IHS Global Insight Perspective | |
Significance | German luxury brands Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, and Porsche all introduced new luxury sport utility vehicles on the first press preview day of the 2010 New York International Auto Show, while Ford, Hyundai, and Chevrolet unveiled new ecologically minded mid-size sedans and youth brand Scion looked to regain its "mojo". |
Implications | Not one concept car was unveiled—all of the introductions were production models, a testament to the lack of disposable income at the world's automakers over the last two years. |
Outlook | Most impressive among the new models were two variants of the highly regarded new Hyundai Sonata—a hybrid and a performance turbo version—both of which should put Hyundai's competitors on notice. |
The 2010 New York International Auto Show kicked off in Manhattan's Jacob Javits Convention Center yesterday, marking the start of two of the busier days of press previews of this auto show season in terms of content. No concept cars were introduced during the show's first day yesterday, a testament to the tightened budgets at the world's automakers. Instead, the New York show has seen the introduction of several significant new production models from many automakers, with the theme tending towards the luxury end of the spectrum to match the ritzy New York environs.
The day kicked off with Mercedes-Benz unveiling its new R-Class. Not quite a minivan, the R-Class "Sport Tourer" (station wagon) receives a refreshening for 2011, with a badly needed new nose and a mildly revised interior. Two powertrains were announced: the R350 BlueTEC 4MATIC diesel with a 3.0-litre V-6 producing 210 hp and 400 ft-lb of torque will achieve 18/24 city/highway mpg; while the R350 4MATIC will feature a conventional gasoline (petrol) engine delivering 268 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque. All wheel drive (AWD) will be standard, and a full complement of Mercedes-Benz luxury options will be available as well. Another people carrier made its debut after Mercedes' unveiling of the new R-Class when the new 2011 Infiniti QX56 broke cover. The new sport utility vehicle (SUV) replaces Infiniti's old model, which was based on the Nissan Armada SUV built at the company's Canton, Mississippi plant, with a new Japanese-built model based on the global Nissan Patrol SUV. The all-new truck's 5.6-litre V-8 is now good for an even 400 hp, a jump of about 25%. Despite that boost in power, fuel economy is said to be up by about 10%. Prices will remain exactly where the old QX left off, with the base price of US$56,700 jumping to US$59,800 when AWD is added.
Moving from luxury trucks to more economy-minded vehicles, Ford took the opportunity to unveil the 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. As anticipated, this sister model to the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan Hybrids will receive the same powertrain as the two other sedans, as well as those sedans' unique reconfigurable LCD gauge cluster. Ford reports that its new entry-level luxury hybrid sedan will deliver 41 mpg city, 36 mpg highway, or a full 6 mpg more than its main competitor, the dedicated hybrid Lexus HS250h. Ford also insists that the new MKZ Hybrid will be more affordable than the Lexus when it arrives in showrooms later this year. The company also took the opportunity to announce its new partnership with Microsoft to offer software called Hohm to users, which will supposedly help customers improve the efficiency of their homes' energy usage. The idea is to prepare the consumer for the arrival of plug-in electric vehicles, two of which will arrive next year from Ford, by helping them gain a better idea of their energy usage and making them familiar with monitoring this closely, something that may become important with the arrival of electric cars.
Building on the "eco" theme, General Motors (GM) unveiled two new variants of its upcoming compact sedan. The 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco and Cruze RS were both showcased, each sporting a 1.4-litre turbocharged engine. Details of the vehicles had already been provided in advance of the show (see United States: 29 March 2010: 2010 New York Auto Show: GM to Unveil Two Chevrolet Cruze Variants). However, the bigger news came from Toyota's youth brand, which unveiled the 2011 Scion iQ and Scion tC additions to the U.S. line-up of small cars. The iQ is little more than a rebadged version of the novel Toyota minicar, featuring seating for three (four at a pinch) and a host of customisable options as befitting a Scion. The iQ is targeted firmly at the Smart ForTwo and Mini Cooper, with "premium" pricing expected to follow. The refreshed Scion tC is long overdue, and the changes do add up to a substantially better-looking vehicle. Scion describes the revised sheet metal as more "masculine", to be expected given the demographic skew towards men buying the old model. Power is up, now at 180 hp, and a new sport suspension and larger brakes are meant to give the car a more sporting image as well. The new tC will go on sale at the end of this year, with the new iQ following early next year.
