Posted on 09/16/2019 7:28:11 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
"The IAA2019 is a huge fail," tweeted former Opel CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann. "It's a sad shadow of what it used to be."
Nearly two-thirds of the world's car producers were absent. And word on the German street is that Daimler and Volkswagen Group seriously considered pulling out of the show months before its opening. When pressured by the German car association, they remained.
But, in the end, an awe-dropping 24 brands were absent and the number of exhibitors fell 20 percent. And to cap it off, the head of the German car lobby, which hosts the show, abruptly resigned.
Even more worrisome: This is Frankfurt. In prior years, the biennial show has been a bellwether for the European industry.
The cloud of electrification, and its acceptance, hangs over Europe.
"There will be a major challenge for next year" concerning electrics, Audi CEO Bram Schot said last week. "You need a consumer willing to pay."
Audi's Schot perhaps said it best: "There will be dancing at a lot of weddings. The question is: What wedding?
(Excerpt) Read more at autonews.com ...
I’m waiting for the electric F250 pick up. I would love to test drive it and I was talking to my friend who is a Ford dealer. He said that it’ll tow my boat, but I want to make sure. The Rivan SUV looks good, too...
Every car looks like a Taurus because of the CAFE Standards. Automakers had to squeeze every last MPG out of their automobiles. They all started looking the same.
“I would say boring , not ugly. Why can’t we have choice between front wheel drive and rear wheel drive? To get rear wheel drive you have to go to high end nameplates...”
Blame government.
Safety standards set by our betters in D.C.mean designers/engineers can no longer let their imaginations run wild.
Throw in CAFE standards that demand a high degree of aerodynamics and there isn’t a lot of room to play.
The CAFE standards are also the reason the majority of cars are front wheel drive. More efficient to pull something than push it.
Design wise we are about where we were before Chrysler debuted the PT Cruiser....a world of cookie cutter cars that are as aesthetically pleasing as a rotting corpse.
A hybrid Corvette?
That is just plain silly.
I don't agree BMW and Mercedes-Benz sedans and coupes get great gas mileage. It is industry herd mentality.
A hybrid Corvette?
That is just plain silly.
And the Ferrari SF90 hybrid?
0-60 ~ TWO SECONDS!
TOPS OUT AT ABOUT 211 mph...
“I don’t agree BMW and Mercedes-Benz sedans and coupes get great gas mileage. It is industry herd mentality.”
I know nothing of the BMW or Mercedes but I imagine those cars aren’t in the lower price tiers.
As far as herd mentality goes Car and Driver says that herd mentality has kept rear wheel drive in the game when engineers long preferred the FWD.
I wasn’t talking about next week or next year. They are already talking seriously about banning the sale of fossil fuel vehicles in Europe in the not too distant future.
That could happen here if the radical left takes over. It might not happen as an actual ban, but they have ways of making things so difficult and expensive for those who refuse to submit, it might just as well be a ban.
What happens to your excess capacity when you go from 2% EV use to 30%? What if it’s 80%?
Is it the combo of electric and gas that does that?
I guess my thinking is wrong on hybrid cars because I thought that they always just switch between the two...one or the other.
I am an auto tech, just not much at all of hybrid.
It seems like a high performance car would just more logically be built around one or the other form of prime mover.
I wasn’t talking about next week or next year. They are already talking seriously about banning the sale of fossil fuel vehicles in Europe in the not too distant future.
The manufacturing capacity for the batteries does not exist on such a scale.
Nor the raw materials to produce them.
Indeed. However, the 1960 model may have been better-built. In the '80's, '90's and into this century, I saw more 1960 Chevies on the street than just about any other car from the end-of-the-fifties-start-of-the-sixties era.
Is it the combo of electric and gas that does that?
The Ferrari SF90 Stradale has a 3.9-liter V8 engine and three electric motors that, together, can produce as much as 986 horsepower.https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/29/success/ferrari-hybrid/index.html
And if you think of the energy wasted in braking, just making the rotors hot, instead charging a battery to give more power to the drive wheels as needed.
... I thought that they always just switch between the two...one or the other.
Many ways to skin that cat! Some are so clever and simple they are simply elegant!
If you enjoy gears, and things try this video:
Weber State University (WSU) - Automotive Technology Department - Transmission Lab. How an eCVT Works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmHpSyTsfm0
The first time I watched it, my brain hurt!
But for a gearhead this like catnip.
It is 15 minutes long and well worth the time.
I hope you enjoy it.
Explain why the high end cars are all rear wheel drive. Why are all race cars rear wheel drive?
FWD Understeer
Thanks for posting that.
It is pretty interesting.
Rear wheel drive cars are more balanced and fun to drive but unless you appreciate cars and don’t think of them as appliances then you don’t get it. Like I said BMW’s and all high end cars are rear wheel drive for reason. Been counters suck.
Fixed it.
Why would car companies need to go to this show when they can put cars on their own websites for free and do other social media events that cost next to nothing? Europe is also regulating itself into extinction.
They’re just following Porsche and the other European Carmakers.
Never thought I would see Cars like a Prius or a Tesla, but here we are.
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