surprise. In June, the company gave a mammoth presentation to investors, announcing the business was going to be reworked as a “house of brands”: four of them, to be precise. Defender was described as “embracing the impossible… for adventurous audiences”; Jaguar as “a radical, modern luxury EV brand… the modern luxury experience that is a copy of nothing”; Range Rover as “the peerless leader in modern luxury, delivering the exceptional for the most discerning clients”; and Discovery as “delivering luxurious versatility… delighting new family audiences”. Clearly, that description of Discovery wasn’t quite detailed enough for the new CEO. Indeed, when asked, just 3 months after the presentation, if Discovery could be distilled, as the new Jaguar brand has been, into just 4 words, he said: “It may not do so, as I haven’t got the 4 words I’m looking for. ‘Family’ is most likely to be one of them. ‘Space’ is likely to be one of them. But it’s not for me to create these words, it’s for the experts. It’s for me as a layperson to say they’ve nailed it. We haven’t got to that point yet”. JLR’s UK managing director, Patrick McGillycuddy, added: “Discovery is an important brand, and it has absolute equity, it has space in the market and it has a very loyal customer base. What we’re going through now is understanding how we reimagine the Discovery brand. What space will it fill?” Perhaps it’s no surprise that Discovery needs a much deeper rethink, along the lines of the one that Jaguar has already undergone; a reflection of both the recent sales performance of the 2 Discovery models and the effects of the success of the Defender and the likely introduction of a compact electric Defender Sport. Sales of the current, 7 year old Discovery (which is radically different to its predecessors) have hardly set the world alight. In the 12 months between March 2022 and March 2023, just over 12.000 units left JLR’s factory in Slovakia. By contrast, 75.000 examples of the Defender, its sister car at Nitra, were sold. The long slide started in 2019, when 41.000 Discoverys were sold. In 2020, the total was just 33,600. Of course, JLR was still suffering from the global chip shortage and Covid shutdowns, and it was clearly going to prioritise Defender production. But even so, insiders say it’s clear that the Defender (which is much closer in spirit to the previous generations of Discovery) is taking significant sales from its range-mate. The smaller Land Rover Discovery Sport, which is now 8 years old (although it did receive a comprehensive update in 2019) is also fading fast. Between March 2022 and March 2023, sales fell to around 36.000, after 88.000 units were sold in 2019 and 75.000 in 2020. Again, it was a victim of the chip shortage, age and new challengers. Clearly, the Discovery line (which did so much to boost Land Rover’s fortunes when it was born in 1989) is suffering a mid-life crisis. The polarizing current Discovery has been torpedoed by the new Defender, and the Discovery Sport is aged and facing huge competition. It also now looks increasingly likely that any new Discovery will be based on the upcoming pure-electric EMA platform, which is being installed at JLR’s Halewood plant. With 3 models already thought to be confirmed for this architecture (the third generation Range Rover Evoque, the Defender Sport and what’s believed to be a retro reincarnation of the original Range Rover), JLR has an especially difficult job finding a solid market niche for a reinvented Discovery. So where on earth to start for JLR’s biggest thinkers, who need to define Discovery for 2026, when the only intellectual hard points seem to be ‘family’ and ‘space’? McGillycuddy’s question of “what space will it fill?” seems to be key JLR is set to be selling 6 different SUV models by 2026/2027, so what would be the point of trying to add another? And what sort of Land Rover isn’t just another family SUV? But perhaps we can thread together an argument and a concept for the new Discovery, especially in the context of the other two Land Rover-badged brands. Let’s dig into a presentation made in the summer by JLR’s chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern. He said that the company’s overall vision was to “become proud creators of some of the world’s most desirable modern luxury brands for the world’s most discerning clients” and that the house of brands strategy would have each nameplate “intensely curated” but clearly differentiated, while still using the company’s “well-established modernist design philosophy”. If that sounds a little windy, further along in his presentation he defined the “provenance” of each brand: Range Rover being “British originality”, Defender “British adventure” and Discovery “British ingenuity… designed for any family to enjoy any moment”. McGovern also defined an “aesthetic” for each brand. Range Rover was “iconic”, Defender “heroic” and Discovery “human-centred”. Under “craftsmanship”, McGovern said Range Rover was “finest”, Defender “durable” and Discovery “versatile”. So it’s looking like Discovery is heading towards being a car for more affluent families, marked by its design ingenuity, human-centred and adaptable, capable of fulfilling a wide number of roles. Which sounds rather like a kind of premium MPV interior wrapped in a much more desirable shell with genuine rough-road abilities, but not one that’s too basically rugged and functional. Instead, something with genuine style and lined with tough premium materials. 