Nissan may sell roughly a million Nissan Rogues every hour. It may be the brand of Z cars and GT-Rs. And who doesn’t love a hardbody? But search your mind and think of all the Nissans you’ve known and you’ll probably think of a sedan. Maybe it’s a Sentra, maybe it’s a Maxima, quite possibly you’re enjoying some Big Altima Energy in your mentals. Gather ye four doors while ye may, as they may be on the way out.
EVs aren’t yet taking the world by storm but the technology is seen as the next step and America doesn’t want to get left behind, which is why it’s forking over more than a billion to 2 of the Detroit 3 to make them. Audi isn’t getting that money and it’s maybe why Audi is considering closing a plant for the first time in decades. You can guess what that plant makes.
Finally, new car prices are pretty much stuck where they are for now, so if you want a new car this is basically it for a while. The jet-lag has hit me and I just tried to take a nap in a tent but there was a racing sim there and so I just raced a few laps to wake up (I’m in 9th, behind Top Gear).
Long Live The Sentra, I Suppose
Nissan is the last non-luxury automaker, I think, selling a lot of sedans. There’s the Versa on the cheap end, the Sentra a bit up from there, an Altima for the people who are Camry-phobic, and a Maxima for those craving a bigger ride.
That’s remarkable. GM and Ford got out of the sedan game a few years ago. Stellantis has a few Chargers sitting around, but that’s it until the new one comes out. Toyota and Honda are still in the game, though not to the extent Nissan is.
In fact, sedans account for more than a third (36%) of all of Nissan’s sales! That’s a lot. Given that there’s less competition, it makes sense for Nissan to keep this niche so, of course, they’re probably not going to do that. I guess we all made too many jokes about Nissan Altima drivers?
Here’s the reporting from Automotive News saying that many of these sedans are probably toast:
In the next couple of years, Nissan could ditch two its three remaining sedan models, leaving only the compact Sentra in the lineup before the automaker debuts a battery-powered sedan by early next decade. Production of the Maxima large ended late last summer.
Nissan will drop the subcompact Versa after the 2025 model year, people familiar with the plans told Automotive News. According to AutoForecast Solutions, production is set to end in April 2025, with no next generation planned.
The midsize Altima will sunset following the 2026 model year after production was extended a year at Nissan’s underutilized Canton, Miss., factory.
There’s a chance the Altima does survive as a PHEV or hybrid.
The new Sentra, though? You can’t touch the Sentra. Sales are up 55% through the first half of the year compared to last year, and, as pointed out in the article, it attracts a lot of first-time buyers because it’s just in that right zone of not being too small, too big, too expensive, or too cheap.
Stellantis, GM Getting $1.1 Billion
Ford has been the most active of the Detroit 3 in planning to build EV plants and gettin’ that government cheddar cheese. Now Stellantis and GM are back in the game with more incentives from the Biden Administration. GM gets $500 million to convert its Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant in Michigan to EVs at some point in the future. Stellantis will get $335 million to convert the closed Belvidere Assembly plant to build EVs and $250 million to transform its Kokomo transmission plant into an EV component facility.
And that’s not all!
Hyundai Mobis, which operates a Stellantis supplier in Ohio, will receive $32 million to produce plug-in hybrid components and battery packs.
Other awards include $89 million for Harley-Davidson to expand its York, Pennsylvania plant for EV motorcycle manufacturing; $80 million for Blue Bird to convert a former Georgia plant to build electric school buses; and $75 million to engine company Cummins to convert part of an existing Indiana plant to make zero-emission components and electric powertrain systems.
The DOE also plans $208 million for the Volvo Group to upgrade plants in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania to increase EV production capacity and $157 million for ZF North America to convert part of its Marysville, Michigan plant for EV component production.
If America is to be a leader in EV production it’ll need these facilities and I’m sure it’s just a big coincidence that all these plants are in swing states. Totally random. So random.
Audi Might Close Its Q8 E-Tron Plant
The Audi Q8 e-tron, the her? of big EVs, has not been a huge seller. It’s an expensive luxury EV at a time when people don’t seem to want that.
According to Manager Magazine, this might spell doom for the plant in Brussels, Belgium where the SUV is built:
The VW subsidiary Audi has initiated an “information and consultation process” for the plant in order to find a solution for the site with around 3,000 employees. “This could also lead to a cessation of operations if no alternative is found,” Audi announced on Tuesday.
