The new Mercedes X-Class will be produced at 30 000 units/year according to Inovev forecasts
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The new Mercedes X-Class will be produced at 30 000 units/year according to Inovev forecasts
- Mercedes has unveiled its X-Class pickup, which is in the medium-sized pickup segment, by the side of the Nissan Navara and Renault Alaskan from which it originated. This vehicle is a new fruit of the partnership between Daimler and Renault-Nissan.
- Mercedes did not have a medium-sized pick-up until today, while this market represents 2 million sales per year worldwide and the manufacturer expects a 40% growth of this market by 2025 (or 2.8 million sales at that date).
- The Mercedes X-Class pick-up (which could also be called GLT in some markets) will be marketed in 2017 in Europe and in 2018 in Australia, South Africa and South America. The Australian, South African and South American markets should be the main markets for the X-Class, which should remain a marginal model in Europe.
- Moreover, Mercedes is still considering the possibility of commercializing this model on the North American market,
as sales of medium-size pickups have decreased significantly in this region.
as sales of medium-size pickups have decreased significantly in this region.
- The X-Class will be assembled for the European market at the Nissan plant in Barcelona, Spain, alongside its cousins Nissan Navara and Renault Alaskan and for other international markets in the Renault plant in Cordoba, Argentina, where the Nissan Navara and Renault Alaskan are also manufactured.
- Inovev expects 20,000 to 30,000 X-Class sales a year. 
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Geely creates the brand Lynk & Co
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Geely creates the brand Lynk & Co
- The Chinese manufacturer Geely (owner of the Swedish Volvo) has just finalised the creation of a new car brand called Lynk & Co. The Chinese manufacturer aims to sell 500,000 vehicles under this brand each year from 2020. Its models will be based on Volvo (CMA) platforms. It is to note that the Geely group sold 1.04 million vehicles in 2015, including 0.54 million under the Geely brand and 0.5 million under the Volvo brand.
- The first model Lynk & Co (a compact SUV called 01) was unveiled this month and will be marketed in China at the end of 2017, then in Europe and the US at the end of 2018. Other models will follow, including electric and hybrid vehicles .
These vehicles will all be assembled in China.
These vehicles will all be assembled in China.
- The brand wants to innovate by offering a vehicle delivery service and a service to exchange its vehicle for another model after two years. Its models will only be distributed via a website, not through a network of dealers (like the Tesla). And while carmakers usually first design a vehicle and then integrate connected services, Lynk & Co has done the opposite, the vehicle being designed around its connectivity services.
- Geely wants to make Lynk & Co the first Chinese brand to clearly differentiate itself from other car brands and to have a global base. The project seems very ambitious but hardly feasible.
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The new Mini Countryman will be produced at 100 000 units/year according to Inovev forecasts
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The new Mini Countryman will be produced at 100 000 units/year according to Inovev forecasts
- The brand Mini (subsidiary of the BMW group), specialized in compact cars (C-segment) and subcompacts (B-segment) unveiled the new generation of the Countryman, SUV version of the Clubman.
- Longer by 20cm than the previous model and wider by 3cm, it can be considered that the new Countryman (4.30m long) passes from B-segment to C-segment (a Nissan Qashqai is 4.37m long), the segment which Is the most popular in the SUV category. The new Countryman is sized between an Audi Q2 (4.20m) and an Audi Q3 (4.40m).
- The new Mini SUV adopts the new BMW platform (UKL) designed for front wheel drive models. This platform is already used on the other Mini recently renewed as well as on the BMW X1, Active Tourer, Gran Tourer, and will be used on the future BMW 1 Series which will pass from the propulsion to the traction when they will be replaced in 2017.
- The new Countryman abandons its former 1.6 petrol and diesel engines. In petrol, it is equipped with a 3 cylinders 1.5l 134hp and a 4 cylinders 2.0l 189hp. In diesel, it is equipped with a 4 cylinders 2.0l 148hp and a 4 cylinders 2.0l 187hp.
- The new Countryman (for which Inovev expects a production of 100 000 vehicles a year) will no longer be produced on the Magna-Steyr site in Graz, Austria, but in Cowley, England, (capacity of the plant: 250,000 units per year) alongside the Mini Clubman (50 000 produced in Cowley) and part of the Mini One (100 000 vehicles in Cowley). A part of the Mini One (50 000 units) will be also produced in the Dutch factory in Born which already produces Mini One.
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The new BMW 5 Series will be produced at 400 000 units/year according to Inovev forecasts
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The new BMW 5 Series will be produced at 400 000 units/year according to Inovev forecasts
- Shortly after the closing of the 2016 Paris Motorshow, BMW unveiled the new generation of the 5 Series (E-segment), a model in competition with the Mercedes E-Class, Audi A6 and Jaguar XF. The model presentation came also shortly after the renewal of the Mercedes E-Class and Jaguar XF.
- Since the previous generation was launched at the end of 2009, the Series 5 models have a seven-year life.
- The new generation, whose production will start at the beginning of 2017 on the BMW site in Dingolfing (Germany), will keep the classic styling that made the success of the models of the brand. Its production is expected to start in China (on the Brilliance site in Shenyang) and in Russia (at the Avtotor site in Kaliningrad) a little later.
- Thanks to the CLAR platform already used on the 7 Series (2015) and which will be shared by the future 3 Series (2019), the new 5 Series loses - according to the carmaker - a hundred kilos compared to the old one, in spite of being longer by 3cm (new length: 4.94m).
- The new 5 Series is equipped with two diesel engines (2.0l 190hp on the 520d and 3.0l 268hp on the 530d) and two petrol engines (2.0l 252hp on the 530i and 3.0l 340hp on the 540i). A rechargeable hybrid version will be available in 2017.
- While the former generation of the 5 Series was produced at 350,000 units in 2016 (200,000 in Europe and 150,000 in China), the next generation is expected to reach 400,000 units per year.
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Hyundai will build a fifth plant in China
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Hyundai will build a fifth plant in China
- As announced in the April 6, 2014 Inovev analysis of title "Hyundai will build a fourth plant in China", Hyundai has started the activity of its fourth plant located in Cangzhou (Hebei province) in the fourth quarter of 2016. The carmaker's production capacities will therefore be 1, 3 million vehicles per year by 2017, for sales of 1.05 million units in 2016 (due to capacities previously limited to 1 million units per year).
- As announced in the same analysis, Hyundai will benefit from an additional plant in 2019, that the carmaker opens in order to respond to the growth of the Chinese market which is expected to continue in the coming years.
- Indeed, the manufacturer has just announced that a fifth assembly plant is under construction in Chongqing, with a capacity of 300,000 vehicles per year, which will enable Hyundai to produce and sell locally 1.6 million d 'Units per year from 2019. It is to note that with an average increase of 10% per year, Hyundai has increased its sales in China by more than 100,000 units per year.
- These figures do not take into account the Kia plants, which have a production capacity of 750,000 vehicles per year in 2016 (increased to 900,000 units per year by 2017), with sales reaching 600,000 units in 2016
- The Hyundai-Kia Group is the third largest automaker in China, with a market share of close to 8%.
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