Austria Vehicle Production : 2017-18

You may not think of Austria as a car producing nation but it does. It has a contract manufacturer, Magna Steyr in Graz. The current companies utilising the assembly operation are listed below. Volume was +69%, but with contract manufacturing, it can fluctuate a fair bit. For now it's on the up.

They made the BMW 5-Series and Z4 sports car. For Jaguar the E-Pace and i-Pace are made and for Mercedes-Benz the G-Wagon. To be making such a diverse range of vehicles is no mean feat. Commercial vehicles are also made in Austria, listed as a total figure. The company concerned seems publicity shy.

Passenger Cars
17	18	Brand	2018	%	+/-	2017	%	+/-
1	1	BMW	64,431	42.9%	28%	50,272	61.7%
3	2	Jaguar	54,916	36.6%	n/a	261	0.3%
2	3	Mercedes	30,815	20.5%	-1%	31,000	38.0%	43%
		Total	150,162		84%	81,533		9%
Commercial Vehicles
		Total	20,749		6%	19,574		9%
		Grand Total	170,911		69%	101,107		9%

Cadillac USA Sales : 2010-2018

The XT5

The march of the imported premium marques was relentless and Cadillac was moving away from huge barges to cars that were more in line with where modern tastes now wanted. That posed a risk of not measuring up head to head.

2010-2014:

Some models were deleted and the new compact ATS was introduced. Overall. sales were holding up OK but not keeping up with the imported competition. The XTS replaced the poor selling DTS in 2013 but didn't set the sales chart on fire.

Model	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010
SRX	53,578	56,776	57,485	56,905	51,094
CTS	31,115	32,343	46,979	55,042	45,656
ATS	29,890	38,319	7,008
XTS/DTS	24,335	32,578	15,514	11,589	18,640
Escalade	19,482	12,592	12,615	15,079	16,118
Escalade ESV	10,987	7,950	8,083	8,388	8,674
ELR	1,310	6
Escalade EXT	53	1,972	1,934	2,036	2,082
STS		7	164	3,338	4,473
XLR				12	188
Total US Sales	170,750	182,543	149,782	152,389	146,925

2015-19: 

The XT5 took over from the SRX and CT6 was a belated return of the large executive car. The recent addition of the sub-compact SUV named the XT4 is an interesting addition. All this hasn't stopped sales falling and Cadillac is now the sixth best selling marque in its home market. 

Model	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015
XT5/SRX		60,566	68,468	61,624	68,850
Escalade		23,032	22,994	23,604	21,230
XTS		17,729	16,275	22,171	23,112
Escalade ESV		13,000	14,700	15,488	14,691
CTS		11,220	10,344	15,911	19,485
ATS		10,860	13,100	21,505	26,873
CT6		9,669	10,542	9,169
XT4		7,785
ELR			17	534	1,024
Total US Sales		153,861	156,440	170,006	175,265

The XT4 

For the 1980-89 period, just click here.
For the 2000-09 decade, simply click here.

France Passenger Car Production : 2017-18

The Opel Grandland is made in France

Thinks have been good for a couple of years with regard to passenger car production in France. Volume was up 1% on 2017, short of the 8% growth of the previous year. That said, if it wasn't for PSA's new acquisition Opel it would have been slightly down.

Peugeot makes up half of the total, with Renault just over 20%. Interestingly, Citroën make very few cars here, even passed by the slightly upmarket DS marque. As global markets retract in 2019, challenges await car makers.

Passenger Cars
17	18	Brand	2018	Share	+/-	2017	Share	+/-
1	1	Peugeot	897,497	50.6%	1%	884,415	50.4%	36%
2	2	Renault	382,646	21.6%	-9%	422,627	24.1%	7%
3	3	Toyota	248,548	14.0%	6%	233,506	13.3%	-2%
4	4	smart	84,500	4.8%	0%	84,368	4.8%	-7%
7	5	Opel	72,110	4.1%	150%	28,820	1.6%	n/a
6	6	DS	49,412	2.8%	9%	45,363	2.6%	-36%
5	7	Citroën	35,731	2.0%	-35%	55,047	3.1%	-71%
8	8	Alpine	3,304	0.2%	n/a	117	0.0%	n/a
		Total	1,773,748		1%	1,754,263		8%

UK Vehicle Production By Brand : 2017-18

The UK vehicle manufacturing industry has issues. Locals don't seem to identify with it, either through ignorance or apathy. After years of growth, things have gone into retreat. What are the issues?

