Oscar Wilde said there are only two great tragedies in life: one is not getting what you want and the other, appropriate for today’s news, is getting it. Renault’s CEO Luca de Meo told journalists yesterday that beloved sports car brand Alpine is coming to the United States. He also told journalists that the brand will not be bringing any sports cars.
Yes, a rant is coming. I’m not going to swear. I’m not going to get mean or sarcastic. I want to be heard. Specifically, I want someone in Renault PR to print this out and put it in the hands of Renault CEO Luca de Meo, and I want Luca de Meo to be reading these words while drinking his espresso or smoking a cigarette or whatever. At the end of this rant will be other news and Luca, my pal, my friend, I also want you to read those, too, because I chose them for you.
If, at the end of this, you disagree — if you want to ignore me, if you think I’m just being silly — that’s ok. I get it. Maybe I am silly. If we allow a third tragedy in life, it may be listening to the rants of automotive journalists who have strong opinions and absolutely no skin in the game. Hop in the car Shinji, we got work to do.
Don’t Screw It Up
I’m writing this for you, Luca, but I want our American readers to grasp the importance of what I’m saying. So I’m going to review a lot of things you already know, so just bear with me please.
Alpine was a niche sports car brand from France by a man named Jean Redele who got his start hotting up Renaults, and who eventually built the glorious original A110, which was a rear-engined sports that won a bunch of races. Renault eventually bought the company and the A110 went on to win the World Rally Championship in 1973. The now Renault-owned Alpine also won Le Mans with a prototype in 1978. Alpine would go on to build a few more cars, including the A310/GTA you might know from “Neon Genesis Evangelion” but, mostly, the brand is known for producing stellar R5 Turbo hot hatches. Then the brand went dark for about two decades.
When Alpine eventually came back, it did so with a car called the A110. In design, spirit, and performance, the little sportster was a worthy successor to the original. I have driven this car, in France, and I think it’s absolutely wonderful (you can read more about that here). I would love for Alpine to bring the A110 to the U.S. but even I, a silly automotive journalist, understand it’s likely not possible and not worth it at this point. It would be too expensive, and the car is too late into its life.
Alpine did a bunch of other smart things, including going racing and renaming the Renault F1 team “Alpine” right at the time America woke up to the concept of Formula One. I’ve watched the company race at Le Mans. I’ve been to one of the brand’s little shops in Paris. I have an Alpine-branded notebook I take with me everywhere. I am the American who gets it.
Alpine has teased both a new A110 and an electric R5 successor and I though “Great, this is perfect.” When Alpine said it was going full EV I, too, thought this made sense. For being such a small brand, Alpine has an enormous amount of brand equity with certain people; it’s known for making clever and fast cars that look like they were designed by Cézanne and that drive like they were engineered by fighter jet-maker Dassault.
So you can imagine my excitement this morning when I opened my digital copy of Automotive News and saw this headline: “Renault’s Alpine brand sees U.S. market as key to sales, revenue targets.” I then had an ecstatic, Meg Ryan in a deli, sort of response. I agree! The U.S. market is key!
And then I read this:
The Renault sports car brand has aspirations to sell two models in the U.S., a midsize electric crossover and a larger, similar model, starting in 2027 or 2028.
“The U.S. is the main destination for these cars,” [Luca de Meo] said on a call with journalists on Wednesday.
Sure. Build some crossovers. I just want to make it clear now, Luca, that I support this plan. People in America (and everywhere else) want electric crossovers. You’re never going to get the volume you need making only sports cars, and people who complain about Lotus or Porsche or whomever building crossovers and sedans are narrow-minded malcontents. It turns out that the many of the customers who bought Cayennes and Panameras grew up loving 911s and 944s. There’s a lesson in that! Porsche didn’t stop selling 911s here, they just put them next to the SUVs.
But then I kept reading about the new cars Alpine is launching:
The first to be launched will be the Renault 5 Alpine, a “hot hatch” version of the coming Renault 5 small EV, in the second half of 2024. It will be followed in 2025 by a sporty compact crossover, tentatively called the GT, which will have a “bespoke” design and will use a highly modified Renault-Nissan platform, likely CMF-EV.
Alpine’s compact crossover will have performance enhancements including torque vectoring, more powerful electric motors and different battery chemistry from mainstream Renault Group models.
