Frankfurt Motor Show: Enviro Plays, Luxury the Big Question
September 14, 2009
Press days for the Frankfurt auto show, one of Europe's most important international auto 
shows, kick off Tuesday, and the lineup of production models and concept cars oriented largely for the European market evidence an auto industry anxious to continue moving the environmental needle - but also grappling with how to keep luxury relevant.
Luxury is where the big profits lie, but many industry analysts say consumers - pounded by the eroded global economy and wracked retirement accounts - are girding for a prolonged downshift in their automotive desires that may leave luxury marques sucking wind.
How else to interpret the rash of hybrid-electric and pure-electric unveilings from the German automakers - on their Frankfurt home field, no less - the ones who long pooh-poohed any kind of vehicle electrification in favor of advanced diesel engines?
All luxury brands enter the final quarter of the year with limping sales in both the U.S. market and globally
The answer for the BMWs, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus' and Cadillacs of the world may be a merging of new, environmentally friendly attributes (that seems to be the industry's only logical long-term direction) with the traditional pitch of giving their customers the best technologies - and giving it to them first.
Luxury Meets Electricity
Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz had better have plenty of electrical outlets built into its Frankfurt-show display. The company is unveiling the S500 Vision Plug-In Hybrid, a soon-to-come, hybridized version of its S-Class flagship promising an improbable 74 mpg from its combo of a 3.5-liter gasoline V6 and a healthy 10-kWh of lithium-ion battery capacity. There's added titillation for the carbon dioxide-focused European regulators of a mere 75 grams per kilometer of CO2 output.
Mercedes says pure-electric range is 19 miles and fully charging the S500 Plug-In Hybrid 
charging takes less than five hours from a home outlet.
Mercedes also is showing an all-electric variant of the wild new SLS AMG, the gullwing-door coupe that reprises the classic 300SL. And there's the BlueZero E-Cell Plus, a fuel-cell-powered iteration of the company's family of BlueZero subcompacts.
Rival BMW won't be outdone, treating Frankfurt crowds to hybrid variants of the grand new 7-Series flagship and the polarizing X6 crossover.
BMW says the ActiveHybrid X6 uses the company's twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 and two electric 
motors in its 2-mode hybrid layout that combine to add another 177 horsepower and result in the most powerful hybrid in the world. Maybe a 480-horsepower hybrid - and the X6 - miss the point a bit, but BMW claims a 20-percent economy improvement. When the ActiveHybrid X6 goes on sale later this year, it'll definitely stretch the boundaries the conventional X6 already pushes.
Effectively the same setup is used for the ActiveHybrid 7, which goes on sale in the U.S. next spring. Both are certain to test the same hybrid price sensitivities as Lexus' LS 600h hybrid flagship.
BMW has another luxo-environmental parry with the freaky EfficientDynamics Vision concept, a small, all-wheel-drive, 2-plus-two diesel plug-in hybrid. It's stuffed with just about everything BMW says it currently knows to get 63 mpg out of a 363-horsepower drivetrain. That includes active aerodynamics, all kinds of lightweighting efforts and photochromatic glass for the roof and mostly-glass doors.
It doesn't do anywhere with Toyota Motor Corp.'s professed goal to have hybrid versions of all its vehicles, but the Lexus LF-Ch compact further explores the boundaries of what luxury-car buyers with strong environmental leaning might consider. The Lexus hatchback is sized like the BMW 1-Series and Audi A3, taking Lexus to a small-car place it hasn't yet been. The Corolla-based front-driver is meant only for Europe if and when a production model arrives.
Electricity For The Masses, Too
An important non-luxo Frankfurt debut is the duo of Toyota's Prius Plug-In Hybrid Concept and the Auris HSD Hybrid. The Prius is just as it sounds, a thinly veiled concept of the company's first production plug-in hybrid.
The Auris HSD Hybrid is what Toyota says is the company's first run at adapting a "full-hybrid" system for a mainstream (i.e. economy car) model.
Hyundai, whose brand rep is strengthening in Europe just as it is in the U.S., also shows up at Frankfurt with an enviro-oriented duo: the ix-Metro concept and the i10 Electric. The ix-Metro is a bulbous sub B-segment hatch with micro-hybrid layout using a 3-cylinder gasoline engine and electric motor to generate just 80 grams per kilometer of CO2.
The i10 Electric is a small hatchback that will go on sale in Hyundai's home market next year promising a 100-mile driving range between recharges and an 80-mph top speed. The company also says the car is designed to accept a big-throat charging capacity to recharge about 85 percent of the battery capacity in just 15 minutes.
Mazda Motor Corp. goes a different direction - it often does - with the MX-5 Superlight, a pure-fantasy concept car based on the MX-5 Miata that nonetheless promotes Mazda's intention to start getting serious about pulling weight out of its production cars.
And Volkswagen AG is working its Bluemotion efficiency initiative for all its worth at Frankfurt, officially unveiling the production Polo, Golf and Passat Bluemotion models that use ultra-efficient turbodiesels, aerodynamic tweaks and other efficiency-enhancing design details to chop 
CO2 output to as low as 87 grams per kilometer for the Polo Bluemotion, which also generates a composite 74 mpg.
The Passat Bluemotion, with its 1.6-liter 4-cylinder turobdiesel, returns a not-too-shabby 53 mpg, and VW says any of the cars has a driving range of at least 840 miles on a single tank of fuel.
Frankfurt's Conventional Isn't Boring
Hey, it's still Germany, so there are a few CO2 belchers at Frankfurt, too.
Most interesting might be Ferrari S.p.A.'s all-new 458 Italia, with a fiery high-output V-8, several weight-optimizing features, a host of intriguing high-tech performance innovations and the usual claim of Michael Schumacher-influenced handling development.
BMW is showing the X1 crossover, chasing the notion of how downsized a premium crossover can go. Its based on the 1-Series underpinnings and mechanicals, so all can't be too wrong - but then again, we said the same thing about the rocky X3 before it was launched.
Audi AG's R8 Spyder looks simply magnifico, although some were leery of what might result from lopping off the top of the stupendous R8 coupe.
And we have to say the same of the concept coupe and roadster that are certain to generate a packed house for BMW's Mini. The brand, enduring growth pains at the same time it must deal with dreary economies in the nations where it sells best, may have a winner on its hands with the Mini coupe, if the production version ends up as gregarious and engaging as the concept. - Bill Visnic
More detailed Frankfurt auto show coverage, including additional vehicle details, photos and video, can be found at Edmunds.com's InsideLine
Photos by manufacturers
1 - Mercedes-Benz S500 Vision Plug-In Hybrid
2 - Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
3 - BMW ActiveHybrid X6
4 - BMW EfficientDynamics Vision concept
5 - Lexus LF-Ch
6 - Hyundai ix-Metro
7 - Mazda MX-5 Superlight
8 - Volkswagen Bluemotion family
9 - Ferrari 458 Italia
10 - BMW X1
11 - Mini coupe concept
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