Renault Kardian begins production in Morocco
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Renault Kardian begins production in Morocco
- Founded in 1959, the Renault Group plant in Casablanca (Morocco), SOMACA, has been entirely owned by Renault since 2019. This plant, which should not be confused with the one in Tangier, has just started assembling the Renault Kardian compact SUV already produced in Brazil. This B-segment model with a low-cost modular platform intended for non-European markets is, let us recall, derived from the Dacia SanderoStepway.
- Today, the Renault plant in Casablanca produces the Dacia Logan and Sandero, at a rate of 95,000 units in 2022 and as many in 2023, compared to 74,000 in 2021 and 68,000 in 2020. These quantities are in addition to the 288,000 cars produced in Tangier in 2023 (mainly Dacia Sandero and Renault Express vans).
- Renault and Dacia remain the sales leaders in the Moroccan passenger car market (39% market share in 2023), which represented 145,000 units in 2023, 143,000 in 2022, 154,000 in 2021 and 117,000 in 2020. It is therefore a stable market that is not challenging for Renault or Dacia. However, Renault thought it was wise to diversify its offering on the Moroccan market with a more SUV-type model, the Kardian, cheaper than a Captur (the Kardian should not be exported to Europe).
- Due to a production capacity limited to 120,000 vehicles per year, the Renault plant in Casablanca could produce between 25,000 and 30,000 Kardians per year, provided that this model does not take too much on Sandero sales.
- In 2025, Morocco should produce 520,000 cars, including 280,000 in Tangier (Renault), 120,000 in Casablanca (Renault) and 120,000 in Kenitra (Stellantis).
Fiat plant in Kragujevac (Serbia) starts production of the Fiat Grande Panda
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Fiat plant in Kragujevac (Serbia) starts production of the Fiat Grande Panda
- While the launches of the Citroën C3, Citroën C3 Aircross and Opel Frontera had to be postponed by several months due to technical problems encountered on these models based on the new "Small Car" platform closely derived from the Stellantis models assembled in India, the launch of the Fiat Grande Panda (unveiled in July 2024 and based on this same "Small Car" platform) will take place as planned, in January 2025. This model will begin production at the Fiat site in Kragujevac (Serbia), which had temporarily ceased production after the Fiat 500 L production was stopped. Inovev is forecasting 150,000 units per year of the new Fiat Grande Panda, 40% of which will be electric versions over the next few years.
- The Fiat Grande Panda will first be marketed in a battery electric version (the most expensive version) and then an MHEV version should appear during the summer of 2025. This second version, cheaper than the battery electric version, will certainly be the best-selling.
- Remember that the Grande Panda (B-segment sedan) will not put an end to the original Fiat Panda (A-segment sedan), which should continue its career until 2030 according to information from Stellantis. The Fiat Panda, powered only by petrol engines, will still be produced at the Italian site in Pomigliano, near Naples, and will represent Fiat's entry-level model in Europe since the Fiat 500 with a combustion engine was stopped this fall.
- As for the electric Fiat 500, its production temporarily stopped in October 2024 - due to a lack of orders - should not resume until January 2025, according to information from Stellantis. The future hybrid version of the Fiat 500 is eagerly awaited by the network because the discontinuation of the thermal and electric Fiat 500s is creating a major loss of revenue for the brand.
Inovev forecasts 15,000 units per year of the new DS No. 8
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Inovev forecasts 15,000 units per year of the new DS No. 8
- The Premium DS brand belonging to the Stellantis group has just presented its new high-end model named "No 8" which replaces the DS9 sedan whose production is carried out in China. N° 8 inaugurates a new nomenclature directly inspired by Chanel perfumes (N° 5) allowing the car, and in the future the other models of the DS brand to try to get closer to the luxury domain. Indeed, DS has registered the names "N° 1" to "N° 9" for its future models.
- N° 8 is more a coupe SUV than a sedan, the relatively slender line being derived from the Peugeot 3008 SUV but stretched to 4.82 m (compared to 4.54 m for the 3008) and lowered to 1.58 m (compared to 1.64 m) which brings it closer to the dimensions of an Audi Q6 E-Tron or a BMW i4. This Premium model uses the STLA Medium platform of the recent Peugeot 3008 and 5008. It is available in 2 different versions: a 2-wheel drive version (169 kW and 180 kW) and a 4-wheel drive version (257 kW).
