Volvo to build assembly plant in Slovakia
- 说明
Volvo to build assembly plant in Slovakia
- Slovakia is probably the European country that currently has the most assembly plants (Bratislava, Nitra, Trnava, Zilina) in relation to its population (5.5 million inhabitants). A fifth plant is currently being built, with a production capacity of 250,000 vehicles per year. This is the Volvo plant in Košice, which will produce the future battery electric Volvo EX60 and Polestar 7 models from 2028 (Polestar being a subsidiary of Volvo that produces its own vehicles in China and the United States).
- The Volvo EX60 will be the all-electric version of the future XC60 SUV (D-segment) expected in 2026. It will complete Volvo's EX range, currently composed of the EX30, EX40 and EX90. It will be based on the new SPA3 platform which will integrate advanced technologies such as the assisted driving system.
- The Polestar 7, the first electric vehicle produced by Polestar in Europe, will be an SUV derived from the Volvo EX60 and will therefore share the SPA3 platform, its batteries and its motors with the EX60 SUV. There is no doubt that producing this model in Europe will strengthen the presence and exposure of the Polestar brand.
- Currently, the Polestar lineup consists of the Polestar 2 (D-segment sedan), Polestar 3 (E-segment SUV), and Polestar 4 (E-segment SUV), all with all-electric powertrains. A Polestar 5 sedan (E-segment sedan) is planned for fall 2025. The Polestar 7 SUV (D-segment SUV) is expected to launch in 2026, with some production moving from China to Slovakia in 2028.
Iveco is now a company of the Indian Tata Motors group
- 说明
Iveco is now a company of the Indian Tata Motors group
- The Iveco brand was part of the Fiat Group until 2011 as a subsidiary of Fiat Industrial. In 2013, Fiat Industrial merged with CNH Global to form the CNH Industrial Group . In 2022, Iveco became a standalone group under the name Iveco Group. In 2025, Iveco Group, which still produces heavy utility vehicles, buses and Daily vans over 2 tonnes, has been sharing some light utility vehicles in the N1-2 and N1-3 segments with Stellantis since this year.
- Last month it was annouced that Iveco brand (excluding Defense activity) will come under the control of the Indian Tata Motors (owner of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands) which is already a major producer of heavy utility vehicles in India (under the Tata brand) more than 300,000 units per year. For its part, Iveco produced 120,000 vehicles last year, including around 60,000 Daily and 60,000 heavy utility vehicles and buses.
- The truck sector is in full consolidation following the separation of Daimler 's truck division from Mercedes, the merger of Scania and MAN into the Traton entity (under Volkswagen control) as well as the recent merger of Fuso and Hino.
- Tata Motors' goal is to create – after this acquisition – a global leader in utility vehicles of the same size as the Daimler Trucks, Volvo Trucks or Traton groups.
- The group created by Tata Motors could indeed sell more than 450,000 vehicles per year worldwide, with a strong base in India thanks to the Tata brand and a European base thanks to the Iveco brand. The Agnelli family, owner of part of Stellantis and all of Ferrari, sold the Iveco brand for €3.8 billion (+€1.7 billion for the Defense part sold to the Italian company Leonardo).
The brands that grew the most in Europe in the first half of 2025
- 说明
The brands that grew the most in Europe in the first half of 2025
Joint ventures now represent only 1/3 of Chinese production
- 说明
Joint ventures now represent only 1/3 of Chinese production
- The evolution of the production volume of passenger cars in China (which really started in the early 2000s) was based on two very distinct processes, the first by giving free rein to Chinese brands to produce their own vehicles, sometimes copying foreign productions, and this only until the 2010s when Chinese carmakers now felt capable of innovating on many points, including exterior design (which was the most visible point of copying), and the second which simply consisted of asking Chinese carmakers to produce foreign cars (European, Japanese, Korean, American) under license, via joint ventures, which could allow these Chinese carmakers not only to produce cars in large numbers - based on significant Chinese demand - but also to access advanced technologies in terms of engines, safety, design and on-board electronics. By working alongside foreign engineers and designers, local teams acquired technical and managerial know-how that accelerated their professionalization. Producing under license required Chinese carmakers to meet international quality standards, which improved their reputation and competitiveness. Once the skills were acquired, Chinese brands were able to develop and export their own models, becoming the world's leading vehicle exporters today. But what happened in China is nothing new, as Japan and then Korea had followed a similar approach.
- Both strategies allowed for a parallel increase in the volume of Chinese automobile production until 2020, the date of the Covid crisis. From that date, impacted by the electrification of vehicles decided by the Chinese government, the production of JVs began to decline while the production of Chinese brands increased dramatically, so that by 2024, out of 27.5 million cars produced in China, 18 million will be produced by Chinese brands and 9.5 million by JVs. And the gap will continue to grow.
The brands that declined the most in Europe in the first half of 2025
- 说明
The brands that declined the most in Europe in the first half of 2025
- In a European automobile market (30 countries = EU + United Kingdom + Switzerland + Norway) which fell by 1% in the first half of 2025 compared to the first half of 2024, around forty brands saw their sales fall by more than 1%, while around fifty saw their sales remain stable or increase.
- Among the forty brands that saw their sales decline by more than 1% in the first half of 2025, it is interesting to know which brands were the most affected and what were the reasons for their decline. When we look at this list, we see that the 13 declining brands suffered from the lack of success of their models (Lancia, Smart, Mitsubishi, DS) or the failure of their strategy (Jaguar, Tesla). Toyota lacks battery electric models, which would explain the drop in its sales in Europe in the first half, in a context of a sharp increase in BEV sales.
- If we look at the volume of lost sales in the first half of 2025 compared to the first half of 2024, we see that out of the forty brands that saw their sales decline, 13 brands lost more than 10,000 sales from one year to the next.
- Tesla (-55,000 sales), Fiat (-44,000 sales) and Toyota (-43,000 sales) lost the most sales. But we note that the Stellantis group has suffered much more than the others, since the Fiat, Citroën, Opel, Lancia brands are among the brands having lost the most sales in 2025 and accumulate a loss of 120,000 sales for the four brands. This is twice as much as Tesla's losses.The case of Toyota is more surprising, because this carmaker had been growing for several years.