The big car fuel-inefficient will be honored at the auto Show in Detroit

Frédéric Mercier

AFP

Thursday, January 11, 2018 16:48

UPDATE
Thursday, January 11, 2018 16:48

Look at this article

Large vehicles gasoline consumers will have a place of choice at the auto show in Detroit, even if the electric vehicles are trying to break into the market.

After record years, the market is slowing somewhat in the United States, and the manufacturers want to expose what sells the best so that several of them are at risk of seeing their margins reduced considerably if Donald Trump puts in execution his threats of leaving the free trade agreement north american (NAFTA), between Canada, the United States and Mexico.

Read also: The top 10 cars sold in Canada in 2017

Read also: The long and complex history of the auto Show of Montreal

During his campaign and even after he came to power a year ago, the american president had urged the major automotive groups to produce more in the United States under the penalty of sanctions. NAFTA allows for the production of cars in Mexico, where labor is cheap, and resell them without taxes in north America.

Mr. Trump was also taken to the “beautiful German” (Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen), responsible in part, according to him, the trade deficit desÉtats united States vis-à-vis Germany.

The show starts with the days dedicated to the press, covering the period from Sunday to Tuesday and will be followed by visits of professionals.

The doors of the Cobo Center, exhibition hall located in the center of Detroit, near the river border with Canada, will open to the public from 20 January to 28. Some 700 000 people are expected.

Despite the enthusiasm around autonomous vehicles and electric, the stars of this high mass will be even larger cars, which made up nearly two-thirds of the 17,23 M vehicles sold in 2017 in the United States.

“This is going to be filled with pickups and SUVS,” says Joe Wiesenfelder, a reporter for the website specialized cars.com. Nearly half of the new models that will be unveiled will be large consumers of fuel.
Fiat Chrysler is expected to present the new van to tray Ram 1500, while GM will unveil the new Chevrolet Silverado carbon fiber.

Chevrolet Silverado 2019

In addition to a limited edition of the super sports car GT Mustang Bullitt, Ford should revive the Ford Ranger, an SUV seen since 2011 and Nissan, the new 4X4 of city Rogue, one of his best sellers on the american market.

The big absent

Detroit will also mark the first north american SUV Urus from Lamborghini, presented as the fastest in the world and sold at the base price of US $200,000.

Lamborghini Urus

“As long as the price of gasoline will be at $ 2 a gallon (3.78 litres), I do not see big clouds on the horizon for these larger vehicles,” says Maryann Keller, an expert at the law firm MK&A.

Especially, she adds, is that the cost of production of these big cars is not much higher than sedans, and urban even though they are much more cost-effective.

Most sedans average cost of approximately $17,000 US) to produce and are sold by the following the consumer around US $25,000. A pickup can cost between 20 000 and 22 000 US $to build but can be sold at around US $45,000, explains the expert.

In a presentation to investors in 2016, Itay Michaeli, an analyst at the bank Citigroup, had advanced that each pickup of GM generated a profit of about 11 000 US$. Conversely, the giant of Detroit was losing, according to him, hundreds of dollars on sedans and urban.

“Detroit highlights the vehicles that are the bread and butter of manufacturers,” says DiLorenzo, at Kelley Blue Book.

It should not be a big announcement regarding the autonomous cars in spite of a section of the show dedicated to the autonomy, agree the experts, adding that the information on future technologies, which are now reserved for the living room electronics Las Vegas (CES), which opens its doors this weekend to the general public.

The absence of a large number of manufacturers including Volvo, Porsche or Jaguar will not run out of fuel the ongoing debate on the future of Detroit at a time when Silicon Valley wants to take the steering wheel of the sector.

“The majority of manufacturers choose to unveil their products and technologies in the future in THESE ( … ), and look to Detroit to present what they sell for currently,” says Matt DiLorenzo.

The star of electric vehicles, Tesla, in fact, not even moving to Detroit to showcase its products.