This, the first of two management briefing reports concerning the 2016 Paris Mondial de l’Automobile, offers a sneak preview of the confirmed and likely world debut cars and concept vehicles.
It might be the largest manufacturer by sales across the European region but the Volkswagen Group is in some pain. August was far from a great month, with Acea data showing market share sliding from the 25.3% of a year ago to 24.1% for the year to the end of August. The company’s namesake brand was of course the biggest problem, its share falling to 11.4% from 12.3%. Audi (5.5%), Skoda (4.4%) and Porsche (0.5%) were stable but SEAT deliveries dipped from 2.5% to 2.3%.
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Volkswagen keeps hitting the reset button in continuous attempts to divert media attention away from the TDI scandals which have badly damaged the brand in the US, Canada, South Korea, Australia, parts of Europe and elsewhere. The latest thinking is to make VW thought of as an innovator in EVs. To that end, Paris will be where we first see a prototype of a plug-in model due to enter production in 2019. This will use the MEB architecture, have a range of up to 500km (311 miles) and be capable of having a full recharge in 15 minutes.
The EV concept should mean a lot of positive press coverage for VW but the news which shall most affect the brand’s bottom line will be the first showing of an updated Golf. A new generation of the CC might also appear at Paris. Replacements for the Polo and Touareg are also getting close but probably won’t be seen until 2017. The Teramont, which will reportedly be the model name for China of the former CrossBlue concept, could be called something different when it goes into production in the US. As this Ford Explorer-sized SUV is mainly for those markets, its show debut will probably be at LA in November.
Audi will have the new Q5, as well as the A5 Sportback and Coupe at Paris – the convertible isn’t ready yet – but will these and other models to come be enough to fend on Mercedes-Benz? In August, the brand with the four rings (47,283) was conclusively outsold by the three-pointed star (53,129) in Europe and BMW (46,788) wasn’t far behind. Audi remains ahead for the year to date (556,765) but Mercedes (544,602) might even become number one by the end of September.
A new A8 is coming in 2017 but what Audi really needs is the next A1, as well as the next generation Q5. Other potential novelties include a turbo V6 engine for the R8, and a rival for the BMW X4 reportedly to be marketed as the Q4.
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By GlobalDataSkoda will be presenting the Kodiaq to the French public for the first time, though the media has already had a preview. The Czech company’s first SUV should be a real money spinner across Europe and in China too. A minivan due out in 2017 will be the brand’s next additional model, but this vehicle is likely for the Chinese market only. A Yeti replacement should be the main new product news for Europe next year.
SEAT has been doing well lately, especially in Spain and Germany but sales fell earlier in the year, thus its overall market share having dropped. A more rugged version of the Ateca will premiere at the show, but a new Ibiza is overdue – the current car is now eight years old – and the Leon is due for a facelift, as is the Toledo. A B segment SUV to sit below the new C segment Ateca is expected in 2017 and this model will be manufactured by Skoda at its Kvasiny plant in the Czech Republic.
Porsche has the second generation Panamera as its main world premiere, and there is a four-wheel drive plug-in hybrid in the line-up. The Macan, sales of which have lately begun to dip, gets a boost in the form of a Performance Package. A wagon bodystyle for the Panamera is on its way too, but don’t expect that to be revealed until next year.
PSA, the European market’s number two, is only 8,000 vehicles ahead of Renault Group as at 31 August and some of the blame for that situation is the deeply troubled DS brand. Any form of SUV would be welcome but there is none in the current range, nor in the pipeline for this region. Even more worrying, things are also bad in China, where the line-up does include such models. The Chinese market was up by 26% in August but guess what happened to DS? Deliveries of its locally made models fell by 35% to a mere 1,058 vehicles.
There is as yet no news on any DS debuts for the Paris show, but Citroen will have a new C3 plus a design study called the CXperience. As for Peugeot, the 3008 and 5008 have their premieres and we might see a prototype of next year’s 1-tonne pick-up as Renault will be showing its own pick-up, the Nissan-based Alaskan. Technically speaking it won’t be a world premiere as it was revealed to the public at the Hannover commercial vehicle show a week ahead of Paris.
Groupe Renault is planning a busy Mondial, with facelifts for a range of Dacias (Sandero, Stepway and Logan), a Renault sports car concept, the facelifted Clio and new Grand Scenic as well as the Alaskan. Mid-life restyles for the Dacia Dokker and Lodgy should follow at Geneva and so too should a new Duster. Another model which is now overdue for a facelift is the Zoe so that might well appear at Paris.
