Success and Failure

Last week's good and bad car news

Saturday morning, having breakfast with a nice warm croissants 🥐 and...., ready for some exciting car news. At Greenchoicess we look back on a week in which Aston Martin gives its Italian competitors a beating and the news about Nissan becomes more gloomy every day. Good news, bad news. Success and failure.

Success - Aston Martin Valhalla hands out thunder to Ferrari

Aston Martin is back in full force. The new Vantage and Vanquish were released in 2024, but the British are saving the most exciting news for 2025. For the plug-in hybrid Valhalla, Aston Martin has pulled out all the stops to demote the Ferrari 296 GTB to a grocery car.

With a power of 1079 hp and a torque of 1100 Nm, the Valhalla surpasses its Italian competitor with a lead of 249 hp to the rearguard. And the Lamborghini Revuelto (1015 hp) also has to look on. At least, in terms of power, because according to its makers, the Revuelto also goes at least as fast as the Valhalla: 350 km/h. While that poor Ferrari 296 GTB already bites the dust at 330 km/h ...

Formula 1 on license plate (Street Legal)

Thanks to close collaboration with Aston Martin Performance Technologies, the technical arm behind their Formula 1 team, the Valhalla is packed with racing DNA. The heart of the British supercar is a brand new 4.0-liter V8 engine with twin turbo and flat crankshaft, good for 828 hp at the rear wheels.

The three electric motors - two of which drive the front wheels - add another 251 hp. That's how you get the aforementioned 1079 hp. That shoots this hybrid with eight-speed automatic to 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds, almost half a second faster than the 296 GTB, but 0.1 s slower than the Revuelto.

Lighter than a Volvo EX30

The phenomenal performance of the Aston Martin Valhalla is not only due to an abundance of power, but also to a relatively low weight. It weighs only 1655 kilos, that's almost 100 kilos lighter than the basic version of the Volvo EX30 (1740 kg)! The basis for that low number of kilos is laid by the ultra-light carbon monocoque of 74.2 kilos.

To prevent the Valhalla from actually going to heaven at high speeds - after all, it has gullwing doors - the active aerodynamics provide more than 600 kg of downforce from 240 km/h. Hence the extendable surfboard on the back. A nice thought when you're blasting past a truck at 350 km/h or rushing up a - of course German - cloverleaf at 180.

Emission-free to the supermarket

But even if you don't want to act like a beast, the Valhalla is at your service. For example, it offers four driving modes, including a fully electric one. With that you can drive 14 kilometers, so that you can almost always quickly get your Starbucks or your Christmas groceries from the local supermarket. Speaking of grocery cars ... The other extreme is the Race mode - including DRS - for a day at the circuit.

The interior of the Aston Martin Valhalla features a minimalist high-tech dashboard, with displays inspired by Formula 1 cars. And yet you can still drive it on public roads. Without having to have a racing license.

First come, first served ...

Aston Martin is building just 999 units of the Valhalla, which will have a price tag of around one million euros - without taxes. That's about the same price as three Ferrari 296 GTBs ... The first units of the Aston Martin Valhalla will roll off the production line in 2025.

Success - People with electric cars are happy

"I only drive electric at the fair," is a sober joke that you've undoubtedly heard someone make. But once you've driven a fully electric car, you apparently don't want to go back. A major global study shows that EV drivers have nothing to complain about.

What would you do if you had to swap your electric car for another car tomorrow? The Global EV Alliance asked this question to 23,254 EV owners in 18 countries, including the Netherlands. 92 percent would choose a fully electric car again.

Only 1 percent indicate that they would switch to a regular petrol or diesel car and 4 percent continue to drive partly electric in the form of a plug-in hybrid car. The remaining 3 percent of respondents do not know or have other plans.

EV drivers have little to complain about

It is not surprising that 92 percent of EV drivers happily stick to plugging in, because the same survey also shows that they have little to complain about. When the survey asks about the disadvantages of EV ownership, the vast majority of participants vote that there are no disadvantages at all.

However, some EV drivers reluctantly admit that there are too few fast charging stations, that charging takes a long time and that the range is disappointing. Almost no one indicates that it is difficult to get used to the new technology.

Planning where to charge is no hassle

We notice that very few EV drivers indicate that they find it too much hassle to plan their routes. And it is easy to draw the wrong conclusion from that. Namely that you can leave without preparation and that you will always magically end up at a fast charging station.

