After almost two years of corona, looking into the future is more difficult than ever. An energy crisis has recently emerged. Chip shortages throw product but especially production schedules upside down. As a result, new models are launched on the market six months later. This is reflected in our annual personal previews, which include not only cars. Today we speak: editor-in-chief Damiaan Hage.
Cars have quickly become expensive in the last few years. Not only for the consumer, but also for the manufacturer. The development costs seem to be so enormous that launching a small, affordable car is no longer feasible. More and more manufacturers ignore the so-called A-segment and offer their entry-level models in the slightly larger B-segment. That’s bad news for consumers like you and me. You are thus forced to buy a car from a segment higher than you might want.
Fortunately, Hyundai and Kia still see bread in the A-segment and keep their i10 and Picanto constantly up-to-date, but the Fiat Panda, Renault Twingo and Volkswagen Up are already elderly and succession is not in sight. Even the uncrowned king of the small car, Suzuki, has since scrapped the Celerio. The funny thing is that there is one country that makes the effort of developing such a car worth it: India. Environmental and safety requirements there, however, seem to be of a much lower standard, which means that those cars cannot be sold here.
So news in the A-segment is big news and the fact that Toyota still believes in the smallest segment with the Aygo X deserves applause. The previous Aygo could still be affordable by sharing all costs with Citroën and Peugeot, and now Toyota uses Yaris technology. Prices and specifications were not known at the time of writing (in the AutoWeek Jaarspecial 2022, ed.), but we can safely assume that it will not be a banger. The first Aygo was offered for less than €9,000, the current one is available from €13,000, but the new one will be well above that (€15,955, ed.). Still cheaper than a Yaris, but not cheap either. And yet it is something to look forward to.
This article previously appeared in the AutoWeek Year Special 2022.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl