Inovev forecasts 10,000 new Nissan NV250s per year
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Inovev forecasts 10,000 new Nissan NV250s per year
- To counter the new Toyota ProAce City based on Citroën Berlingo, Peugeot Partner and Opel Combo, Nissan is responding by launching the NV250 based on the Renault Kangoo. At the same time, the two Japanese brands are investing in the N1-1 segment, which represents the most compact category of light commercial vehicles, with a model redesigned from another brand.
- In the past, there was a Nissan light commercial vehicle derived from a Renault Kangoo, the Kubistar, marketed between 1997 and 2009, but this model had not been very successful. It was replaced in 2012 by the Nissan NV200, which no longer had anything to do with the Renault Kangoo, since it was a 100% Nissan model. As Inovev suggested several months ago, the Nissan NV200 will be replaced by the new Nissan NV250 derived from the second generation of the Renault Kangoo.
- In fact, for some time there will only remain the electric version of the Nissan NV200 (e-NV200) since the new NV250 is not designed to be equipped with an electric motor, unlike the Renault Kangoo. This situation is quite incomprehensible, because the electric NV250 could have replaced the e-NV200 but this is the choice that was dictated by Nissan.
- It is also surprising that the launch of the Nissan NV250 takes place one year before the launch of the third generation Renault Kangoo, which means that Nissan will keep the old bodywork while Renault will soon benefit from the new one.
- The Nissan NV250, which is produced at the Renault Maubeuge site alongside the Renault Kangoo and Mercedes Citan, is equipped with the original Renault 1.5 DCI diesel engine. Inovev predicts 10,000 units per year of the new Nissan NV250.
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Smart will withdraw from the US market this summer
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Smart will withdraw from the US market this summer
- The Smart brand has been marketed in the United States since 2008. Its objective was to follow in the footsteps of the Fiat 500 and BMW Mini, which were then very successful (the Mini sold more than 50,000 units per year).
- The Fortwo was the only Smart model marketed in the United States. It was a challenge because the Fortwo is an urban model with only two seats, while the Fiat 500 and Mini are four seats.
- The Fortwo, which was exported from the French factory in Hambach, was a small success in 2008 (25,000 sales), particularly in New York City, but sales declined rapidly to 5,000 units in 2011. In the following years (2012-2014), Fortwo's sales increased to 10,000 units per year, but sales plummeted in 2015, despite the launch of the new generation, and sales fell to 6,000 units in 2016, 3,000 units in 2017 and only 1,276 units in 2018.
- In the first quarter of 2019, sales did not exceed 316 units.
- The Daimler Group, owner of the Smart brand, has therefore decided to stop marketing the Fortwo on the American market this summer. In total, nearly 100,000 Smart Fortwo cars were sold in the United States during the 2008-2019 period.
- This model has not been able to establish itself on a market dominated by large vehicles (SUVs, pick-ups, minivans). The Fortwo did not meet market demand because it was too small. As far as city cars are concerned (niche vehicles in the USA), American customers have turned to the Fiat 500 and especially the BMW Mini, which are much stronger in terms of customer image enhancement.
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BMW started up its Mexican plant last month
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BMW started up its Mexican plant last month
- The German automaker BMW started operating at its new Mexican plant in San Luis Potosi, in central Mexico, last month. This plant began manufacturing the recent 3 Series sedan for the entire North American market. It sold up to 150,000 units of this model in North America in 2007, but since then the 3 Series has suffered from the success of the SUVs, the success of the 5 Series sedan, the success of its main competitor the Mercedes C-Class and finally the separation of the coupés and convertibles now called 4 Series. However, BMW believes in the potential of this model in this region and has modelled its strategy on that of Mercedes, which decided in 2014 to produce the C-Class sedan sold in North America on site. Since then, the Mercedes C-Class has been produced in the United States at 60,000 / 70,000 units per year for local demand.
- BMW plans to produce 75,000 units per year of its 3 Series in its new San Luis Potosi plant. This will produce an equivalent Series 5 volume starting next year. The plant is calibrated to produce up to 175,000 units per year.
- BMW's strategy is part of a major redeployment of German automakers in North America. Audi, Mercedes and even Volkswagen have recently increased their industrial activity in this region in order to meet local demand directly without having to rely on exports from Europe. In addition to the Mercedes C-Class, the Audi Q5, Volkswagen Tiguan and now the BMW 3 Series are produced in North America.
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Algeria re-allows car imports
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Algeria re-allows car imports
In 2016, the Algerian government decided to severely limit imports of vehicles from abroad in order to encourage the manufacture of cars in Algeria and gradually benefit from technology transfer. Three years after this decision, the Algerian government is moving backwards, by again allowing imports of vehicles from abroad.So what happened during these three years?
1. The Algerian market has collapsed. It has increased from 265,000 units in 2015 to 97,000 in 2016 and 94,000 in 2017. In 2018, it rose to 127,000 units, but this is half as much as in 2015 and three times less than in 2012.
2. The target of producing 250,000 vehicles in Algeria in 2018 was not achieved at all, as the production volume did not exceed 70,597 units last year.
3. Of the 70,597 vehicles assembled in Algeria in 2018 (60,606 in 2017), 68,196 are Renault vehicles (nearly 97% of the total). The other brands that have decided to set up in the country seem to be experiencing difficulties in starting their business.
4. This quasi-monopoly has raised the price of new locally assembled cars, and above all this price is higher than that of cars in the same category that were previously imported.
5. Technology transfer has not occurred, as Algerian factories import CKD cars whose integration rate remains insignificant.
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Suzuki's future remains uncertain
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Suzuki's future remains uncertain
- Suzuki is now the world's tenth largest automaker (3.43 million vehicles sold in 2018) with more than half of its sales in India, where it is by far the market leader. Nevertheless, several weaknesses appear for the development of the Japanese brand in the coming years.
- First, Suzuki has withdrawn from the two largest markets in the world, the US market in 2013, and the Chinese market in 2019. Suzuki is therefore becoming more of a local than an international manufacturer. It is mainly present in India, Japan and South-East Asia.
- Secondly, Suzuki has never been successful in higher categories, such as C, D or E segment sedans and SUVs, or minivans. The Japanese brand is definitively doomed to focus on A and B segment sedans and SUVs. However, this market is likely to shrink in the coming years and could be limited to car-sharing structures.
- Third, Suzuki is not prepared for the announced development of sales of electric vehicles worldwide, let alone autonomous vehicles. Yet the automotive world will undergo a huge upheaval in the long term with the massive arrival of electric cars, then autonomous cars.
- Suzuki does not have the means to finance such a change, which is why the still independent Japanese brand will have to get closer and closer to its recent partner Toyota in order to survive and grow.
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