10 cars that were canceled at the last moment. It’s a pity!
Car manufacturing is expensive. Sir James Dyson, the head of the manufacturer of premium household appliances, was able to verify this by personal example last year.
The electric car, almost ready for mass production, never made it to the assembly line – the cost of its components turned out to be too high and it would have been necessary to sell the car at a loss. This is not the only case: even large companies often cancel the launch of finished models already “on the ribbon”, before the premiere or even after it. Autospot talks about several such cases.
Jaguar XJ
The most recent example is the Jaguar XJ luxury sedan, which was announced by the company a few years ago as a flagship electric car. But at the beginning of 2021, rumors began to appear about the cancellation of the project due to the financial difficulties of the Jaguar Land Rover alliance.
And just the other day, Jaguar announced the cancellation of almost all projects that have been in development for the past few years. This is partly due to the drop in the company's profits.
Land Rover Range Rover SV Coupe
The beautiful and stylish three-door Range Rover was shown three years ago at the Geneva Motor Show. The company planned to release 999 copies of the model. From the usual “Range” in the three-door, only the front and rear parts remained. The rest of the bodywork was brand new, requiring additional costs. Especially given the small series of the project.
In 2019, the company announced that it was canceling the project and refunding pre-orders. Finances were to blame for everything – Land Rover chose to save money.
MINI Superleggera Vision
The British company showed the concept of a speedster designed by Touring Superleggera in 2014 at the Villa d'Este elegance competition. The rave reviews sparked rumors that BMW was discussing small-scale production of the model. The only thing that bothered absolutely everyone was the complete absence of a roof.
The MINI Superleggera Vision was conceived as a concept, so it doesn't even have the potential for a convertible top. BMW was not ready to invest in additional development for a car with a commercial potential they did not understand, so the project was curtailed.
Saab 9-5 SportCombi
The now-dead Swedish brand Saab was already in its death throes in 2011. At the end of 2009, the second generation 9-5 sedan was released for sale. And Saab began work on the second generation of the 9-5 station wagon.
In 2011, a concept was shown in Geneva, but due to the fact that the company was already teetering on the verge of bankruptcy at that moment, this pretty “shed” never made it to production. True, it is known that about 40 copies were still produced, and two of them were right-hand drive.
Jaguar C-X75
The futuristic C-X75 concept was created for the 75th anniversary of the brand and was supposed to be Jaguar's new flagship supercar. It was equipped with an advanced turbo-electric hybrid system with an internal combustion engine with a volume of only 1.6 liters and an output of 313 hp.
In the process of updating, the concept nevertheless made it to production, but only 7 copies were produced, five of which were created for the filming of the James Bond film 007: Spectrum.
Volkswagen W12
W12 was a supercar project of the German manufacturer. In 1997, the company decided on such a project simply because it had a W12 configuration engine in its arsenal. The first prototype of the engine was 5.6 liters, but in the process of refinement it increased to 6.0 liters.
In 2002, the prototype set records at the Nardo test site, but it was not destined to get to production. The project was given to Bugatti, which, based on it, but with an 8.0-liter W16 engine, released the super-successful Veyron.
Porsche C88
In the 1990s, the Chinese car market tried to attract foreign manufacturers to produce their cars on their soil. Oddly enough, Porsche was one of the first to respond with a budget sedan project codenamed C88. It was shown at the Beijing Auto Show in 1994.
True, Porsche never received anything in return from the Chinese authorities for their labors. But local manufacturers, known for their disregard for copyrights and patents, copied many of Porsche's ideas. And the C88 project was forgotten.
Amati
In general, this is an out of the ordinary case, because the whole brand was canceled, and not just a model. At the moment when Toyota was launching Lexus, Nissan launching Infiniti, and Honda launching Acura, lowly Mazda really wanted its premium sub-brand. The name was Amati and the plan was for the first car to go on sale in the US in 1993.
At the last moment, the company's accountants realized that the numbers were not beating and there would not be enough money, so the launch was canceled. But the light saw two models planned under the Amati brand – Xedos 6 and Xedos 9.
Mercedes-Benz C112
The C112 project was conceived as a road version of the 1990 racing C11 and at the same time the heir to the legendary SL300 – the gull wings were in place. It was equipped with a 6.0-liter V12 with a capacity of over 400 hp.
The company collected 700 pre-orders for the model, but at the last moment canceled everything and decided to invest in motorsport. Given the recent success in Formula 1, not in vain.
BMW M8
For almost two decades, BMW denied the existence of this car altogether, but the M8 did exist. It was based on the 8 Series E91 and powered by a huge 640hp V12. It is a common misconception that the great McLaren F1 was subsequently equipped with this engine. Of course it isn't.
It was a real monster that challenged the Italian supercars. Ecologists buried him. Engine exhausts proved to be too dirty even for the liberal 1990s. The final nail in the M8's coffin was driven by the company's unstable financial environment.