Return Of Monterey Auto Week: Electric Vehicle Leads Chaorun

        The hot summer is coming to an end. But before officially heading for the cool autumn, the arrival of the 10 day Monterey car week in 2021 was like the last fire of the summer, igniting curiosity and desire for Ultra Luxury driving.

      The Monterey auto week, which just ended last month, is a grand gathering of the world's top antique cars and new super sports cars. The carnival in the auto industry started with the pebble beach concourse d'Elegance in 1950. After 70 years, it has been expanded into a celebration week for car fans with a series of famous car exhibitions and cruises, antique car auctions and speed races.

      From last year's "Absence" to this year's "return", this year's Monterey auto week brought double lively atmosphere, infecting many luxury car manufacturers present. This year, they released a variety of new pure electric and high-performance hybrid concept cars and mass production vehicle designs, showing the trend of overtaking in the future under the new track paved by the times.

Monterey motor week. Materials and pictures

Strong return, fierce

The Monterey auto week in 2020 was cancelled due to the global new crown pneumonia epidemic. Although the current worries about the epidemic situation and travel restrictions still exist, people who have been repressed for a long time are looking forward to this, and the automobile week after returning to the field is more lively than expected.

According to the data, this Monterey auto week will bring about 67 million US dollars of revenue to the local area of Monterey. Rob O'Keefe, CEO of the Monterey conference and Tourism Bureau, told the media: "we very much welcome the return of this landmark event to Monterey, which indicates that the local tourism industry is recovering." O'Keefe learned from the local hotels in Monterey that the occupancy rate remained stable throughout the auto week, which was the same as that of previous years. "The restaurant is full, the hotel rooms are sold out, and the event is wonderful. This year is also the best auto week in such a long time." he believes that the event has brought more substantial positive impact on local enterprises and the whole community, especially in terms of economic income and employment.

MOE Ammar, chairman of the chamber of Commerce of Pacific Grove, a small town on the west side of Monterey, which has hosted three antique car events this year, said he felt that the number of participants this year was the same as in previous years, or even worse. He also pointed out that in the past, 20% of the audience of auto week every year was from overseas. But for the first time, there was no foreign audience participating in the event, all of them were domestic audiences, "but the number of pedestrians on the street is still huge."

Not only are there a large number of fans and car owners coming to see the exhibition, but also many automobile manufacturers who have survived the cold winter of the epidemic with their teeth clenched, hoping to help enterprises "fight a turnaround" by taking advantage of the annual on-site automobile Festival.

In the past 2018-2019, affected by factors such as the decline in sales, Aston Martin, the British luxury car manufacturer, is facing serious financial pressure and has lost revenue for years. However, the pressure eased after Canadian billionaire Lawrence stroll injected 182 million pounds to buy a 16.7% stake in Aston Martin. "Last year everyone thought the company was going to die, but it was Lawrence stroll who injected a lot of cash flow into us that made us come back and stronger than ever," Tobias Moers, Aston Martin's chief executive, told the media

Moers previously worked for Mercedes AMG, a high-performance sub brand of Mercedes Benz. As the new CEO to take over during the outbreak, Moers has recruited new department heads from Bentley, Ford and Porsche. He also focuses on using Mercedes engineering technology to expand Aston's product portfolio and expand its business in China. "In China, we are facing different customers from those in North America. Chinese consumers are a group of young people, aged between 18 and 30, followed by customers in their 60s, and few consumers in the middle age group. The speed of China's development is unbelievable. In terms of global wealth growth, both Asian and Chinese markets are the first."

Moers believes that auto week is the best place to build a luxury car business, because he can meet with employees, dealers and customers in North America. For a million dollar car, sales are usually driven by a real relationship and meeting. Monterey auto week provides a chance for potential buyers to communicate with executives and designers of auto companies to make purchase decisions. According to the analysis of industry insiders, in the past decade, high-end automobile manufacturers have increasingly shunned consumer auto shows, preferring lifestyle based sales activities. Adrian hallmark, Bentley's chief executive, said: "with the exception of Asia, the number of visitors to the auto show has been steadily declining. And with the cost of attending an auto show enough to participate in 10 similar events like Monterey auto week, I'd rather choose the latter - and it'll get closer to customers."

