This week's selection of snippets from the automotive sphere brings news of Seat's continuing rise towards premium status, a bright future for McLaren and Nissan's worries that governments could be doing more for autonomy.
London longing for electric Jaguars
UK sales of the Jaguar I-Pace will double to around 3000 units in the next 12 months, according to UK boss Rawdon Glover, though he predicted that five-digit sales of the EV would be at least five years away. More than 40% of I-Pace sales are within the M25.
Seat not so simple any more
The Seat Tarraco and stand-alone Cupra brand are pushing buyers into higher, hitherto unseen price points for the firm, much to boss Luca de Meo’s delight. “We’ve been on a journey, first to get people to consider our cars for more than £20,000 and now more than £30,000. It is working. There was no future in selling our cars for 15% less than similar ones,” he says.
McLaren gives customers what they want
McLaren's Special Operations department has tripled its business in the past two years, and CEO Mike Flewitt sees no reason why that trajectory won’t continue. “We’re seeing it again with Speedtail that people who buy exclusive cars want to make them individual,” he said. “Our bespoke content offering is hitting new heights.”
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Can't build them fast enough
Happy to be told if I'm incorrect?
The £30,000 SEAT
"There was no future in selling our cars for 15% less than similar ones,” he says.
As a current SEAT owner (my first SEAT, purchased brand new), there's no future in counting me as a repeat customer if your prices are the same as other manufacturers. As much as I like the car, price advantage was the deciding factor.
3,000 UK I-Paces a year
Doesn't sound many but when they're averaging around £65,000+ each it's not so shabby for new tech. Certainly will be alot more than Mercedes and Audi's effort
xxxx wrote:
I will take the under on that...Merc EQC and Audi eTron will outsell i-Pace by 5:1 if not more...it isn't necessarily which is the better car (although non-UK reviews have the EQC and e-tron as superior vehicles) - unless you are a die hard Jaguar fan why would you put ~£70k into a low volume vehicle made by a company that might go bankrupt or be sold to PSA when you've got less risky options?
If that sounds harsh look at other segments: in Europe Merc sold 150k C-Class in 2018 and 38k in 2019 to March - Jag sold 10k XEs in 2018 and only 2,600 in 2019 so far - yet if you read Autocar or are on this forum the XE is "class leading". Add in the 3-seies and A4 and it is getting outsold 40:1 in Europe...
update
5:1 Looks like you were wong.
"made by a company that might go bankrupt or be sold to PSA " looks like you were wrong again