We always read sales charts by make and model, the latest car performance and quality surveys around the world. There is a constant race between automakers from China, the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea, India, Russia and, more recently, Turkey and Vietnam. However, what about the average car that the manufacturer offers?
Based on my research of 705 available models and 30 manufacturers worldwide, not all global market participants renew their cars with the same frequency. The analysis, which excluded most of China’s automakers, showed that Tesla was the second oldest spanning brand among the 27 manufacturers analyzed.
Methodology
Calculation of the average age of a car is done by calculating the difference in time between today (early December) and the official production day of the car. inaugurated, not presented. The calculation does not include facelifts, restyling and all kinds of updates, apart from the introduction of a new generation. Rebadges are also not considered.
For example, the third-generation Chevrolet Montana, launched last week, is the youngest car. Across from it is the original Lada 4×4, or Niva, presented in April 1977 and still available.
Pepper And Tesla At The Bottom Of The List:
As expected, Lada is the automaker with the oldest product range. The average age of the Russian lineup is 18.9 years. Despite the push given in recent years by former owner Renault, Lada has historically suffered from Russian bureaucracy, a lack of innovation and heavy reliance on local markets.
But surprisingly, Tesla takes second place with an average of 7.8 years for the four models currently available. It is worth mentioning that the Tesla Model S was first launched in March 2009, followed by the Model X in September 2015. The latest product is the Model Y which was launched in March 2019, almost 4 years ago.
Tesla has so far set the benchmark in the world of electric vehicles and is on course for record sales by the end of this year. But, as I wrote a few months ago (see June’s Tesla Model S article), the company doesn’t follow the industry practice of launching a new generation every 6-8 years. The Model S is quite old, especially when compared to the newer Porsche Taycan, Mercedes EQE, or NIO ET7.
And Younger Brands?
Japan’s Isuzu and China’s Xpeng and NIO lead the ranking. Isuzu has an average of only 2.6 years because only two of its passenger cars, the D-Max and MU-X, have recently been refreshed. Xpeng is pretty close with four models and NIO with six available.
Other manufacturers with youthful product lines include Subaru, Honda and Hyundai. Among Europeans, McLaren and Ferrari lead the way, followed by Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Aston Martin. Stellantis, on the other hand, scored the highest on average with 5.5 years.
The author of the article, Felipe Munoz, is an Automotive Industry Specialist at JATO dynamics.
