With its lineup now reaching into realms where even Cadillac dare not tread (namely the $65k Equus luxury flagship), Hyundai is filling in the gaps with ruthless focus. Next up: the near-luxury large sedan segment, where Buick’s LaCrosse has been mounting a one-car comeback for GM’s premium brand. But starting next year, the LaCrosse becomes a mild-hybrid model, lifting its base price to near $30k and giving the Azera an opportunity to become a recession-special spoiler. And with handsome Sonata-meets-Genesis Coupe-meets-LaCrosse looks, the next-gen Azera could just be the first luxurious Hyundai to actually bring real sales volume to the brand. The Azera should launch next year as a 2012 model, and as the gallery below shows, it’s already crawling the streets of Korea, bringing the fight to the Daewoo Alpheon[Thanks to Walter Foreman for the spy shots].
Looking for an electric car in the $33k price range (before tax credits)? Starting soon you will have two options: Nissan’s Leaf, a 100 mile range, four-door, US-made compact hatchback or Wheego‘s LiFe, a 100 mile range, electrified Chinese city car that is barely distinguishable from the Smart ForTwo. Can you picture many Americans picking the Chinese Smart clone over the Nissan? But Wheego, which previously sold only Low Speed Vehicles, is undeterred. The company claims it will start selling the 70 MPH top-speed LiFe next month… even though AN [sub] reports that the LiFe hasn’t completed EPA certification. Meanwhile, we still haven’t seen a US crash test of the Wheego or the Shuanghuan Noble it’s based on… so we have to rely on questionable Chinese vids like the one above (where’s that airbag?). Wheego is going to need some seriously slick salesmen to make the pitch on this car…
The LA Auto Show was our first opportunity to get out hands on the new Saab 9-4x. Since the 9-4x is mostly a re-skinned Cadillac SRX, the Saab should offer similar driving dynamics, especially from the turbo V6 model. The interior is certainly a step in the right direction for this downtrodden Swede, but does seem like long-term exposure might make one weary of the acres of black plastic inside. While all the materials feel fairly premium, I’m not sure I care for the style of the center console where there are a heap of small buttons and a small nav screen in a sea of flat black plastic. Models without the Nav system get a much smaller screen with more plastic and some small buttons. Aside from this quibble the interior and interior are well sorted. Still, it will remain to be seen if the 9-4x can score any success in American markets with the extremely well executed Q5 and XC60 already in play not to mention the redesigned X3 on its way to our shores.
Volkswagen’s budget knows no bounds lately. With sales on a roll and VW picking up Porsche for a song, they decided to cast off their normal “nobody” booth babes for Heidi Klum to flog the lightly redesigned EOS convertible. This seems like an odd choice to me since the EOS has long been known as the hairdresser’s convertible, so bringing in a german model and fashionista isn’t really butching up the place. Still, the new EOS will continue to thrill the ladies with the same 2.0T engine now mated to a DSG gearbox. For those out there that can’t figure out how to park in normal perpendicular parking spots, the new EOS will do that for you. How’s that for butch?
EV startup skeptics that we are, we’ve been keeping a jaundiced eye on Coda ever since we realized the $45k Chinese EV“makes the Volt look good.” Along the way, the news has mostly been of the “lightly dusted with pathos” variety… right up until the firm lost its CEO just months before launching its car. Now the pathos is starting to stack up in deep drifts. Automotive News [sub] reports that the firm has delayed the launch until the second half of next year in order to “build buffer time into the schedule.”
According to the firm’s new interim CEO, the delay is not being caused by problems with its electric sedan, and that former CEO Kevin Czinger “remains an important part of this company.” So, why the delay, and why no specific launch date? This is not a good sign, especially because if Coda wanted a chance at survival it had to get into the market before the major OEMs. A year from now, Nissan and Chevy will be battling for EV customers, and Ford will just be launching its Focus EV. The window of opportunity for a marginal player to sell a $45k electrified Chinese sedan in any numbers will have passed.
Louise Roe was on hand this morning at the Jag/Landie booth, continuing the LA trend of hiring fashion professionals to flog cars. When did models become the vision of all things automotive? Especially when you’re showing something as unabashedly alluring as CX-75 turbine-electric concept car. Why invite the awkward comparisons? Anyway, as supercar concepts come, the CX-75 is about as cool as they come. Not only can it claim to be a “Jet-Hybrid,” it looks like it could seduce an F-16 too. Drool.
Chrysler has announced that the 2011 Fiat 500 1.4 Pop will start at a base price of $15,500 (before destination) with Sport models starting at $17,500 and Lounge versions starting at $19,500. All models are powered by Fiat’s 1.4 liter MultiAir engine, making 101 HP and 97 lb-ft of torque… and luckily the little engine has only 2,400 lbs to move. The base model gets 15″ steelies, cloth and a CD player, while the Sport model adds 16″ alloys, remote keyless entry, cloth/vinyl sport seats and steering wheel, sport suspension and a lightly modified exterior. The range-topping Lounge trim gets 15″ alloys, a Bose stereo, the Microsoft-based “Blue&Me” hands-free media system, premium cloth seats, a glass roof, body-color side moldings and chrome accents as well as a standard automatic transmission and automatic climate-control. Check out the three versions at Fiat USA’s new site… and hit the jump for Fiat’s just-announced list of US-market dealers.
