Excerpt from a telephone call between friends: she, a Roman businesswoman looking for a new car; he, a car expert (the author of this article).
"You know, Alessandro, I was also thinking about the Cupra... the Formentor, but with the Volkswagen crisis, I abandoned it because I wanted to avoid problems".
I remain silent for a few moments and then, taken aback, I ask her if she is seriously afraid of this. She replies:
"Listen, I was talking about this yesterday at dinner with a group of friends. And everyone agreed that there is a risk of having problems with spare parts...".
This phone experience made me think about how difficult it is to plan ahead, but also simply to imagine the impact that last-minute news can have on people's choices. This is all the more true for goods that are expensive and complicated to buy, such as a modern car.
The car industry itself has entered a tunnel of media storms, each more significant than the last. From the announcement of the combustion engine ban "imposed by Brussels" in 2021, to the increase in prices due to the war, to the many concerns about electric cars (battery fires, children exploited in lithium mines, geopolitical imbalances, etc.).
Recently, there has been talk of an 'electric car flop' accentuated by the crisis of European manufacturers - led by Volkswagen - caused, according to many observers, by the ecological transition policies mentioned above and competition from China.
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We could debate the merits of each question for days, but there is only one certainty: in such a context, the desire to spend money on a car would escape even the son of a car salesman.
The confusion in people's minds is such that new models, promotions, new incentives or the postponement of European deadlines for CO2 limits will not be enough to reverse the trend.
Today, to revive the automotive industry, we need to regain the confidence of the public, an essential variable in a market economy. We need to regain confidence in the product, in the technology behind it, in the people who have to sell it, and of course clarify the 'rules of the game' that can directly or indirectly encourage people to buy.
This will be a major challenge, and it's a communications challenge. It concerns everyone: the industry, the supply chain, politics and the media themselves, since we are motoring journalists.
The problem will be to agree on the objectives and choose between clarifying once and for all by helping people to understand a very complicated, messy but inevitable revolution, or focusing on short-term needs to save accounts, reputation, shares or votes (depending on your point of view) while ignoring the future. Which comes sooner than expected, always.
Cupra Formentor, subject of the "personal phone call".
P.S. Getting back to my friend, I've obviously explained to her that if she likes a Cupra Formentor, she's not taking any chances and that a lot can happen to the Volkswagen Group in the coming months, but it will continue to exist. So there will be all the spare parts she wants.