[…]
An electric A110 successor is due by the start of 2027. It will be developed in collaboration with Lotus, part of China’s Geely group, which has several joint venture agreements with Renault.
Those three models are not scheduled to be sold in the U.S.
Emphasis mine as I slowly start to lose my mind. We’re getting, according to Automotive News, a Porsche Macan and a Cayenne Coupe and, at least for the next decade, that’s it.
This is, I think, unacceptable. Alpine does not have much of a brand in the United States and the brand that it does have is going to partially rely on people who care to be evangelists and those people are probably going to be upset. I am upset. This all sounds extremely familiar to me.
Now, instead of telling people who ask about Alpine that “Hey, this is a brand you should care about” I feel kinda compelled to say “This is a brand who does not get it so go ahead and buy the Lotus because Lotus gets it.”
But I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I’m going to calm myself and assume that maybe you assumed no one here cared. I’ve seen the great lengths you’ve gone to in France to get people excited about the sporting nature of the brand, and maybe you assumed that this was only important for the hometown crowd. It’s a fair assumption. I think it’s a wrong assumption, though. I think if you’re going to ride the F1 wave you need to, first, reach your fans in the United States and accept that they do exist. I don’t care what anyone tells you. They are wrong.
We may not have been able to drive real Alpines or R5s here in America, but I’ve played a decent amount of Gran Turismo and Forza and, in my experience, we’ve all driven and loved the virtual versions of those cars. They are popular choices on those platforms. Of course, this may not be all of your audience, but it’s some of your audience, and it’s a good place to start.
So be careful, because there is something galling about not even being sort of meekly placated in this situation. You’re not even going to pretend to be bringing those cars to the United States? I understand that federalizing cars for the U.S. is expensive, but you’re not even going to try and bring over a few R5s as a sort of halo product? Why not?
Some of this is instinct and you have no reason why you should trust my instinct over your own, but I believe the cost of making either the R5 or the A110 successor available in the United States is going to get you more than you’re going to lose by not doing so. This is unknowable, of course, but consider this: If you don’t listen to me and Alpine comes to the United States and flops you’re going to be thinking about this column. It’s going to gnaw at you. You’re going to wish you listened.
Take this advice as advice from a friend you’ve never met. A person who cares about what you are trying to do and wishes the best for you. Please, please, please, don’t screw it up.
VinFast Is Screwing It Up
Vietnamese automaker VinFast is shipping cars to the United States and the company is already in trouble. Everyone who cares has read the great Kevin Williams piece about how these cars are not ready for primetime. VinFast’s cars are too expensive for an unknown brand and the cars are burdened with a confusing battery renting option that makes no real sense. And then, a week ago, Tesla announced it was massively undercutting VinFast with a price drop.
Look at this way: You can get a VinFast VF8 for $59,000 or you can get a Model Y for $52,990. Which one are you going to take?
VinFast’s response? According to Reuters, it’s going to be, uh, something?
“As a new brand entering the market, when other brands reduce their prices we have to come up with promotions to ensure VinFast’s competitiveness,” a VinFast spokesperson said in a statement.
“We are considering many promotion programmes and will announce soon.”
The statement did not specify whether the promotions would include price cuts.
I get that Tesla threw a knuckleball, but this does not engender confidence. There’s some level of: Fake-it-till-you-make-it required to appeal to an American audience. We respect, whether for good or ill, confidence. We even respect false confidence and completely unfounded bluster!
Come out swinging, Luca. Don’t be VinFast.
Maybe Be Like Dacia
Renault’s affordable brand, Dacia, is kicking ass. It’s the right brand at the right time. There’s a land war in Europe, everyone’s worried about a recessions, but you still gotta buy a car sometimes. Why not a Dacia Duster?
According to the company, sales were up 6.8% last year. That’s 2022. That’s the year where most car brands lost sales. What happens when you sell more cars in a contracting market? You pick up market share. From the company’s press release:
Markets where Dacia vehicles are sold contracted by 5.5% relative to 2021. The brand’s strong performance confirms the relevance of its positioning of offering the best value for money, as its new range has proven to be a popular choice among retail customers. In 2022, Dacia achieved a record-breaking market share in Europe with 7.6% of [Private Car] sales to retail customers, strengthening its position for the second year in a row (having claimed a 6.2% share in 2021).
The core selling point of Dacia is value. They are not the flashiest cars. They are not the fastest cars. They are totally fine cars for a better than fine price. And that’s all they ever need to be. It works. To quote Willy Shakespeare: To thine own self be true.
Foo Fighters And Green Day Are Playing A Harley-Davidson Festival In Milwaukee
This will require no real explanation to any American over 30. If you lived through any part of the ’90s you remember that the worst possible thing you could do was sell out. This was especially true if you were a grunge-y rock band or a punk band. Green Day, the most famous ’90s punk band at least by record sales, was banned from their hometown club for signing with a major record label. It was nuts. Green Day then went on to make songs and records that decried a sort of rising, Harley-riding, Toby Keith-ian jingoism. Most famously, they wrote the song “American idiot,” which has these lines:
Well, maybe I’m the [horribly offensive word to the gay community], AmericaI’m not a part of a redneck agendaNow everybody, do the propagandaAnd sing along to the age of paranoia
And now Green Day is playing… the Harley-Davidson Homecoming Festival in Milwaukee this summer with the Foo Fighters and, guess what? No one cares. No one is going to get mad at Green Day or the Foo Fighters. I mean, maybe someone will, but most people will not care. Few will call them hypocrites or tweet stupid, angry stuff at them.
No reasonable person should begrudge Green Day and Foo Fighters who both, for decades, have continued making enjoyable music and playing big, enjoyable concerts for fans. No one should doubt them and no one should feel bad if they make a little money. It sounds like a great show. Joan Jett and Phantogram will be there. It’s Milwaukee so expect both good beer and good sausage. Go have fun.
I say this, Luca, because we all know that Green Day and the Foo Fighters have earned it. They have nothing to prove. You still do. At least here in America.
Don’t screw it up.
The Flush
I know this was a bit…passionate, but am I wrong? This is a lot of words for the CEO of Renault. Maybe I’m wrong. Luca, or anyone, feel free to tell me I’m wrong.
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Photos: Alpine, VinFast, Harley-Davidson, Dacia
I have driven a number of Renaults never sold in the U.S. (including an OG A110, A310 and an R5 Turbo) and would have been delighted to see Alpine bring in the new A110, especially if they had come up with a good manual gearbox. A small, light, nimble and attractive sports coupe with the right IC powerplant would suit the daylights out of me, even if I likely couldn’t afford it. If it were available, you can bet I’d try….
The idea of an electric Alpine crossover, however, leaves the fan of French cars quite cold, however. They may believe they need to go along with the mainstream in this country, but I strongly doubt the actual buying public will be so easily convinced.
Sadly, the French misunderstand what’s needed to be a successful company here as much as Americans misunderstand French cars. It’s a lose-lose proposition.
VinFast looks like an even bigger failure. A new vehicle will sell to a small crowd even if it’s worthless, but not in any quantity or for very long. Even if somehow all the bugs can be worked out and some real value added, there still won’t be any reason to sign on, because nothing about it actually stands out. A Dacia might be a better deal.
Phantogram, performing in front of an audience full of Harley lovers born during the Eisenhower administration. Brilliant!
Vinfast, to me, has a good idea and it is down to execution. Make a better product than Tesla and some will pay more. The Battery lease is the major issue to nail down as from what I have read that is huge cost once they start going bad,
Porsche’s SUVs have street cred because Porsche was well-established as a sports car maker before going into the SUV space, and because they’ve continued to build sports cars alongside them. Someone who buys a Macan or a Cayenne can feel like they’re getting a family hauler with the soul of a 911 or Cayman because a 911 and a Cayman were literally sitting right next to it in the showroom.
Alpine has no brand recognition in the US at all, apart from a small niche of car enthusiasts, and I don’t see how they’re going to sell the public on the idea of them being a sports car brand that happens to also make SUVs if all they’re selling is SUVs with no halo model at all
I want to tow my track Porsche with a Porsche, dammit. That’s it. That’s what I want. I tell you what I’d do if I won the lottery, man: two parsh at the same time. Yeeeeep.
Alpine’s starting from scratch on that, and won’t bring over a track car to tow behind the crossover? Laaaaaaaame.
Agreed on bringing over a piece of forbidden fruit. An electric sports car with stunning French looks and that carves corners like a bread knife through a baguette would get people interested. Then when they realize they have kids and crap to haul around they’ll take a look at the CUV. That should be a French Mazda and be good to drive and nice to sit in without the German price tag.
