Small Cars and Hybrids - What Else? - Headline This Week's Paris Show
September 30, 2008
By Bill Visnic
In the first major auto show since the bottom dropped out of the U.S. economy and the industry ponders a summer of dismal sales in both the U.S. and Europe, the Paris auto show opens to the media on Thursday, where the most prominent wares will be small, fuel-efficient cars and hybrid-electric (or fully electric) vehicles.
What's it all mean? Consumers are downshifting their consumptive habits, and the auto industry is scrambling to adjust - particularly for the U.S., which unlike Europe has little experience with exorbitant fuel prices and the vehicles required to answer the issue. Trucks and SUVs? What are those?
Everybody wants to see smaller footprints; that will be reinforced at the Paris show. The fact that most new production models unveiled at Paris will remain rather conventional demonstrates the industry's "transformation" to more electric-intensive propulsion systems is merely beginning.
Nonetheless, hybrids and so-called "extended-range" electric vehicles are certain to grab the lion's share of attention.
Hybrids and Electrics
•The contingent is led by General Motors Corp.'s electric-drive Chevrolet Volt, being
displayed in production form for the first time in Europe, where it will be interesting to gauge reaction; the region, to now, has been cool to hybrids, although GM insists the Volt actually is not.
• And Honda Motor Co. will be shoving back the crowds thanks to the scheduled unveiling of its new-generation Insight hybrid, a five
-passenger model slated to tilt, largely in the U.S. market, with Toyota Motor Corp.'s dominating Prius. By recalling for duty the Insight name, Honda aims to establish a major presence in the segment the original Insight effectively started. Honda says the new Insight, coming to the U.S. in April, will sell for less than today's Civic Hybrid, drastically undercutting the Prius in the bargain.
• Hyundai will unveil a long-rumored hybrid variant of the Santa Fe crossover. Sensibly, the gasoline engine is a 2.4-liter 4-cylinder job, backed by an electric motor in a parallel-hybrid arrangement similar to Toyota's.
• Toyota's Lexus division shows the LF-Xh concept, which serves two purposes: the preview
styling for the replacement for today's RX crossover lineup, while the concept also suggests a hybrid version that likely will feature new technical improvements and upgrades to the current Hybrid Synergy Drive that propels the RX hybrid.
• Citroen already de-sheeted its Hypnos concept in advance of the Paris show, revealing a hybrid
concept with apparent intention to vie with style-over-function crossovers such as BMW's X6 and Nissan's Infiniti FX.
• Peugeot is expected to reveal its own hybrid concept reputedly dubbed "RC," and coyly offered scant pre-show detail, other than the promise of innovative and advanced hybrid components for the low-slung coupe.
Previous concept cars in the RC "family" - the last came at Paris two years ago - were elegant and assertively styled but seemed to have no probability for production, so the company may be asked to come clean about its intentions for this hybrid concept. The French automakers have shown a past predilection for diesel hybrids, so it's possible this latest concept will promote that potentially most efficient of hybrid configurations.
• Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. plans to unveil the Nuvu concept, an all-electric minicar designed around 2+1 seating. The concept car is not, however, a peek at the production electric vehicle Nissan says it will sell in Japan and North America 2010Just Plain Small - Mostly
Conventionally powered - gasoline and diesel - new small vehicles will abound at Paris, too. Many show their makers' hope buyers will pay upmarket prices despite the smaller proportions and less horsepower-engorged powerplants.
• Audi finally gets around to showing a near-production concept version of its A1 subcompact, a let's-not-call-it-entry-level model targeted squarely at the BMW Mini and the company's surging new 1-Series. For those who liked the looks of the Metroproject plug-in hybrid concept - and many did - the A1 concept is expected to borrow heavily.
• GM muscles in with the world debut of the Cruze sedan and Orlando multipurpose wagon. Both are built on the company's all-new global front-wheel-drive architecture. Cruze is a world model, replacing the Cobalt in the U.S. when it comes in 2010, but word is GM does not intend to sell the Orlando in the U.S., perhaps believing the market is not ready to consider such a compact vehicle as a viable 7-seater. Diesel engines for Europe, a new 1.4-liter turbocharged gasoline job replaces the 2.2-liter Ecotec in the U.S.
• Another intriguing take on the mini-minivan is the Citroen C3 Picasso, the third leg of the Picasso family. There's room - at least Citroen says - for up to five occupants in the overall length of just more than 13 feet, and the C3 Picasso uses a choice of two gasoline engines (developed with BMW) or a pair of turbodiesels.
• BMW, in fact, teases in the crossover/mini-utility segments with the X1 concept, that, like the 1-Series on which it's based, is earmarked to serve
as a new entry point for the brand - in this case, into the still-growing crossover market. Expect powertrain choices similar to the 1-Series and significantly better fuel economy than BMW's current entry-level crossover, the X3.
• Most watched of all the compact multipurpose or crossover vehicles, however, is likely to be BMW's Mini Crossover concept - a jacked-up, all-wheel-drive version of the global-phenom Mini Cooper. Except with the extra weight of AWD and the extra room required to package all the new componentry and people, the hallmarks of "Mini-ness" may be getting eroded here.
• The 50 mpg Hyundai's talking about with the diesel-powered variant of the i20 ultra-cheap
compact sounds pretty good, particularly considering the gasoline-engine car's not even on sale yet. At just 125 g/km CO2 output, the so-called U2 diesel also brings Hyundai tantalizingly close to the 120 g/km average the European Union is hoping to legislate for all makers starting in 2012.
