Electrification and Autonomous Driving Approaches in Luxury Automotive

The only exception here is represented by Lotus, which out of its line-up of ICE sports cars, in 2019 introduced the full-electric hypercar Evija. Lotus as a brand exists since 1948, but in 2017 the Chinese Geely took a majority stake in the company, effectively taking control of it. Geely had already entered the EV market, with black cabs, and Volvo’s electric cars division Polestar. This overall direction for the group likely led to the birth of the project codenamed Type 130, later renamed Evija.

The second trend that can be observed is the vehicle’s class choice. All the established manufacturers using a gradual approach (which as said is almost every company featured) are entering the segment with a GT car or an SUV. This is most likely again due to clients’ expectations and cars’ value proposition.

GTs and SUVs are developed to be comfortable for long trips, exciting when required, yet relaxing to drive and simply be in. Few people in the market for a luxury or premium GT or SUV will be concerned with its driving capabilities on a track, which is exactly what sports cars are for instead. For this reason, so far we got the Porsche Taycan, the upcoming Maserati Granturismo, Lamborghini’s fourth model which will be an electric GT, the Audi E-Tron, the Mercedes EQC, and BMW iX3 (it is interesting the note that the latter three, followed up soon after with their own GT EV, the E-Tron GT, the EQS, and the i4 respectively).

Ferrari’s and McLaren’s upcoming electrified cars remain a mystery for now. So while it is possible to assume they too will release a GT model as their first electrified car, to preserve their driving experience with the combustion engine as long as possible, they could also pick a more radical approach for different reasons. Ferrari now enjoys the most diversified range it ever had (with the SUV Purosangue joining it soon), so an electric sports car would not be a substitute but more of an option to the combustion engine, for those clients that still look for a more traditional Ferrari driving experience. McLaren instead, being much more focused on sports cars, with no SUV and a single GT model, but a varied range of mid-engine supercars could choose to offer an electric option to these as well.

On the other hand, start-ups who entered directly the EV segment so far did it through top-end hypercars. High-performance cars in this segment are almost exclusively a prerogative of luxury automakers, while in the premium segment SUVs and GTs are preferred. Naturally, the use case for each car type makes the OEMs choice clear. It is the case of Rimac with the Concept One, Pininfarina with the Battista (based on the Rimac’s platform), Nio with the EP9, and Estrema with the recently presented Fulminea.

Not having the “constraints” of a large established customer base gives these companies the freedom to reinvent the product, and revolutionise the market itself even. They don’t need to respond to anyone’s expectations and for this reason, they can look for the next important step that allows them to establish themselves as serious players as it happened for Rimac and Tesla.

Christian Von Koenigsegg said it best in an interview when talking about its company:

“For example, with the Regera, I don’t see any of the other established brands, daring to remove shifting of gears. It’s such a fundamental thing to take away from a sports car, that I think it’s only Koenigsegg that could make that decision. And I’m very confident about the decision […] We take more freedoms like that”.

Most likely, in fact, the main reason why Koenigsegg has not yet started the development of a full-electric car is the powertrain constraints. One above all the weight. Apart from that, with every new model so far, they always introduced some form of unprecedented technological innovation.

These cars often become the weapons of choice of the start-ups as they are also extremely powerful testing platforms and marketing tools. A fast and ground-breaking supercar allows the OEM to test new and expensive technologies that the car’s pricing can cover. Technology that can later trickle down to mass-produced models, once the production costs drop. As for the marketing aspect, a high-performance vehicle will always attract more attention giving the company a reputation that a regular car would never give if the project is successful.

AUTONOMOUS DRIVING, CONNECTIVITY, AND ADAS

In a similar way to what happens for EVs, established and young companies are also likely to approach other aspects of the new automobiles’ development differently.

Start-ups often enter the market more as tech companies than automakers. Established brands, on the other hand, usually manage these developments through incremental improvements and implementations. The company structures themselves are likely to be less suited or lacking the talent for the latest tech development that is usually one of the EV start-ups’ strengths.

Specific areas of research are the further level of autonomous driving, constant OTA updates, improved tech hardware, a better ecosystem with personalised services for owners to increase brand loyalty, AR and VR, improved functionalities, and bespoke services through developed through sensors and camera systems.