+++ The next ALFA ROMEO Giulia Quadrifoglio will arrive in 2026 as the firm’s most potent car to date, with power outputs nudging 1.000 hp and onboard artificial intelligence that is able to tweak handling characteristics. The next Giulia will be underpinned by parent company Stellantis’s new STLA Large platform. The structure is said to be “BEV-native”, but it can also host combustion and hybrid powertrains, like the platform Alfa Romeo is using for the new Junior crossover it has just revealed. Stellantis boasts of the Large platform’s game-changing potential, claiming its quickest cars will hit 100 kph from rest in around 2.0 seconds. They will be fitted with 118 kWh battery packs, giving range figures of around 800 km. Alfa Romeo CEO Jean-Philippe Imparato previously said the new Giulia Quadrifoglio would offer “around 1.000 hp”, which is a marked rise compared with its most powerful saloon thus far, the 540 hp GTAm. The Dodge Charger Daytona, the STLA Large platform’s debut model, gives clues to what cooking versions of the Giulia (which is expected to be a close relation) could offer. It uses an electric motor on each axle, combining for 500 hp in the entry-level R/T car and 680 hp in the range-topping Scat Pack. Its 93.9 kWh battery pack can be recharged from 20-80% in a claimed 27 minutes, at rates of up to 183 kW. Imparato said this will be reduced to “within 18 minutes” for the Giulia, whose electricals run at 800 Volt rather than the 400 Volt in the Charger Daytona. Alfa Romeo has committed to “100% zero-emission sales in 2027”, but it’s possible that, due to the watering down of Euro 7 emissions legislation, the next Giulia could also offer a combustion engine. Speaking last September, a month before Euro7 was softened, product chief Daniel Guzzafame said the brand’s EV-only transition would depend on the legislation. “No company will invest to meet Euro7”, he added recently. “That means only one thing: you can draw the line from there; it’s just not sustainable. It will depend on the regulation”. Separately, Imparato suggested Alfa Romeo would be open to keeping combustion-engined cars on sale for longer if legislation allowed. The Charger Daytona, for example, is offered with a combustion engine, in its case a 560 hp twin-turbo 3.0 straight-6, which would be a logical successor to the 2.9-litre V6 used by today’s hot Giulia. However, Imparato has previously said the existing V6 engine could survive following the weakening of the Euro7 proposal. Regardless of what is under the bonnet, the next Giulia also promises to unlock extra dynamic potential thanks to a new on-board computer. Called ‘STLA’ Brain and making its debut next year on the next-generation Stelvio, it will use artificial intelligence to tweak the handling to a driver’s preference. Over-the-air software updates will provide further advances during the car’s lifespan, with the potential to unlock extra power, range or charging speed. The Brain’s hardware also has ramifications for the in-car experience. Imparato has suggested it allows for a ‘ghost car’ to be projected onto a head-up display to show the position you should take on the road. He added, however, that Alfa Romeo won’t try to outgun its German rivals on in-car entertainment. “My customers aren’t looking for metre-wide infotainment screens in their cars or 200 digital assistance systems to switch on and off”, he said. The Giulia’s interior will instead put a focus on the interaction between car and driver by reinventing several design cues inspired by Alfa Romeo’s heritage. The double-cowled ‘cannocchiale’ (telescopic) instrument panel will return, for example, displaying only the essential information about the state of the car. Imparato said: “What I don’t need is to know the weather for 3 weeks’ time. I don’t care. I’m here to drive”. A synthetic exhaust note, as featured on the Abarth 500e, is not on the cards for any electric Alfa. “I will never allow fake noise, but we might put vibrations back into an electric car”, Imparato said, hinting at the potential for synthesized gearshifts and ‘revs’. Visually, the Giulia will straddle conventional segments, having been described by Imparato as a “tipping point” between a saloon and an estate. He has also been emphatic in stating that it will remain a low-slung proposition, which would leave the taller Stelvio SUV to capitalize on SUV sales. “I don’t want to become a SUV brand even if the world is switching to a SUV”, Imparato added. The Giulia will reintroduce several design cues from historic Alfa Romeos, most notably including the abrupt ‘Coda Tronca’ rear end. Nonetheless, it will remain a thoroughly modern proposition. Design boss Alejandro Mesonero-Romano warned: “We have to be careful how much inspiration we take from the past. As designers, a little like chefs, the aim is to mix classic ingredients into