+++ Several car brands continue to retreat from their previous EV strategies. The latest? ALFA ROMEO . The Stellantis brand has abandoned a plan to go all-electric by 2027 in favour of a multi-energy strategy, Alfa Romeo North America chief Chris Feuell said. The Italian brand previously said the Tonale would be its last model introduced with a gasoline engine when it debuted in 2023, but Feuell told the brand changed course the last month. +++
+++ More than 10 years ago, BMW embarked on a risky strategy to get into electric vehicles when few other legacy automakers were ready. At the time, Tesla was still deep in red ink and few automakers were convinced an EV could ever be sold at a profit. BMW still forged ahead. Today, Tesla is the world’s most valuable automaker, CEO Elon Musk is the world’s richest man and the rest of the auto industry is still trying to figure out how to make EVs profitable. But among the luxury brands, BMW is showing signs of progress, delivering 368.523 EVs globally in 2024; a 12 percent boost over 2023. Mercedes’ global EV sales slipped 23 percent and Audi’s dropped 8 percent. How did BMW do it? BMW executives, of course, will boast about the quality of their current and future EV line-ups. But analysts instead think BMW learned from its early EV experiences. BMW benefited from its development of the i3 electric city car and i8 hybrid sports car. BMW launched the i3 in 2013 and for several years it was 1 of the top-3 EVs sold worldwide. BMW stopped producing the car in 2022. “BMW has been building EVs longer than Audi and Mercedes”, Hamburg automotive analyst Matthias Schmidt says. “They have more competence and a slightly broader product portfolio”. +++
+++ The first official images of the new BMW M3 CS TOURING have hit social media, featuring the more hardcore and certainly more powerful version of the brand’s already thrilling family wagon on the famous Nürburgring race track in Germany. Of course, spy photographers and many others had seen the M3 CS Touring testing before, which BMW acknowledged when it referred to the car as “the not so secret, secret” in one of its social media posts. The standard M3 Touring is already one of the meanest-looking estate cars you might cross paths with on the school run, but the CS version gets an even more aggressive front end design that adds a new splitter with aero fins. Based on spy pictures, there will also be a new grille pattern and yellow daytime running lights, which were both featured on the latest M4 CS that was unveiled last May, and the M3 CS we drove in 2023. The rear hasn’t altered as far as I can tell. The 550 hp engine from the M3 CS and M4 CS has also probably made its way into the M3 CS Touring. This tuned version of BMW’s twin-turbocharged ‘S58’ 3.0-litre in-line-6 cylinder delivers around 20 hp more than the standard M3 Touring, plus 650Nm of torque, and is more responsive, too. As is the case with the regular BMW M3 Touring, the engine will be connected to an 8-speed automatic transmission and a rear-biased, all-wheel-drive system. Whatever power is sent to the rear axle will be managed by an active rear differential. I don’t expect the 0-100 kph time for the M3 CS Touring will be all that much quicker than the standard car’s, which only needs 3.6 seconds to complete the benchmark sprint. But BMW’s CS-badged cars aren’t entirely focused on acceleration figures anyway. They also feature numerous chassis tweaks, such as lowered and stiffened suspension, lighter wheels and carbon-fibre elements to reduce weight. On the M3 CS saloon, the roof, bonnet, front splitter, door mirrors, rear diffuser and spoiler were all made from carbon fibre, along with the bucket seats and other interior trim. I expect the majority of those items to be carried over to the M3 CS Touring, except for the carbon-fibre roof. Exactly when the new BMW M3 CS Touring will be unveiled hasn’t been announced yet, nor have I any idea when the first examples will start hitting the streets. +++
+++ GENERAL MOTORS is in talks with HYUNDAI to strengthen the cooperation agreement that has been in place since last year. By March 2025, the 2 companies hope to sign cooperation contracts for the purchase of components and vehicles for both passenger cars and commercial vehicles. “The agreement will pave the way for our entry into the North American commercial vehicle market”, explained Lee Seung Jo, Hyundai’s CFO, during a financial results conference call. The talks between Hyundai and GM are taking place against a backdrop of political uncertainty in the United States, the world’s second-largest car market after China, which could impose import taxes on Canada and Mexico from February. Hyundai said it was aware of the political risks in the US with president Donald Trump taking office and promising tariffs on imports, but said any negative impact would be greater for Japanese rivals (such as Toyota and Honda). “We expect more trade uncertainties this year than ever before due to potential political changes not only in the domestic market, but also in the US, while in Europe there will be stricter emissions regulations”, said Hyundai’s CFO, who plans to further localise production in the US, in Georgia, to circumvent potential tariffs. Closer cooperation with GM is a step in this direction, as is the fact that Hyundai plans to supply the Ioniq 5 to Waymo to market robot taxis in North America from next year. +++
+++ The LEXUS LS , the first car launched by the Japanese brand here 35 years ago, has been dropped from the European line-up. The decision follows a sustained period of poor sales of the hybrid V6-powered saloon, with just 1 sold in the Netherlands in 2024. This means the ES is the only Lexus saloon still offered in Europe as new. Homologation and legislation issues are other reasons the LS has been dropped, Lexus had confirmed. Elsewhere in Europe, the LS will be replaced by the new LM luxury MPV. The saloon continues to be sold on other global markets. The first-generation LS 400 arrived in Europe in 1990, just after it was launched in the United States; the key market for the brand. Lexus’s first model was used to position Toyota’s offshoot as a maker of refined luxury vehicles that could take on Europe’s and America’s elite for a lower starting price. Since then, a further 4 generations have followed. The final, badged LS 500, being launched in 2017 and subsequently updated in 2020. The brand’s Dutch line-up now comprises the LBX, UX, NX, RZ, RX and ES. +++
