There are undeniable headwinds for the European-based vehicle manufacturers, which force the question about what the near future looks like. These problems boil down to: 1. Excess manufacturing capacity, which means paying for factory space as well as tools that...
There is a familiar tension between various teams who create vehicles – the industrial designers present the vision; the engineering community are tempted to knock that back into a shape they know already works in existing products and the production engineers want...
The EU27 and UK as well as the U.S. have made some aspects of advance driver assistance systems (‘ADAS’) mandatory, with the latest iteration featuring driver monitoring. As the fitment volumes increase, so the cost of the systems falls. Now, it may well be a few Rand...
The news is grim – and getting worse. For some time, the European automotive industry ran entire factories below break-even point, as it struggled with moving ‘national’ emblems into more cost-effective economies. Indeed, the inertia of moving an entire plant from one...
Let’s start with ‘be careful about what you wish for’! Jaguar established a deeply engrained image – now called ’brand’ – based on beautiful cars, discussions about the future as WW2 bombs fell, five wins at Le Mans and fabled trips at speeds of 150 mph or more across...
