Geneva’s annual motor show is held in late winter or early spring, depending on your outlook on life. It’s the same for some carmakers. It’s definitely still winter for Volkswagen, less than a year after Bernd Pischetsrieder took over at the top. Tony Lewis, reporting from Geneva, takes the European auto industry’s temperature.
Contrary to reports that Mr Pischetsrieder would be avoiding the press a week before the worst results for more than a decade were expected, the man was seen chatting and smiling on press day in his normal, delightful, manner.
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Where once VW could spot and develop a trend, it now seems to be playing catch up. Witness the unveiling of the Concept C. Yep, yet another coupé – cabriolet with an electro-hydraulic folding steel roof. To be fair, Concept C, should it make it to production, could well be a chance to let a bit of sunshine into Wolfsburg and it really is a rather good looking machine. Size helps, fitting between Golf and Passat it has a pleasing squatness and marked wedge shape.
Wale on form
It certainly attracted the attention of Kevin Wale, the Aussie at the head of GM’s British body, Vauxhall. It is definitely early spring for him and a tour round the show with him is revealing.
“My product guys tell me what I should go to see and this was a pretty good show,” was his off-the-cuff summary.
Of course, Mr Wale has plenty to smile about with the current launch of the much-acclaimed Astra in the bag, the Tigra to get all excited about and a much sharper edge all round to Opel/Vauxhall design.
As a sales and marketing guy himself, his take is always refreshing and not unnaturally, the conversation turned to Fiat. With Panda as European Car of the Year and Idea being well received, this is probably the end of a very long winter, as far as product goes, for beleaguered Italians.
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The Fiat Trepiuno |
We agreed that Trepiuno concept – a 500 replacement due by 2007 – was one of the big hits at Geneva. “Hey, any car that makes you smile has got to be good,” said Mr Wale. And, after all, Fiat did invent the microcar back in the 1950s, so this is its rightful inheritance.
But Lancia was very much still in winter mode and “a brand looking for a product,” although there was no shortage of people looking at Lancia. All agreed that beautiful women do add something to a motor show stand, however politically incorrect that might be.
PC at Volvo
If it was political correctness that you wanted though, then a step or two away was Volvo and its all-women designed YCC. While the women at Lancia would probably fall into the “high maintenance” category, at Volvo it was very much a case of low maintenance – a removable front end on the YCC because women never lift the bonnet of a car and an oil change only once every 50,000kms instead of once every 20,000kms – now if a man came up with that it would definitely not be PC.
Bit of a tricky concept for a sales and marketing guy to get his head around, perhaps. It even has paint and glass that repels dirt so less profit to be made from car washes and valet servicing, perhaps.
But mention Volvo and you can’t help think of Peter Horbury, the design chief who transformed the Swedish car maker’s image and is now tasked with doing the same for Mercury and Lincoln in the US.
It always seems to be spring when Peter’s around, and he is getting to the end of his first Detroit winter – with a confession to make. In one of his first interviews for the auto industry-hungry Michigan press, he admitted that he had never even sketched a pick-up truck, let alone driven one.
He was flying back to the US at the end of Geneva week to hand over the keys of his Range Rover and collect a Ford F100 pick-up after Jim Padilla, Ford’s executive vice president, had read the interview and decided “it was about time I really got to know the American market” as Peter put it with a cheerful grin.
Peter is unusual among designers these days in that he shuns the “designer look” of black clothing and facial hair cut at funny angles and always gives the appearance of being the sort of bloke you could share a pint with at the village local (well, he is because we have, but you get the picture).
Upbeat Mazda
Equally cheerful was John Parker, another Brit on foreign service within the Ford empire as executive vice president of Mazda Motor Corporation. He has a trace of an Aussie accent after spending eight years out there.
He took up his present position last summer, and it seems to have been one long summer ever since, let alone an early spring. The only cloud on the Mazda horizon seems to be North America.
“I see nothing that should stop us growing in Europe – that growth might come down to 10-15 per cent rather than the 25 per cent to 30 per cent we have experienced in Europe recently, but we only have 1.6 per cent of the market so there’s a lot of room to grow,”
“So I like what I see in Europe and the UK now. Taking control of our distribution network has been very important. The brand has always been strong in Europe, now we have the product to back up that strength and the distribution network to match it.
“In North America the brand is significantly weaker, as is the distribution network, so the product isn’t doing what it should for us but sales have been up by 28 per cent over the last few months.”
If John Parker was upbeat, then that probably summed up the show overall. Russian car maker Lada was there not just with a fuel-cell vehicle, but also a bright red racing car while Tata’s stand gets bigger every year, even if the product doesn’t, yet, justify it.
Stand layout messages
Compare that to the ever-shrinking stand of MG Rover and you can work out the new world pecking order.
Stand layout seems to convey much. Why though was Opel so divorced from the rest of GM, especially its European colleague Saab, while Ford was neatly homogenised? It says a lot about GM Europe’s conflicts. You can’t divorce the parent (GM Europe in Zurich, Switzerland) from its biggest child (Adam Opel in Russelsheim, Germany) and expect a happy family.
“But at least the GM stands other than Opel, are more closely related,” was one view.
By contrast, a family at peace and working in harmony was but a cricket ball throw away – Renault and Nissan, due to celebrate the fifth anniversary of their alliance on March 23. The stands are so close they are almost as one, and Renault’s Modus was another hit like Fiat’s Trepiuno. A car that made you smile.
Cash key, Qashqai
Also high up the hit list was Nissan Qashqai concept, the first product to emerge for Nissan’s new design centre in the UK. Opened just a year ago, Nissan Design Europe has come up with a car that could be billed as Made in London.
Based in Paddington in a disused railways storage building, exterior, interior and colour and trim were all created by Brits, despite the fact that 14 nationalities work in the Rotunda building.
Even the interior graphics are based on the graffiti seen daubed around London’s streets – well, the more savoury graffiti that is.
Slovak Kias, not Hyundais
So, what was the big surprise of the Geneva Show? Not a car at all, but the fact that the long awaiting announcement of Hyundai’s new European factory will not make Hyundais at all. It will build Kias – up to 200,000 of them a year after Job 1 in November 2006.
This reflects the growing influence with the Hyundai automotive empire of current Kia senior vice president and chief operating officer Kim Yong-Hwan. He is seen as the rising star of the company and as the previous president of Hyundai Europe, the new factory has been something of his baby.
He apparently has the clout to win the plant at Zilinia, north east of Bratislava, for Kia which he believes will grow the fastest of the two brands in Europe.
The company’s mid-term plan calls for 500,00 Kia sales in Europe by 2008 against 400,000 Hyundai brand models.
RR in your face
Rolls-Royce had the most in-your-face car on show in the 100 EX Sport, a monster convertible with one-piece aluminium windscreen frame and a 9-litre. 64-valve V16 engine. Needless to say this car will not go into production, but it is a statement of intent. Rolls-Royce is planning to make convertibles once more and it is likely to resurrect the Corniche name.
