Car Sales
New Direction For Global Car Sales
A recent inventory on who the top passenger car manufacturers were worldwide showed that Volkswagen, Toyota, Hyundai and GM are the three leading passenger car manufacturers in the world. Where are most of our new cars made? The highly competitive nature of the global vehicle production industry reveals that most of the companies are based in Europe, Japan, South Korea, and the US. Interestingly, the world’s largest producers of automobiles are China, the US, and Japan.
With this in mind, the four biggest passenger car manufacturers in the world in 2017 were: Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai and General Motors. Both Toyota and VW produced close to 10.5 million vehicles in 2017, with Toyota only just nudging out VW from the top spot. Hyundai produced a little over 7 million while GM produced just fewer than 7 million vehicles.
Since I’ve got you interested, have a guess as to who you think would be next. Well, another US manufacturer, Ford, takes fifth place with 6.4 million cars produced. Nissan is next on 5.8 million, closely followed by Honda on 5.2 million.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., known as FCA, is an Italian-American multinational corporation and is the world’s eighth largest auto maker with 4.6 million units produced.
Two French car manufacturing groups finish out the top ten. So in at ninth and tenth respectively are Renault with 4.2 million and Groupe PSA with 3.6 million. Groupe PSA is a French multinational manufacturer of vehicles sold under the Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhall brands.
After some really big growth in 2017, there are a few signs that the car manufacturing industry is struggling a little. Some of the recent news has been that Ford plans to close its Bridgend plant next year. In February, Honda said it would close its Swindon plant by 2021. It comes as car-makers around the globe struggle with a range of challenges, and it appears that consumers are buying fewer cars.
A few possible reasons why global car sales in 2018 experienced falling demand are:
- Because China, the world’s biggest market, has experienced a slump in demand.
- Stricter emission controls are making the development of new cars that will meet emissions regulations a lot more difficult. The need for new technology to meet these higher standards makes it more expensive to build cars.
- The big movement to make electric vehicles (EVs) requires new investment. While it would also be fair to say that many countries just aren’t ready with the infrastructure to handle millions of new EVs. Global sales of battery electric cars surged by 73% in 2018 to 1.3 million units, but 1.3 million is still just a fraction of the 86 million cars sold worldwide. China is making great strides in creating plenty of EV infrastructures. The other difficulty with EVs is they have very limited driving range.
- As more and more driverless cars become mainstream it is conceivable that car ownership habits may change. If one driverless car drives as safely as the next driverless car then it might be that people would be happier to share or group-rent a vehicle rather than buy one outright just for themselves.
SUVs and Utes Globally Unstoppable
Toyota RAV4 SUV
This year is shaping up to be an exciting and interesting year for car sales in Australia. Currently, the Toyota Hilux is selling well above even the second biggest seller: the Ford Ranger. With over 4,500 sales in March, Toyota and there owners are loving life. Ford Ranger during the same period sold 3721 units. But take a look at this list and you’ll see that of the top ten models sold in Australia six of them are utes and SUVs.
- Toyota Hilux
- Ford Ranger
- Mitsubishi Triton
- Mazda3
- Toyota Corolla
- Mazda CX-5
- Hyundai i30
- Mitsubishi ASX
- Mitsubishi Outlander
- Kia Cerato
What about in the rest of the world? Well, it continues to be true that more SUV and utes are being purchased than any other type of car in Australia and around the world. In fact, the world’s most popular ute was not the Hilux but the Ford F-series (light truck). Sorry Toyota lovers, but Ford takes you out globally!! With well over 1 million F-series sold last year, that’s very impressive! In New Zealand, Kiwis have a taste for the Ford Ranger more so than the Hilux, too. But this isn’t about Ford being better than Toyota – just saying…
Ford F-Series
Now for redemption time for me, so as to get back on side with Toyota fans. Last year the world’s most popular SUV was the Toyota RAV4. It was also the most popular SUV in New Zealand. Maybe all the rental car companies that love the robust and reliable nature of the RAV4 make up a big swag of those RAV4 global sales numbers. The roads between Christchurch and Milford Sound are teeming with RAV4s!
So why do you think that the SUV and utes are growing so much in popularity here and around the world? It could well be because a decade or so ago utes and SUVs were vehicles that had a bit of a hard nose to them, with a more practical bent to them. Some utes were tremendously good at carrying loads but hideously uncomfortable to travel any longer distances with. Today your SUV and ute still has huge practical merit but they are way more comfortable and sophisticated. And who can argue with the SUVs ability to accommodate seven occupants? It gets a bit difficult putting seven seats inside a stationwagon with room to spare; and just totally impossible trying to fit seven seats inside a sedan.
With these sort of stats rolling off car sales yards, one could easily say that SUVs and utes are very much taking over the world, and this regardless of rising fuel prices.
Car Manufacturer Global Sales Q1-17
The first half of 2017 has seen a number of new and interesting models coming onto the market by various car manufacturers. It’s interesting to view, globally, how each car manufacturer’s sales has been tracking in the first few months of 2017. According to JATO Dynamics figures, the big winner during the first quarter of 2017 has been the Renault-Nissan Alliance group recording huge growth in sales around the world.
It’s obvious, when you look at the results that Toyota, having sold 1.974 million car and LCV units, still remains at the top while growing at a rate of 11%. Honda, in fifth position, also shows itself growing nicely overall. Mercedes and Renault show the greatest growth for the quarter with 18.2% and 14.9%, respectively. Mercedes-Benz is the fastest growing brand in the top-20 and the biggest luxury brand worldwide. BMW and Suzuki have also gained greatly in sales over this period with 10% growth apiece.