a ‘new sauce’ that today’s generation will respond to”. The new Giulia will replace the current car on the line at Stellantis’s plant in Cassino, Italy, where it will join the next Stelvio and the Maserati Grecale. A new Maserati Quattroporte, based on the same structure, had been scheduled to enter production at Cassino next year, but this has been postponed until 2028 for further development and cost reductions. In the meantime, Alfa Romeo is set to expand its line-up significantly with ambitions of global growth. Its first series-production electric car, the Junior, is due in dealers in a matter of months, and the new-generation Stelvio will follow next year. An electric Porsche Cayenne rival is due in around 2027, and senior executives have suggested it could be joined by several niche models, following the launch later this year of the €2 million, highly limited 33 Stradale supercar. Mesonero-Romano has hinted that the company may revive the Autotutto Van as an MPV for the Chinese market, and Imparato has openly discussed his ambition to revive both the GTV and the Spider Duetto as electric cars. The firm has stressed, however, that a reborn Spider will only be possible once Alfa Romeo has a 5-strong line-up of more mainstream-oriented models on sale. +++
+++ When Gernot Döllner arrived in Ingolstadt last September to start his new role as chief executive officer and chairman of AUDI , he probably found quite the to-do list in a bulging in-tray. Shortly before Döllner’s appointment, Volkswagen Group chair Oliver Blume described Audi as “lagging behind the competition”. That’s why the job had become vacant in the first place: former boss Markus Düsmann was sacked, reports suggest, because of numerous delays to the flagship Q6 e-Tron. But getting the Q6 e-Tron project back on track was just one challenge facing Döllner. Audi was gearing up for the biggest wave of product launches in its history, while facing an increased challenge from new Chinese rivals, trying to keep pace with BMW and Mercedes-Benz, coping with a slowing market for electric vehicles and dealing with ever-changing regulations. Whereas Düsmann had jumped across from BMW to oversee Audi in 2020, Döllner wasn’t a flashy hire. The 55-year-old has been at the Volkswagen Group since 1993, with the bulk of his career spent at Porsche, where he worked with Blume. Among other roles, he was product manager for the 918 Spyder and the Panamera model series. Since 2021, he has been VW’s group strategy boss; a key if somewhat back-room role. That seems to fit Döllner’s style, and explains why he doesn’t seem at all fazed by the challenges ahead of him at Audi. In fact, his demeanour is a great fit for the brand: it’s not about being showy; it’s about being efficient, considered and decisive. Since he started at Audi 6 months ago, Döllner and his board have spent their time laying out a new strategy for the company, which has been called the Audi Agenda. See, told you he wasn’t flashy. The agenda is intended to help tackle the key issues affecting the firm. “We’re currently managing the biggest model initiative in Audi’s history”, he says, “while at the same time driving forward a fundamental transformation”. So the agenda will provide “clarity for the company” and it “contains everything we need to take Audi forward again”. That starts with a focus on 4 key areas: products, technology, the brand and key regions, with a particular emphasis on raising performance in China and the US. Döllner has revamped the company structure to make it leaner, with more entrepreneurship. He describes products lines as now being “companies within companies”. The focus is on getting Audi back to what it does best, and that can be succinctly summed up in 3 words: Vorsprung durch Technik. Strangely, those aren’t words that have been heard coming out of Ingolstadt much in recent years, but expect that to change. Döllner says that, when formulating his agenda, the board has “some quite intense discussion” regarding the brand. “I grew up with Vorsprung durch Technik, but in the last few years, with not having new products, it was not the right time to talk about it”, he says. “But this is still the core of the brand. We have to find a new interpretation, but what remains is bringing technology that helps people. It’s a more holistic view on the customer perspective. That covers design, quality, engineering and even the customer experience”. The increased emphasis of Vorsprung durch Technik might sound like Audi is joining the likes of Volkswagen and Renault by looking to its heritage, but Döllner says: “That’s not our perspective”. He adds: “Being innovative is part of our DNA. Vorsprung and technology is always innovation. We look forward: it’s software; it’s artificial intelligence; it’s service quality. We have a rich heritage, and we will use that, but it’s