Sequoia Automotive
 | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | 1966 |
| Founder | Ron Wilkinson |
| Headquarters | Clearlake, California, United States |
Number of locations | 6 (2019) |
Area served | North America, United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, Japan |
Key people |
Lewis Vance (Chairman of the Board) Avery Wilkinson (CEO) |
| Products | Automobiles |
| Brands | Redwood Works |
Production output |
 4 (2018) |
| Revenue |
 US$ 12 million (2019) |
 US$ 7 million (2019) | |
|
US$ 18 million (2019) | |
| Total equity | US$ 10 million (2019) |
| Owner |
Sequoia-Clearlake Foundation (80%) Wilkinson family (20%) |
Number of employees | 148 (2019) |
| Divisions | Redwood Racing |
| Website |
sequoia |
Sequoia Automotive Incorporated is an American luxury automobile manufacturer. It produces an array of luxury, hyper, and art cars. It is headquartered in Clearlake, California. Notable for its, until 2022, decreasing-production-and-increasing-price business tactics, it began producing cars in 1972. Founded in 1966 under relative secrecy, founder Ron Wilkinson, an American who previously worked at both Lotus and Lancia, assembled a team of what he considered to be the best in their respective fields in automotive engineering. By doing quick rounds of raising capital, he achieved a capital of approximately 4.8 million dollars. After working on their first car for four years, Sequoia revealed their first car, an ultra-luxury grand tourer, the Sequoia Era in 1974. By 2019, the company has increased in size with over 148 employees, with presence in several international markets.
History
Sequoia Automotive Incorporated was founded in 1966 by Ron Wilkinson, an American car designer and engineer who had previously worked for both Pininfarina, Lotus, and Lancia before returning to the United States in 1965. Looking to start his own car company, he used several of his connections with Wall Street to raise capital. Known for being charismatic and a “smooth talker”, he had by 1966 raised two rounds of capital, amounting to, in today’s worth, roughly 5 million dollars. Unsatisfied, he nonetheless founded Sequoia Automotive in 1966 out of Clearlake, California. By visiting art schools in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as utilizing several connections at Lancia and Pininfarina, he was able to put together a team of 30 to develop the company’s first car. As the team began designing and engineering work on the car, he continued raising investment rounds, often from celebrities and the newly rich. By 1968 he had amassed a total investment sum of close to today’s worth 52 million dollars. In 1970 the platform for the car was close to finished, a grand tourer, and was revealed to the investors, using a temporary body shell. Showcasing the sharp handling and fine suspension tune was moderately successful in keeping confidence in his car company. In 1972, the body had been finalized, and the interior work had begun. Wilkinson continued to both attend interviews and press releases in order to continue increasing interest in the car. In April of 1973, the car, titled the Era was revealed to the investors, as well a select few people. With highly favorable reactions, the Era began production in secret. This was in order to be able to deliver roughly 16 units to the first customers on the day of the reveal, as each car was hand-built. It wasn’t announced to the public until May the following year, and the first 16 customers received their cars. Reviews praised both the handling, as well as the 4.8 liter V8 engine’s high power output due to utilizing a twin overhead camshaft design, rather than the traditionally North American pushrod design. Its curvaceous design, along with its implementation and refinement of many modern technologies, such as the variable hydraulic power steering, power restrictor for comfort driving (driving modes), and variable valve timing. This positive publicity continued with a photo taken of Andy Warhol stepping out of an Era in New York, featured on the cover of Time Magazine. It garnered significant attention and generated further public interest in the car. The slow production time only furthered the demand, and with Wilkinson having denied orders beyond the 84 orders, aftermarket prices skyrocketed.
By 1978 all orders had been delivered, and Sequoia did subsequently not announce another car until 1982. As soon as the development of the Era had finished and production had begun, Wilkinson and his team began working on the successor to the Era. In 1976 the small racing car company Redwood Motors was bought up and integrated into Sequoia to assist with performance tuning. The successor would be the same body type, a Grand Tourer, and would be heavily based on the Era. Originally, Wilkinson was conflicted about producing another GT car, but proceeded, as no other car type fit his requirements for versatility, speed, and comfort. Fearing that the successor, now named Hyannis, would devalue the Era, extra care was taken throughout the development process to ensure that it differed enough from its predecessor. The design was more angular, and put a heavier emphasis on the performance capabilities of the car, the interior sharply contrasting it with a focus on the driver’s comfort. As with its predecessor, the frame, and chassis components were developed first, with many new technologies implemented into the successors of various parts from the Era. Performance handling was further improved with help from the Redwood Division. The effort was focused on it being able to compete with its European rivals, as many of the wealthy customers Sequoia targeted, had access to European supercars. In 1980 the design had been finalized, with help from Helen Frankenthaler, and by 1981 the development and pre-production tests were complete. Production began, again, in secret, a year prior to its reveal, and was announced in June 1982. 11 customers received their cars on the same day. Concerned that production was happening all too slowly, some investors urged Wilkinson to expand the relatively small factory, which he did, increasing the factory’s output from three cars to five cars per month. However, it still took roughly four years for all of the 44 cars to be produced. In order to mediate the smaller amount of cars with profits, the Hyannis was charged at 200,000 dollars, equivalent to $600,000 in 2021. Investors remained concerned that the business wasn’t profitable enough, so the decision was made to allow Redwood to continue independent development and racing.
