Drew Dowdell

The QX50 was billed as the most important product in Infiniti's lineup this decade, however sales have not met expectations. Year to date sales through March for the QX50 were just 3,583 units. This contrasts starkly with the 12,830 units the larger and more expensive QX60 moved in the same time frame. President of Infiniti Christian Meunier blamed the weak sales on a poor launch of the car due to production issues and a mix of product positioned too high in the market. Infiniti is in the process of correcting the error with a new trim level and more options on the lower trim levels. The Infiniti QX50 is assembled at a new plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico run as a join venture between Nissan Motor Company and Daimler. The plant has suffered from quality control issues and other production problems. Infiniti expect sales of the QX50 to turn around during the summer once the supply chain issues are sorted.

Fresh on the news that Ford invested $500 million into electric truck startup Rivian in order to gain access to the startup's EV platform, General Motors CE) Mary Barra confirmed that General Motors is working on an EV pickup of their own. This was during an investors earnings call when Barra said GM has "an industry-leading truck franchise as well as EV capability" and that the company "would not cede our leadership on either front". Talks between Rivian and GM were rumored to have broken down over GM's insistence that they have exclusive access to the platform. If that is the case, then there is a possibility that Ford may not be the only manufacturer other than Rivian to use the skateboard platform. Any EV from GM will likely use GM's new BEV3 platform that it plans to unveil in 2021. GM plans for at least 20 all-electric or fuel-cell vehicles by 2023.

Sometimes sibling rivalries work. Such is the case with Hyundai and Kia. Hyundai unveiled the tiny crossover Hyundai Venue this month at the New York International Auto Show. Once it hits the market, it will be the shortest crossover available. One of the downsides of the Venue and its main rival the Nissan Kicks is the lack of all-wheel drive. Even Kia's own Soul does not have all-wheel drive. Kia, with an eye on the Venue, is looking for its own small crossover, but with all-wheel drive capability. They recently showed the Kia SP Signature Concept which shares its dirty bits with the next generation of the Hyundai Creta, a small SUV only sold overseas. Still larger than the Venue, this model is likely to see production for the US market under the Kia badge. The timeline for such an introduction is still uncertain, but it could happen as soon as the Los Angeles Auto Show late in 2019.

Cadillac's SuperCruise is currently considered the best of the hands free driving systems on the market, but some recent upgrades to Tesla's AutoPilot are pushing Cadillac to innovate further. Cadillac plans to roll out SuperCruise to all of its models starting with the 2020 model year. Before that happens, Cadillac has some updates in store. Cadillac is able to push updates to the SuperCruise system via an over the air package. While not considered a "next generation" of SuperCruise, Cadillac will be adding capabilities. Those could be features like automatic lane changes and wider availability of the system on interchanges. In addition, the just released Cadillac CT5 gets slightly upgraded hardware over the CT6. One area where Cadillac has made improvements is in feedback to the driver. If SuperCruise can't see road markings due to poor road conditions like snow or heavy rain, the system will display a message as to why it cannot engage. SuperCruise monitors data from customers and they analyze why the system disengages. This data is then used for further development and refinement of the system. Cadillac said in vehicles so equipped that 70 percent of all highway miles driven are traveled with SuperCruise active.

We've been reporting that the future of SMART in the U.S. was uncertain. In an email to TechCrunch, Daimler has announced that SMART will end sales of their one model, the SMART EQ Fortwo, at the end of this model year. Mercedes-Benz dealers in the US and Canada will continue to service and support SMART owners. The SMART EQ Fortwo is a electric only vehicle with a range of about 58 miles. SMART stopped selling the gasoline version of the car after 2017. Daimler is not killing the brand entirely. They have joined with Chinese manufacturer Geely to produce the SMART brand for China and other global markets. SMART vehicles are the primary vehicle in car sharing company Car2Go's fleets. Car2go recently rebranded to ShareNow in partnership with BMW and has added CLA and GLA models to its fleet.