more of an add-on. It’s the spice in the meal”. New software technology has presented Döllner with his biggest challenge: problems with the E3 software architecture co-developed by Audi and Cariad (the VW Group’s software arm) caused the Q6 e-Tron’s launch to be delayed, threatening to disrupt the firm’s ambitious plan to introduce 20 new models in the next 2 years. Döllner says: “We’ve put a lot of emphasis on optimizing the way we develop software and products. We’ve worked to smooth the processes and operations and we’ve taken big steps”. Given the rising importance of software in new cars (and the goal of ‘software-defined vehicles’, which offer more potential for customisation and subscription services), future software issues could prove even more disruptive. But Döllner insists: “We’ve learned our lesson”. Although he is a VW Group veteran, Döllner is new to Audi and is no continuity candidate, and he’s already reshaped some of the core team. Former technical chief Oliver Hoffmann has been moved to a new role as chairman of Audi’s nascent Formula 1 operation, with Döllner himself taking charge of technical operations. Insiders have suggested that Hoffmann’s move was a response to the software issues that delayed the Q6 e-Tron, but Döllner says: “We decided to put more emphasis on our Formula 1 project and Oliver Hoffmann is the right person to do that. He started that project and, as we step in even more intensively, he’s the right one to lead that project: he’s a racer; he’s an engineer; he’s a developer”. Just as significantly, long-time Audi design chief Marc Lichte will shortly be replaced by former JLR design director Massimo Frascella. “Marc did an excellent and outstanding job for Audi, with really strong products on the market,” says Döllner. “It’s not that anything is wrong, but we thought it might be time after 10 years (for design, that’s a historic era) for a change”. Frascella will find much to keep him busy when he starts his new job: the Q6 e-Tron and recently revealed A3 facelift are the first of 20 new or updated models due by the end of 2025. Those will include both new EVs, including the A6 e-Tron liftback, and combustion-engined models, including the new A5 and Q5 that will be launched this year. Notably, those 2 models will use what Audi is calling a new ICE platform named Premium Performance Combustion (PPC). Although the timeframe has been slightly stretched from the plans announced by Düsmann a year ago, Döllner says that the challenge is still “huge, I’ve never seen anything like it in my career so far. I’m sure when we look back we’ll say: ‘How did we do that?’ ”. SUVs will be a major priority early in the offensive, especially in the US, but Döllner insists that Audi will not simply become an SUV maker. “The core of our brand will be 3 platforms for low car and 3 for SUV models”, he says. And yes, that means Avant models will continue. “Avant will be part of the Audi DNA as long as our customers ask for it”, says Döllner. “It could be an interesting opportunity, because there are not so many electric ones around”. Performance models will also remain part of the Audi range in future, with the continued expansion of Audi Sport’s RS range, for both combustion-powered and electric cars. “We need emotional derivatives and products, and we are working on it”, says Döllner. “We are thinking about highly emotional additional products, but it’s still too early to talk about that”. He adds that stand-alone performance models, such as a spiritual successor to the R8 or TT, are “in our target portfolio”. One major challenge facing Döllner is increased competition from Chinese brands; both in that country and in the new models they are now exporting to Europe. “Competition is good”, he says. One area where Audi is learning from Chinese brands is in accelerating product development. The future small electric model that will sit below the Q4 e-Tron will be “developed in around 3 years”, says Döllner, adding: “Working in China for China, we’ve learned a lot about new development techniques and processes”. Döllner is clear on the need to give Audi flexibility in its future plans. The brand has previously committed to going all-electric by 2033, but the renewal of its combustion line-up in the coming years will provide considerable freedom. Döllner notes that plug-in hybrid tech has become “a field where we have to plan to do more”, particularly in the US and China. “7 or 8 years ago, PHEV was very strong and then it went down a bit”, he says. “Everybody knows it’s a bridging technology and it still is. But the bridge is longer than we expected”. In Europe, Döllner expects “a direct switch to battery-electric because of CO2 legislation, but that’s more opinion than knowledge”. The uncertainty over future regulations is definitely a frustration and Döllner wishes that politicians would give clearer targets “in whichever direction”. He adds: “Right now, our strategy is more long term than any politician’s in the world anywhere”. So what of that long-term plan? Asked if Audi still wants to become a fully electric brand by 2033, Döllner says: “That’s our firm plan”. But he then quickly adds: “If we see in 2026 that ICE is of more relevance in some regions of the world, we’ll definitely discuss that. It doesn’t make sense to be dogmatic. We are flexible”. +++
