Smart plans to halt sales of its thermic models in 2020
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Smart plans to halt sales of its thermic models in 2020
- Smart has announced that it plans to stop sales of its Fortwo and Forfour thermal engine models by 2020. Only the electric versions will remain in the catalog of the Daimler group's subsidiary. This strategy returns to the original concept for the brand, devised by Nicolas Hayek, at the origin of the Smart For two project. Until today, several manufacturers have announced the end of sales of their diesel cars (none having taken the risk of announcing the cessation of sales of their diesel commercial vehicles) but none of them had gone so far as to announce the stop of sales of their gasoline models.
- The bet for Smart is risky because the electric versions are only 5% of the production volume of the brand in 2017 (6,700 units sold out of a total of 135,000 units) and according to the first figures for the first quarter of 2018, the proportion of Smart models in electric versions would not exceed 15% this year.
- At this rate, this proportion could represent 25% of sales in 2019 and 35% in 2020, which is already a good result, but not 100%. It is therefore necessary to apprehend Smart's announcement as a sales target that will be difficult to achieve because stopping Smart's thermal models will not necessarily lead to a transfer of customers to the brand's electric models. In this case, a decline in Smart production would seem inevitable.
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Baojun to become GM's best-selling brand in China
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Baojun to become GM's best-selling brand in China
- GM is now present in China under five different brands: Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Baojun and Wuling. The Baojun brand, from Wuling, is quite new since it was created in 2011. But it is on the verge of becoming the best-selling brand of the GM group. The success of Baojun is based on two factors: one linked to the low price of its models and the other linked to the fact that this brand is considered a Chinese brand, which becomes an increasingly important asset when one observes the growth of the market share of Chinese brands in China. Today, 42% of the market is occupied by Chinese manufacturers (36% for passenger cars alone, not counting Baojun, which is counted in the GM group).
- In the first two months of 2018, Baojun occupied 4.4% of the Chinese market (4.6% for Buick) against 4.1% in 2017 (4.9% for Buick). In 2017, for the first time, this brand placed two models in the top 15: the 510 SUV (sixth) and the 730 minivan (fourteenth). In the first two months of 2018, the Baojun 510 has even become the best-selling model in China.
- The success of the Baojun brand is nevertheless at the expense of the Wuling brand that sells only minivans. It is also at the expense of the Chevrolet brand that was the cheapest brand ( outside of Wuling) of the GM group in China before the arrival of the Baojun brand.
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Inovev forecasts 300,000 new Subaru Forester global sales yearly
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Inovev forecasts 300,000 new Subaru Forester global sales yearly
- Subaru (18th world manufacturer in 2017) unveiled the new generation of the Forester SUV at the New York Auto show. This model has its highest sales in the United States (180,000 units sold in 2017 out of a total of 293,000 units produced). The Forester is also the manufacturer's best-selling model (27% of its total sales) and will be as previously exclusively manufactured in Japan (Yajima).
- This year’s launch is the fifth generation that succeeds the latest model released in 2012. Its design remains very close to that of the previous generation. The Forester therefore retains its traditional style that mixes SUV and elevated station wagon features . The real Subaru SUV is the Ascent that was introduced at the last Detroit Auto Show in January 2018.
- Developed on the new modular platform Subaru Global Platform (already used by the XV and Impreza, and soon by the future Legacy, Levorg and Outback), the new Forester is equipped for Europe with a diesel engine H4 2.0 LD developing 147hp and a 150 hp H4 2.0 L petrol engine; the USA will have only the H4 2.5 L gasoline engine developing 182hp. For reasons of emissions level, this engine will not be available in Europe.
- Inovev expects a global total of 300,000 sales per year from the new Forester.
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Inovev forecasts production of 80,000-100,000 XT4s per year
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Inovev forecasts production of 80,000-100,000 XT4s per year
- Cadillac unveiled its new compact SUV (C-segment) at the 2018 New York Auto Show, the XT4. This model complements the brand's SUV lineup, such as the XT5 (D-segment) or the Escalade (E-segment).
- With this XT4, Cadillac ventures into the C segment for the first time, with a model that remains at the top of the segment with its 4.60m length and 1.88m width.
- These dimensions are explained by the fact that it is based on the E2XX platform, designed for D / E segment sedans.
- It is indeed this platform that we find under the bodies of Chevrolet Malibu, Buick Lacrosse, Buick Regal or Opel Insignia.
- This new Cadillac SUV competes not only with the recently renewed Toyota RAV4 (4.60m) and Honda CRV (4.60m), which both have very high sales in the United States, but also with the Lincoln MKC (4.55m) and the Lexus NX (4.63m) and which are even more direct competitors because of being Premium brands.
- Like the Lincoln MKC, its most direct competitor, the Cadillac XT4 is equipped with a 4-cylinder engine: a 2.0l developing 237hp. Inovev estimates the production of XT4 at 80,000-100,000 units a year.
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Ford USA will import the Focus from China as of the 2019 model year
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Ford USA will import the Focus from China as of the 2019 model year
- The Ford group has confirmed that the future generation of the Focus Sedan to be marketed as of the 2019 model year, that is to say starting autumn 2018, would no longer be manufactured in the United States ( on the Wayne - Michigan site) but imported from China where it will now be manufactured (on the Chongqing site).
- The US version of the Focus Sedan is indeed identical to the Chinese Focus Sedan, that is to say, it has an apparent trunk (sedan body), unlike the European version that includes a hatchback. It is therefore easy to manufacture the American and Chinese versions of the Focus Sedan on the same assembly lines.
- The advantage of this transfer of production from the American Focus to China is to concentrate the manufacture of this model on a single site instead of two and to thus double the volume of production of Chongqing. Since in 2017 practically as many Ford Focus were produced in the United States as in China (around 170,000 units for each of the two assembly plants).
- Ford announced that the US plant that now produces the Focus for the North American market will stop this activity at the end of 2018 in order to concentrate during the following year on the manufacture of the future Ford Ranger (2019) and Bronco (2020) light trucks.
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