A reader showed up to one of our taxi meetups this week with a new-ish Audi (shoutout Tam), and I thought it looked good. I also had to pause for a second to remember which one it was. I presumed it was an A4, but for the first time in a long time, I needed to check. This is just one of the problems that Audi has as a luxury automaker.
A big thanks to Thomas for covering The Morning Dump while I’ve been on the road. It looks like I missed a lot, so hopefully I don’t repeat things too much. Let’s try a topic of conversation that’s always a topic of conversation: What is Nissan doing? Right now, its new CEO is trying to buy himself enough time to turn the company around while also not revealing how much he thinks the company will make (or, more likely, lose) this year.
What’s another topic I touch on a lot? Tesla’s European sales continue to slump, in spite of the new Model Y starting to roll out across the continent. Early issues with the Robotaxi service certainly aren’t helping things. How should I end the day? With Škoda, as somehow Thomas didn’t cover that. We apologize for the oversight.
Audi Disproves The Theory That Having More Models Is A Good Thing
Is it better to have a single vehicle that is the leader in a class or have multiple vehicles that make you a segment leader? That’s the open question today. The Jeep Grand Cherokee is the best-selling upper midsize utility vehicle so far this year, according to S&P Global Mobility, but Kia sells more total cars in the segment when you combine the Sorrento, Telluride, and EV9.
You can play this game all day. Honda has the best-selling CUV, but Toyota just eclipses it with the RAV4 and BZ4X.
Why does it matter? S&P Global’s Tom Libby explains:
In the US automotive market, segment leadership is a powerful asset. A top-selling nameplate delivers clear marketing wins. But for many automakers, total brand performance within automotive industry segments—across multiple models—can be just as valuable, even if no single model takes the crown.
In fact, brand-level leadership often reflects a broader product strategy, especially when multiple models span price points and propulsion types.
It’s an interesting question, and I think the long-term answer will likely be that having multiple powertrains so you can continue to grow/maintain a customer base is going to be better than just having one model. In the short term, I don’t think either Toyota or Kia is making a ton of money from their EVs, even if it’s important to be in that space.
What’s the exception to this? When you have a bunch of cars in one category and still get your butt kicked:
Yikes!
Mercedes has the class leader S-Class, with about 21% share of the segment, and has 32% of the overall full-sized luxury sedan segment. BMW has a ton of models here and edges Mercedes overall with nearly 38% of the segment. BMW probably has too many variations in this class (and I’m not sure why the 760 and 740 are considered two different models, I guess the 750 is because of the electrified powertrain), but it seems to be working for them.
Audi, though, only has 5% of the class and has three different models if you break out the A8 and S8. That’s not great. The e-tron GT is not popular. The new S5 looks interesting, but overall Audi’s sales have fallen as it’s become harder to explain what Audi is supposed to be. In particular, a look at sales shows a drop across every sedan other than the A7 in Q1. As Manager Magazin puts it, 2024 was supposed to be a big year for Audi with new products, “but the VW subsidiary remains mired in crisis at the beginning of 2025.”
Tariffs against non-USMCA-compliant cars built in Mexico could absolutely devastate Q5 sales, which is something Audi can’t afford right now. In general, the cards feel very stacked against Audi.
It could be worse, I guess. Maserati sold just 13 Quattroportes this year, apparently.
New Nissan CEO Gets Hazed By Investors
Nissan’s new CEO Ivan Espinosa seems like a pretty chill dude as far as auto execs go, but he’s stepping into an extraordinarily hard job, as the automaker flails around after years of confusion following the ouster of Carlos Ghosn. Step one in taking over the top job at a public company is to talk to investors, and — bad timing for Espinosa — Japanese investors have gotten a lot more active in recent years.
How did his first big shareholder meeting go? It was a little testy according to Automotive News:
One shareholder who attended the three-hour meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity said that the new CEO was “quite smooth and fluent” in outlining his recovery plan but equivocated “without substance” during the question and answer period. He called the meeting “more stormy than I expected.”
Espinosa said he understood and shared the frustration with Nissan’s problems. But he said the company has a solid revival plan and promised the turnaround has already started.
“We have to continue with the restructuring, which as I said is very painful,” he said. “It’s far from what we want to do. It’s far from what we want to achieve. But we’re starting to see the company move in the right direction.”
The biggest issue seems to be that Nissan is mostly keeping its executive board in place while cutting mostly frontline workers. This feels a bit unfair to some given that frontline workers had little to do with the failure of the company, whereas the executive board has a lot to do with it.
Another big issue is that Nissan hasn’t yet put out a full-year guidance for what it expects to make (or lose).
Tesla’s European Bloodletting Continues
Another month, another opportunity for me to look at Tesla’s European sales numbers and go “blurgghhhhh.”
The market overall is trending heavily towards electric cars, with those vehicles making up about 15% of new car sales so far this year. In particular, EV sales are up heavily in Germany, which is the largest market in Europe.
Tesla is doing dog-crap sales, though, and is down 45% year-over-year through May, and down about 40% in May itself. I presume that even with the Elon-Musk-Of-It-All, the revised Model Y will probably help stem the sales slide a bit, but it’s a bad sign that you’re losing share so quickly in a market that’s starting to embrace electric cars more widely.