+++ In March, sales by cars from CHINA accounted for 33% of the world’s monthly 8.15 million vehicle sales, says Cui Dongshu, Secretary-General of the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). In the first quarter of 2024, 21.05 million vehicles have been sold worldwide, a year-on-year increase of 3%. From 2016 to 2018, Chinese car sales accounted for about 30% of the world’s car sales, then dropped to 29% in 2019. The share rebounded to 32% in 2020 to 2021 and rose to 33% in 2022. The company with the biggest world market share is Toyota with 10.6%. (Chinese Market: 4%, North American Market: 14%, European Market: 7%). Next is Volkswagen with ‘9.5% 10% 5% 21%’. The rest of the top-17 are: Hyundai Motor Group (7.4 1 10 7), Stellantis (6.9 0 8 18), Renault-Nissan alliance (including Mitsubishi 6.5 3 8 12), General Motors (5.4 5 15 0), Honda (4.7 3 13 1), Ford (4.7 4 8 3), Suzuki (4.0 0 0 1), Geely (3.5 2 3 6), BYD (3.2 9 0 0), Chery (3.0 3 0 0), Mercedes Benz (2.9 8 2 3), BMW (2.7 7 2 3), Changan (2.6 8 0 0), SAIC (1.7 4 0 1) and Mazda (1.4 0 3 1). Among the global automaker sales rankings in 2024, Toyota ranked first, with a market share of 10.6%, and is the only auto group with more than 10% market share, followed by Volkswagen and Hyundai, with 9.5% and 7.4%, respectively. Together, these 3 companies accounted for 27.5% of the world’s market share. Among the Chinese companies, Geely is the only automaker that made it into the top-10 list. In the first quarter of 2024, Geely sold 738.400 vehicles, accounting for 3.5% of the world’s market share. BYD came closely behind Geely, claiming 3.2% of the world’s market share. Additionally, the top-5 Chinese auto exporters in the first quarter of 2024 are SAIC, Chery, Great Wall Motor, BYD and Geely. +++
+++ HONDA is changing the naming of its electric cars after customers found the e:N badging too difficult to pronounce. The Japanese brand unveiled the new naming system at the Beijing motor show, starting with the Ye P7 large SUV that will go on sale in China later this year. Honda Europe imports its sole EV, the e:Ny1, from China, where the e:N naming convention comes from, and the name will be changed when the car is facelifted, a source close to Honda said. The brand told, however, it did not intend to change the name of the crossover in Europe. The update, expected next year, will also incorporate some of the design features of the P7, including the illuminated Honda badge, the source said. In China, Honda uses either the e:NS1 or e:NP1 name for its small electric SUV, depending on whether the car is made by its joint venture with Dongfeng or that with GAC, while in Europe it uses e:Ny1. Under the new naming scheme, Honda in China has kept the P and S letters depending on which joint venture builds the car, meaning it could in Europe rename the car the Y1. Keeping the Y element would also avoid awkward conversions with McLaren or Audi if using the P1 or S1 name. Audi has been very protective of its naming system, last year forcing Chinese EV maker Nio to change the name of its ES6 and ES8 SUVs on the basis that they sounded too much like S6 and S8. The new P7/S7 is the first of Honda’s new Ye Series cars, based on a newly developed EV-specific platform. Honda has said it will launch a total of 10 new EVs in China by 2027. The separate EV branding is part of a strategy by Honda in China to move its brand upmarket in the switch to electric in an effort to better compete amid the price war. The switch to the new naming and design language came too late for the new e:NS2 midsize hatchback, which has just gone on sale in China at ¥159,800; €21.000); a price so cheap that Honda loses the equivalent of €6.500 per car, the source said. The e:NS2, which could potentially follow the e:Ny1 to Europe, has a 68.8kWh battery pack for a (optimistic) CLTC range of 550 km. Honda sells the e:Ny1 in the Netherlands and it has been giving heavy discounts in an effort to hit its CO2 mandate target for 2024. +++
