Italy's car production returns in 2017 to its 2005 level
The volume of Italian automobile production (VP + VU) had fallen sharply between 1990 and 2013. From 2.2 million vehicles in 1989, Italian production gradually fell to just over 600,000 units in 2014. The explanation for this fall is that the brands Fiat, Alfa-Romeo and Lancia lost a lot of influence during this period, and also that the Fiat group has relocated part of its production to Poland and Turkey, which has led to several factory closures on Italian soil. We can add the non-replacement of the Fiat Punto whose production volume was divided by 10 between 2006 and 2017 and the non-replacement of Lancia models.

In the same way as in France, the Italian government and the Italian companies agreed in the beginning of 2010 to stop the fall of the automobile production in Italy and to revive this production thanks to a vast program of relocation, launch of new SUVs and revival of premium brands.

For example, the Fiat Panda produced in Poland was relocated to Italy in 2012. The arrival of compact SUVs Jeep Renegade and Fiat 500X at the Melfi site in 2014 also contributed significantly to the revival of production in Italy. Finally, the revival of the Alfa-Romeo and Maserati brands, accompanied this increase in automobile production in Italy.

In 2017, the volume of Italian production returned  to its level of 2005 (just over one million units).


18-16-1   
    
 

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Mercedes will build a second assembly plant in Hungary
The Daimler Group has announced that it will double its production capacity at its Hungarian Kecskemet site by building a second assembly plant beside the first one.

Kecskemet's first plant started operating at the end of 2012, soon after the launch of the third-generation Mercedes-Benz A Class and the second-generation B. Its capacity was set at 200,000 vehicles a year.

-The second plant, which should start its activity at the end of 2019, will have an identical capacity of 200,000 vehicles per year. The Kecskemet site should therefore produce up to 400,000 vehicles per year upon completion of the second plant.

The Kecs kemet site should continue to produce B Class and CLA, as today, as well as new versions of the A-Class. It will also produce the future GLB which will be an SUV based on the future B-Class. It will also be used to manufacture EQ electric versions based on Class A, Class B, CLA and GLB, since Mercedes has announced that there will be no factory dedicated to the manufacture of electric cars, but that all the plants in the group would contribute to the manufacture of this type of car.

In 2018, the Kecskemet plant will produce 175,000 cars (compared to 185,000 units in 2017), but the arrival of the new A, Class B Class, CLA, GLB (on MFA2 platform) should double this volume in a few years time.


18-15-8   
    
 

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PSA ceases the production of the DS 5
This month, the PSA group has stopped the production of the DS 5 on the site of Sochaux (France), just after stopping the production of Citroën C4 and DS 4 in Mulhouse. With the Citroën C5 stopped just a year ago, this  means four important models have disappeared from the Citroën and DS ranges without being replaced. Due to its tenuous positioning, the DS 5 has never been able to gain traction on the European market. There were less than 100,000 units produced  in total.

It will be necessary to wait until 2020/2021 to discover the replacements of the Citroën C4 and C5, while nothing is decided yet concerning the replacement of the DS 4 and DS 5. Discussions are rather on a future DS 4 Crossback and a future DS 9.

The current Citroën range therefore focuses on the C1, C3, C3 Aircross, C4 Cactus, C4 Space Tourer (new name of the C4 Picasso), C5 Aircross and Berlingo.

As for the DS range, it has shrunk drastically and is now focused on the DS 3 and DS 7, which are the only two surviving models of the PSA Premium brand, which really must launch new models to be able to grow on the European market, especially since the DS 3 dates from 2009, which is very old for a modern car. PSA announces that its replacement will be unveiled at the next Paris Motor Show, next September.


18-15-7   
    
 

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Inovev expects 170,000 annual sales of the new BMW X5 as of 2019
Just months after unveiling the X2 (C-segment) and X4 (D-segment) SUVs, BMW has introduced the next generation of its E-segment SUV, the X5, which rivals the Mercedes GLE, Audi Q7, Volvo XC90, Porsche Cayenne, Range Rover, Lexus RX and Infiniti QX70. The previous generation of the X5 was from 2013.

The new X5 SUV is a little larger than the previous one, measuring 4.92m long (+ 4cm), 2.00m wide (+ 6cm), 1.75m high (+ 2cm). Based on the CLAR platform (shared by the 5Series and 7 Series sedans), the new X5 will be produced as today on the US site of Spartanburg (South Carolina), as are the X3, X4, X6 and soon the X7.

The production volume of the BMW X5 has grown steadily since 2005, if we exclude the 2009-2013 period following the financial crisis of 2008, which marked a decline in the US and European markets, the two main markets of the BMW X5. The 2014-2017 period marks the highest production volume of the model, averaging 160,000 units per year, compared to 110,000 units in 2005 and 130,000 units in 2007.

For the years 2019-2020, Inovev expects 170,000 annual sales.

The engines of the new BMW X5 are the following: a 340hp 3.0  6-cylinder gasoline and a 265hp 6-cylinder diesel. A petrol 8 cylinder 4.0  450hp and a 4 cylinders rechargeable hybrid 2.0 313hp  will follow.


18-15-9   
    
 

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Towards the introduction of electric vehicle quotas on the European market?
In this context of Chinese domination of the global electric car market, which could further increase with the introduction from 2019 of production quotas imposed by the Chinese government to car manufacturers located in China, an independent study (France Strategie) was recently published with the aim of accelerating the development of the electric car in France and in the European Union.

This study reviews all the schemes put in place in China, California and Norway (three states that strongly encourage the purchase of electric cars and which show promising results), which the European Union could learn from to accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles.

The study suggests that certain measures be evaluated and applied in the European Union, such as quotas imposed on manufacturers, the maintenance of financial aid for the purchase of electric vehicles, free tolls, the possibility of using reserved bus lanes, or wide spread increase in the installation of charging stations.

To prevent a China take over of the electric vehicle industry, the study calls for industrial policy measures at the European level: a significant effort in research and development in the field of batteries, new materials, new vehicle concepts and recycling will have to be carried out on a European scale.


18-15-5   
    
 

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