Automotive Industry News – 19th November 2021

Performance Communications | November 23, 2021

This briefing document provides a fortnightly overview of the main automotive industry stories making the news and key product announcements. It also includes some of the more interesting stories and campaigns from outside the automotive sector over the past two weeks.

Automotive news

Key industry stories from the last two weeks:

Motoring

EV and Autonomous Vehicles

Motorsport

Product launches / unveils

Key industry product launches or unveils:

Subaru – Subaru’s first global all-electric vehicle SOLTERRA makes world debut
Peugeot – Peugeot reveals updated 3008 and 5008 models
DS – All-new DS 4 open for orders in the UK
Volkswagen – The new Volkswagen T-Roc: expressive design and innovative technology
ŠKODA – The ŠKODA SLAVIA: second ŠKODA model in the INDIA 2.0 project makes its debut

Automotive winners

Toyota – Toyota Hilux wins International Pick-up Award
Renault/Mercedes – Kangoo and Citan are Joint Van of the Year
McLaren Automotive – McLaren Automotive wins ‘Game Changer’ award at the Walpole British Luxury Awards 2021
Midnight Robotics – Fieldin acquires Midnight Robotics to develop autonomous tractors
SEAT – SEAT has reached a new milestone in the UK, the sale of one million vehicles

Non-automotive winners

Non-automotive losers

Research and insights

Electrifying the bottom line: How OEMs can boost EV profitability (McKinsey)

Electric-vehicle sales are increasing, yet many OEMs are still defining their path toward profitability. This report, which analysed 16 current EV models aims to help automotive leaders improve their EV business strategy.

It distilled six key insights:

While market penetration is up, profitability remains low for current EV models. Although the penetration of EVs in key markets is on the rise, profitability currently remains low or at best slightly above breakeven. Twelve out of the 16 analyzed EVs show negative profit margins.
In a business-as-usual scenario, profit levels will gradually improve. Going forward, increased competition and expiring subsidies are likely to put price pressure on EVs. Nevertheless, EV profitability is expected to rise, given cost reductions and economies of scale. Continuing the business-as-usual scenario, profit margins could reach 4 to 11 percent by 2030 depending on the vehicle segment.
Additional countereffects and risks could lower or cannibalize the entire EV profit margin. What if lithium and nickel prices soar in light of long lead times for mining capacity expansions? What if battery supply shortages increase the cell prices beyond “cost plus” levels? We see four major countereffect/risk categories that will vary by OEM and could have an estimated impact of ten to 15 percentage points: raw-material price increases, supply-chain decarbonization, supply-chain imbalances, and additional content for electrical and electric components and software.
Incremental cost and revenue levers have the potential to mitigate the above-mentioned risks (at least partially). Incremental measures, such as adopting industry best practices in design-to-value (DTV)/direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales, R&D efficiency, capital-expenditure optimization, sales and after-sales network optimization, can help automakers to potentially improve the profit margins by an additional six to seven percentage points in 2030 for selected vehicles.
More radical moves could enable healthy profit levels. To increase EV profitability further, automakers can take a bolder approach by making radical moves to their EV business models. These moves could involve a design-to-use case approach, the creation of zero variants, DTC sales, the pursuit of a full range of monetization opportunities over a vehicle’s life cycle, and EV/battery-as-a-service offerings. Our full potential analysis for radical levers shows an additional incremental profit potential of five to 12 percentage points in 2030.
Some improvement measures are OEM-agnostic, while others consider organizational maturity and vehicle segment. All the incremental moves are rooted in industry best practices and are available and appropriate for consideration by all OEMs. The impact of more radical moves will vary based on both the vehicle segment and nature of the OEM business (newcomer versus incumbent).

The Future of Wellness Special Report (Healthline Media)

The report dives into all the action going on at the intersection of technology, health and wellbeing, exploring perceptions and adoptions around wellness technology and innovations so integrators and business owners can identify new opportunities within the field. In general, consumers are predominantly optimistic about the benefits of wellness technologies and innovations according to the consumer responses found within the report.

91% of consumers said innovations could improve people’s quality of life.
91% said innovations could illuminate connections between wellness, bodies and minds.
79% were inspired by the latest wellness technology research.
77% felt as though health innovations fit in well with their lifestyle.
68% believed that health innovation are essential for living a holistic life
73% said that health technologies and innovations help people practice sustainability (this rate is significantly higher among Black, Asian and Hispanic respondents, as well as Millennials and gen Z).

Those who have had experiences with wellness technology also often rated them as “overwhelmingly positive” (94-95%). Technologies that had the most positive interactions include:

Smart scales (71%)
Smart alarm clocks (75%)
Fitness trackers (72%)
Light therapy for mental health (72%)

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

Second coming: Retro Cars we’d like to see again…

If you didn’t know it already, the retro resurgence is in full swing. In recent years, cars like the Volkswagen ID. Buzz, Alpine A110 and reborn Renault 5 have all ridden the retro wave. At the Paris Motor Show last week, Renault was at it again, with a stand that included EV reinterpretations of the Renault 4, […]

Hybrids are at a crossroads – and EREVs are the vehicle category to watch

What does the future of hybrid vehicles look like? It turns out that it may include brands taking lessons from the past. Most hybrids on sale today use parallel architecture. This refers to the fact that the hybrid’s combustion engine and the battery can both power the vehicle independently – but there is another way […]

Cruel Britannia? Why the IOC and Team GB restrict athlete’s brand partnerships during the Olympics and our top tips to handle it

With the Paris Olympics officially starting today, the 16 worldwide partners of the Olympics (Coca Cola, Toyota, Visa and Anheuser Busch InBev to name but a few) will be relishing their time in the spotlight. However, the Games, as always, is not without its controversies. If you work in marketing or PR, the Olympics […]

Saying au revoir to range anxiety

As a way of communicating the range of an electric vehicle (EV), the idea of completing a long-distance drive is tried and tested. In 2018, we drove a Jaguar I-PACE through the Channel Tunnel (yep, literally, along the service tunnel) to show how it could travel from London to Brussels on a single charge. More […]

Performance Communications Transitions To Employee Ownership

Performance Communications, a leading provider of specialist communications services to the Automotive, Sport and Technology industries is delighted to announce that it has transitioned to employee ownership via an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). The move secures the agency’s long-term independence and will provide its employees with both a greater level of involvement and a share […]

Cricket at the Olympics, it’s just not cricket!

Let’s set the record straight, I don’t like cricket, I love it* but cricket at the 2028 Olympics, is that really necessary? The IOC has announced the five new sports that will be included in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Funnily enough some of the new sports that will appeal to a Northern American […]

Top 5 Sports Documentaries – The Power of Sports Documentaries

It seems that recently a new pro sports documentary appears on an almost daily basis, 24-7 viewing if you need to get away from the family over Christmas! While the docs undoubtedly provide the streaming channels with engaging content to draw subscriptions and drive revenue, should sporting associations or teams always give the green light […]

Unveiling Threads: Exploring the Disruptive Factors and Success Behind the New Social Media App

In a rapidly evolving social media landscape, new platforms emerge, seeking to disrupt the status quo and capture users’ attention. Can Threads go the distance though?