The bigger issue beyond Musk may be that Tesla doesn’t offer the kind of cheaper and smaller electric cars that Europeans are buying from companies like Renault. Tesla also lacks PHEVs or EREVs, which are growing in popularity across the Atlantic.
The New Škoda Student Car Rules
Every year, the trainees at Škoda get to make their own car, and it’s usually quite cool. This year’s model is a Superb truck! A PHEV truck!
I’ll let the company explain:
With the support of their teachers and experts from various departments, the trainees invested more than 2,000 working hours in the planning, development and production of the Škoda L&K 130. It is the first Student Car to be based on the Superb Estate and the first to feature a plug-in hybrid drive. Thanks to its electric range, it is well suited for use as a support vehicle during bike races.
When running in all-electric mode, it uses a high‑voltage battery with a gross capacity of 25.7 kWh. Moreover, it offers generous space, which makes the Škoda L&K 130 the ideal support car for professional cycling races. The students transformed the estate car into a pick-up for this purpose. The vehicle now features a new rear window behind the rear seats separating the interior from the open loading area. It comes with a new, integrated bike carrier mechanism for transporting and quickly providing spare bikes.
I love it.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Are you ready for a vibe? This is Dinner Party, a jazzy supergroup that includes Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, and 9th Wonder. Griffin and I were in the car together for the last week, and he turned me onto this. Enjoy!
The Big Question
What’s better? To be the best in a class or to have multiple cars? Give me some examples!
Top Photo: Audi
Poor Audi, they had a niche as the “nice” German brand, splitting the difference between the economy VWs and the high-priced luxury MBs and sporty BMWs. They had years where “Quattro” was a big selling point in that market, as it provided added value as a daily driver in snowy areas and for people who wanted a more rally-inspired sportiness.
As the premium brand market went full-on gold-toilet, Gucci-t-shirt, level tacky to take advantage of a consumer base that prioritized conspicuous consumption above all else, Audi has gotten pinched out. Understated premium brands are as extinct as the dodo now that even the most affordable brands offer every option anyone actually uses. Navigation, heated/power seats with personal settings, climate control, lane-keeping, radar cruise, etc. are available in economy cars.
Audi can’t even lean into performance or AWD since just about any car has more performance than anyone uses on the street, and AWD is almost standard on the CUVs that everyone buys.
What’s better than either of those options is to drive a bright green Fiesta.
Audi is up there with Dodge on the list of car brands I don’t care about and will likely never own. And I’ve owned an AMC so that is saying something.
I lied. I have the Lego Audi Quattro race car set.
I think it is best to make the most PROFIT per car and to hell with being the best seller. You can buy sales if you have deep enough pockets.
Audi is the one Euro car maker who I have rarely given the first crap about (and one of the few sold in the US in modern times I have never bought). VWs with delusions of grandeur for the most part, and they have never had anything that made me want one over a BMW or Mercedes. And I have long found their interior ergonomics hateful, regardless of how nicely finished they were. And they always seem to have some reliability Achilles heel.
Tesla could not happen to a more deserving company.
Except for the grill, I want to buy that Skoda.
You know ALOT of car enthusiasts don’t have any idea that Audi (and VW of America) were literally months away from leaving the US market in 1993. Audi with the 5000-model unintended acceleration issues and poor overall sales at VW were killing the company.
I think it is better to spread out the “wealth” and have more than one shining diamond. For example, in the now way over-saturated SUV/Crossover/Tall Wagon segment it is easy to get lost in that mess regardless of how good your product is. I mean, you can put 400hp under the hood of a new 2025 SUV but the only way to truly stand out is to come up with a new exterior color like Martian Surface Red Metallic or something like that.
And what happens to the awesome wonder mobile when what was hot this year is passe’ in six months?
Gotta have that diversity!
Musk and Tesla… I am a fan of Musk and his cars but am indifferent on his DOGE involvement but Tesla in general has been becoming old has-beens just for the simple fact that their designs weren’t fresh and new and the Koreans and others were eating their lunch too… this just got worse when the whole DOGE thing made his fortunes worse (or better).
If by “a bit unfair” you mean “literally exactly what always happens” then … yeah. Totally a bit unfair.
“The bigger issue beyond Musk may be that Tesla doesn’t offer the kind of cheaper and smaller electric cars that Europeans are buying from companies like Renault”
And that’s why the cancellation of the Tesla Model 2 was a huge mistake. Had they gone ahead (and not done the stupid cybercab/robotaxi), they would have had a vehicle that would absolutely dominate in the EU and other countries/regions where the mainstream is one size smaller than the Model 3/Y.
The only mistake that Musk made that was bigger was getting heavily into politics, closely aligning himself with Trump in public and taking a government job when he should have been doing his job at Tesla.
This last point would get the rest of us fired from our jobs… and probably any employee that worked under Musk.
Oh and it’s better to have best in class than a bunch of overlapping models.
Case in point… during Honda’s best years, they dominated with mainly two vehicles… the Civic and Accord.
