Vincent Kobe, CEO of Citroën, said that the peak of crossover popularity has already passed. They are produced less and less and soon there will be only a few models left on the market. That is, the demise of crossovers is inevitable: “The world of crossovers is over,” says Kobe.
Crossovers accounted for 50% of all new products produced in recent years. There were even cross sedans that are “called crossovers just because they’re a little bit taller.”
According to Vincent Kobe, aerodynamics is one of the main reasons why the global auto industry will shift from producing crossovers to producing more compact cars.
“If the aerodynamic performance of an electric car is poor, the range will be huge. You can lose 50 kilometers just because of the aerodynamics. The difference between the range of a crossover and a sedan can be 60/70/80 kilometers,” says Vincent Kobe.
To give the crossover a decent range on one charge, an enlarged battery has been mounted on it, just like the BMW iX. The sleeker and lighter i4 has a much smaller battery and comparable range.
“There will be restrictions on the weight and size of batteries, whether through taxes or other incentives, laws or sentencing,” Kobe warned.
By the way, France is already moving towards taxing vehicles based on their weight.
“In the 1970s, the car weighed 700 kg. Today the average car weighs 1300 kg. Tomorrow the average car will weigh two tons. So we use three times the resources to provide the same service, just to be green,” he said in an interview. AutoExpress Vincent Kobe.
According to him, more attention should be paid to technologies for charging electric vehicles on the go, route planning and, of course, the weight and aerodynamics of vehicles.
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