VinFast. They had a lot of promise. The opaque battery lease scheme was bad enough. I thought they’d drop it once they set up shop here. Nope!. Being junk to drive is awful. And when Tesla is cheaper and can access tax credits, something has to give. Unfortunately it seems like they’ll be going back to Vietnam the way they’re going.
Commenting on the meta:
I like this format/theme for the Morning ________. Pulling stories the create a message or theme around a particular topic, especially one with this much passion (and car enthusiast bent) to it. I’d be impressed if that much cohesiveness and passion could be pulled up every day, but this was a standout news round up.
FWIW, I’d rather see Alpine test the waters here with models that will have a broader appeal, and once they get name recognition and decent sales here, they can discuss bringing over the halo models. However, they’d almost have a better go at this if Renault and Dacia (or even Renault-badged Dacias) was also part of the plan – the better to build a dealer support network and to get better pricing on bundling marketing expenses, etc…
I give the plan about a 50% chance of actually coming to fruition without being cancelled before they sell a single Alpine here. And if, by some magical chance, they do start selling here, I give them about a 25% chance of sticking around more than five years.
Alfa Romeo came back to the USA some years back, and they’ve lost a significant amount of dealers since then. Of course, their model lineup here is paltry, and the vehicles aren’t bullet-proof toyotas either – and this was done riding on the backs of other FCA and now Stellantis dealer locations (then again, seeing Alfa’s sold next to brand new Jeep Compass models likely didn’t help either).
If Mazda is able to punch upwards in this market, there is no reason to think why Renault couldn’t make a competitive go here, but to let Alpine do it alone is just silly. And yeah, bring the halo cars here too as a ploy to draw customers into the showroom.
Probably your best post ever, Matt. Thank you. Lets hope Luca listens. In about 5 years I might be able to afford and A110.
Osti de tabarnak de sacrament, de câlice de ciboire de criss de marde!
“Renault’s CEO Luca de Meo told journalists yesterday that beloved sports car brand Alpine is coming to the United States.”
“Everyone liked that.”
“He also told journalists that the brand will not be bringing any sports cars.”
“Nobody liked that and you may be murdered in your sleep.”
VinFast Is Screwing It Up
Stop. Please point out anything VinFast got at all correct to date other than wheels being round. Should just read “VinFast Stays The Course of Failure.”
“Maybe Be Like Dacia”
We covered this earlier this week. I have, in fact, driven the Dacia Sandero. NOBODY should aspire to be the Dacia Sandero. Or like the Dacia Sandero. Or even compared to the Dacia Sandero. Nobody. Ever.
“I know this was a bit…passionate, but am I wrong? This is a lot of words for the CEO of Renault. Maybe I’m wrong. Luca, or anyone, feel free to tell me I’m wrong.”
No. You’re not wrong. I don’t give a shit about the money aspect of it, nor do I begrudge Renault offering what consumers will buy in large numbers. We do not get the Cayman GT4 RS without 200,000 leased Cayennes first. And that’s fine.
What’s not fine is saying “you get 200,000 leased Cayennes and another 200,000 because fuck you.” Not only is it not fine, it’s monumentally stupid. Renault’s brand cachet over here can be summarized as ‘holy shit never in a million years.’ They didn’t burn that bridge in the 80’s – they punched holes in it, set it on fire, and then dropped a nuclear bomb on it.
The only, ONLY way they are selling their 200,000 leased Cayennes is if they have a proper fucking halo car to convince people it’s not a lifted LeCar. So WHAT if they sell a whole 500 in the US. Fuck’s sake, you know how many they sold in Europe? 2,427 last year. We get it. You need the consumer car to fund the fun car. And it’s fine.
But you can’t fucking bring us a bunch of Joe Consumer half-ass tarted up CUVs, absolutely ZERO ‘holy shit I want it’ cars, and expect anything but “holy shit, Renault? My aunt had an Alliance and the wheels fell off. Fuck that, I’ll go get a Buick Encore.”
Regarding Alpine… I think it would be a mistake for them to bring the Alpine brand to North America when they already have the Dodge and Alfa Romeo ‘performance brands’ here.
At most, maybe can rework some of these Alpines and sell them as Alfa Romeos in North America.