Although the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid looked pretty impressive, it was upstaged just a couple of hours later by the new 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and Sonata 2.0T. The 2.0T variant introduces a new 2.0-litre twin-scroll turbocharged gasoline direct-injection engine to the mid-size sedan, delivering 274 hp and 268 lb-ft of torque at a very low 1,800 rpm. This gives the Sonata Turbo more horsepower than any of its mainstream V-6 rivals, while still managing 22/34 city/highway mpg, also better than any of its V-6-equipped competitors. The turbo will be an option on the SE and Limited models and will require Hyundai's 6-speed automatic transmission. The Hybrid, however, is a rather unique vehicle—it is a full parallel hybrid and the first to use lithium polymer batteries. It can cruise up to 62 mph on its electric power alone, nearly 15 mph more than the Ford Fusion Hybrid, and it uses a 6-speed automatic instead of a continuously variable transmission (CVT) for better feel. Sonata Hybrid is expected to achieve 37/39 city/highway mpg, with class-leading highway mileage thanks to its more highway-skewed tuning. The Sonata Hybrid will also be the lightest hybrid sedan in the segment, some 263 lbs lighter than the Ford Fusion Hybrid, but it will also have the most combined horsepower, delivering 209 hp from its gasoline and electric drive systems. The car receives a unique front fascia and different head and taillights, along with a unique instrument cluster. Pricing has not been announced.
The day ended with a number of North American debuts of vehicles that have previously been seen at European auto shows. The luxury SUVs returned full force, with the Porsche Cayenne Hybrid and related Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid truck making their North American debuts (both had been previously seen at prior European shows). BMW showed off several models, including the new 5-Series, the Alpina B7 X-drive sedan, and the new North America-only BMW 335is coupé. Honda's luxury brand Acura unveiled the TSX Wagon, essentially the European version of the Honda Accord Wagon with luxury trimmings.
Outlook and Implications
Of all the new production unveilings at the New York show, the most impressive were the Hyundai offerings. The brand has risen amazingly quickly to its current position, now offering products in the Sonata line that are capturing a lot of attention—and rightly so. The latest generation of mid-size sedans are more stylish, more advanced, and more attention-grabbing than just about anything its rivals have been able to produce. The new Sonata makes most of its rivals look old and stodgy, and now the levels of class-leading technology in terms of the 2.0T GDI engine and the new lithium-polymer hybrid drive are likely to focus even more attention on the brand as it looks to steal as many sales as it can away from the likes of Honda and Toyota. The Lincoln MKZ Hybrid looked impressive, and the Fusion Hybrid has enjoyed nearly a year as "king of the hill" in the mid-size hybrid sedan segment, but if the Sonata Hybrid can do everything that Hyundai says it can, then Ford will face a serious challenge to keep up with the South Korean brand, to say nothing of the challenges Toyota and Honda now face for nearly every one of their U.S. product lines.
One of those massive challenges for Toyota is to attract younger buyers, something the Scion brand was designed to do and did well—for a while. Scion has lost its way in recent years: despite having sold 800,000 vehicles since the brand was started in 2002, recent sales trends have been extremely negative for the brand. Its hip, edgy, trendy focus became somewhat muddled as its product cadence languished; the current tC has been on the market for nearly six years without a major change, certainly not the way to attract young buyers. The new tC is exactly the kind of product Toyota needs in order to get Scion back on track. Inexpensive, sporty, and stylish, it looks to have the makings of a decent car. The iQ, however, is not likely to be so fortunate. It is the wrong car for the American market as the segment that it competes in has proven to be a dud for others. Although the Mini Cooper has been able to achieve massive success in the U.S. market, this is not so much due to its diminutive size but more to its extremely entertaining driving experience, quirky styling, premium features, and nostalgia factor. By contrast, the Smart ForTwo has only one of those attributes, and despite some early interest it has fallen flat as fuel prices have receded. The iQ is likely to prove to be too small for American tastes, just as the Smart ForTwo has been. With an inexpensive used-car market in the United States still alive and strong, vehicles costing in the teens brand-new (such as the Smart and most likely the iQ) can easily be cross-shopped with more practical transport that is just a year or two old. A brand-new iQ, with a probable price equivalent to a two-year-old Honda Civic, faces just as much of a value proposition question as the Smart car, and unfortunately it seems likely to attract about as much interest.