Electric super running becomes the future trend

Under the goal of carbon emission reduction, the global automobile industry is accelerating the transformation towards intelligent electric. For the trend chasing super brands, people are looking forward to seeing more "new players" of pure electric and hybrid cars entering.

Bentley will bring a number of models to the 2021 Monterey auto week. The latest masterpiece of Mulliner department, Mulliner Bacalar and brewer's extended version of "zero" engineering prototype vehicle have achieved the world's first show, and the first release with the Tianyue plug-in hybrid version and the gallop plug-in hybrid version. It is the best embodiment of Bentley's accelerating development of electrification that the plug-in hybrid version and the gallop plug-in hybrid version are. It is reported that by 2024, Bentley will realize plug-in hybrid electric vehicles for all vehicle lines, and the first Bentley pure electric vehicle plan will be launched in 2025.

With Honda's goal of green energy transformation, its high-end car brand eulogizes Acura's brand symbol, NSX, due to its high development cost and poor carbon emission, will soon be determined to stop production in 2022. However, manufacturers are not going to let the NSX super run fade out of the stage. Instead, they released the NSX type s, a high-end hybrid version of the NSX, at the Monterey auto week. The NSX type s will be produced at a plant in Ohio, with only 350 units built worldwide, starting at about $171000. Honda has no longer accepted orders from NSX, and this advanced performance version of the NSX will also become the farewell work of the series.

Nevera, an electric supercar from rimac, a pure electric super running manufacturing company from Croatia, also made its debut. The brand may sound a little strange, but with only 12 years of brand history, it has won a lot of important car manufacturers competing to invest in acquiring its electric vehicle technology. Due to the small number of pure electric vehicle manufacturers, in the United States, Tesla (lucid, rivian and other brands have not yet sold any cars); In Europe, it's just remake. Many automobile manufacturers hope to establish alliance with them and realize transformation better.

Nevera plans to produce 150 nevera models, including GT, signature signature and timeless limited edition. When fully charged, it can travel 400 miles, with a top speed of 258 miles per hour. This year, rimac has officially entered the Chinese market, and nevera will also be one of the first models of the future brand in China.

Antique car auction enthusiasm

Vintage and elegant antique car auctions are a feature of every Monterey auto week. In view of the recent shortage of chips, many luxury car collectors are extremely enthusiastic about purchasing Tibet, so this year's trading volume "counterattack" is particularly strong. In the market segment of antique car purchase and collection, people's mood has not been greatly affected by the epidemic.

This year's auction, led by five auction houses, yielded a total of $343 million in a three-day auction. That's up 37% from the same period in 2019, but given that the number of cars on sale this year is 25% less than in 2019, it's really impressive how much traffic Monterey auto week has achieved. According to Hagerty, an auto data company, the average price of antique cars sold during Monterey auto week in 2021 is $428000, up from $334100 in 2019. "The collector car market has survived the epidemic and we expect 2021 to be a good year for antique car auctions," Hagerty vice president Brian rabold said in an auction report

Although the auction of Monterey auto week reached a record of $429 million at one time when the collection of antique cars was at its peak in 2014, there are still some highlights in this year's auction of antique cars.

As the official auction house for Monterey auto week, Gooding & Co. didn't disappoint. The McLaren F1 supercar in 1995 was sold at a high price of US $20.5 million, even surpassing that of the McLaren F1 which sold for $19.8 million in 2019, becoming the most expensive car sold at this year's auction. In addition, at the same auction, the 1959 Ferrari 250 California LWB Competizione spider sold for $10.8 million. In 1962, Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato was sold by RM Sotheby's, making it one of the top three auctions for $9.5 million.

"They're crazy about the deals they're doing on the spot, which has led to a sharp rise in turnover," said Angus dykman, an auction expert at Gooding & Co. "this auto week is mainly due to pent up demand." Steve serio, founder of bond group, a professional luxury car purchasing company, said: "There has been a diversified demand in the market, everyone is spending money for what they want. They are educated, have their own ideas, want to buy Tibetan cars, but as long as the best, I believe this will lead to a more healthy growth of the market."