They don’t need to bring a new brand that is unknown in North America to sell some SUVs under when the Dodge and Chrysler brands don’t have an adequate number of CUVs themselves.
Regarding Vinfast… personally I’d pick the Model Y over the VF8. But having sat in a VF8, I can see how that vehicle might appeal more to people who care about having more physical buttons and who prefer more ‘traditional luxury’ rather than Tesla’s ‘minimalist luxury’.
Different parent companies (Stellantis / Renault-Nissan).
Strange things happening at Renault now — they have just sacked nearly the whole press office and replaced them with PR agencies who do not know much about anything. Been trying to get a simple question on bi-directional charging answered — is it presently allowed in France — and they act as if I asked how much for your granny… This after they sent out a press release claiming they have cracked a new charger, with bi-direction (you know, your car earns you bucks by squirting electricity into the grid at peak times, then recharges quietly in the cheap hours in the middle of the night) which improves charger efficiency by 30 %.
So a 7 hour charge from a home wall box will now only take 4.3 hours. Which is incredible.
A Dacia Sandero!!
GOOD NEWSSSSSSS
Come on Alpine, don’t screw it up.
Although you put a DCT in your sports car as the only option. So maybe screwing things up is a core brand value.
I like the Foofighters, I like them a lot. I heard them live once. I heard them in my house, which was five miles from the gig.
I was going to mention this….I’m surprised that car blog world is so relentlessly pro A110 when the thing isn’t even offered in stick. Everyone says it’s one of the best pure driving experiences out there, but when it comes to those sorts of immense joy/0 practicality cars I personally think a manual is a big part of the experience.
Can you imagine buying an automatic Miata, Toyobaru, etc.? At that point you might as well get a GTI. That being said…I personally do enjoy DCTs. My current and last daily both have them…if you’re an urban enthusiast it really is an ideal solution. A good DCT enhances performance and gives you a good mechanical feel when you take control of the gears.
“I’m surprised that car blog world is so relentlessly pro A110 when the thing isn’t even offered in stick.”
Hot take: If it had been sold here, it would have had the same reputation (and sales figures) as the Alfa 4C; which is to say very little of either. But as long as it can remain forbidden fruit, that makes it exotic and cool.
The people I know who’ve driven them both say the Alpine is brilliant, and the Alfa has terrible steering.
Except when you got people like gordon Murray to back you up, telling everyone that the current a110 is the best sport car produced today, overall.
I’ll be that guy, they are totally selling out playing that festival. Harley is the poster child of everything those bands were against back in the day. I even gave the bar and shield the benefit of the doubt for a couple of years and all the stereotypes were 100% accurate in my experience. The build quality was hot garbage, the techs didn’t actually know anything, the dealerships were high pressure, overpriced and soulless. The community was narrow minded cult acolytes. Sold the HD, bought a BMW. Best motorcycle related decision i ever made.
Harley Davidson is a lifestyle brand that sells motorcycles. Hell, you can buy a Harley Davidson edition F150 and it has NO features that would tie into owning a motorcycle. I dislike lifestyle brands because they don’t want to sell you a high-quality product, but instead a menagerie of products at varying levels of quality so that you can advertise that you are a consumer of that brand.
If you hop on a Harley, you can probably go ride with anyone who’s willing to put up with you. If you ride a Yamaha, you can probably ride with anyone but a Harley group. That alone is enough to drive me away from HD.
I ride a bicycle. Many motorcyclists will wave (2 wheels good!) But never never never Harley guys. Instead they blatt their engines as they go by so my ears ring, fuckin assholes
I will once again prove my age and say in 1995, for $18, I saw the following lineup:
Bjork with Aphex Twin
Foo Fighters
Afghan Whigs
Sky Cries Mary
Sweet 75
Wool
Shudder to Think
So any concert that costs more than $18 is a sellout. (I’m being sarcastic, but man, the sticker shock to people my age is real).
$18 in 1995 is about $36 today.
As an example of a similar event that the Foos just announced they’re headlining: Sonic Temple in Columbus, OH: $150 just for the tickets for one day. Plus parking. Plus vastly overpriced food and drink. Damn I wish I liked more up-and-coming bands!
It’s because concerts are the only way these bands can guarantee any income anymore. Concerts used to be cheap because they drove album sales. Now there are no other income streams for bands that amount to a living.