+++ RENAULT is betting big on full-hybrid powertrains as a means of transitioning its cars and customers to pure-electric power, and has no plans to expand its PHEV offering beyond the flagship Rafale. Company CEO Fabrice Cambolive told that the decision to focus on full-hybrids, a move that contrasts starkly with heavy recent investment in PHEVs from BMW, Audi, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo and Stellantis, is in acknowledgement of their usability and packaging constraints. He said: “3 or 4 years ago it was not obvious, choosing between mild, full, plug-in hybrid or pure-EV, there were a lot of different ways to manage your engine line-up. What we decided is to bet on full hybrid, because for me that is the easiest way to have low-consumption cars and to prepare our customers to go to EVs”, said Cambolive, highlighting the ‘EV feeling’ they give at low speeds, without the need to be plugged in. Renault’s sole plug-in hybrid (and likely to be its last) is the top-spec Rafale E-Tech 300 4×4, which unusually combines a 1.2-litre 3-cylinder petrol with three EV motors: one on each axle and a starter-generator in the gearbox. A 22 kWh battery supplies enough energy for 110 km of WLTP-rated electric range. Because the Rafale’s PHEV powertrain is based on the lower-powered full-hybrid system, it operates with electric assistance even when the traction battery is empty, making it what Cambolive calls “a plug-in hybrid, hybrid”. He touted the resultant high-efficiency urban running as a primary advantage of this set-up, as well as the outright maximum range of 1.000 km when both the fuel tank and battery are brimmed, and the fact that “you benefit from much more torque and acceleration”. Cambolive also said “you don’t consume more energy when your battery is empty, which is, for me, one of the biggest problems of normal plug-in hybrid cars”. But he has no intention of adapting this concept to suit other models in the Renault line-up, leaving the Rafale as the only recipient of this complex new drivetrain. It is unusual for a mainstream manufacturer to invest in a bespoke powertrain for one model (particularly one as complex as the Rafale PHEV’s), but Cambolive said the fact that the SUV was already offered as a full hybrid made its development more cost-effective. “It’s only the addition of plug-in hybrid technology that we had before, with hybrid technology we have also elsewhere. It’s an intelligent way to associate two technologies which were already available”, he said. Despite that, it will not be scaled down to fit in other models in the Renault line-up, mainly because the Rafale’s large footprint means it can take full advantage of the multi-energy arrangement. Until 2021, Renault offered plug-in hybrid versions of the Megane and Captur, but Cambolive said it no longer makes sense to offer a PHEV in smaller cars. “Look at the Scenic: it has more than 600 km of autonomy”, he said, as an example. “Why should we propose a car of this size with a plug-in hybrid solution, which perhaps in terms of package would not be so interesting (or unique) as Rafale can be in its segment? When you go to the lower segments, if you can’t afford to charge the car, you have a full-hybrid solution, and it’s far enough. Otherwise, you shift to EV. The plug-in hybrid was the cherry on the cake, but with advantages that are linked to the size of the car. “You can put a big tank, you can put four ‘engines’, but you need space to do that in a car, basically, and with some cars up to 4.4 metres, I don’t know if it’s worth it”. Asked if Renault’s push towards a full-hybrid line-up means it has launched its final pure-combustion car, Cambolive said “it depends on the market. We still have ICE engines in a lot of countries. I think that in the short term we will really be focused on hybrid and pure-BEV cars”, he added. That casts doubt on the next generation of Renault’s best-selling model, the Clio, continuing to be offered with a pure-petrol powertrain when it is launched in 2026. Cambolive said that hybridising B-segment cars “is becoming more interesting each time” as battery prices go down, tax on pure-ICE models increases and residual prices for electrified cars gain ground over the pure-ICE alternatives. “You can see in the last 2 or three years that the differential is widening”, he said. However, given the new Clio is set to be a heavily restyled version of today’s car, it is technically possible it can continue to offer the choice of powertrain, but Renault remains tight-lipped on when to expect further details. +++
+++ There will be no plug-in hybrid version of the SMART #5 . The news, which circulated on the Internet following an interview, was denied by smart’s top management, who thus denied the brand’s intention to add PHEV versions to its EV models, both for the Chinese domestic market and for some global markets. The PHEV version will therefore not follow the Smart #5 electric. +++
+++ 2025 is a very important year for the transition to electric vehicles. As we know, the demand for battery-powered cars is currently below the forecasts made in previous years, but the supply of products has increased significantly compared to the past, the technology has made great advances and prices are coming down. The electric car will therefore continue to spread worldwide, and to support vehicles with both 400 and 800 volt architectures, ZEEKR (the Geely Group brand) has announced that it will build a global fast-charging network. Zeekr, one of the world’s fastest growing electric vehicle manufacturers, currently operates the largest ultra-fast charging network in China, with more than 800 ultra-fast charging stations across the country. The Zeekr-branded charging network will be built in Australia, one of its key overseas markets, where the brand’s premium models will soon include the long-awaited Zeekr 7X. The Chinese company will then focus on Thailand, one of the emerging markets in Asia that Zeekr has always been interested in. After Asia and Oceania, the rest of the world will be next. During its Tech Day this summer, the Chinese manufacturer announced that it was ready to launch a new LFP battery pack with super-fast charging later this year. We’re talking about the new generation of the Golden Battery, which will debut on the Zeekr 007 in 2025 and, according to the company, will allow you to charge from 10 to 80 per cent in about ten and a half minutes. +++