But is wasn’t all bad news for the Bavarian automaker, both the BMW i3 and 225xe Atc. Looking at the manufacturers ranking, BMW (20%) is comfortably seated on the Iron Throne, followed by Renault (13%, down 1%) in Second Place, while the Third Spot is being hardly fought by the new Bronze medalist Mercedes (11%, up 2%), Volkswagen (10%, down 1%), Nissan and Tesla, these last two with 9% share. Looking at the YTD ranking, the top positions remained stable, with the Zoe increasing its lead, with the most notable changes being the Mercedes GLC350e climbing to the Sixth Spot and endangering the Tesla Model S Fifth Place. Will Mercedes be able to race with Renault for the Second position, or will VW fight back and recover the Third Spot? 33, but it is doing so at glacial pace, so expect it to reach the Top 10 in around鈥 million years, when the Pangaea supercontinent is back. BYD Song 7 – First model penned by the former Audi Designer Wolfgang Egger, the Song 7 is a rather fancy approach to the 7-seater MPV theme, launched with gas-only versions, it is said that next year it will offer a PHEV version, probably doing 0-100 kms/h in five seconds.
BYD Song: Now with PHEV and BEV versions, with the first doing 0-100 kms/h in 4.9 secs and the second having 300 kms range, specs of this VW Tiguan-sized crossover are up with the best. Yep, this small Crossover is said to make 0-100 kms/h in 4.9 seconds on the PHEV version. BMW i3 – The German Hot Hatch was up 151%, to 1.629 units, with 3 out 4 units sold being of the BEV variety, a great contrast with what happened 12 months ago, when the Rex variety used to outsell the all-electric version. 8, by the way, imagine how many more units would this model have, if the 7-seater version had also a plug, because excepting the low range Nissan Evalia van-with-windows, no one is selling a regularly priced plug-in 7-seater in Europe. But enough bitching, the stylish Mercedes has its largest markets in Norway (295 units), Germany (138) and Belgium (132). This model is serving for Mercedes as a customer lab experiment, warming them up to the brands real Game Changer, the 2019 EQ SUV. Said to have a plug-in hybrid in 2018, this could be the first Chinese brand to really breakout in Western markets. One should not have to hit a separate button alongside the shifter to put it in Park, and I prefer the old dial shifter that this new one replaces.
In Europe it will be another story, the 500e would have been a hit if properly launched in Europe, but because it wasn’t and there are no signs of something like that happening soon, expect Fiat to start losing share at the same pace that Plug-ins steal share at regular ICE models. BMW Group – Tesla is a real threat in the Premium market and of the Three German Marys, BMW was the first to make a serious effort to win space in the EV niche, first with the i3 and i8, clever models (And branding) that didn’t stealed sales from their established nameplates, then with PHEV versions of their regular models, now with plans to expand the lineup with long range BEVs, BMW, is one of the Premium automaker best prepared to resist the impact that Tesla will have on that category, so the German carmaker will lose customers to Tesla, but at the end of the day it won’t suffer as much as other Premium brands. Looking at it live, one understands why, after all design counts.
Why, oh why? It鈥檚 low-hanging fruit, people鈥?Workshop manual is completely aimed at providing the people with complete information about a car. Looking ahead, expect deliveries to slowly drop, as people anticipate the revised version, coming later in the year. If you are a lapsed member, you are still considered a past member and must pay your membership for the year in full to be brought current. This isn’t just to sound pretty; these are sounds the engines make when there’s something wrong. Zotye Z500 EV – Turns out, Zotye also wants to make decent electric sedans! Quality design, but needs more electric range to stand out. Great stand by the way, reminding a bit of Ikea philosophy. Link & Co – The most popular stand at the Shanghai Auto Show, irreverence was the token word here, a sort of Smart meets Mini. At least those that i managed to cover, as the Shanghai Auto Show is YUUUGGGEEE, imagine 5 times the size of the Geneva Auto Show and you have an idea of the size of it.