Good lineup. Maybe it’s when I left the state or maybe it’s the state I went to, but one of the things I really miss about living in Washington is affordable shows with significant lineups. The End (radio station) put on two big ones a year and they were always a great value. But maybe I left before prices skyrocketed.
Well, now I see that one of those shows no longer occurs. It’s too bad. The last Endfest I went to was in 2000. 3 Doors Down, Third Eye Blind, Bowery Electric, BT, Deftones, Dynamite Hack, Everlast, Harvey Danger, Korn, Murder City Devils, MXPX, Papa Roach, and Powerman 5000. It might not have been $18, but I know it always stayed south of $50. And I think they usually had at least a few tickets at an early bird email list price of $10.77
Now, I pay more for individual bands, and festivals are a LOT.
Endfest was fantastic! I went to see the Violent Femmes there as a kid. I had to babysit other teenagers on acid, but still had a good time.
“Bjork with Aphex Twin” Why is there no footage of this to be found on the internet?
Right? There are only setlists:
https://www.setlist.fm/festival/1995/jampac-benefit-1995-2bd714ba.html
And not-great audio only of the Foo Fighters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDl3hXPwsxo
I totally crushed on Bjork back in the day.
It’s hard to reconcile in my head that was 28 yrs ago. Not sure how it or when it happened but I got old.
You are correct. Don’t get me wrong…I understand why Alpine wants to come to the US with nothing but blobby electric crossovers because that’s what the goddamn normies are currently frothing at the mouth to get their hands on….however, not only do I personally long for a sports car like you do, but I also don’t think they’re going to succeed with their apparent strategy.
The fact of the matter is they’re already behind established competition with brand recognition in this segment. Is Karen in (insert expensive suburb here) going to want an Alpine or a BMW, Mercedes, Tesla, etc.? Well, that’s an easy one. Half the point of luxury cars in Murican culture is for the rich to dunk on the poors. These are cars the buyers want to be seen in, post about, et cetera. Alfa Romeo, a somewhat established brand, tried to compete here with the Stelvio and they’re currently so undesirable to buyers that you can get into them for the price of a well equipped CRV.
Porsche could pull this off because they have a long, well-known history here. Mercedes can as well. Tesla doesn’t, BUT Tesla has the sort of social media/popular culture relevance that Alpine won’t, because as much as I dislike God Emperor Elon they did an amazing job of marketing their products in 2010-2020 or so. It took them years to build that up and it’s already wearing off as Musk continues to be a living parody in the public eye. How did Ford succeed? Why…they stuck an established American nameplate on their EV blob!
Maybe I’m delusional and thirsting over the A110, but I think if they came in with a sports/halo car of some sort it would help build the brand. It’s something to get enthusiasts involved, generate good press with automotive journalists, and get people in the show room. How many A3s, Q5s, etc. has Audi sold over the last 15 years because people saw an R8? Probably more than you’d think.
Plus, the competition wouldn’t exactly be stiff. I believe my free quick maths suggests an A110 or A110 type car would probably be around $60,000ish here. Obviously you have the Porsche 718 there, which is pretty flawless, but what else? The Zupra? Meh. The C8 is a great car but it’s much more of a sledgehammer/GT car than a backroad carver and good luck finding one at MSRP. A new F Type is much more expensive. I guess you could consider non-coupe performance cars like the CTR/M3 as well, but they’re not dedicated sports cars. An A110 is.
In conclusion, bring a sports car over you cowards. You won’t just be able to hop into the premium crossover game and draw blood.
Preach. There are a zillion crossovers on American roads, and you’ve got to all but go back in time and kill whoever greenlit the first Cayenne to dissuade me from getting a Cayenne next. Why should I care about a French one from a brand I know less about? I haven’t driven their cars, although I hear they’re nice. I’m probably not going to pay much attention to the reviews of it unless it’s got outstanding specs and pulls out some kind of big surprise (which I doubt if the whole name of the game is blending into the crossover space).
I will pay attention to reviews of shiny things like that nü-R5, though. Maybe I’ll run into it at a track day and be impressed. Maybe that’s enough of an impression to wonder what their mainstream vehicle’s like. Point is, shiny things—in this case, sports cars—build hype. You can’t afford to just walk into the U.S. market quietly and then wonder why no one’s buying a few years down the line. You need hype.
Some of us will find not getting the good stuff to be an offense in its own right, too. Are we not good enough for your fun cars? I won’t buy the regular ones out of spite.