The UK designed & built Qashqai. Hugely successful

Nissan: After booming in Europe, the Nissan brand is in free fall across the continent and that includes the UK. The broad nature of the decline makes it clear that it is a policy of the company. However, I don't see the benefit of knee jerk reactions.

Nissan's Infiniti marque was introduced into many countries to take on the premium market. Then before you could blink, the whole thing was called off and it will retreat to a few markets. A poorly thought out initiative.

Land Rover: VW's arrogant diesel cheating scheme has hit Land Rover, a marque that was heavily associated with engines of that fuel. China sales also hit a speed bump and some production have been moved offshore. All those things conspired to affect LR production in the UK. The new Evoque coming in the second half of 2019 should help things along.

BMW MINI: A ray of light for the industry with production on the up. I would imagine that would level off now.

Honda: A brand that is pulling out of its production in Europe. This caught me by surprise as traditionally Japanese brands do not retreat. However, it made no sense making cars in a region where they don't sell many vehicles.

Toyota: The brand is doing well in Europe so it is simply a question of how to utilise its UK facility. The Corolla is currently the model made there but plans are difficult to make with the pigs ear Europe has turned Brexit into.

The XE. A driver's car

Jaguar: Two new models were assigned to overseas production which has impacted on UK production volume. I'd have to call that decision a very poor one, what with ample capacity in the UK.

PSA Vauxhall: This is another situation that is difficult due to Brexit faffing about. PSA would like to know what they are dealing with before committing. What a divisive world we live in. World peace? The environment? Forget it! Humans can't even organise a civilised political divorce.

Other cars: Generally the strongest part of the UK industry with marques like Aston Martin, Mclaren and Rolls Royce going really well.

Commercial: Not a large part of UK vehicle manufacturing. Bus brands Alexander Dennis, Wrightbus and Optare all increasing in 2018. With volume up 8.5%, a nice trend not likely to be sustained.

Passenger Cars
17	18	Brand	2018	%	+/-	2017	%	+/-
1	1	Nissan	429,832	28.3%	-8%	468,308	28.0%	-1%
2	2	Land Rover	354,425	23.3%	-10%	395,451	23.7%	6%
3	3	BMW MINI	234,183	15.4%	7%	218,885	13.1%	4%
4	4	Honda	160,676	10.6%	-2%	164,160	9.8%	22%
5	5	Toyota	129,070	8.5%	-10%	144,077	8.6%	-20%
6	6	Jaguar	94,879	6.2%	-31%	136,656	8.2%	-21%
7	7	GM Vauxhall	77,481	5.1%	-16%	92,164	5.5%	-22%
8	8	Infiniti	12,422	0.8%	-54%	26,898	1.6%	-17%
9	9	Bentley	8,717	0.6%	-17%	10,457	0.6%	-10%
10	10	Aston Martin	6,286		22%	5,164		40%
11	11	Mclaren	4,751		44%	3,297		3%
12	12	Rolls Royce	4,239		35%	3,133		-23%
13	13	Lotus	1,486		3%	1,436		14%
15	14	Caterham	506		3%	491		-1%
14	15	Morgan	487		-17%	589		6%
		Total	1,519,440		-9%	1,671,166		-3%
Commercial Vehicles
1	1	Vauxhall	62,607	73.8%	5%	59,795	76.4%	-19%
2	2	Leyland DAF	16,889	19.9%	10%	15,323	19.6%	4%
3	3	Alexander Den	2,017	2.4%	16%	1,734	2.2%	-22%
-	4	LVEC	1,443	1.7%
4	5	Dennis Eagle	952	1.1%	7%	890	1.1%	23%
5	6	Wrightbus	747	0.9%	147%	303	0.4%	-51%
6	7	Optare	233		34%	174		-9%
		Total	84,888		9%	78,219		-17%
		Grand Total	1,604,328		-8%	1,749,385		-4%

An Alexander Dennis bus