Genesis releases yet another gorgeous concept, Mercedes struggles in China, JLR’s CEO abruptly resigns, and Ford says it needs to improve diversity.
Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.
Genesis Is Out-Cadillacing Cadillac
I’m not under any illusion that Korean luxury brand Genesis is going to build this giant electric convertible they’re calling the X Convertible Concept, but the sheer hutzpah of the thing is impressive. To paraphrase the band The B-52s:
I got me a car that’s as big as a whale
And we’re headin’ on down to the 러브 하우스
I got me a Genesis that seats about 20
So hurry up and bring your jukebox money
This car will show up at the LA Auto Show, though it appears to have been revealed at some sort of outside event that I don’t think we were invited to for some reason. I’m not convinced by the whole car (the wrap around headlights are strange) but overall I dig the size.
It’s amazing that a brand that did not exist as its own brand until late 2015 is now building cars and SUVs that are among the most attractive and most desirable in their respective classes.
While Cadillac has been chasing a European standard of luxury for years (though they are maybe fixing that), Genesis has seemed to embrace an American-ness in their luxury cars, even as they take cues from Europe and are designed under the guidance of über-Euro-luxury guy Luc Donckerwolke.
Even Mercedes Is Having Trouble In China
China’s probably in a mild recession? I don’t want to get Hu Jintao’d outta this piece by David [Ed note: Good. Fear the red pen! -DT] so I’ll provide this as proof, though China is always a bit opaque in a way that Western economies are not.
I think a good indicator of overall economic health, especially in China, is purchasing power and vehicle demand. Mercedes, which has a strong brand pretty much everywhere, is struggling like most other foreign (and some domestic) automakers in the country.
Mercedes-Benz said it had cut prices on some of its EQE and EQS models in China due to changing market demand for top-end electric vehicles (EVs), triggering a 6.7% fall in the premium carmaker’s share price on Wednesday.
[…]
Chinese EV brand Aito, launched by Huawei and Seres Group, lowered prices in late October by around $1,100 on two of its models, while Tesla (TSLA.O) cut prices by up to 9% after Chief Executive Elon Musk said a “recession of sorts” was underway.
Competition is good for the Chinese consumer, though.
Jaguar Land Rover CEO Loud-Quits
I don’t know why that Jaguar Land Rover CEO Theirry Bolore quit, but this headline from the UK’s Car Dealer Magazine sums up the vibes: “Thierry Bollore sensationally quits as CEO of Jaguar Land Rover citing ‘personal reasons’”
I don’t want to speculate here because no one seemed to expect this and therefore the reasoning here could range from the mundanely professional to the actually very personal/sad.
Bolore came over from Renault where he’d been CEO when the whole Carlos Ghosn affair happened and blew up in his face. His demise at Renault was, as the BBC put it, “brutal and ruthless” even by automaker CEO departure standards.
He landed at JLR with the hopes of bringing that company back to profitability, but after two years he’s gone. JLR CFO Adrian Mardell will step in to the position as an interim CEO.
Ford CEO Admits The Company Could Do Better On Diversity
I don’t think most of you need to hear this, but diversity is a good thing in business and in life. Having a range of perspectives and backgrounds is one of the reasons that The Autopian has been so successful thus far and we’re all committed to bringing more of that to you, dear readers.
Ford’s CEO Jim Farley also seems to think the same, telling a crowd at the Rainbow PUSH Global Automotive Summit at MotorCity Casino Hotel that “We have made a lot of progress, but it’s not enough” and adding that Ford’s competitors were ahead of them.
I found this stat from The Detroit News’s coverage pretty interesting:
Ford ranked third behind Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Co. on an automotive diversity scorecard released by Rainbow PUSH that evaluated automakers on diversity within employment, advertising, marketing, procurement, dealers and philanthropy. None of the companies received a “red” grade — which indicates that diversity initiatives and investments are non-existent, not disclosed or didn’t have enough information for scoring — for the first time in the scorecard’s 10 years, indicating progress within the industry.
That’s something. Even if you don’t want to discuss the obviously rational reasons why it’s good to have varying perspectives around you, there’s also the matter of trying to reach a bigger customer base to make more money, which is the CEO’s job:
In terms of attracting a more diverse customer base, Farley signaled a need for change in Ford’s marketing model and said efforts would have to go beyond increasing spending with Black-owned media.
“We have a lot of new products,” he said. “Now we have the opportunity to go even further with our electric vehicles, especially. And I think the way to do it is probably through a different marketing model than what we’ve had. Large advertising — I don’t know if that’s going to work with our next era of improvement.”
Emphasis mine. I thought that this quote above was interesting as well. Automakers have these marketing budgets they are required to spend with certain media and, on balance, it’s probably a good thing and it helps support these businesses, but it might not always be the most efficient and effective way to reach those customers.
Black (or Latinx or API) consumers are not a monolithic group and you can’t just add 5% to a budget line-item and expect to increase your reach by 5%. If you want to effectively find an audience it often helps to have someone with insight into those customers, which also gets back to hiring.
The Flush
It’s the LA Auto Show this week and we’ll have more coverage soon. A question: When was the last time you want to an auto show? What do you like about auto shows?