But the survey also shows that 77 percent (!) of EV drivers decide where they are going to charge before they leave. So EV owners do plan their route, but do not consider it 'too much hassle'. This makes us suspect that the Global EV Alliance has mainly spoken to willing EV drivers and only a few grumbling representatives who have been forced into an electric lease car by their boss ...

Success - Fast acceleration is good for the battery

More good news: electric car batteries last faster than lab tests have shown. What helps with longevity: fast acceleration (really!). Mind you, this isn’t a study by a few hobbyists, but by the famous Stanford University.

Forget everything you know about EV battery lifespans, because the battery industry has been testing them wrong. Well, wrong. Thanks to Stanford University, we now know that current lab tests are unrepresentative. These tests measure the number of charge cycles by discharging and then recharging the battery at a constant “rate.” In the real world, such a battery pack can last up to 40 percent longer.

EV battery lasts longer in real world

“We haven’t tested EV batteries properly,” said Simon Onori, one of the study’s three lead authors. “To our surprise, when driving—with repeated acceleration, braking to give the batteries a little charge, stopping to go to a store, and letting the batteries sit for hours—they last longer than we thought based on lab tests.”

The researchers tested four so-called discharge profiles, ranging from the standard constant discharge to dynamic discharge based on real driving data. After testing 92 lithium-ion battery packs for more than two years, they found that the batteries that were subjected to realistic driving behavior had the longest lifespan.

Accelerating quickly is actually good

To find out what factors contribute to the unexpectedly long lifespan, a supercomputer was unleashed on the data the team had collected. It signaled a correlation between accelerating quickly and slower battery degradation. This contradicts what battery researchers, including the team behind this study, always thought, that acceleration peaks are bad for EV batteries.

Because stomping on the accelerator pedal doesn’t speed up the aging process, it actually slows it down. That means you’re not the only one who gets a boost when you outpace other road users at the traffic lights. Your electric car’s battery feels great about it too.

Failure - Will Nissan make it to 2027?

Nissan seems to have shot itself in the foot by choosing to ignore hybrids and go all-in on electric cars. So deep that the survival of the GT-R and 350Z brand is at stake.

CEO Makoto Uchida's decision to make electric cars a top priority is a major cause of the brand's current financial problems. At least, that's the conclusion of a report by news agency Reuters, based on anonymous sources in Nissan's top management.

European sales figures mask problems

If you look at Nissan's current sales figures in Europe, there doesn't seem to be much going on. Up to and including October 2024, more than 260,000 Nissans were sold throughout Europe, compared to a whopping 243,000 in the first nine months of 2023. Things are going a lot less well in the Netherlands. Here, the counter stands at just over 5,000 cars up to and including November 2024, compared to more than 6,900 over the same period in 2023.

And although the Dutch market is nothing worldwide, it reflects Nissan's dire situation better than the European one. Nissan is also still showing reasonable results in the United States, but that is mainly due to enormous discounts. These are putting considerable pressure on profitability. At the same time, the luxury sister brand Infiniti is in a deep trough on the important American market (sales down 12.8%).

Huge losses for Nissan in China

The situation is even more dire in China. Here, Nissan's sales fell by 13.1 percent. As a result, the manufacturer is struggling to keep its head above water worldwide. Last month, the company announced that net profit had plummeted by no less than 94 percent in the first half of the fiscal year. CEO Makoto Uchida then announced a series of reforms and cost savings. The question is whether they can turn the tide.

Nissan is playing catch-up

Uchida’s strategy of completely ignoring hybrids is now proving to be a costly mistake. Although Nissan plans a “hybrid offensive” with 16 new powertrains by 2027, it is questionable whether the manufacturer will even make it that year. According to sources within the company, there were concerns about the lack of hybrids for months, especially in the important US market. Nissan thought that the demand for hybrids would not last, but globally the opposite seems to be the case.

In addition, the complicated e-Power drivetrain in the Nissan Qashqai and Nissan X-Trail appeals to few people. In this, a combustion engine acts as a generator to supply the battery pack of the electric drive with power. Nissans with e-force therefore never need to be charged, but they are usually not eligible for tax incentives and the small combustion engine requires unexpectedly large amounts of petrol.