Where there is market growth there will also be market shrinking, and for Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Audi, Peugeot, Buick and Jeep, their sales in the first quarter of 2017 have taken a dive.
In detail, according to JATO results, there are some key vehicles being sold in various segments.
City Cars
The top five city cars being sold around the world are the: Hyundai i10, Honda N-Box, Fiat 500, Fiat Panda, Suzuki Alto
Sub Compacts
The top five sub compact cars being sold around the world are the: VW Polo, Suzuki Swift, Ford Fiesta, Renault Clio, Toyota Yaris
Compacts
The top five compact cars being sold around the world are the: Toyota Corolla, VW Golf, Honda Civic, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra
Mid-size
The top five mid-size cars being sold around the world are the: Toyota Camry, Mercedes Benz C-Class, Honda Accord, VW Passat, BMW 3 Series
Executive
The top five executive cars being sold around the world are the: Mercedes Benz E-Class, BMW 5 Series, Audi A6, Hyundai Grandeur, Buick Lacrosse
Luxury
The top five mid-size cars being sold around the world are the: Mercedes Benz S-Class, Cadillac XTS, BMW 7 Series, Bentley Continental, Cadillac CT6
SUV
The top five SUV vehicles being sold around the world are the: Nissan X-Trail, Honda CR-V, VW Tiguan, Toyota RAV4, Honda HR-V
MPV
The top five MPV vehicles being sold around the world are the: Hongguang, Honda Jazz, Xiaokang, Baojun 730, Nissan Note
Sport
The top five Sport vehicles being sold around the world are the: Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger, Camaro, Mazda MX-5, Porsche 911
Pickup/Ute
The top five Pickup/Ute vehicles being sold around the world are the: Ford F-Series, Dodge Ram, Chevrolet Silverado, Toyota Hilux, Nissan Navara
The greatest market sector growth, unsurprisingly, has been seen in the SUV market.
BMW Goes Back To The Future With M4 CS.
BMW Australia has released details of the forthcoming M4 CS. With a whopping 338 kilowatt engine and packing a torque punch of 600 Nm, the hot two door will start from $211,610.00 with an expected release date of late 2017.
It’ll sit at the top of a refreshed M4 range, comprising the M4, M4 Pure, M4 Competition and also sources elements from the limited edition M4 GTS.
The CS also harkens back to the 1960s, with the CS nomenclature first seen on the beautiful 3200 CS of 1962. It swapped to the 2000 CS in 1965, and the evocative 1971 E9 Series 3.0 CS. The current version uses BMW’s legendary straight six powerplant, with a 3.0L capacity. There’s two mono-scroll turbos strapped to the engine, which features a rigid closed-deck cylinder block, forged crankshaft and arc-sprayed cylinder walls, the six-cylinder is light and strong with minimal friction loss and outstanding high-rev capability, all the way to a 7,600rpm red-line.
The turbos dump unwanted air via a dual-branch sports exhaust system with quad 80mm tailpipes which adds an aggressive acoustic while keeping back pressure as low as possible. Electronically-controlled exhaust flaps further contribute to exhaust volume and gas flow depending on the vehicle’s load state and selected drive mode.
Changes in the engine’s electronic management system leads to a 7kW power increase over the M4 Competition, with 338kW available at 6,250rpm. Vitally, peak torque is improved by 50Nm to a round 600Nm, a match for the legendary M4 GTS. According to the BMW M dynamometer charts, the M4 CS peak torque figure is generated from 4,000rpm to 5,380rpm.
There’s a specific chassis tune for the M4 CS, with the aluminuim based structure allowing a driver to choose from Comfort, Sport, and Sport+. Up front is a lightweight double-joint spring strut layout, with the five-link axle featured at the rear. All suspension links and wheel carriers are made from forged aluminium. The M4 CS will ride on 10 spoke forged alloy wheels, with the front being 9 x 19 inches and weighing just 9 kilos, whilst the rears will weigh just under ten kilos and be 10 x 20 inches in size. Brakes are four piston fronts and twin pistons at the rear.
The whole car weights under 1600 kilos thanks to lightweight carbon-fibre and carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP), with an exposed carbon fibre diffuser that is specific to the CS and helps to substantially reduce front axle ‘lift’. The twin headlights are LEDs, the bonnet is CFRP, as is the roof and weighs six kilos lighter than a steel roof. The rear diffuser is also CFRP and is borrowed from the M4 GTS as is the exclusive Organic LED rear lighting system.
It’s more track and sports focused inside than a regular M4, but there’s still plenty of luxury, with Alcantara trim on the door armrests, passenger side dash tim which includes an etched CS designation, on the centre console and mixed in with leather on the seats. A leather wrapped tiller is available as a no-cost option.
There’ll be a Head Up Display with M specific content, BMW’s Connected Drive Services, hands free Bluetooth, digital radio and parking distance control for the front and rear sensors. Two metallic paint options – Black Sapphire and San Marino Blue – are available as standard equipment, while the non-metallic Alpine White is a no-cost option.
In addition, two special BMW Individual paint finishes are available for $4,400*, the bespoke Lime Rock Grey and the Frozen Dark Blue II.
M Carbon Ceramic brakes, roller rear sunblind, sun protection glazing, a headlight washer system, TV function and Apple Car Play integration are also optionally available.
For more information head to BMW Australia and you can follow BMW here: BMW Group on Facebook
(With thanks to BMW Australia for information and images.)
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