No more cheap cars: new driving aids are the final nail in your coffin, and they're mandatory

Since last July 6, all newly approved models have to equip a series of ADAS driving assistance devices, such as the Intelligent Speed ​​Assistant (ISA), the rear camera with cross-traffic detection, or the involuntary lane change, among other systems.

These driving aids are being introduced in two phases. The first was launched on July 6 and the second will arrive in 2024, although many of the current models already equip some of these technologies since they give a better score in the EuroNCAP crash tests.

This means that all new models launched on the market after July 6, 2022, regardless of their type, have to comply with this standard.

If the commercial launch of a model was made before July 6, 2022, you do not have that obligation. In a second phase, in July 2024, absolutely all new cars will have to equip these technologies in order to continue to be on sale.

For some models, adapting to the standard is very expensive

This necessary adaptation in 2024 is what will end the Toyota GR86 in 2024. It arrived on the market last May 2022 and for this reason it is not subject to that obligation, however, in 2024 it will have to adapt to the standard. And technically you can't.

When Toyota announced the prices of the car and the orders were opened, it already warned that it would have a commercial life of only two years. In 2024, the Toyota GR86 will no longer be sold in Europe and the brand already explained its decision by the impossibility of adapting the car to the new regulations.

The brand did not give many details of what was the difficulty in adapting the car. It was said that there were problems with the cameras of the driving assistants and with the crash tests.

In particular, the camera required for ISA and the active lane keeping system cannot be easily incorporated into the architecture of the car, which is based on the Toyota GT86, developed more than a decade ago.

The problem with the camera is that it would force you to touch the structure of the car. "We would have to raise the roof and move the windshield to accommodate the camera," they explain from Toyota. Modifying the roof and moving the windshield is equivalent to modifying the 'hard points' of a platform or chassis.

Therefore, the entire structure of the car and its behavior in the event of a crash, especially the programmed deformation zones, would be affected. This would force Toyota to homologate the car again, with new crash tests.

Not to mention, furthermore, that it would completely change the dynamic behavior of the GR86. That is, Toyota would have to make a new car. It is economically unfeasible for a small diffusion model like the GR86.

The case of the Toyota GR86 is undoubtedly one of the most striking, but it is surely not the only one. And by 2024 we could see some models that still had a commercial run leave the catalog of brands, especially when it comes to small and affordable models whose adaptation to the regulations is not considered profitable by their manufacturer.

Some models will stop selling because they cannot be adapted

For example, as Ford homologation chief Douwe Cunningham explains , for the ISA system the manufacturer can use a camera to read traffic signs, but those signs are not always properly maintained or well placed (causing some cars confuse the limit of the service road with that of the motorway, for example) so that the system is really effective.

To counteract this situation, a GPS-based system can be used, which requires very precise and extensive mapping of the entire continent. Thus, a brand like Ford can consider proposing the two technologies in the same car so that the ISA is as precise as possible. And so, only with the ISA, the car is already equipped with two new and expensive systems.

In a high-margin or volume model, it may be easier to camouflage the inevitable price hike, but in a small, entry-level model, it is somewhat more complicated. And even more so if the car is of an old design, such as a Fiat Panda, for example.

The sales volumes are not very high and the profit margin of these cars is also low. In the end, some brands might choose to simply stop selling that model rather than bring it up to standard.

One of the consequences will be the increase in the average price of new cars and the end of really affordable cars , that is, cars for less than 15,000 euros.