The group is now preparing for additional costs amounting to billions. The operating return on sales will be between 6.5 and 7 percent, half a percentage point lower than previously forecast, Volkswagen announced. One reason for the additional costs of up to 2.6 billion euros are the expenses in connection with the plant in Brussels, which will be set aside in the third quarter, it said.
As a reminder, VW hasn’t closed a production facility since 1988 when it bailed out of Westmoreland, PA.
The One Graph That Explains Car Pricing
I was going to write a thing about how automakers are practicing great price discipline when it comes to new cars. That was the plan. Why? There’s a ton of volume out there right now for some brands and there’s always a temptation when that happens for carmakers to chuck profits out of the window to move cars. This kills profits.
When I look at where the market really is this graph from Cox Automotive is absolutely my favorite one to consider:
The blue line is the average transaction price (i.e. what people end up paying all-in for a car) and the orange line is incentives. What’s happening here is that the pandemic shortages are over, Trimflation has abated, and automakers have started to find a balance between incentives and pricing. Obviously, these are averages, so the numbers for highly discounted EVs are being balanced out by vehicles like the Range Rover and every hybrid Toyota that people cannot get for close to MSRP.
This balancing point was inevitable and it shows a bit more maturity from automakers.
Can I be cynical for a second? I’m going to be cynical for a second. Automakers have been enormously profitable over the last few years and this has made their C-Suite hella rich. These are public companies, generally, and it’s the job of these automakers to make a lot of money, but I don’t really know the line between price discipline and unwillingness to meet consumers back where they are even though the semiconductor emergency is over.
I don’t know.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Bad girl pop stars didn’t come into existence with Chappell Roan. Maybe Eartha Kitt? Madonna? Either way, lest we forget that the aughties had Lily Allen. I’m in England so let’s enjoy her track “Smile.” I love that the premise of this video is that she has hired some street toughs to harass her shitty ex and she gets off on it. She’s so mean! I love it. Also, she’s married to David Harbour now and their life just seems delightful. I’m Team Lilavid. Team Allbour… Team Harlily?
The Big Question
Q8 E-Tron?
Yeah, boycott all of those dealership who screwed everybody over during Covid…the ones who were dipshits and still are
…uhhh GM technically sells 3 sedans, albeit Cadillacs, but last time I checked they’re still a part of GM. Also, the Malibu was JUST canceled.
“Ford got out of the sedan game a few years ago” (FIFY)
Nissan, you’re depriving the people of a competitor to the Camry or Accord with a proper transmission. I simply cannot defend the discontinuation of the beloved Altima with its Jatco CVT. Efficient, smooth, very reliable and maintenance-free, what’s not to love?
I once again laugh at the idea that the Maxima is the “big” Nissan. It’s the same medium size as the Altima, just like it’s always been. I don’t think there has ever been a large Nissan sedan in the North American market.
The sedan/crossover thing is personal. I just sold my efficient ICE sedan for an electric crossover (it’s a large hatchback, dammit!). As much as I didn’t want to, the crossover/hatch is a better fit for a wrecked clutch leg and my hobbies. Getting older, where money tries to make up for the aging.
ioniq 5?
Ugh. I’m sitting here as a person who’s last two DDs have been sedans. I’m eyeing a hatchback for my next DD. I prefer a liftback/hatch/wagon. I don’t need them lifted with AWD but that’s what everyone seems to be making. But I’ll be clear, if forced between getting another sedan or a CUV, I’d pick sedan.
What’s the difference between a lifted hatch and a CUV? Best example is Subaru, they had (might still have, I don’t follow them well these days) the Impreza hatch, which was low to the ground, then they had the Crosstrek which was literally just the Impreza hatch, but lifted a couple inches, and everyone calls that a CUV. I have always looked at crossovers as just lifted hatches most of the time, though these days they’re often not even lifted and most things branded as crossovers are just hatchbacks or wagons to me. I’m with you on hating like the CRV, but confused as to what the difference is between a lifted hatch and a CUV.
The Kia Niro is probably that weird point where it’s called a crossover and really is a hatch that’s just a smidge taller. Fundamentally, I don’t see much difference between a lifted hatch and a CUV. Basically the same thing to me and I don’t desire one.
Ok now I am even more confused. You initial comment said you want a lifted hatch, which is what prompted my comment. Do you have an example of what kind of car you are interested in?