+++ HYUNDAI and its smaller affiliate KIA said they have inked an agreement with China’s hightech giant Baidu to develop technologies for connected cars. Under the memorandum of understanding signed in Beijing last week, the 2 Korean carmakers and Baidu will join hands in a wide array of areas, including connectivity and self-driving technologies. Hyundai and Kia will also utilize Baidu’s smart cloud computing technology to address Beijing’s enhancing data regulations. The Korean companies will seek to find new business models harnessing artificial intelligence technologies with the Chinese counterpart as well, they added. “Through the strategical collaboration with Baidu, we will make efforts to establish the ecosystem for connected cars in the Chinese market”, Hyundai and Kia said in a press release. The agreement came amid the growing market for connected cars in China. The annual sales of connected cars in China are anticipated to reach 17 million units this year, marking a sharp rise from 7.2 million units tallied in 2019, Hyundai said, citing Chinese data. Hyundai has been working closely with Baidu since 2014, including the development of voice recognition technology. +++
+++ Conventional wisdom says that LEGACY MAKERS with their joint ventures in China have had it and are rapidly loosing market share to dynamic Chinese companies with more compelling new energy vehicle offerings. Wang Chuanfu, the CEO of BYD, has gone as far as saying that he expects their share of the Chinese market to fall to around 10%, the current figure is around 45%. What if this is all wrong? April sales figures from SAIC’s joint venture partners Volkswagen and General Motors suggest that it may be too soon to write the eulogy for legacy producers. For SAIC-GM sales of NEVs across the Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet brands were 8.762 cars a year-on-year increase of 93.1%. Although Shanghai Volkswagen haven’t announced an exact figure the company says they sold more than 10.000 cars in the ID range in April, an increase of 56%. This matches the over 10.000 achieved in March. In the first quarter of 2024, overall sales for the Shanghai Volkswagen JV increased by 11.4%. Such results contrast sharply with the 8% decline in sales for the joint venture last year, GM did even worse in 2023 falling by 14.5%. To put these figures more in context: Nio sold 15.620 while XPeng managed 9.393. These numbers were up 134.6% and 32.7% respectively. Furthermore, the Shanghai Volkswagen total is only for the ID range and doesn’t include other NEVs, mainly PHEV versions of the regular range. The immediate prospects for NEV sales by both the SAIC joint ventures seem promising. General Motors showed the new Cadillac Optiq EV at the Beijing Auto Show. The new all-electric SUV on the Ultium platform. Also shown at the show were 2 promising EV concepts from Buick which will likely result in production models within the next year. More immediate though was the opening of sales for the PHEV version of the GL8 MPV. Once the best-selling MPV in China the GL8 has in recent years been hampered by the lack of any PHEV or all electric version and has seen sales slip away to competitors that offer such choices. Within 72 hours of the opening of sales the new GL8 PHEV had secured 10.017 orders. And Buick plans to launch an all-electric version of the GL8 in the future. The situation with Volkswagen is more complex due to the company having the ID series currently shared between the SAIC and FAW joint ventures. This is set to become even more complicated with the EV offerings from Volkswagen Anhui. There are however a number of new EV offerings that will be offered, first off versions of the ID.7 from both JV partners. These will be joined by cars like the ID.Unyx, a production version of the ID.Code along with the cars resulting from the VW and XPeng collaboration. If there is one thing that this year’s Beijing Auto Show teaches us, it is that the legacy producers are realizing that they need to offer more in the way of EVs in China. This was evidenced by the 2 new Toyota EVs, the Mazda EZ-6 and the new Honda offerings of the Ye and Lingxi L. Yes, the joint ventures are struggling, but they are not willing to completely capitulate in China and are finding new ways of making the market work, even if as in the case of Kia it is just as largely an export production base. +++
+++ In South-Korea, MERCEDES overtook BMW to become the leading foreign automobile company in terms of sales in April, data showed Friday. According to data from automobile market tracker Carisyou, the number of newly registered Mercedes-Benz models reached 6.369 units out of the total 21.506 foreign vehicles sold in the country last month. BMW, which took the lead during the January-March period, finished second, selling 5.644 units. Tesla came in third place with 1.722 units. In terms of individual models, Mercedes-Benz’s E-Class vehicles sold 1.893 units, followed by Tesla’s Model 3 and BMW’s 5 Series vehicles, which sold 1.716 units and 1.480 units, respectively. The total number of newly registered cars in April in Korea, including both domestic and imported vehicles, amounted to 137,725 units, down 8.9 percent from a year ago. +++