Category Blog

詳細: 上で公開 2019年08月21日

Renault's Korean plant produces more Nissans than Samsungs

- The Korean Samsung conglomerate decided to diversify into the automotive sector in the 1990s . In 1994, it signed an agreement with the Japanese OEM Nissan (at the time still independent) to manufacture Nissan cars under licence at its Busan site.

- Car production started at this site in 1998, a few months before the financial crisis that would impact all of Southeast Asia. This crisis seriously affected Samsung’s automotive activities, which went bankrupt and were bought by the French OEM Renault in 2000. The latter had just bought Nissan the previous year. As Samsung vehicles were re–badged Nissans, it was logical for the same manufacturer to acquire both Nissan and Samsung.

- Unfortunately, Samsung (SM3, SM5, SM7) did not have the anticipated success and production at the Busan plant (with a capacity of 300,000 vehicles per year) fell rapidly from 275,000 units in 2010 to 130,000 units in 2013.

- To save the plant, the Renault-Nissan group decided to produce Nissan Rogue cars at the Busan site. Production of this model, exported mainly to North America, began in 2014 and quickly became the most produced model in Busan, accounting for 57% of the plant's production in 2015, 56% in 2016 and 50% in 2018.

- Since 2015, the Busan plant has been producing more Nissans than Samsungs. The production of Renault badged models (Koléos) remains marginal (less than 10% of the plant's production). As for Samsung, despite the renewal of SM6,and QM6 models, sales have not improved. As a result, the future of the Samsung brand remains very uncertain.

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続きを読む... Renault's Korean plant produces more Nissans than Samsungs

詳細: 上で公開 2019年08月21日

BMW launches the Electric Mini

- BMW unveiled the production version of the electric Mini, which will be produced at the British site in Cowley (Oxford) as of the fourth quarter of 2019 and marketed starting the first half of 2020.

- In 2008, BMW had previously designed an electric Mini, the Mini E, and 450 were manufactured, with the objective of testing the batteries and collecting feedback from selected customers.

- Today, the Electric Mini is based on the current internal combustion engine, Mini, and benefits from the progress made over the past ten years on batteries and electric motors, as well as from the experience acquired on the BMW i3 launched in 2013.

- The Electric Mini was launched 60 years, almost to the day, after the launch of the first Mini which at the time was marketed under the Austin and Morris brands.

- The electric Mini advertises a range of 235 to 270 kilometers (WLTP cycle). By way of comparison, the new Peugeot e-208 claims a range of 340 kilometres (WLTP cycle).

- Inovev estimates that BMW could sell 50,000 electric Mini cars each year.

- In response to the launch of the Electric Mini, the FCA group announced the upcoming launch of the Electric Fiat 500, scheduled for the first half of 2020. This model will be manufactured exclusively at the Italian Mirafiori site, which has been operating at a slower pace for decades. FCA's objective is to sell 80,000 Fiat 500 electric vehicles per year.

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続きを読む... BMW launches the Electric Mini

詳細: 上で公開 2019年08月21日

The US market fell by 2.4% in the first half of 2019

- The US automotive market was down 2.4% in the first six months of 2019, compared to the same period in 2018. It should be noted, however, that the commercial vehicle market (which includes minivans and SUVs in the United States) remained up 3.2% over this period (5.945 million units), while the passenger car market continued to decline sharply, to -13.6% (2.475 million units).

- As a result, light trucks now represent 70.6% of the American market, which is the highest figure since the beginning of the automobile industry in the United States. SUVs alone represent 49% of the American market, nearly one sale out of two.

- The overall decline in the US market in 2019 follows a 0.5% increase in 2018 compared to 2017, which was one of the best years in history for the United States (17.33 million units). However, it seems that the US market will not exceed 17 million units in 2019.

- Among the most affected brands are: Fiat (-38.4%), Chrysler (-27.3%), Alfa-Romeo (-26.3%), Smart (-23.7%), Mini (-22.3%), Mazda (-15.5%), Infiniti (-12.6%), Jeep (-7.8%), Nissan (-7.7%) and Mercedes (-7.0%). In summary, the FCA, Renault-Nissan, Daimler and BMW groups had a particularly disappointing first half.

- The brands that managed to grow were Genesis (+37.8%), Ram (+28%) and Tesla (+23.4%). Apart from Tesla, the Hyundai-Kia and Volkswagen groups as well as Subaru are the only ones to grow in 2019.

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続きを読む... The US market fell by 2.4% in the first half of 2019

詳細: 上で公開 2019年08月21日

Registrations

The European market fell 3.1% in the first half of 2019

- The European automotive market (29 countries) fell by 3.1% in the first six months of 2019, compared to the first six months of 2018, to 8.42 million passenger cars (light commercial vehicle sales will be available at the end of July). Western Europe (17 countries) fell by 3.5% and Central and Eastern Europe (12 countries) grew by 1.4%.

- The decline in the European market is part of a global decline in most world markets (China, USA, India, Russia, Turkey, Australia, Argentina, South Africa, etc.). After several years of growth, the European market (like other markets) seems to be stabilizing, but first, the next two months will be strongly negative because last year, the months of July-August, which benefited from mass sales of cars to old standards, were very high, and second, over the period 2020-2021, the economic (expected slowdown in global growth) and political (Brexit, impact of trade tensions between China and the USA) indicators point to a slower European market.

- The Geely Group (+2.0%), which owns the Volvo brand, is the only manufacturer to grow on the European market in the first half of 2019, thanks to the XC40 SUV. Other automakers‘ sales declined: Hyundai-Kia Group (-0.4%), Toyota Group (-1.0%), PSA Group (-1.2%), BMW Group (-1.2%), Daimler Group (-1.4%), Tata Group (-1.5%), VW Group (-3.7%), Renault-Nissan Group (-5.4%), Ford Group (-6.8%), FCA Group (-9.3%). Inovev expects a 2.3% decline in the European PC market over the whole of 2019.

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続きを読む... The European market fell 3.1% in the first half of 2019

詳細: 上で公開 2019年08月21日

Tesla places its 3 models in the American Top 5 electrified cars

- Tesla sold 83,875 electric cars in the United States in the first half of 2019. This volume is 56% of sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars of all brands on this market, but only 3.5% of sales of cars of all engines on this market during the same period.

- The Tesla Model 3 is of course the best-selling electric car in the United States (67,650 sales) over this period, ahead of the Tesla Model X (9,000 sales), Toyota Prius Prime (8,605 sales), Chevrolet Bolt (8,281 sales) and Tesla Model S (7,225 sales) whose sales declined compared to the previous year due to the launch of the Model 3 which attracted more customers.

- The manufacturer forecast 10,000 Tesla Model S sales in the first half of 2019, but this is far from being the case since sales were nearly 30% lower.

- Tesla places its 3 models in the American Top 5 of electrified cars in the first half of 2019.

- In the D-segment passenger car category, the Tesla Model 3 ranks fifth behind Toyota Camry (147,119 sales), Honda Accord (107,452 sales), Nissan Altima (92,229 sales) and Ford Fusion (79,951 sales).

- In the E/F segment passenger car category, the Tesla Model S is in fourth place behind the Mercedes E-Class (17,138 sales), BMW 5-Series (16,444 sales), Audi A6 (8,159 sales) but ahead of the Mercedes S-Class (5,067 sales).

- In the light trucks category, however, the Tesla Model X occupies a very marginal position.