Looking at the Civic hybrid hatch when it becomes available. Perhaps my use of “Liftback” confused you. Prius also possible. Main thing is most smaller CUVs are what I consider a lifted hatchback. A bit taller and heavier than they need to be for whatever reason.
I’m dumb sorry. Haha I totally read it as lifted hatchback, not liftback/hatchback. Yes, now I understand and will back away in shame having once again shown the world how dumb I am. Thanks for the clarification.
The over the top funding makes sense if you think big picture. US government is puppet run by the Uber wealthy who want control of us plebs. What better way than to get us all into electric vehicles with remote on/off switches. 20 years from now the government can control when/where you go and how fast you get there. (See Europe GPS speed limits and California’s premature introduction of a bill to do the same. ) Breathalyzer tests can also be mandatory in the name of safety, data of which will be immediately harvested and sold to your health care provider/insurance just like your newer vehicle data is currently sold to the car insurance companies. Politicians receive funding in return for pushing these agendas to milk the average consumer out of every last penny and shred of privacy.
You get it.
And I’m a proponent of EV tech. If you make EVs where only the drive systems, charger, and BMS are digital, and make the rest of the car as analogue as possible, where the battery pack is accessible for repairs without having to take the whole car apart, and drive system and charger are both plug and play devices, without proprietary software and tools locking out the indie mechanics, where buttons and knobs take the place of touch screens, the damned thing would be repairable and if cared for, be able to last forever, while also minimizing operating costs.
By making EVs into bloatware designed to milk you of money, strip you of privacy, and allow 3rd parties more control over the vehicle than you, they’ve been rendered into landfill fodder and the ultimate means to preserve a paradigm of planned obsolescence.
Which is 100% opposed to the so-called justification of mandating them in order to “save the planet”.
IMO, one of the most environmentally friendly things one could do, regarding using a conventional car, would be to take an old solidly built 90s/early 2000s car, and convert it to electric with hobbyist grade components. It will likely outlast anything new one could buy, cost less per mile of use, and would be repairable with a basic set of readily available and affordable tools.
Q-bert and Tron arcade games? Classics, not sure why they’re not selling, didn’t know Audi was making them.
The sedan thing is sad, at some point in the next 5-10 years we’ll probably be trimming a car and it’ll probably be my Bolt EV, and the other 2 vehicles will be some sort of hybrid SUV and my Ranger EV, and put more batteries in the Ranger EV so I won’t have to white knuckle coming home from my 14 mile commute in the winter.
There’s times I have delusions of ute-ifying the Bolt or even crazier body swapping it to a Saturn SC2 from the 90s(wheelbase is identical!) but then I sit in traffic and even discounting that I’m in bro-dozer central here in NC, just so many SUVs and work trucks and what not I can’t see around as well compared to being in the Ranger or our Forester. So that that’s most likely the types we’ll end up with, and the wife said she’d never go back to a coupe/sedan.
I’ll still have my motorcycle which it’s seating position and openness also gives better visibility than most sedans.
Also our roads in the US suck, again here in no-frost-heave NC and the construction trucks just tear up what should be pristine back roads that wind through farmland, and the dmv is too busy building toll roads to worry about it, and SUVs can for the most part handle those better too.
So reading between the lines here, the real news is that the next gen Sentra will be 15-20% larger.
Q8 E-Tron? I think you nailed it, cause I had forgotten about Ann and this thing myself until your reminder.
Egg?
Her?
Is she funny?
If anything, EV tech was ready 2+ decades ago on batteries that offered 1/4 the gravimetric energy density vs what we have today. The overpriced, oversized, drag-inducing, bloatware vehicles that are being made are what is incompatible with EV tech, even though EV tech is so much better today than it was 2+ decades ago.
We could have 5-seater sedans that are streamlined to only need 120-150 Wh/mile to hold 70 mph, with enough legroom for the tallest passengers to fully stretch their legs out, price them like a Nissan Sentra, and make a small profit.
But that won’t make as much profit as an SUV or truck that needs 3x the battery pack to get the same range.
It’s not that the auto industry can’t build affordable EVs for the masses, it is that they refuse to. GM could have started doing so in the late 1990s, and would have owned the market.
The government’s solution? Ban the Chinese from offering affordable EVs for the masses, so that the legacy automakers don’t have to deal with any pesky competition, and can continue to push their bloatware unobstructed on people that can “afford” it by signing the dotted line for a 96-month payment plan at 11% APR.
Because the car companies make more money off of financing the cars, than selling them.