The Geneva auto show has just closed its doors, and once again, it was a highlight of the still-young automotive year. With no local automakers to dominate, Geneva attracts all comers, including smaller companies, tuners, and design houses, making it a hotbed of industry gossip. Here’s some of what we learned behind the scenes at this year’s show.
Although the show floor was a great place to see supercars, one was not there: the upcoming AMG hypercar, with its two-seat carbon-fiber monocoque and Formula 1–derived hybrid powertrain. AMG set up a pod in downtown Geneva to let prospective customers take a peek. Mere journalists were not allowed.
France may be only a stone’s throw from Geneva, but the French automakers weren’t afforded particularly good treatment. Citroën, for example, showed only a fraction of its lineup, and a wall separated its display from that of its premium offshoot, DS. DS has designs on America—too bad the DS7 crossover was one of the show’s disappointments, with strange styling cues and weak execution.
Italdesign unveiled the show’s most dystopian concept—an oversize drone attached to an utterly forgettable vehicle. Perhaps it’s an indication that the Italian design firm has lost its bearings since the departure of the firm’s founder, Giorgetto Giugiaro. He left the company in a huff in mid-2015.
Volkswagen’s Sedric concept—which was shown at the VW Group’s evening-before gala but not on the show floor—didn’t even wear a VW badge. It was designed in the company’s Potsdam design studio but is supposed to represent the entire VW Group’s expertise. It’s built on a platform that allows for a zero-to-62-mph time of six seconds, but, being fully autonomous, the Sedric would be tuned for less vigorous acceleration in order not to disturb the passengers.
The Volkswagen Arteon, the replacement for the CC, was designed under the leadership of Marc Lichte, now head of design at Audi. It previews the new face of premium VW-brand models such as the next-gen Touareg. Meanwhile, the fully electric Phaeton that VW had touted on its consumer website in its home market is dead. And if a similar car ever comes to market, it won’t be called the Phaeton.
This cutaway, aircraft-like steering wheel of the Bentley EXP 12 Speed 6e was, at one point, supposed to appear in modified form on the Bugatti Chiron. But Bugatti couldn’t get it legalized. And that’s a shame.
The Chinese automaker Qoros did not exhibit at the Geneva auto show, but the talk is that the company is working on a battery-electric Tesla fighter. It could be shown in concept form at the Shanghai auto show in mid-April.
The sale of Opel to the French PSA conglomerate (Peugeot Citroën) was the talk of the show. Little-known fact: This isn’t the first time Opel has leaned on the French. Back in 1924, Opel brazenly copied the Citroën 5HP to create the highly immensely successful Opel Laubfrosch (below).
The SUV craze continues, particularly for the compact-SUV segment. One indicator: The World Car of the Year finalists were announced at the show, and all three are SUVs—the new Audi Q5, the Jaguar F-Pace, and the new VW Tiguan—while the European Car of the Year winner was a the Peugeot 3008, a crossover/SUV.
from Car and Driver BlogCar and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/2nIj3SR
via IFTTT
0 comments:
Post a Comment