Inovev forecasts 60,000 units per year of the new Dacia Spring
Dacia (a Renault subsidiary) unveiled its first battery electric vehicle (BEV), the Spring sedan, which would become the cheapest electric vehicle on the European market, if low speed electric vehicles (LSEV) like the Citroën Ami or the Renault Twizy are excluded. Its price (which has not yet been communicated) would indeed be between 15,000 and 16,000 euros excluding government incentives, meaning 5,000 to 6,000 euros less than a Renault Twingo ZE and 10,000 to 12 000 euros less than a Renault Zoé.

The Spring derives closely from the Renault K-ZE (and rebadged versions from Dongfeng, Nissan, etc.) marketed in China since October 2019. It is a small four-door sedan 3.73 m long (+12 cm compared to a Twingo ZE) which becomes the most compact model in the Dacia range (-35 cm compared to a Sandero). But the Sandero will remain the cheapest model in the Dacia range since its base price is slightly less than 9,000 euros. The question is whether customers will prefer to buy a Sandero with a thermal engine at 9,000 euros or a Spring with an electric motor at 10,000 euros (including incentives). The interest of Spring is that it opens up a new market, meaning BEV at less than 15,000 euros, a market that had not existed until then.

A Skoda Citigo EV is priced at 21,600 euros. This unrivalled price is mainly due to the use of a technical base already at low cost, the Kwid (sold in India) and to a production carried out in China (all Spring models will be imported from this country), which traditionally benefits from a very low production cost.

The Spring's range is announced at 225 km (WLTP cycle) or 295 km in the urban cycle, thanks to a 26.8 kWh battery. The model will be marketed in spring 2021. Inovev forecast 50,000 sales per year in Europe in 2022-2023 then at a rate of 60,000 per year from 2024-2025.


    
 

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The European market of passenger cars is down 29.4% over 9 months 2020
The European passenger car market (29 countries) fell by 29.4% over the first 9 months of 2020, compared to the first 9 months of 2019, while the decline reached -39.4% over the first 6 months of 2020, -42.8% over the first 5 months and -39% over the first 4 months, compared to the same period of 2019. The European market improvement is therefore real, but this improvement is slow and laborious, especially when we compare these figures to those of China, Japan or the United States. Over the first 9 months of 2020, China is at -12.1%, the United States at -17.7% and Japan at -18.1%. Europe is therefore the big loser from the coronavirus crisis.

Certainly, September 2020 returned to pre-crisis levels for the first time, but firstly the significant share of lost sales (estimated at nearly 3.5 million private vehicles) will not be caught up either in 2020 or in 2021, and secondly, the lock down in parts European countries (at a local or national level) in Europe do not let us expect a rise of the European market during the fourth quarter; it is even the contrary.

Consequently, the fourth quarter could be worse than it was last September, and under these circumstances, the European market could end the year with a decline of 25% or even 30%. With a fourth quarter of 2020 at the same level as that of 2019, an unlikely scenario, the European market could not do better than -22.5%.


    
 

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The global market of passenger cars is down 20.6% over 9 months 2020
The global automotive market for passenger cars is down 20.6% in the first 9 months of 2020, compared to the first 9 months of 2019, due to the coronavirus crisis. The decrease was -28.3% over the first 3 months and -29.4% over the first 6 months. We have seen an improvement in the world market since last summer, driven by the good performance of the Chinese market and then by the US market, when the European market still lagging behind.

Monthly figures show a drop of -13.4% in January worldwide, -28.2% in February (fall of the Chinese market), -40.8% in March (fall of both American and European markets), -44.6% in April (fall of both American and European markets), -33.2% in May (slow recovery of the markets) then the market situation improved significantly in June (-15.2%) and especially following months (-2.5% in July, -6.1% in August and +1.4% in September). But while the Chinese and then US markets are returning to pre-crisis levels, the European market is still lagging behind, only returning to pre-crisis levels in September.

In terms of volumes, the global market lost between 8 and 9 million passenger vehicles over the first 9 months of 2020, if we consider that the global market would have declined slightly this year anyway, even without the coronavirus crisis. . Over the year as a whole, given a fourth quarter which should be comparable in volume to the fourth quarter of 2019, we can expect a drop in the world market of around 15% on an overall volume of 49 to 50 million units, down 8 to 9 million passenger vehicles compared to 2019.


    
 

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Renault unveils the concept of the future electric Mégane
Renault unveiled its first battery electric vehicle (BEV) based on the new C-segment CMF-EV platform shared with all the brands of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group. This first model – named Mégane eVision - 95% prefigures (according to Renault management) the future electric Mégane which will be one version of the future Mégane family scheduled for 2022. The production model should appear at the end of 2021 for a launch onto the market scheduled for early 2022.

Even though the future Mégane with a thermal engine will be produced in Spain, at the Palencia plant, the BEV version will be produced in Douai, in the north of France. Renault has for objective to turn the Douai plant as the largest European production center for BEV, competing the Volkswagen plant in Zwickau, in eastern Germany, which has a production capacity of 200,000 BEV per year.

The future electric Mégane is the first model in a series to come which should include three or four different models on the Douai plant, while Scenic, Espace and Talisman will have disappeared from the assembly lines in 2023. It is to note that the future electric Mégane will be more of a crossover than a traditional sedan. The two or three other models to be produced in Douai should be SUVs of a different segment. It is possible that the third generation Zoe will also become an SUV.

Renault has announced that the CMF-EV platform will have a choice of three different batteries: 40 kWh, 60 kWh and 87 kWh. The future electric Mégane will be equipped with a 60 kWh battery allowing a range of 450 km in the WLTP cycle. In its press release, Renault explains that the batteries are "structural", meaning integrated into the body floor. It is not yet explained how the batteries will be integrated into the body production process, as today the cells are assembled in modules, themselves gathered in a "pack" of batteries. This pack is subsequently mounted (bolted) under the floor of the body already fully built. Also, Nissan for its future Ariya (C-segment SUV), which also uses the CMF-EV platform, explains for its part, that the battery pack will directly integrate a cross member to increase the rigidity of the body. We will see therefore if the two platforms differ in their design.


    
 

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Stellantis group could get 40% of LUV market share in Europe
The European Commission recently indicated that it will analyse a possible hegemonic position of the future Stellantis group (resulting from the merger of PSA and FCA) on the market of light utility vehicles (LUV) in Europe. The green light for this merger is expected to be given by the end of the year.

Inovev has analysed the production and sales figures in Europe of various LUV producers such as Renault, Ford, Volkswagen, Daimler, PSA and FCA.

It turns out that the share of PSA and FCA on the European light utility vehicles market reached 41% in 2019 (including 31% for PSA and 10% for FCA), thus ahead of the Renault-Nissan groups (22%), Ford (16%), Volkswagen (8%) and Daimler (7%). In terms of production, the differences observed between the different producers are the same.

With the creation of the future Stellantis group in the LUV market, the shares of PSA and FCA would not reach 50% of the European market. It does not even represent double the share of the second producer in this market (Renault-Nissan is indeed at 22%).

With the announced end of the Fiorino (compact LUV), the development of Toyota in this LUV market and Stellantis' project to bring together the Fiat Doblo, Opel Combo, Citroën Berlingo, Peugeot Partner, Toyota ProAce City under one same body with different badge, PSA + FCA's share is likely to decline over the next three years and probably stabilize around 40% of the European LUV market.


    
 

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