7 seats will be a certainty. Not a super-Dacia, more a blend of Ford S-Max, Mercedes All Terrain and Audi Q7. And there’s another reason to consider a car that’s rather less aerodynamically blunt than most JLR cars: the new Discovery will be launched as a pure EV and aerodynamic efficiency matters a great deal with those. More specifically, and importantly, is the overall design theme. If there’s a criticism of where JLR is today, it’s that all of its cars are extremely polished to the point of lacking any visual drama. That’s understandable for the Range Rover, which was born out of pure industrial design, but the Range Rover Sport has also lost its edge in pursuit of modernist plush. Much of today’s range is perhaps too refined: cars that are dressed very smart casual when some of them need to look like they are bound for the Arctic Circle, not the dress circle. Less is a bore, as the old design maxim goes. While the Defender is clearly far more expressive than its sibling models, it still leaves a way open for the reinvention of Discovery. Inspiration could be drawn from very high-end outdoor equipment: serious mountaineering and yachting kit offers a wealth of design cues. Versatility means that the completely flat load space of the third generation Discovery needs to be revived, something that should be easy with a skateboard-style EV platform. The materials inside need to be hard-wearing and easy to clean. Moving away from the traditional JLR super-plush interior will give the Discovery brand another USP. As a connoisseur of carrying wardrobes, I can say that the new Discovery’s internal load dimensions need to be around the same as those of the late S-Max: at least 1.975 mm long with the rear seats down and at least 1.130 mm wide. A folding front passenger seat is also essential. That extra width should also allow JLR to meet the dreams of many parents: 3 individual middle-row seats. Size will also matter on city streets, so there’s an opportunity to create something that’s family-sized but not domineering. The second generation Range Rover was 4.7 meter long and 1.87 meter high; perhaps that’s a proportion worth revisiting. Of course, the trick here is to combine all this into a striking new SUV that stands apart from the Range Rover and Defender brands, resulting in a genuine stand-alone offer in JLR showrooms. Indeed, being a house of brands won’t work unless all the brands are distinct. So what four words might describe a new Discovery? Here’s my suggestion: Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Everyday. +++
+++ Most automakers are heading toward an electrified future full-tilt, but some are finding that the path forward will be a little bumpier than expected. MERCEDES is well on its way to converting its petrol lineup to electric, but the company’s franchise dealers are finding it hard to move electric inventory. It took dealers 82 days to sell Mercedes EVs on average in September, much longer than the luxury average of 57 days and rival BMW’s average of just 38 days. The automaker’s electric lineup in the U.S. currently includes the EQS and EQS SUV, the EQE and EQE SUV, the EQB, and the high-end EQS SUV Maybach. With pricing that starts at around $53.000, Mercedes’ EQ line could be suffering from buyer sticker shock and dealers want discounts to help. One store told that Mercedes’ unwillingness to offer incentives was a significant driver of the drop in demand and cited EVs’ prices as a problem, saying, “The EVs are coming whether or not you asked for them or earned them. There is too much of a price premium, especially at the top end of the EQ lineup, and almost no lease support”. Some at Mercedes feel the products are the problem, with one saying that the brand’s cars “need to be ‘want’ cars”, like the S-Class or AMG GT Coupe. They also noted that the EQS is not an aspirational car like its petrol powered counterpart, which is a problem for a vehicle with a 6-figure price tag. Price might not be as large a sticking point for Mercedes buyers as it is for customers of mainstream brands, but everyone is thinking about money right now. Interest rates are high, and everything else in buyers’ lives is more expensive, so the shift could push people to examine the price tags more closely. It’s also true that the EV market has grown out of the early adopter stage and that buyers are far less excited about being guinea pigs for new tech, so there’s little tolerance for rough-around-the-edges vehicles hitting the market. +++
+++ PORSCHE design boss Michael Mauer says heritage can be a key differentiator that gives European car makers the edge over new EV startups from China and elsewhere. The influx of Chinese cars into Europe has prompted much talk about the ongoing competitiveness of legacy local marques, but Mauer (also Volkswagen Group head of design) said companies like Porsche have a secret weapon in the form of design hallmarks established many years ago. “Europe’s car brands have built up a strong heritage, which is the foundation for the fact that people like these brands”, he told. “It’s a big advantage for us, but we have to be aware that the new competition is moving very fast. Design will make the difference in the future. If you have a start-up brand, you start at zero. Your first step is to build up credibility, and therefore designers will become even more important in the future”. Mauer is already planning the next several generations of new Porsche models, some of which, he hinted, will be revolutionary in their style, like the Renndienst Van. But there will also be room for more familiar fan favourites. He said: “You have all these old components which are disappearing, and so we have all this freedom. But the 911 will always be a 911 and must be recognisably so. As Porsche designers, we must not mess around with that, although with EV technology, maybe we can come closer to the original shape of the 911”. A striking mix of retro and cutting-edge design cues will be an important differentiator for future Porsche EVs, as Mauer predicts that raw straight-line speed will become harder to justify and exploit: “This kind of high speed means you must add so much to the car, and on public roads, this won’t play an important role any more. That could lead to lighter and smaller cars”. In 2020, Porsche revealed the Renndienst Van as one of its most shocking concepts yet, and design boss Michael Mauer has said a production version is not entirely off the table. Inspired by the Volkswagen Type 2 race team Vans of the 1960s, the Renndienst Van is a roomy MPV with a central driving position and potentially blistering performance. It has never been tipped for production, but Mauer said electric powertrains give the design flexibility necessary for such outlandish models. “This is a great example of how EV technology is allowing us to change the proportions of cars”, he said. “To meet the expectations of performance, the Renndienst Van would have needed a big engine in the front or the back and then this silhouette would not have been possible”. Mauer added: “I still wish that we had decided to do the car. So far, no decision is taken. But we always include the model when we’re making presentations to the board, and with the new EV technology, so many things are possible. +++