| Name | Units produced | Years | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Era | 84 | 1974-1978 | Grand Tourer Coupé |
| Hyannis | 64 | 1982-1986 | Grand Tourer Fastback |
| Cotuit | 48 | 1988-1992 | Full-size ultra-luxury fastback sedan |
| Concord | 36 | 1994-1998 | Shooting Brake Grand Tourer |
| Truro | 24 | 2002-2006 | Hypercar |
| Sherburne | 28 | 2008-2012 | Grand Tourer Fastback |
| Nantucket | 36 | 2014-2018 | Grand Tourer Coupé |
| Era (2nd Generation) |
84 (planned) | 2022-2026 | Grand Tourer Coupé |
| Wellfleet | 8 (planned) | 2022-2024 | Hypercar |
Development for the successor had already begun as the final engineering was conducted on the Hyannis in 1981. Wilkinson provided the team with a six year deadline, the car was to be ready by 1987. Initial designs followed a coupé Grand Tourer body type, but fearing that public opinion of the company would shift from innovative to repetitive, he instead chose to focus on a lower design with a more centralized interior and a mid-engined layout. A 6.2 L V8 was favored instead of the 4.8 L V8 power plant, that was used for both the Era and the Hyannis. The car was given the name Cotuit, after the village on Cape Cod. Adjustable suspension was integrated in order for the driver to switch between a comfortable and an aggressive tune. For the first time, press was allowed inside the factory and were shown a teaser of the upcoming car. One journalist noted the, for the time, unusually many women working at Sequoia. Rons response to this was “I hire the best in the business. It doesn’t matter if you’re a man, a woman, or a fish.”, a quote which generated positive publicity for the company. Wilkinson requested a permit to expand the size of the factory, but was denied. After holding a town hall meeting, a majority of residents of Clearlake voiced support for the expansion. Sequoia was subsequently allowed to expand their factory further. As a gesture of gratitude, the city was gifted the first Cotuit, and was put on display in the town hall.
Business Tactics
Since its founding in 1966, Ron Wilkinson had expressed an intent to slowly decrease the number of individual cars produced in order to drive up the artificial scarcity and to appeal to customers as more exclusive. The Era, despite being the first model produced, remains the most produced model of the company, as a result. In lieu of this, Wilkinson use a technique which he named “tomahawking”, aggressive marketing toward a specific circle of influential individuals. In order to establish brand recognition, Wilkinson would personally advertise the Era to a small group of new money businessmen and women, as well as executives, famous artists, and wealthy bohemian individuals. By doing this, he was able to spread so much interest around the Era that the planned 84 units sold out within four months, despite a unit cost of nearly 75,000 dollars ($400,000 in 2021).
In the belief that he had saturated the market enough, Sequoia did not announce any new cars until 1982, eight years after the launch of the Era. The Hyannis launched with considerably more press coverage. Despite this, he continued to personally advertise and increase interest in the cars. In his 2004 biography, he later admitted that this was an effort to control which individuals were to able to know and garner interest about the brand, citing attempting to push for a more exclusive brand association. This tactic proved successful, leading to word-of-mouth brand awareness. Despite later individual requests offering up to five times the sales price, Wilkinson personally declined all requests to increase the production numbers on the cars.
Redwood Works
Redwood Works is the internal, high-performance wing of Sequoia. After Redwood Motors was acquired in 1976, it was integrated into the company to focus on and assist with the performance tuning of the cars. Since the introduction of the Truro in 2002, customers have had the option to purchase a Redwood Works variant of the current car. These variants feature stiffer suspension, track-optimized brakes, as well as performance-oriented engine tuning. Notably, this does not include any cosmetic changes to the car, besides a silver wasp logo fitted to a place inside the car at the customer's discretion, an homage to the 1962 Redwood Wasp race car.
Controversy
Sequoia has faced criticism for their strict selection process for potential buyers. Individuals who are interested in purchasing a car from Sequoia need to apply for a waiting list. Upon evaluation, individuals are interviewed on several occasions, on a variety of subjects. Several people have claimed that many of these questions are very personal or invasive, sometimes about their personal life. Out of roughly 11,621 applicants, only 167 were granted a secondary interview, a chance of less than 1.44%. Some celebrities have also claimed that the system is discriminatory, an accusation which Sequoia have repeatedly denied.