Hell… even Tesla for its best years until Musk fucked things up dominated BEVs with 4 vehicles and two underlying platforms… the S/X dominated the ‘luxury’ segment for many years and the 3/Y dominated the mainstream segment.
When we see a sub-$25k EV that charges to 80%+ in 10 minutes (battery swap) and can seat at least 5 humanoid’s in the North American market AND that doesn’t look like a spaceship this manufacturer will have more money than they will know what to do with.
Was hoping that Dinner Party would make TMD!
It is better to sell more cars. To do this, they have to be better than other cars in ways that the consumer understands and/or feels. Price and perceived quality are key.
Audi’s cars in this category do not match the other companies’. Simple as that.
I know you were talking about Audi’s, but did S&P essentially state the Grand Cherokee is currently outselling the Explorer?
Has that ever happened before? Ford typically sells nearly 200,000 units more than Jeep in the segment, if memory serves, so outselling it right now is pretty amazing to me. I wonder why it’s? Maybe Ford sees more purchases at the end of the year?
Probably the same reason the Bronco is currently outselling the Wrangler?
I don’t feel like a see a lot of either new on the road, but maybe I haven’t been paying attention. A quick Autotrader search of GCs shows most have markdowns and most of those are $3k+ (some up to $7k). Explorers have some discounts as well, but overall seem more expensive by a couple grand. Also a lot fewer for sale (but that’s just within 50 miles of me).
Am I seeing this right? Does that Skoda have two rear door handles on the passenger side?
I wonder if it can either open or slide?
Audi used to have well defined and well styled models across the range they served. Now they have an alphabet soup of overwrought styling confusing. It is odd however that their main German competitors are offering the same mess, but are doing better than them.
Also, I’ve never known anyone with an Audi who has replaced their Audi with another one. Seems to be no real brand loyalty. That can’t be good in the long term.
I wonder how long the average Audi owner owns their Audi? I mean, if it’s short, it might be because there is something that makes that Audi owner never want to be an Audi owner again. Definitely not good in the long-term. Similar feeling I have for Mazda, when my father’s 1972 RX2 stopped running five years after buying it.
As opposed to, say, me. I will likely buy a Toyota to replace my 23-year old car. I replaced a 14 year-old Avalon with a (used) Lexus 10 years ago. And the Acura I had lasted 13 years, and I might pick a Honda/Acura. People like me don’t generate sales, but when there are a million times #-of-years-of-ownership people like me, that’s a good long-term thing.
I feel like Audi used to be the luxury Subaru. Now that everyone has AWD standard in everything, Audi has lost their shine. They haven’t found a new niche to fill, and here we are, having this discussion. There are just too many luxury German brands, almost like at one point there were too many normal US brands. I’m not sure how to fix it, but MORE luxury isn’t going to do it. I would somehow leverage the VW relationship better? Dunno.
I came here to say this but slightly different. I feel like they lost that Luxury Subaru style. They may still have a great AWD system but their cars look like a badge engineered Volkswagen. Their design language, outside of nifty lighting, is dogshit.
In a different life I spent some time in Wolfsburg. When asking questions like “Why can’t we leverage XYZ with Audi?”, I would get the response that “Audi makes money and can do what they want…” At the time it seemed very siloed…much like the pre-decline big three. I guess what we’re seeing now is very much in line with this, where VW group is going to need to trim some fat and get less siloed. They definitely need to trim some models, if not some brands altogether. You also need to remember that the partial state ownership of VW makes changing directions hard. Politicians in various regions play favorites with the home team and that also comes into play as to who is calling the shots on various decisions. If I was king. I’d probably lump Bentley-Lamborghini together, Porsche-Audi-Ducati, Volkswagen-Skoda, SEAT(Cupra) – Scout. Powertrains would be corporate across the board and lead by whatever homeroom was primary market.
Something like that would make sense. But, the issue I have with your list is it’s too heavily leaning towards luxury, with Audi at the bottom of that list. What do you do to make yourself stand out the same way you once did. I guess it something that has been said in other comments, great design. But, there are still so many brands.
This is exactly what I was thinking. It used to be BMW = sporty, Mercedes = comfort, and Audi = all-weather performance.
Now, everything is AWD, and the market has shifted toward tech, with a side of more tech, and tech for dessert. BMW and Mercedes are stuffing their cars to the gills with massive dropdown screens for rear seat passengers, etc., and Audi is consistently one generation behind.
The easiest answer is to go for best in class with a platform you can branch into a significant product line. You could have the best full-sized sedan, then use that platform for a couple crossovers and a small pickup. But context matters.
If I’m Audi, I start facelifting. Make some bold design choices without spending the money to update the powertrains and platforms. I don’t want to burn a bunch of money chasing a title that won’t make a lot of profit.
If I’m a brand new company, I probably shoot for creating a good base platform and a few different models on that platform.
If I’m making good sales already, I probably shoot for best in class in something, even if it means letting a solid vehicle get a little long in the tooth. Toyota could have let the 4Runner and the RAV4 go a little longer between redesigns and still sold plenty without any issue, for example. Hell, if they kept the previous versions around, they’d keep selling alongside the new, I suspect.