Here in LA Mercedes took the wraps off the Mercedes B Class F-Cell hydrogen fuel cell vehicle for the US market. Never mind that nobody sells hydrogen, but should you get your hands on some of the liquid gold, your B Class will go almost 200 miles on a tankful. Sales information is of course limited but Mercedes did say they would only be available in Southern California and that hydrogen fuel is included in the lease. So if you are lucky enough to find one available, let TTAC know how much your lease payment is.
Nothing makes news at GM like revealing poorly kept rumors. And so it is today at the first day of the LA Auto Show. GM took the sheet off of a very dirty Chevy Volt that had driven across country from Detroit to LA (yawn) and presented it as it this was some modern miracle. Almost left as an afterthought was the real gem of the morning for Chevrolet: the Camaro Convertible. Finally revealed, the chop top seems to do justice to the highly styled form, interior components are unchanged as is the drivetrain. Expect to see these popping up in your local Chevy store soon as well as discount rental car counters at an airport near you.
As the global auto industry becomes ever more competitive, the pressure to deliver a high volume of products and sales per platform is driving companies to develop mega-platforms that underpin millions of global sales units. And sorry folks, but mass market cars aren’t going to become less homogeneous any time soon… in fact PriceWaterhouseCooper’s Anthony Pratt took a look into his magic crystal ball recently, and he forecasts that in just over five years, a mere ten platforms will account for over 27 million units of global sales volume. It’s just the next step on the way to the ultimate dystopia: a world in which every new car in the world is identical under the skin. Spooky! Hit the jump for more details on the (projected) top ten platforms of 2016.
With strong new C-segment competition coming in the form of the Chevy Cruze, Hyundai Elantra and Ford Focus, upcoming refreshes of the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla seem to be taking a low-key approach to the extroverted upstarts. Are the kings of the compact class resting on their laurels? Can they afford to coast on reputation alone? History tells us that complacence leads to trouble in this industry…
According to a GM press release, the 2012 model-year version of the Buick LaCrosse is dragging a skeleton out of the GM marketing closet: the mild hybrid. But don’t you dare use the “m” word… it’s the eAssist.
Mated to a 2.4L Ecotec direct injection four-cylinder engine and next-generation six-speed automatic transmission, the eAssist system uses power stored in the battery to provide needed electrical boost in various driving scenarios, optimizing engine and transmission operation. An advanced 115V lithium-ion battery and latest-generation 15-kW motor-generator unit help increase fuel economy through:
Regenerative braking, which provides up to 15 kW of electricity to charge the battery
Providing up to 11 kW (15 hp) of electric power assistance during acceleration
Automatic engine shut-off when the vehicle is stopped
Aggressive fuel cut-off during deceleration down to zero vehicle speed, enabled by the torque smoothing provided by the motor-generator unit
Intelligent charge/discharge of the high-voltage battery.
But most importantly:
While the eAssist system shares the same basic belt-alternator-starter configuration of previous BAS designs, it delivers more than three times the power and is much more capable than the previous-generation BAS system.
Buick says this will be the standard powertrain option for the LaCrosse starting in 2012, and along with aero and tire tweaks will loft the model’s mileage to (shout it) 37 MPG highway and (whisper it) 25 city. The price: 65 lbs and a $2k-$3k sticker increase to “about $30,000”. The Lacrosse has sold well this year (by recent Buick standards… 52k sales year-to-date), and the LaCrosse’s average transaction price is reportedly sitting at $32k… but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a gamble. The question now: will GM also drop a two-mode hybrid in the LaCrosse as threatened?
If there’s a maxim the auto industry can take to the bank, it’s this: focus wins. Knowing a brand’s advantages and maintaining a laser-like focus on them is the way to win in the car game, and it’s a lesson Hyundai has clearly learned. Over the last several years, Hyundai has caught the media’s attention by moving into the luxury and coupe segments with its Genesis, but the real offensive is still coming. The redesigned Sonata was the tip of the spear, giving Hyundai a top-notch competitor in the all-important D-Segment, and next up are similarly improved versions of the Elantra and Accent. These three models have been some of Hyundai’s most enduringly successful nameplates, and as this graph proves, they’ve been responsible for much of the brand’s recent sales growth. They’ve even maintained decent momentum towards the end of their model lifes. With the new Tucson replacing the Santa Fe as Hyundai’s top-selling crossover, Hyundai has been able to maintain a competitive crossover nameplate for several years now, but even the hot CUV segment likely won’t provide as much juice to Hyundai sales as the redesigned Elantra and Accent. Meanwhile, Hyundai’s entries into the luxury and sporty space seem to have amounted to little more than a distraction… the lurking danger for every automaker.
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