Ford of Europe is making money and lifting its market share, and that’s despite the age of its best sellers, the Fiesta and Focus. The larger of the two will have a successor by year-end and this will likely premiere at the LA show in November, with the next Fiesta to be a global debut at Geneva next March. Due mainly to this lack of new products, Ford won’t have a stand at the Paris show but it’s not the only missing brand: Mazda, Bentley, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce and Volvo will also be absent from the Mondial.
FCA, which comes next in the European sales pecking order, has no major world premieres. A roadster version of the LaFerrari and an alternate engine for the GTC4 Lusso will be Paris debutantes as will a facelifted Maserati Quattroporte and ‘Veloce’ versions of the Alfa Romeo Giulia, but the only other officially revealed news is a 500X powered by the 1.6 Multijet diesel in combination a with dual-clutch transmission. The Alfa Stelvio SUV will not make its public debut until the LA show in November, while rumour has it that an estate version of the Giulia is set for a Geneva premiere next March. The Jeep Compass & Patriot successor will soon be revealed but this won’t be at the Paris show; its debut will be at a media event in Brazil.
Opel will present the second generation Insignia on the show’s 29 September media day, as well as three other cars: a facelift for the Zafira, the Karl Rocks and the Ampera-e. The Rocks won’t have a Vauxhall Viva equivalent, nor will there be an RHD version of the Ampera-e with griffin badges in place of the Opel blitz. Yes, the car was engineered with RHD in mind, GM insists, but the poor sales performance of the former Vauxhall Ampera is probably the reason why the Ampera-e will be an Opel only.
BMW Group has not confirmed this but the G30 5 Series sedan is highly likely to have the covers pulled off it at the Paris show. The platform will be a modified (i.e. less use of exotic materials) derivative of 35up as introduced by the G11/G12 7 Series. The X2, which is to be to the X1 what the X6 is to the X5, will probably be another premiere. Mini has confirmed the JCW Clubman and might well also reveal project F60, the new Countryman, and this model should eventually have an electric variant in the line-up but probably not until 2017 or 2018.
Daimler will be premiering EV versions of the smart fortwo and forfour at the Paris show, while Mercedes-Benz has the E-Class Estate, an intended rival for the Audi A6 allroad in the form of the All-Terrain, and a plug-in crossover design study. Don’t dismiss the last of these as a mere design study as a production version is being worked on as something to match what Tesla has with the Model X. Audi too is interested in this segment, and continues to develop what will probably be called the Q6 e-tron quattro when it appears in 2018.
Toyota, which we all thought had revealed the C-HR at the Geneva show, now says that was a pre-production model and is therefore claiming this B segment crossover as a world premiere at Paris. There is no mention from Toyota Motor Europe of the next Yaris but that car is getting awfully close to entering production so this might be a surprise debut. Lexus has so far said nothing about any new model it may be planning for the show but a compact SUV concept, the UX, will be there.
Nissan’s big news for the Mondial is the Micra and unlike the outgoing car, the next one won’t be shipped to Europe from India but instead built at a Renault plant in France. A new variable compression engine will be a further world debut but this engine is for Infiniti only at this stage. The next QX50 SUV is also due to be shown.
Hyundai has one of the most important vehicles at Paris, which is the i30. Already presented to the media in Korea, it uses the same architecture as the existing i30. There will be a low-roof sedan as a new bodystyle in addition to replacements for the five-door hatchback and estate, but no three-door. Kia’s main news, meanwhile, shall be the Rio hatchback.
The Jaguar part of JLR has so far not announced any production car world debuts for Paris but Land Rover has. The L462 Discovery will replace a thirteen-year old model which has been selling amazingly well given its age. The big seven-seater switches to an aluminium chassis and in so doing, loses a lot of weight.
Of the remaining smaller brands (in Europe), Honda has the new Civic five-door, Mitsubishi has an SUV concept and SsangYong’s LIV-2 will be giving strong hints about what Y400, next year’s Rexton replacement, will look like. At the time of writing, Tesla, Suzuki and Subaru had yet to announce any show premieres.
Details of the models mentioned in this feature can be found within PLDB, just-auto’s current and future vehicle database.
An overview of the Paris show will be the subject of the second and final part of this management briefing. It will be published in early October.
