This is the kind of thing Nokia used to put out when their main product was stagnant and they were inept at software, but also paying hundreds of millions to ad agencies and design consultancies to come up with brand coolness band-aids.
I really doubt it's stagnation.
Still better than stupid commercials for marketing dollars.
Still a cool spot. Car ads in the 90s were so much better. “Enjoy the ride” was another good Nissan one.
I kind of think them building a deep product design bench to pull off their design revolution would also lead to these kinds of projects because those groups love this kinds of side projects.
You actually don't want many "car guys" in these design groups unless it's for a sports/enthusiast car, so some non-car product design people were likely hired, a good thing.
> Kia and Hyundai are putting out some of the more exciting products right now in the car industry
https://electrek.co/2021/12/28/hyundai-shuts-down-engine-dev...
I think a lot of carmakers are going to make this move. Given the time needed to develop those projects, I think really few carmakers are working on new ICEs right now.
> EU recently banned sales of ICE engines starting by 2030.
Note that Germany agreed on the plan recently : https://cleantechnica.com/2022/03/18/germany-gets-on-board-w... so, it's probably just a matter of time now given the influence of Germany over UE and their special situation in the automobile industry.
Also different car markets / segments (small, midsized vs large suv)
The RAV4 is noticeably smaller and cheaper, but still an SUV and seemed like a useful benchmark.
PS: They sold 75,129 in 2020, and 58,604 in 2019, so I don’t think they expected it to tank to 50k in 2021. Still probably supply limited in 2021 but so was just about every car company.
Yes, the RAV4 is a benchmark to compare the Telluride to, but they ARE in both different cost brackets and categories. Pilot seems to be a better benchmark.
Another useful benchmark is that for 2021, Toyota global sales were almost 9.6M, Kia was almost 2.8M.
Honda Pilot is a Midsize Crossover SUV, like the Telluride, and had 2021 sales of 143K in the US. Honda global sales were 4.5M in 2021.
So the Telluride can still be a success for Kia, while selling a fraction of the units of the RAV4
My last 3 cars were Teslas.
Extremely happy with it. The lane centering is fantastic for high way driving.
You bought 3 Teslas back to back?! You must really love it. Why did you then move to the Telluride?
I thought Tesla lasts really long. So why 3?
The Prius has been incremental for the last 20 years.
I'd argue that in the case of the Prius it means that they were a successful innovation.
And the original claim was 35 years, not 20 :)
That reliability survey is flawed, it includes issues that are fixed as a condition for delivery. Tesla owner satisfaction is one of the highest in the industry.