Uchida himself admits that the company management misjudged the demand: “Until November last year, we could not have foreseen the rapid increase in demand for hybrids,” he said, according to the Reuters news agency. But now, a year has passed...

Surviving Nissan is going to be tough

Nissan must now hurry to repair the damage. In the coming years, the brand must not only recover financially, but also make a huge catch-up in the field of hybrid technology. The big question remains whether that will happen in time – and whether Uchida himself will still be at the helm. One thing is clear: the gamble to go fully electric has not done Nissan much good so far.

Failure - The Dutch dream car comes from China

Every year we look forward with anticipation to Marktplaats' annual analysis. In 2023, the most clicked car was not surprisingly a Ferrari. But this year, suddenly there are three Chinese in the top 5. What happened to our taste?

203,013

The Dutch are predictable. Every year we vote Bohemian Rhapsody at 1 in the Top 2000 and we search for exactly the same second-hand cars year after year. The Volkswagen Golf is the driving Freddie Mercury and is (just like the past few years) by far the most popular car on Marketplace.

A total of 74.1 million (!) Golf advertisements were viewed. This means that every Dutch person views more than 4 Golfs on average. And that more than 200,000 Golf advertisements are viewed per day. To be precise, 203,013.

The rest of the top 5 is also predictable. Usual suspects such as the Volkswagen Polo, the BMW 3 and 5 series and the Mercedes C-class are still popular.

Top 5 Brands

1. Volkswagen
2. Mercedes
3. BMW
4. Audi
5. Ford

Nine

The fastest growing brand (9 percent) is quite surprising: Skoda. It manages to stay ahead of Porsche (6 percent) and Volvo (3 percent). The electric Enyaq, which is widely regarded as the better Volkswagen ID.4, is now also storming the second-hand supply. But cars such as the Skoda Octavia and Fabia are also popular as used cars.

873 million

This is the number of cars with automatic transmission that have been viewed so far in 2024. For the first time, this is more than the number of manual transmission advertisements (808 million). Not surprising, because in the past 10 years, automatic transmission has actually become the norm for new cars. These models are increasingly trickling into Marktplaats advertisements as used cars.

7,690

What is the most viewed ad of 2024? One of an exclusive Ferrari or Porsche perhaps? A BMW M5 then? No. Brace yourself, we stared at an ad of a Zeekr X the most on average. Of course, that has to do with the limited supply: if you search for Zeekr, you can be happy if you find an ad.

In 2023, Ferrari was still number 1, but that brand has even fallen out of the top 5.

20 percent

The greater the supply, the lower the prices of an electric car. The supply increased by 23 percent in 2024 and the prices are falling. "Over the past two years, the average price on our platform has fallen by 20 percent."

The number of views on advertisements for EVs rose to 16 percent. Maaike Veeling does not think that is the end of the story: "Many business lease contracts expire. These cars are coming onto the second-hand market. That undoubtedly has a positive effect on the supply and the price."

Bonus - Renault is also done with SUVs and is going to do things radically differently

Not only the German car buyer, but also Renault itself is done with SUVs. From 2028 Renault will therefore take a new design direction. The station wagon will probably also return!

We recently reported that Renault's sales figures in Germany have plummeted. Reason: German car buyers are not keen on SUVs from the French brand.

And voilà: not much later, Renault's design boss Gilles Vidal announces that he is also done with SUVs. As we read in the British Autocar. Vidal announces that Renault will introduce a new generation of electric cars with 'radically new body styles' in the coming years.

Answer to the discussion about SUVs

We can assume that the Renault Embleme recently presented in Paris will serve as a source of inspiration. That study model probably says more about Renault's design strategy for the coming decade than retro models such as the Renault 4, 5 and Twingo. In addition, the Renault Embleme is a response to the social discussion about SUVs.

New shapes, less SUV

Vidal explains that Renault is working on a new platform, with which the brand wants to make EVs more efficient and sustainable. The SUV, which once replaced the MPV, is increasingly under fire for its size and impact on the environment. Think of Paris, for example, where drivers of SUVs have to pay extra parking fees.

Still, Vidal stresses that large cars are sometimes practically indispensable. "It's a question of how to give these cars a new identity that better suits the spirit of the times?" He sees it as an opportunity to create completely new silhouettes. "It sometimes seems as if we've seen it all – from the Renault Espace and Scenic to SUVs and crossovers. But it's time to come up with something new that is meaningful in today's society."

Back to the station wagon?

The Embleme, a striking coupé-SUV, shows where Renault wants to go. According to Vidal, the Embleme stands for generous, simple but attractive shapes."

He also points to the disappearance of station wagons in Europe. "That's a shame, because for EVs a low and streamlined design is very efficient. But it can also be sexy - sporty station wagons for example. We want to make cars that are smart in terms of size and practicality, but also desirable."

Interior: simplicity as a revolution

It's not just the exterior of future Renaults that will change, the interior will also get a makeover. Vidal hints at breakthroughs in simplicity and user-friendliness, such as intuitive screen operation. According to him, it should be so simple that everyone thinks: how crazy that no one has thought of this before!

Retro models remain

Despite this design revolution, the Renault 5, 4 and Twingo retain their unique character. Vidal sees these models as timeless and cites the success of the Fiat 500 as an example. Instead of launching a completely new model every few years, Renault opts for frequent updates with new versions and colours. He does predict that at some point there will be a major design change, 'but without losing the soul of the original model'.

Renault wants to return to pioneering role

Renault is focusing on innovation and sustainability, without losing sight of its heritage. In addition, the brand wants to once again play a pioneering role in the automotive industry. As it did in the past with the parent Renault 4 and Renault 16. Or as Vidal summarizes it: "There is still so much to discover in design and concepts – we are only at the beginning."

Extra - Affordable Tesla is coming, but beware of this catch

Is it coming or not? A possible new affordable Tesla has been a hot topic for some time now. The fact that the EV now seems to have been confirmed is good news, but there is a catch.

In 2020, Elon Musk first promised an affordable Tesla that would be positioned below the Model 3 and Model Y. What followed was an endless stream of rumors about whether or not this car would appear - popularly called the Tesla Model 2. The most recent addition was from Elon Musk himself, who indicated that he saw little point in an affordable model and that he wanted to focus on the Robotaxi.

Now the cheaper Tesla seems to have been confirmed. Tesla CEO Travis Axelrod is said to have revealed in a closed meeting with Deutsche Bank that a new model of around 30,000 dollars is planned for 2025. Internally, this new EV is said to be known as the Tesla Model Q. He has also released more details.

Tesla Model Q specifications

One of the most important details is that the Model Q will be built on the existing platform that the Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y are also built on. The production lines that are currently in use in Tesla's giga-factories will also be used. This means that Tesla does not have to develop a completely new platform and set up new production lines. This saves a lot of money.

Smaller battery

It does raise a number of questions. Since there are no cutbacks on the platform, we are curious how Tesla will ensure a lower base price. Perhaps Tesla will do what it already does with the Model 3 in Mexico. There it offers a cheaper version by, for example, omitting the leather upholstery, the acoustic glass and the seat and steering wheel heating.

It is more likely that Tesla will install a smaller battery and a less powerful electric motor. This could save the Americans a lot of money. The smallest battery pack the brand currently offers is a 57.5 kWh LFP battery in the base versions of the Model 3 and Model Y. That makes for a range of 513 kilometers (Model 3) and 455 kilometers (Model Y). With that in mind, we're expecting a maximum range of 400 kilometers for the Model Q.

Tesla Model Q price

Speaking of the base price - there's something strange about it. Axelrod did indeed mention a starting price of 30,000 dollars, but that was after deducting American EV subsidies. If you add this, we're suddenly talking about a base price of 37,500 dollars. That's not that affordable. Certainly not when you realize that Musk was still talking about around 25,000 dollars in 2020. Although it doesn't surprise anyone anymore that the striking CEO makes empty promises.

Since the amounts that Tesla asks in dollars are generally quite similar to our prices in euros, we can easily count on an amount of 37,500 euros in the Netherlands. And because a Model 3 is already available here from 40,990 euros, we sincerely wonder who is interested in a Model Q with less range.

When will the Tesla Model Q be released?

For now, it remains speculation until Tesla actually releases the Model Q. Rumors say it will be in the first half of 2025, but we’ve been fooled so many times by Tesla’s target dates that we have little faith in this. We’ll simply have to wait until Elon Musk provides us with more information.

More interesting car news next time!

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