The only shit I ever given about Tesla was the original Roadster. A Lotus Elise crammed with laptop batteries was absolutely the correct way to hype up the brand, even if the Model S was clearly the path to sales volume and long term viability of the company.
On that same token, I don’t care for the Cayenne, Urus, or other SUVs from sports car brands, but if that’s what keeping the lights on, then I can live with that.
Finally drawing to a point, Alpine the blobby electric crossover manufacturer already bores me, and they’re not even on the market yet. An Alpine selling blobby electric crossovers and a buzz worthy halo car is worth some attention. Karen from (expensive suburb here) might even get one just so she’s not the fifth mom with an X5M waiting pick up little Ashley from soccer practice.
I had an original R5 le Car and loved it. I will buy an Alpine R5 if they bring it over. The A110 is about the prettiest car anyone has ever made. The original is the stuff of a certain kind of dream. I am tired of forbidden fruit that the rest of the world gets and want it here. But I am weird and desperately want a Citroen DS before I let go of these earthly environs.
“We may not have been able to drive real Alpines or R5s here in America”
I know a guy with a Blue 4 headlight A110 and a White 310 in the US. I’m sure they’ve been driven in the US.
I doubt there will be any actual Alpine “dealerships” for their EV sales but if there’s one near me I’ll gladly protest outside it. The world needs less CUVs, not more of them.
So, Alpine, I’m very worried about how you plan on coming to America. How will these cars be sold here? Directly like Tesla, Lucid or Rivian, through dealerships like a lot of small European luxury makes, small stand alone dealerships, or through Renault’s step sister company, Nissan or Infiniti dealerships? Please for the love of all things do NOT sell your cars through Nissan dealerships. I cannot urge this enough, do not do this!
Also do bring the full EV range here, federalizing is expensive, but way less than the amount of sales you’ll hand to literally everyone else by only selling two mid to large crossovers here.
Say what you want about Green Day (and yes, I was one of those voices calling them sell-outs) but they put on a damn fine show. A top-notch show, in fact. I went from being a “meh” opinion person about them to being one that would cancel dinner plans with an “ex-girlfriend from highschool that just got divorced” type of fan.
It’s that much fun. Anyway…back to cars, lol
I thought they were Clash-wannabe posers from day one, so to me they’ve always been sell-outs. Those things mattered back in those days, not so much anymore. I struggle to remember why my friends and I thought Poison’s version of glam hair metal was crap, but Cinderella’s wasn’t. I don’t want to get into an argument about it, but the point is that the things that were important to us “musically” back then simply aren’t today. While I wouldn’t rush out to see them, I’d have no problem attending and thoroughly enjoying a Green Day show today. You don’t get to that level without being able to put on a killer show. Unless you’re Nickelback. They just sucked.
Ha! Yeh, well tastes are tastes, so music opinions vary widely, obviously. I will say that the whole American Idiot album is damn good. Listen to it or don’t, I don’t care 🙂
As far as Nickleback… their entire career absolutely dive-bombed after they played that half-time show and all of Detroit boo’d them the whole time. That was the day their music died. I mean, they sucked anyway, but they made a crap ton of money, so good for them I guess?
I’m not sure how Nickelback became the poster child for hate-able butt rock. There’s a jillion meh-to-bad butt rock bands in existence. They seem…fine, if generic-sounding, radio-safe commercial rock is your thing. It’s hard for me to feel any which-way about them, or care. Nickelback: a band that exists.
Agree – Cinderella is legit and Green Day was always pop punk who pretended they weren’t. I say that as “Dookie” was the first album I ever bought.
Teaming up with Harley Davidson is a bit odd. I’d expect REO Speedwagon to be more the H-D owner’s crowd.
The boomer HD buyers that would be into REO Speedwagon are dying off or getting too old to ride. They are targeting GenX now.
I’ve seen a lot of shows…probably damn near 100 at this point. Not trying to flex or anything, but I’ve seen some pretty legendary live acts in the process like Phish, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Slipknot, and others. Point being I know the difference between a good show and a mediocre one.
I saw Green Day on the now famous American Idiot tour. I was 13 or 14 at the time and it was only my second concert (my first was Blink 182). It was a truly amazing show that I still vividly remember to this day. The set list was a great mix of new stuff, classic stuff, and even a few deep cuts.
