#Crossovers

Perhaps realizing that his job was done, Michael O’Brien, Hyundai Motor America’s vice president for product, announced his departure from the automaker late Friday.

O’Brien leaves the company he served for nearly 20 years on February 3rd, heading off to pursue “other interests,” the grateful automaker said in a statement. Put in charge of the Korean brand’s product direction, O’Brien played a major role in turning around a flagging sales situation with a surge of crossovers big and small.

Volvo’s XC90 midsize crossover is both a tony vehicle and a solid seller, but the push into electrification that began with the crossover’s second generation will be completed in its third.

The automaker has announced that the third-gen XC90, which arrives in 2022, will ditch gas-only powerplants for good.

One of your author’s biggest pet peeves is the complete lack of confidence some drivers have in their own abilities — and that of their vehicle. It’s an odd thing, as these days the rolling stock on any street or highway consists mainly of car-based CUVs outfitted with increasingly capable all-wheel drive systems.

You’d think these drivers would show a little less trepidation when the weather turns bad — after all, they bought that particular vehicle for a reason — but no. After a recent, fairly heavy dump of the white stuff, the irksome observations began all over again. But an incident last night revealed the one thing that seems capable of motivating such drivers into taking action and using their vehicle to its full, confidence-inspiring potential: frustration.

The countdown to Mercedes-Benz EQC production last year was preceded by stories about the model’s anticipated range and uncontroversial styling, but when the time came to get EQCs into the hands of buyers, the electric crossover had trouble leaving the launch pad.

Not long after reports emerged of the EQC’s U.S. arrival being delayed by a full year, a German outlet claims Mercedes-Benz has chopped its 2020 production target in half.

The second-generation Infiniti QX50 is a seldom talked-about model that gets plenty of mention on these digital pages, what with its technological wizardry and big launch expectations… that didn’t seem to do the compact crossover much good when it finally reached dealerships.

No problem — maybe customers will take more kindly to its QX55 sibling, teased late last year ahead of an early summer 2020 release. But hold on a second! It appears the QX55 won’t show up at the party until much later than expected.

Sure, we weren’t hankering for a high-riding Genesis model, but the brand was. And many buyers might, too, or so the fledgling marque hopes.

After teasing the upcoming midsizer since 2017, Hyundai’s premium brand pulled the wraps off the GV80 in Seoul, South Korea on Wednesday. In doing so, it raised the brand’s complement to four vehicles: three sedans, and this CUV. So, how does the GV80 stand apart in an overcrowded segment?

When GMC brass saw the sky-high take rate for its Denali-badged models, the hunt was on for a new sub-brand to further boost sales and margins. After they finished counting their cash, that is.

Which brings us to today. AT4, a recently introduced runner-up trim that blends much of the content and coddling of a Denali with varying levels of off-road improvement, was just revealed on the Iowa-class-sized GMC Yukon and Yukon XL for 2021 — a day after unveiling the upcoming Canyon. It’s already in place on the Sierra and Sierra HD pickups (appearing for 2019), as well as the 2020 Acadia crossover.

On Wednesday, General Motors’ truck division completed the AT4 sweep.

In a matter of days, we’ll have a first drive review of the Hyundai Venue for you to peruse. That tiny vehicle’s introduction to the crossover market pertains to this story, as it’s yet another small, cargo-happy vehicle the Ford EcoSport — a vehicle that was aging even before its arrival on these shores — must face in 2020.

As one can expected from a new model-year vehicle, the EcoSport saw a price increase for 2020, but just as suddenly, it didn’t.

You read here how 2019 was a buoyant year for corporate siblings Hyundai and Kia; both brands posted full-year sales gains, and both can thank new, large crossover vehicles for the added volume. The higher prices demanded by the Hyundai Palisade and Kia Telluride will certainly be appreciated by the automakers’ beancounters, too.

Of the two midsizers, one possesses an enhanced level of gravitas. A little more panache and youth appeal. And it’s no secret which one we’re referring to — which is why an industry rumor has us thinking that an uplevel version is something worth pursuing.

The dawn of a new decade brings a new chapter for the fledgling Genesis brand.

After four years spent slowly growing its lineup to three sedans and crafting a standalone dealer network aimed at instilling some prestige to the brand, Hyundai’s premium division will greet its long-awaited GV80 crossover on January 16th. About time.

The other day, we told you about Subaru bucking the industry’s cooling trend to scratch out yet another record year-end sales tally. A full year of Ascent production catapulted the brand over a hurdle that, without the new model, it would have failed to clear.

Nothing beats a new three-row crossover for hiking sales, boosting ATPs, and growing margins.

It’s something the members of Hyundai Motor Group know well. Both Hyundai and Kia have a brace of crossovers to thank for the solid sales gains enjoyed in 2019.

The Fisker Ocean electric crossover debuted in Los Angeles over the weekend. Company founder Henrik Fisker claims the model will be competitively priced (for an electric), starting at $37,499. There’s also a subscription service, priced at $379 per month with a $3,000 down payment. Customers receive an allowance of 30,000 miles a year as well as “free” servicing, maintenance, and (presumably) insurance.

Considering Fisker’s track record, having a sales model that allows customers to invest a few grand upfront and cancel at any time might help the Ocean’s take rate. The Fisker name is now synonymous with underdelivering. Poor corporate decisions, combined with plenty of bad luck, ultimately forced the first iteration of the brand to cancel production of the Karma hybrid. Fisker Automotive declared bankruptcy in 2013, with Fisker Inc. emerging in 2016 with more mainstream aspirations.

Too bad about the others. After admitting that it probably should have reconsidered the new-for-2019 Mazda 3’s U.S. pricing strategy, the Hiroshima-based automaker can sit back and look at last year’s results in full. Topping that page is a 7.2 percent sales decline — the result of volume slippage among all nameplates but one.

Nothing beats a compact crossover for surefire popularity.

The smallest Mazda crossover, which happened to be too small for a friend of this writer, enters the new decade with a greatly reduced presence. Not just in America, but overseas, too.

While the U.S.-market CX-3 subcompact stands to lose all but one trim in a carefully calculated move by Mazda brass, a different plan is afoot on the other side of the Atlantic.

Toyota has hinted in the past that perhaps fielding one vehicle per segment is foolish, old-timey thinking. At the same time, automakers have fallen in love with the idea of splitting segments, shoehorning tweener models into any narrow wedge of daylight that appears in their already crowded lineups. General Motors is especially preoccupied with this.

It’s against this backdrop that a new U.S. trademark application filed by Toyota emerges, and the name provided only bolsters speculation that the company’s light truck stable is due for a new member.