Toyota plans to close its Burnaston plant
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Toyota plans to close its Burnaston plant
- A few weeks before the introduction of Brexit, Toyota announced that it could close its British plant in Burnaston if the agreement between the European Union and Great Britain was not satisfactory for their business. The Burnaston plant is currently manufacturing the Toyota Corolla, in its sedan and station wagon versions, since the Avensis and Auris were stopped at the end of last year. According to Inovev, the Toyota Corolla could be transferred to another Toyota Corolla site in Europe, probably the Kolin site in the Czech Republic, since this plant that currently produces the Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 108 and Citroën C1 will stop the two French cars in two years, in 2021.
- It is also possible that Toyota will proceed in the same way as Honda with the Civic, i.e. it will decide to bring the production of the Corolla back to Japan where it is already produced. It would then be exported to Europe from Japan. In 2018, the Toyota Auris (of which Corolla is the heir) sold 92,500 units in Europe.
- The closure of the Toyota plant in Burnaston, if confirmed, would be bad news for the British automotive industry as it would add to the closure of the Honda plant in Swindon (scheduled for 2021), the reduction in capacity at the Nissan plant in Sunderland, Jaguar Land Rover's announcement to transfer part of its production to Slovakia and BMW's threat to export the Mini's production to the Netherlands.
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Jeep to start Compass production in Europe this fall
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Jeep to start Compass production in Europe this fall
- At the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, Jeep presented the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) versions of its Renegade (B segment) and Compass (C segment) SUVs. These are the first plug-in hybrid models marketed by the FCA group since the launch of the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid MPV, which is not imported to Europe. They are also the first plug-in hybrid models marketed by the Jeep brand.
- These two models will be sold on the European market from next autumn, and they will be produced at the Melfi site in Italy, alongside the Jeep Renegade and Fiat 500X combustion engines.
- The Compass will thus be produced for the first time in Europe (72,000 were sold last year in Europe, the same number as the Renegade). It will replace the Fiat Punto( whose production was stopped last summer) on the assembly lines of the Melfi plant. Only the Jeep Compass marketed in Europe will be manufactured at the Melfi site, the others will continue to be produced in Mexico (Toluca).
- With the arrival of the Jeep Compass, the Melfi plant should produce more than 300,000 cars per year from next year, just as it did when the Fiat Punto was assembled on this site, which has a production capacity of 400,000 cars per year.
- The Melfi plant remains the largest automotive plant in Italy, ahead of Val di Sangro and Pomigliano.
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続きを読む... Jeep to start Compass production in Europe this fall
Infiniti brand to exit the European market in 2020
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Infiniti brand to exit the European market in 2020
- Nissan has confirmed that it will withdraw its luxury brand Infiniti from the European market in January 2020. This brand, which competes directly with Lexus, but also with German Premium models (Audi, BMW, Mercedes), has not succeeded in penetrating this highly competitive market in the top-of-the-range category. In addition, the Infiniti brand has not benefited from a differentiating technical feature like that of Lexus, which markets all its models in hybrid engines. Like Acura (Honda's luxury brand), Infiniti will therefore focus on the North American and Chinese markets, where it is still enjoying some success.
- Infiniti has been present in Europe for about ten years and has never been widely distributed there. While Carlos Ghosn expected 25,000 sales per year after five years in this market, by 2015 sales had peaked at less than 5,000. Until the arrival of the Q30 at the end of 2015, the models were more suited to customers in the United States, where the brand generates three-quarters of its sales. The Q30 is a premium compact sedan, competing with the Mercedes A-Class (which is built on the same platform), which could have boosted the brand's sales in the European market. A peak was certainly reached in 2016, with 16,000 units, but sales declined rapidly: to 11,000 units in 2017 and 6,000 in 2018. This modest figure is far from the 150,000 sold in the USA last year or even the 50,000 sold in China.
- The Sunderland plant will therefore cease production of the Infiniti Q30/QX30 as of next summer.
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Hyundai and Kia will each close one of their plants in China
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Hyundai and Kia will each close one of their plants in China
- Hyundai and Kia sales have dropped dramatically in the Chinese market over the past two years, even before the market reversal observed in 2018. As a result, their local production (almost exclusively for the Chinese market) collapsed from 1.1 million in 2016 to 800,000 in 2018 for Hyundai and from 600,000 to 400,000 for Kia. The next two or three years are not guaranteed to be any better since the Chinese market is currently in a more difficult phase (-17.6% for all passenger cars in the first two months of 2019).
- The Hyundai-Kia group, which has five plants in China, equivalent to a production capacity of 2.1 million vehicles per year and an effective production of 1.2 million units in 2018, has therefore decided to close two plants, one for Hyundai (JV with Beijing) and the other for Kia (JV with Dongfeng). Their production overcapacity, now equal to 900,000 units, will therefore be reduced by 600,000 units.
- The Korean group's production capacity will thus fall to 1.5 million units per year, but it cannot be ruled out that this capacity will be reduced again in the future, if the Chinese market continues to decline. More generally, all manufacturers located in China will have to consider their strong current and future production overcapacities. Inovev estimates that there are several million units of overcapacity in automotive production in China.
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続きを読む... Hyundai and Kia will each close one of their plants in China
Inovev forecasts 250,000 new Hyundai Sonata per year
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Inovev forecasts 250,000 new Hyundai Sonata per year
- The Hyundai-Kia group unveiled the new generation of the Sonata, its D-segment sedan. This model was not presented at the Geneva Motor Show because the Sonata is not available in Europe. Its main markets are the United States (105,000 sales), Korea (66,000 sales in 2018), China (7,000 sales), Russia (7,000 sales) and Canada (5,000 sales). These five countries make up 95% of Sonata's sales.
- The new generation Sonata aims to boost sales of Hyundai's mid-size sedan, which have collapsed since the peak of 500,000 units reached in 2012. Sales fell to 350,000 units in 2016 and barely exceeded 200,000 units in 2018. The main explanation for this collapse is the growing demand for SUVs worldwide, which has reduced the influence of sedans, and the growing disaffection of D-segment sedans in particular, which are competing with the more statutory Premium brand sedans.
- The new Sonata features a hatchback body that recalls the style of its competitors, the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, which were renewed last year. These three sedans have traditionally been among the best-selling in the United States for the past fifteen years, replacing the equivalent models from Chevrolet (Malibu) and Ford (Fusion). Inovev expects sales volume of 250,000 units of the new Sonata to be produced equally between the US and Korea.
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続きを読む... Inovev forecasts 250,000 new Hyundai Sonata per year