SUVs: Macan ?

Deliveries of the new Porsche Macan started in the second quarter and appear promising. They are surely good news for the Porsche dealer network who other otherwise would have seen a 23.5% decline year-on-year. Sales of the new Boxster et Cayman, updated in 2013, have fallen back to confidential levels. Weak sales of the Porsche Cayenne raise the hypothesis of a cannibalization from the smaller Macan.

Sales of full size SUVs show good health, with an excellent reception given to the  new BMW X5 and the Range Rover Sport. Among compact premium SUVs, GLA sales are boosting the segment, but it is too early to tell whether the Mercedes crossover will become a real challenger ot the X1 and Q3.

Electrics running flat ?

Tesla Model S sales continue, but do not seem to really take off. Two hypothesis can be articulated. The first is that the allocation of limited production capacity at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California is throttling the growth in the existing markets. The second would be related to true demand. With 253 cars sold in this semester, the Model S matches another niche luxury sedan, the Mercedes CLS, achieving only one quarter of the sales of the segment leader, the BMW 5-series.

Sales figures for the array of dedicated hybrids and electric cars shows that growth is actually coming from “soft hybrids” – lightly modified variants of mainstream models – rather than hybrids or electrical cars with a more radical definition. None of the models listed hereunder has really had success on the swiss market, or at least lasting success when the case of the Toyota Prius is considered. Sales of innovative products such as the BMW i3 do not seem to take off either. Is the charing infrastructure too limited ? Is value for money questionable ?  These questions appear pertinent.

With volumes tending toward a soft landing at 300’000 units, a stable 37% diesel share since nearly 3 years and robust SUV sales, has the swiss auto market reached a new equilibrium ? We will test this assumption in the second half of the year.

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