Stellantis includes 14 brands and some may die, Tesla delivers a Y model made in China and also older people. All this and more The morning shift for January 19, 2021.
1st team: Some Stellantis brands seem to be dying
Stellantis, that is how the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Groupe PSA has been christened, includes 14 different brands. Let’s disassemble them: Fiat, Chrysler, Peugeot, Opel, Jeep, Maserati, Dodge, Ram, Citroën, DS, Alfa Romeo, Vauxhall, Abarth and Lancia.
You forgot about Opel and DS, I know. Okay, this is a safe space, you can admit it. Anyway, that’s a lot of brands! Probably one or more will die in the US, according to Automotive News. It seems that two of the most vulnerable brands are Fiat and Chrysler:
The high points of the post-merger plan in North America are no secret: produce as many Ram pickups as possible and drive Jeep towards higher prices and new segments.
But Stellantis executives will have to figure out how the rest of the FCA brand list fits the long-term puzzle and whether cuts need to be made.
Chrysler has lowered up to two minivan nameplates and the aging 300 sedan. Alfa Romeo has signs of life (sales in the U.S. grew 1.6 percent in a bear market last year), but volumes are low for the Giulia sedan and the Stelvio crossover.
Fiat has been on hold with its small car line, but its sales fell even further amid the pandemic, falling more than half last year to just 4,303 vehicles. Meanwhile, Dodge has outlined a niche as a muscle brand, but has no electrified offerings, and two of the three plates still in production are cars in a market heavily prone to SUVs and crossovers.
Add the seven brands that the PSA Group contributes to the merger and there is likely to be streamlining. But killing any FCA brand would not be an easy decision or process, although almost none of the company’s dealerships are single brand stores that would be left out of the cold.
“You have to be very careful if you’re thinking about killing a brand as a parent company,” said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars.com, a used vehicle search site. “I look at two brands like Fiat and Chrysler. It certainly seems easy to imagine them leaving, which are not justified by their sales volume and market share. But I also feel all those rules that we would normally have been assuming [FCA] they are now different by merging with PSA “.
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Dodge is the “muscle brand.” For some reason, I can’t stop saying “muscle brand” in my head.
2nd team: More Stellantis
Investors like mergers. For now.
From Reuters:
Stellantis, the vehicle manufacturer created by combining Fiat Chrysler and PSA, owner of Peugeot, enjoyed a positive start on Monday, its shares increased by 8% in its debut in the European market and valued the business at about 42 billion of euros ($ 51 billion).
[…]
“We have the scale, the resources, the diversity and the know-how to successfully capture the opportunities of this new era in transportation,” President John Elkann said in a video on the Borsa Italiana website to commemorate the occasion.
CEO Carlos Tavares said the merger would add 25 billion euros in value to shareholders over the years, thanks to projected cost cuts.
“I can tell you that from day one it will focus on creating value that is the result of implementing these synergies,” Tavares said in the same video.
Fiat Chrysler (FCA) and PSA have said Stellantis can reduce costs by more than 5 billion euros a year without plant closures.
Stellantis ’$ 51 billion is a lot of money, but right now Tesla is worth almost $ 800 billion (on paper).
3rd March: Last year was the worst year of car sales in Europe
No one had a good year last year. Even if you have, no one wants to talk about it. The novelties of car manufacturers in Europe coincide with everything else.
From Bloomberg:
European car sales hit a record high last year, as relatively strong demand in the second half only offset the collapse during the initial Covid-19 outbreak.
New vehicle registrations fell 24%, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Tuesday, the biggest annual drop since registrations began in 1990. A strong year-end for Volkswagen AG and PSA Group limited the industry’s decline in December to 3.7%.
Machine builders managed to better cope with government measures to contain the spread of coronavirus as the year began, aided by subsidies and distributors adopting online ordering tools. But the collapse in sales in March, April and May proved difficult to return, as the industry managed a single month of year-round growth. By contrast, China’s auto market expanded during the second half.
4th Gear: Tesla spoke to the media!
The news here is that Tesla is now delivering the Ys model made in China, but I’m more concerned that Tesla has actually made a comment to the media. Has been the total silence of the Californian company for some time.
From Reuters:
Tesla Inc. said Monday it has begun delivering its Model Y sports vehicles manufactured in Shanghai to customers in China.
A representative of the American carmaker made the comment in response to a Reuters inquiry.
5th March: There is some calculation going on in Japan with old people and cars
Nearly a third of Japan is over 65 and there is an ongoing debate (and everywhere) about how old they are too old to drive. Car manufacturers add security features and many seniors there voluntarily relinquish their license after a horrible accident in 2019.
From Bloomberg:
According to the National Police Agency, 350,428 people aged 75 and over returned their driving license in 2019, the highest recorded.
[…]
Last year, Toyota improved its Safety Sense offering. The technology is designed to prevent or mitigate frontal collisions and keep drivers inside their lane. By using high-resolution cameras on the windshield and radar mounted on the bumper, you can detect approaching cars or pedestrians, or even bicycles during the day, and give audible and visual alerts. If drivers do not respond, automatic braking can be implemented. The new software also has intersection features to help detect approaching obstacles if a car makes a turn from a stationary position.
Other features of Toyota Safety Sense include the correction of unintentional lane exits, automatic switching between high and low light at night depending on the surrounding traffic and the detection of cars moving more slowly ahead on a highway and the automatic maintenance of a predetermined distance. Traffic signal assistance technology detects stop and speed signals as they pass and displays a warning on the control panel in case drivers have lost them themselves.
[…]
The aspirations of Subaru Corp. they are similar; wants to eliminate all fatalities by 2030. Like several other automakers, it uses stereo cameras, which have two or more lenses with a separate image sensor for each, that allows you to capture three-dimensional images. Named EyeSight, the technology looks forward and warns drivers of any danger. Subaru claims that vehicles equipped with Eyesight are involved in 61% fewer accidents and 85% fewer subsequent accidents. Pedestrian-related injuries are reduced by 35%.
Reverse: Zeppelin
Neutral: How are you?
The man in front of me spends about 90% of his time clearing, shaving and debugging his old Chrysler hot rod. I wish I liked anything