‘The rise of the crossover will mean fewer SUVs’

The large proliferation of designs in current several years has presented sellers with a problem: how can they display screen and exhibit a expanding selection of autos? And can shoppers try the car they actually want to invest in?

It begs the concern no matter if we actually will need the narrowest of niches, especially among SUVs. Citroen boss Vincent Cobée doesn’t think so, as he explained to me this 7 days: “We’ve seen an fascinating phenomenon in the previous several years, with some manufacturers carpet-bombing the markets.

“So you close up with a car each ten centimetres of duration, and a car each a few to five centimetres of height. And if you’re actually obsessive, you close up with five or six SUVs in duration, and then you can deploy them with two or a few heights.”

That is not the way Citroen programs to do it. “Our see on this is plainly translated by what you saw just lately with C4 and C5 X,” Cobée reported. “There’s a little something just after SUVs. “There are two reasons for this: not all people desires a superior-stance, boxy car (and there’s a range of autos that are referred to as SUVs, but in fact they are elevated saloons).

“The 2nd issue is, when you appear at CO2 compliance and performance of distribution, all people will have to shift in direction of an really rationalised line-up. Line-ups with 30, forty distinct overall body types in a showroom may be a little something of the past.”

That was echoed by new Ford of Britain boss Lisa Brankin. Mondeo is not considerably for a longer period for this planet, but what will be the shape of the long run Ford line-up?

“In the olden times it applied to be Fiestas, Focuses, Sierras and almost everything else,” she explained to me. “Now that has actually transformed. In the United kingdom, 50 percent of all the automobiles we market are some variety of SUV.” 

Brankin’s concentration is to “put shoppers at the coronary heart of our business”, so the Ford line-up will evolve, she states. And that purchaser concentration is critical. Even with fewer niches, I can’t see us remaining short of option in showrooms. 

Look at out the hottest on Britain’s most effective marketing autos for 2021 listed here…