• Ford unveils the replacement for the successful
Ka minicar and the interesting Fiesta ECOkinetic, a 60-mpg variant of the new Fiesta that is endowed with a handful of efficiency-boosting enhancements and a 1.6-liter turbodiesel.
• Volvo Cars is taking a page from the same book with its 1.6-liter turbodiesel 1.6D DRIVe variants of its C30/S40/V50 models. There are several economy-boosting upgrades, such as slicker aerodynamic panels and low-friction tranny oil. Fuel economy is around 52 mpg, says Volvo, and slides each of the cars under the now-prominent 120 g/km threshold for CO2 emissions. Volvo says the cost for the efficiency enhancements will be as cheap as $200.
• Mazda Motor Corp. is showing up with the Kiyora concept, a city car which also uses a
small and frugal turbodiesel. This is the early look at the Mazda1 subcompact earmarked to tussle with the seemingly endless roster of minicars slated for European showrooms. The engine uses stop-start technology to shut down when the car is stationary, and the platform, says Mazda, was developed with weight optimization as a key development focus, part of the company's wide-ranging effort to make weight reduction a cornerstone of its development efforts.
• Nissan's new minicar - we told you everybody has one - is the Pixo, a 4-passenger job that is likely to be pretty inexpensive, according to Nissan. The Pixo and its 3-cylinder gasoline engine will be assembled in India in partnership with Suzuki, but isn't coming to North America; sales being in Europe next fall.
• Mercedes-Benz rings in with the ConceptFASCINATION, fascinating mainly for its
uber-swoopy lines that blend a coupe and a wagon, of all preposterous notions. Whatever the sense of it all, the sheetmetal is voluptuous and could be considered Mercedes' roundabout answer to the bizarre but apparently popular BMW X6.
Even more enticing is the company's early talk about the new-generation 2.2-liter 4-cylinder turbodiesel that powers the ConceptFASCINATION: at a reported horsepower of 204, it approaches the 100-horsepower-per-liter mark that still is a benchmark for gasoline engines and once believed all but unattainable for volume-production diesels. And the 2.2-liter's power already equals that of the 3-liter V6 turbodiesel, Mercedes says.
• Suzuki will unveil its new Alto city car, which appeared earlier this year at the New Delhi
Auto Expo as the chunky little A-Star Concept. Power will come from a tiny 1.0-liter 996cc. three-cylinder gasoline engine; a diesel engine option is also likely for Europe. his will be the first Suzuki vehicle built solely in India for markets around the world. The Indo-Japanese partnership of Maruti Suzuki presently controls more than half of the India's new car market. Cute and frugal, the Indian-built Alto goes on sale early next year in Europe. U.S. sales are unlikely.
Chinese Show Up
Chinese manufacturers have been promising to start selling cars in Europe and the U.S. for so long now they're in danger of having all the social relevance of house flipping or Ralph Nader. Even before the collapse of the U.S. financial sector, China's formerly red-hot economy was showing signs of a severe cool down.
• Shuanghuan Automobile, based in Shijiazhuang, China, will be present in Paris with its CEO and UFO sport-utilities. Remember these two from the Frankfurt auto show back in 2007? We're certain that lawyers for BMW and Toyota do, since these Chinese-built SUVs are shameless copies of the BMW X5 and Toyota RAV4.
• Brilliance Auto will likely showcase the attractive BS3 Coupe. One can only hope that the BS3 (and BS4 sedan) hold up better in crash tests than the company's mid-size sedan, the BS6, which proved to have the structural rigidity of the wet cardboard box when tested by Germany's ADAC automobile club.
No Shows
• For Jaguar and Land Rover, no news isn't necessarily good news. Since being purchased by Indian auto manufacturer Tata Motors earlier this year, there has been a dearth of information from either of the two British luxury nameplates. Neither brand even released U.S. sales figures for August - hardly a way to boost consumer confidence.
A Jaguar spokesman confirmed to AutoObserver that the company would have few, if any, executives at the Paris show. No interviews are being scheduled and no new models will be shown. The only recent noteworthy news from Jaguar Land Rover is that the two companies will be temporarily closing or slowing production at all of their U.K. auto plants.
Come to think of it, no news might be good for Jaguar Land Rover after all.
• Like its recent acquisitions, Tata Motors will follow Jaguar and Land Rover's lead and keep an extraordinarily low profile in Paris. In fact, the Indian auto company isn't planning on showing up at all! With the planned October launch of its $2,500 Nano city-car delayed indefinitely due to political protests back home, the company is licking its wounds and looking for a factory to build the car. Sitting out Paris seems a strange move for Tata Motors, especially after announcing that it will sell an electric version of the Nano in Europe.
Nick Kurczewski, AutoObserver's Paris-based correspondent, contributed to this report.
Photos by Manufacturers
1 - Chevrolet Volt
2 - Honda Insight
3 - Lexus LF-Xh
4 - Citroen Hypnos
5 - Chevrolet Cruze
6 - Citroen CC Picasso
7 - BMW X1
8 - Hyundai i20
9 - Ford Ka
10 - Mazda Kiyora
11 - Nissan Pixo
12 - Mercedes-Benz ConceptFASCINATION
13 - Suzuki Alto
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:48 AM under Companies , Featured , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Leave a comment