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More than 90 completely new models are coming to market this year. This doesn’t even include refreshes and new versions of cars that have already been released. But this also means that there needs to be space in garage showrooms.
Especially because the automobile industry is now completely transformed: new Chinese brands are entering Europe and soon also Switzerland, raw material prices are almost never calculated in the long term, and new electric vehicles consume most of the development budgets. For this reason, manufacturers are trying to reduce their costs as much as possible and reduce their models and models. That’s why we have to say goodbye to some models in 2024. Some were pretty unsuccessful, while others were absolute bestsellers.
Noteworthy: The first electric vehicles, especially the smaller ones, which are now rarely available on the market, are becoming obsolete. It’s all over for Smart’s electric Fortwo; the brand is rebooting with the #1 and #3 SUVs, created in a joint venture between Smart founder Mercedes and Chinese auto giant Geely. Will the new Smart bring an electric two-seater again? It is quite possible; There is still room for a model between size 1 and 3. It’s also over for Renault’s electric quad Twizy and electric pioneer Zoe, whose production lines were halted in September 2023. This vehicle, which has been offered with various renewals for more than a decade, now has to give way to the upcoming Renault electric cars R4 and R5.
Many little Stromers give up
The biggest surprise of farewells in 2024: Honda is shelving its small Honda e after just four years. It was a design hero with its cool looks and versatile XXL display in the cockpit, but not a hero with a range of 222 kilometers on a single battery charge. And probably very expensive.
VW will probably be upset by the demise of the small Up model with electric drive: It’s not the passage of time that’s slowing down, but the European Union (EU) introducing new hurdles for cybersecurity and the mini electric car launched in 2017. 2013 can’t handle these anymore. According to reports, there was still plenty of investigation into the tiny thing at VW’s headquarters in Wolfsburg because its successor, called the ID.2, is still a long way off. The EU also has VW’s Transporter T 6.1 and the current Porsche Macan on its conscience for the same reason.
Victims of austerity programs
But VW is discontinuing the Arteon precisely because of its failure: as a sort of revamped VW Passat, it was intended to inherit the outgoing luxury Phaeton model, but neither as a straight five-door model nor as a luxury Shooting Brake. The station wagon attracted a lot of customers. “No one needs this,” decided VW brand boss Thomas Schäfer (53) and rationalized the Arteon in the VW savings programme.
In general, the biggest farewell in the luxury segment will occur in 2024. The convertible and coupe models of the Mercedes C- and E-Class (four models at once) are being phased out and will be replaced by the new CLE in open and closed versions. Classic coupes and convertibles are increasingly finding it difficult to find a market, even in the sunny US state of California; A model between the two most important Mercedes model series, the C- and E-Class, is sufficient. And another classy Benz is taking over: no more for the Mercedes CLS, whose first three generations established the then-new four-door coupe segment 20 years ago.
Ready for some luxury models
With the Stinger leaves another representative of this vehicle class, and with it comes the first Kia designed for nobility and superior performance. Now Kia’s ultra-electric EV6 GT can do both even better. Good night for the 6 Series Gran Turismo, which will not be a successor to BMW despite its huge trunk with the driving characteristics of a sedan. And there is another model with a large loading volume that is not allowed to be called a station wagon: For the new generation Porsche Panamera that will be launched soon, the load manager called Sport Turismo has been deleted without change. This may mean bad prospects for the similar version of the electric Taycan that will be revised this year.
And finally, we say goodbye to Ferrari’s entry-level roadster, Portofino M. But this need not worry anyone, because its successor, the Roma Spider, has been available in dealers for a long time.
Source: Blick
I’m Ella Sammie, author specializing in the Technology sector. I have been writing for 24 Instatnt News since 2020, and am passionate about staying up to date with the latest developments in this ever-changing industry.
