The most-produced car in Japan in 2023 was the Toyota RAV4
- Details
The most-produced car in Japan in 2023 was the Toyota RAV4
- Japan is currently the world's fourth-largest light vehicles producer (passenger cars & light utility vehicles), behind China, the EU and the USA, with 9 million light vehicles produced in 2023. In Japan, there is a clear distortion between the automotive market (sales), which favors the acquisition of small Kei cars known (similar to European A-segment vehicles), and automotive production, which is more focused on mid-range SUVs.
- Why this specific distortion? Quite simply because Kei cars are not exported, and are limited solely to the Japanese domestic market (even though there may be a demand for them: India, for example, sells 500,000 to 600,000 locally-produced equivalent Kei cars a year). On the other hand, mid-range SUVs are largely exported to countries all over the world.
- The most popular vehicles produced in Japan in 2023 - as in previous years - are the Toyota RAV4 (375,000 units) and the Mazda CX5 (350,000 units). The Subaru Forester (265,000 units), Subaru Crosstrek (175,000 units), Lexus NX (155,000 units) and Nissan X-Trail (153,000 units) also feature in the Top 10.
- There is six SUVs in the Top 10 by 2023. Two Toyota sedans (Corolla: 268,000 units and Prius: 171,000 units) and a Toyota MPV (Noah: 194,000 units) also feature in the Top 10, as does the Honda N-BOX (Japan's best-selling Kei car), which reached a production volume of 230,000 units in 2023. No Daihatsu or Suzuki models feature in the Top 10, these two brands being specialists in Kei cars that are not exported and produced in relatively limited quantities for the Japanese market.
Russian automotive market: growth in 2023 and 2024
- Details
Russian automotive market: growth in 2023 and 2024
- The Russian automotive market, which oscillated between 100,000 and 170,000 vehicles a month before 2022, corresponding to a volume of between 1,600,000 and 1,800,000 units a year between 2017 and 2021, plummeted when the conflict with Ukraine broke out in February 2022. Related to Russia's population (nearly 150 million), this volume of vehicle sold remains low, being roughly equivalent to that of France or Italy, which have 2.5 times fewer inhabitants than Russia.
- The year 2022 was marked by a very low volume of vehicle registered in Russia, in a range of 40,000 to 60,000 per month, 2.5 times less than in the previous five years.
- The year 2023 saw a clear improvement compared to 2022, with a registration volume of between 40,000 and 100,000 per month, with the best figures recorded in the last quarter, between September and December. The annual total for 2023 reached 937,081 vehicles, compared with 687,370 in 2022, representing an increase of 36% but a decrease of 44% compared to 2021, before the outbreak of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
- Over the first six months of 2024, registrations have increased by 95% compared to the first six months of 2023. A market of nearly 1,500,000 units could be reached over the whole of 2024, compared to 1,666,780 units in 2021 and 1,598,825 in 2020. Since 2022, the Russian automobile market therefore seems to have regained new strength, but without European manufacturers. Over the first six months of 2024, Chinese manufacturers hold 61% of this market.
Inovev forecasts 150,000 units per year of the new Fiat Grande Panda
- Details
Inovev forecasts 150,000 units per year of the new Fiat Grande Panda
- The Stellantis Group unveiled the new Fiat Panda, renamed Grande Panda because of its increased dimensions (from 3.65 m to 3.99 m), thus abandoning the A-segment in favor of the B-segment like the Citroën C3, based on the same Smart Car platform (also used by the recent Citroën C3 Aircross and Opel Frontera). This platform was developed for the Stellantis group's low-cost models, to compete with the Renault group's Dacia models.
- The new Fiat Grande Panda (which will marketed alongside the current Panda) will be produced in Serbia at the Kragujevac site (a former Zastava site taken over by Fiat in 2012), and not in Italy like the current Panda.
- The new model is visually more different from the recent Citroën C3 than might have been expected. In fact, it takes up some of the aesthetic themes of the first Fiat Panda, launched in 1980. Slightly shorter than the Citroën C3 (3.99 m vs. 4.01 m), it uses the same engines, a 100 hp (73.5 kW) 48V mild-hybrid petrol unit and a 113 hp (83 kW) electric motor with 44 kWh battery. The range of the battery electric version will be similar to that of the Citroën C3 and Citroën C3 Aircross with the same motor and LFP battery, i.e. 320 km according to the WLTP cycle.
- Inovev forecasts 150,000 units a year of the new Fiat Grande Panda, including 40% electric versions, by 2030.
Jeep to replace the Renegade in 2027
- Details
Jeep to replace the Renegade in 2027
- The B-segment Jeep Renegade was launched in 2014, and its life cycle comes to an end in 2026, after an exceptionally long twelve-year commercial career. Its replacement will be presented in 2026 and marketed from early 2027. At the time of its launch, the Jeep Renegade was the smallest of the Jeep brand's models (this is no longer the case since 2023, as the Avenger is even shorter: 4.08 m vs. 4.24 m).
- The Renegade was designed when Fiat took control of the Chrysler Group, owner of the Jeep brand, creating the FCA Group. Its mission was to appeal to both the American and European public, so it was intended to be marketed on both sides of the Atlantic. But its assembly was planned at Fiat's Melfi (Italy) plant, which produced the model for both the American and European markets. The Jeep Renegade was well received on both sides of the Atlantic, selling up to 200,000 units a year, of which 100,000 in Europe and 100,000 in the USA.
- But certainly due to increased competition in the small SUV category and a late replacement, sales of the Jeep Renegade dropped from 2019 onwards, from 200,000 units in 2018 to 125,000 in 2020 and 85,000 in 2023. The sales drop happened in both Europe and North America.
- Its replacement (electric and ICE versions), scheduled for production in 2026, will this time be based on the Smart Car platform of the Citroën C3, Fiat Grande Panda and Opel Frontera (whereas the current Renegade uses an older Fiat platform). As a result, the new model may cost lower in production than the Jeep Avenger, based on a more expensive platform (CMP1), for both internal combustion and battery electric powertrains.
The ICE version of the Fiat 500 will temporarily put on hold
- Details
The ICE version of the Fiat 500 will temporarily put on hold
- The new generation of the Fiat 500 was born in 2007, exactly fifty years after the first generation in 1957. This internal combustion-engine (ICE) model, produced in Tichy, Poland, reached 200,000 units by 2008, but the following years were less successful, with sales volume between 150,000 and 190,000 units per year until 2019. The year 2020 sees the launch of the battery electric version, slightly different in terms of exterior design, which is produced at Fiat's Mirafiori plant in Italy.
- The sales development of the battery electric version (up to 73,000 units produced in 2023) had a natural consequence on the thermal Fiat 500, with sales falling from 167,000 units in 2019 to 129,000 in 2020 and 119,000 in 2023. However, the total for both versions remains decent, with 192,000 units in 2023, almost as many as the production peak reached in 2008.
- Despite this decent score, the Stellantis Group, owner of the Fiat brand since 2021, has decided to end the career of the current Fiat 500 ICE, produced in Poland, in the coming weeks.
- That leaves the battery electric version produced at Mirafiori (using NMC battery until 2025), which should have replaced the ICE Fiat 500 but failed to do so, no doubt because the price was too high. As BEV sales are not progressing as expected, the Stellantis group has scheduled the launch of a new ICE version of the Fiat 500 but this time, based on the electric version body and produced at Mirafiori.
Inovev platforms >