- The engines are produced at the Trémery site (France) by Emotors. The NMC batteries are also assembled in France, at the Douvrin site (ACC). They have a capacity of 74 kWh (for the 169 kW version) or 97.2 kWh (for the 180 kW and 257 kW versions) allowing a range of 572 km or 750 km respectively, according to the WLTP cycle. The weight of N° 8 is between 2,130 kg and 2,290 kg depending on the version. N° 8 will be offered in 2026 in version 1.2 MHEV 136 hp or 100 kW and in version 1.6 PHEV 195 hp or 143 kW which reflects the de facto abandonment of all-electric at DS.
- N° 8 will be assembled on the Italian site of Melfi alongside the future Lancia Gamma and Jeep Compass based on the same platform. Inovev is forecasting 10,000 sales of N° 8 in 2025, 15,000 in 2027 and 19,000 in 2030.
BMW plant in Debrecen (Hungary) to start production at the end of 2025
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BMW plant in Debrecen (Hungary) to start production at the end of 2025
- The BMW assembly plant in Debrecen (Hungary) will finally start up at the end of 2025, producing a new generation of the BMW iX3, a battery electric D-segment SUV.
- It should be remembered that the current electric iX3 has been assembled in China since 2020 in a factory owned by its historic partner Brilliance, recently renamed Shineray. It is sold worldwide and could continue to be produced and sold in China after the launch of the new generation of the iX3 produced in Europe at the end of 2025 (It should be noted that the current battery electric iX3 is derived from the X3 model produced in the USA since 2010 and still currently).
- The new version of the iX3 will differ from the fourth generation of the BMW X3 (G45) assembled in the USA and launched in Europe in June 2024 because it will adopt a new platform dedicated to the carmaker's battery electric vehicles and a new style inspired by the "NeueKlasse" unveiled last year and seen again at the 2024 Paris Motor Show last October.
- The name "NeueKlasse" refers to the first BMW 1500 designed by designer Michelotti and presented in 1961 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, which marked a new beginning for the Munich brand after difficult years.
- The success of the future iX3 will depend mainly on the success of electric SUVs in Europe from now to 2030. The current generation produced in China at 45,000 units in 2021, 64,000 in 2022, 71,000 in 2023 and 50,000 in 2024 was mainly sold in China. The future iX3 will therefore have to expand its scope to Europe.
Stellantis may close its Luton plant in 2025
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Stellantis may close its Luton plant in 2025
- In the first 10 months of 2024, Great Britain produced 105,834 light utility vehicles, including 72,547 in Luton (59,951 thermal and 12,596 battery electric in the first 10 months of 2024), and 15,685 in Ellesmere Port (over the same period, all battery electric).
- While the Stellantis group announced last summer that it could close one of the two assembly plants in Great Britain that it currently owns, and we could think that it would be the Ellesmere Port plant, which production volume has become very low since the end of assembly of the Astra sedan in 2022 (transferred to the Rüsselsheim site in Germany), the carmaker announces that it may close the Luton plant as early as next year. The Luton plant assembles some of the group's N1-2 segment vans, namely the Opel Vivaro, Peugeot Expert, Citroën Jumpy and Fiat Scudo, in both thermal and electric versions.
- The carmaker's management wishes to concentrate the production of electric vans of all segments on the Ellesmere Port site, which already assembles the electric versions of the N1-1 segment vans, namely the Opel Combo, Peugeot Partner, Citroën Berlingo, Fiat Doblo and Toyota ProAce City. The electric vans currently produced in Luton (12,596 over the last 10 months) will therefore be transferred to the Ellesmere Port plant. The Ellesmere Port site would therefore offer a potential of at least 30,000 vehicles produced in 2025, a figure that should tend to increase until 2035, due to the European electrification policy.
- The thermal versions of the N1-2 segment vans (59,951 units in the first 10 months of 2024), currently produced in Luton, will be concentrated on the French site of Hordainwhere most of the Opel Vivaro, Peugeot Expert, Citroën Jumpy, Fiat Scudo and Toyota ProAce are already produced.