Thanks for joining us this Tuesday January 28th 2025. Notably in car news today: Mitsubishi looks likely to opt out of joining a merger with Honda and Nissan, Tesla’s sales continue to tank in Europe, and more.
Browse this issue:
- Mitsubishi looks likely to remain an independent company
- Tesla sales continue to tank in Europe
- Alfa Romeo backflips to 2027 all-electric target
- Audi Q6 E-tron concept wears portal axles
Mitsubishi goes cold on merger with Honda and Nissan
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Reports out of Europe suggest that the rumoured merger of Mitsubishi with Honda and Nissan is looking increasingly unlikely to eventuate as the former carmaker looks to remain independent.
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While the merger would seem a neat fit given Nissan is the top stakeholder in Mitsubishi Motors, the latter is concerned that it will be difficult to affect joint holding company decisions given its relatively small size, according to the Yomiuri newspaper by way of Reuters.
- Mitsubishi is said to be a latecomer to the proposed-if-yet-confirmed merger deal initiated between Honda and Nissan, with talks between the two set to conclude in 2025 with a view of establishing a joint holding company in 2026.
- Even without Mitsubishi’s involvement, the Honda-Nissan union is said to potentially create the world’s third-largest auto group with a combined output of around 7.4 million vehicles per annum.
Tesla sales continue to tank in Europe, records first annual fall in sales
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Sales of Tesla models continue to slide into 2025 after an unprecedented decline in 2024 that appears steeper than the rest of the EV landscape, according to numerous reports in mainstream media. This marks the first fall in annual vehicle sales for Tesla.
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In Germany, home to Tesla’s so-called gigafactory in Berlin, sales dropped by a whopping 41 per cent compared to 2023.
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Viewed more broadly, new Tesla registrations were down 13 per cent (242,945 units) across the entire European Union in 2024, compared with registrations in 2023 (279,542 units).
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Reasons for Tesla’s sales decline in Europe have been attributed to the rollback of EV ownership incentivisation in some markets, a stagnated Euro line-up (that doesn’t include Cybertruck) and founder Elon Musk’s fast-increasing presence in US and global politics.
Alfa Romeo backflips to 2027 all-electric target
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Alfa Romeo is the latest brand to formally backflip on ambitious all-electric targets in favour of maintaining a mixed-powertrain portfolio.
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Originally claiming to be a fully electric marque by 2027, the Stellantis-owned Italian brand now follows numerous other European marques by maintaining internal combustion and leaning harder into petrol-electric hybrids.
- Though confirmed for the US market, it remains unclear whether these targets will also be rolled back in Europe and China, though the former is certainly a possibility as demand for EVs continues to dwindle in the region
- It comes at a time of great upheaval for the wider Stellantis group after CEO Carlos Tavares resigned with immediate effect last month.
Audi Q6 E-tron concept wears portal axles
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A radical new Q6 E-tron concept has been released showcasing a litany of rugged upgrades to showcase the potential of the new PPE platform and EV off-roaders in general.
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Audi engineers have equipped the Q6 E-tron with portal axles to increase the ground clearance by 160mm, while also expanding the track by 250mm.
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While normal portal axles only typically increase torque by 20 to 30 percent, Audi says its new design has upped the wheel torque by 50 percent to 13,400Nm.
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By increasing the wheel torque, the design makes up for torque multiplication lost by the exclusion of mechanical components (transmission, differential etc) normally found on combustion models. In doing so, the concept can traverse gradients of up to 45 degrees.
The next issue of Car News Today will be published on Wednesday 29th January at 4.30pm Sydney time.
