In this week's round-up of automotive gossip, we chat 'small' cars with Jaguar Land Rover, get the lowdown on Mercedes' Nice (and nice) design studio and more.
La petite Land Rover?
Jaguar Land Rover's chief commercial officer, Felix Bräutigam, insists moving down into smaller segments is not necessary for the company. “We should not and will not drive down into segments just to get economy of scale,” he said, adding that the Evoque was already a small car by some definitions. “An Evoque is 4.37m and a Volkswagen Golf is 4.3m,” he said. “It’s Golf sized.”
Honda spies Honda CR-V hy(brid)
Honda's CR-V hybrid sales are lower than predicted in the UK simply due to supply, said sales boss Phil Webb. The model accounts for 55% of the CR-V mix but, from next year, when supply will be ample, he predicts it will push 80%.
Nice works nicely for Mercedes
Mercedes-Benz considered opening a new 50-head design studio in London recently, but instead opted to set up in Nice, in part due to UK property prices being too high. “It was a shame but, in the end, Nice was perfect,” said design director Gorden Wagoner. “It also has the nice symmetry of Emil Jellinek, the company founder, being from the area.”
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Mercedes-Benz don't know their own history
Karl Jelinek didn't found M-B, he was basically just the Nice dealer for the cars being made by the company founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach.
Nice seems an odd place for a
Nice seems an odd place for a design studio, hardly the centre of the car industry there!
Design studio locations
Don't want to go all Stephen Bailey here, but: Surely a design studio should be located close to the roots of the brand to absorb the culture, heritage and zeitgeist of the locality into its design ethos to more effectively channel it's heritage/values/brand into every facet of the final product. To me this would seem almost more important than where the vehicle is actually assembled. Surely a Mercedes design studio should be in Prussia/Swabia, Rolls-Royce in London, Renault in Paris etc etc?