Billie Joe can really command a crowd. He’s a funny, charismatic dude who knows what to say and do without going over the top. He even pulled 3 random musicians out the audience to play a Green Day song while the band watched. It was cool as hell and exceedingly punk.
Do I care for their music today? Eh, not in particular. Their old stuff, particularly Dookie, Nimrod, and Insomniac definitely holds up and was instrumental in laying the blueprint for pop punk. American Idiot is a good album but I don’t necessarily think of it as the icon that other people do. I think they got so ambitious on it that the instrumentals couldn’t really keep up. Tre is a great drummer but Billie Joe and Mike are just kind of mid when it comes to their playing. I think MCR did the whole pop punk/emo concept album deal much, much better with The Black Parade….largely because they had the musical chops to back up something so ambitious.
But I digress. Green Day is a good live band and I think their place in history has been cemented. They’ve made some amazing music and their actual punk credentials are bonafide. BJ has definitely taken on some unfortunate GET OFF MY LAWN ENERGY as he’s aged, but who doesn’t….and even if their output over the last 20 years is a mixed bag (to put it lightly lol), you’ll never be able to take their early stuff and their massive influence away.
Because Poison was made of talentless hacks but Cinderella actually had some musical talent.
A lot of the big glam metal bands could really play. Ratt, Winger, and Skid Row definitely stand out as other good examples.
However Poison and Motley Crue are on the opposite end of that spectrum….frankly I have no idea how they’re still somewhat relevant today but the other bands I mentioned aren’t. I could listen to Warren DeMartini play guitar all day.
” I went from being a “meh” opinion person about them to being one that would cancel dinner plans with an “ex-girlfriend from highschool that just got divorced” type of fan.”
It’s actually a good thing you cancelled those plans because during that time she was married, she turned into a Moose!
“What happens when you sell more cars in a contracting market? You pick up market share.”
Increased market share does NOT equal significantly greater profit. Inexpensive cars (like the Dacia products) have notoriously thin profit margins.
There are two ways to make a large profit: sell many things at a small margin, or sell a few things at a large margin. Both are equally valid methods.
But there are a LOT of manufacturers moving to the latter “Premiumization” strategy and my hypothesis is that that’s an unseen contributer to inflation. VW explictly wanted to have the largest market share in the world and now they explictly don’t, leaving it to Toyota. Nikon wanted to have the largest market share for cameras in the world and now they don’t, leaving it to Canon. You can’t buy a Focus or a Transit anymore, and you can’t buy a low price Nikon, because everyone knew they were entry-level models, and they couldn’t be marked up.
I’m sure part of this was a reasonable choice to apply a thin supply chain to end items that would bring the highest margin, but, having seen that people will take out 84 month loans, I don’t think the manufacturers are going back.
https://beesystrategy.com/premiumization/
https://www.gfk.com/blog/how-brands-can-embrace-premiumization-to-outpace-deceleration
https://www.barandrestaurant.com/chains/premiumization-trend-continues-grow-remarkable-rate-despite-economic-downturn
It’s certainly a huge part of housing inflation. A GC can make way more money building 5 absolutely beautiful mansions a year than building 25 perfectly decent starter homes. The cost to the contractor may be similar, but the margin on high-end construction is just so much better than mid-grade. This is a major reason why we have such a housing shortage, and why the units that are available have become so difficult to afford.
I prefer to sell a medium number of things at medium margins.
Except that dacia is known for having the best profit margin per car with Porsche..
Has to do with mutualisation of parts over all the models.
The history of French cars in this country would seem to argue against coming over at all.
I’m also not sure who is beating down the doors for an EV “hot hatch” from a virtually unknown company, but I remain open to being corrected on that point if it’s a success.
The author calls it galling, but perhaps it’s more accurately called “Gauling.”
I wasn’t going to comment, but Eiffel for your little trap.
Francly, I made it hard to avoid. Arret me, maintenant.
I frogot what we were talking about
Or “DeGaulling.”
“We’re getting, according to Automotive News, a Porsche Macan and a Cayenne Coupe and, at least for the next decade, that’s it.”
… except, they’ll be the equivalent of a Chevrolet Equinox.
Well put and I can only hope that someone involved in making decisions reads it. SO MUCH of US car culture is tied up in cars that were never available to us, and you’re right that there is brand equity there.