With Nissan preparing to enter the Australian market with a Pathfinder hybrid, Toyota has revealed that it is taking a ‘wait-and-see’ approach before committing to importing a corresponding version of its new 50-series Kluger.
Speaking at the Kluger’s Australian launch in Queensland this week, Toyota Australia sales chief Tony Cramb admitted he will observe rival hybrids carefully before making a decision.
However, the temptation is there because the latest Kluger is one of the few seven-seater SUV contenders without a diesel option.
Rivals such as the Ford Territory, Hyundai Santa Fe, Holden Captiva 7 and Kia Sorento rely heavily on sales of the more frugal engine choice.
“There is a hybrid version of this model in the US, and we’ve chosen not to bring it to Australia for overseas demand reasons,” Mr Cramb told Wheels. “But we are going to watch and see what happens.
“Hybrid is one of our platforms that we are keen to introduce, but we need to see that it is right for that segment first and there has to be a demand for it.
“We’ll keep monitoring demand for it in the SUV segment to see if it is appropriate.”
Nissan announced five months ago that the Pathfinder would be offered with a hybrid flagship by the middle of this year.
It will feature a 184kW/330Nm supercharged 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine/battery-powered electric motor combo capable of averaging around 7.5 litres per 100 kilometres – a 25 percent improvement over the standard 3.5-litre petrol V6.
However, there is a price to pay for such parsimony, with the Pathfinder Supercharged Hybrid expected to carry a circa-$8000 price premium over the V6.
It is believed a similar premium would be necessary for Toyota to justify the cost of homologating the Kluger Hybrid for Australia.
Not coincidentally, both the Toyota and Nissan SUVs are now sourced from the US, where a hybrid is generally deemed more necessary than a diesel variant – although a recent sales spike for other manufacturers suggests that diesel is finally gaining traction over there.
Meanwhile, Toyota has rejected the naturally aspirated 138kW/250Nm 2.7-litre four-cylinder petrol engine available in the US version of the Kluger, at least for the foreseeable future.
“It just isn’t worth it,” a Toyota spokesman said. “It wouldn’t be much cheaper, uses almost as much fuel and isn’t nearly as powerful.”
Playing second fiddle to the show-stopping S-Class coupe, but equally significant at Geneva, was the release of the V12-engined W222s – the S600 and S65 AMG four-doors – and a new-generation V-class MPV.
The mega-quick, mega-luxurious S-Class flagships carry over the silent assassin twin-turbo 6.0-litre V12 from the previous models but the engine now meets Euro 6 emissions standards and features stop/start tech for the first time.
In the S600, the 5980cc V12 punches out 380kW and a huge 830Nm at just 1900rpm, but it’s the 21 percent improvement in fuel consumption (now 11.1L/100km) that’s the most impressive figure.
But if you love headline numbers, the S65 AMG is your car. Or private jet. Mated to AMG’s seven-speed ‘Speedshift Plus’ automatic for the first time, the S65 matches the S600’s huge efficiency gains (now 11.9L/100km) yet its engine outputs are monstrous – 463kW from 4800-5400rpm and 1000Nm across a 2300-4300rpm continental shelf. AMG claims 0-100km/h in 4.3sec, but that’s nothing compared to its autobahn clout.
Both V12 W222s also debut two new optional features – a smartphone-style touchpad for the COMAND controller that reads handwriting, and a head-up windscreen display.
It may not be quite as rapid but the new-generation V-Class people mover will soon be transporting business people to a conference near you. Essentially it’s the previous van with a windswept new front to the B-pillar, a new rear-end with the tailgate incorporating an opening rear window, and a completely gutted interior. And it’s that rock-star new cabin that sets the V-Class apart.
Unlike the Valente and Viano vans it replaces, the V-Class finally transfers the luxe cabin DNA from Mercedes-Benz sedans into a people mover. Available in two wheelbases and three body lengths, it’s powered by a four-cylinder 2.1-litre turbo-diesel with three output options – 100kW, 120kW or 140kW.
The S600 and S65 AMG will be in Australian showrooms by June; the V-Class will launch here in 2015.
As far as showstopping reveals go, we were spoilt for choice at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show. If this year’s event is to be remembered for anything, it’s probably the year the internal combustion engine didn’t die.
Despite pushing the hybrid mantra around the show circuit for years, from vanilla city cars right up to the latest performance models, almost every manufacturer still featured petrol and diesel options, showing there’s life yet in the old spark and compression-ignition donks.
Concepts such as the Renault Twingo give a sense that even small cars can be more than the sum of their parts, while gorgeous, voluptuous design studies reflected in vehicles such as the Maserati Alfieri demonstrate that there is still room for beauty on the world’s roads.
The Geneva Motor Show fills six halls covering more than 100,000 square metres of space, and for this photo gallery we’ve ignored all the ‘Do Not Enter’ signs to prod, probe and explore the cars that, for whatever reason, stopped us in our tracks.
Australian former Formula One pilot Mark Webber has picked up his new factory-backed Porsche race car at Geneva – and it only has four cylinders.
However, before you go dissing his new ride, we can tell you the engine produces almost 380 kiloWatts, making the 2.0-litre turbocharged V4 built directly into the Porsche 919 Hybrid’s chassis more powerful than a 6.2-litre HSV Clubsport R8.
The slightly gawky-looking hybrid prototype will compete in the World Endurance Championship that fires up at Britain’s Silverstone circuit on 20 April. It will race under new regulations for the LMP1-H prototypes that handicap cars according to how efficient they are on fuel use.
The Porsche hybrid race car sends the engine’s drive to the rear wheels. An electric motor mounted between the front wheels acts as a generator under braking, and swaps to a drive motor under acceleration to provide temporary all-paw grip.
The 919 Hybrid’s exhaust system is also used to generate electricity for the car’s bank of water-cooled lithium-ion batteries via a thermal recovery system.
“In 2014, it will not be the fastest car that wins the World Endurance Championship series and the 24 hours of Le Mans; rather it will be the car that goes the furthest with a defined amount of energy,” Porsche chairman Matthias Muller said.
“And it is precisely this challenge that car makers must overcome. The 919 Hybrid is our fastest mobile research laboratory and the most complex race car that Porsche has ever built,” he said.
Porsche has flagged that such innovative drivetrain concepts, already a feature of the 918 Spyder, will make it into wider production vehicles once it is proven on the racetrack.
Lexus has bounded into the new year with the reveal of its BMW M4-chasing RC F coupe, set to launch in Europe in the third quarter of 2014, followed by an Aussie arrival in the first half of 2015.
Based on the regular RC coupe unveiled at last year’s Tokyo show – itself a stand-alone two-door based on the GS platform – the RC F heralds Lexus’s continued drive towards tackling the German ‘Big Three’ head-on.
Indirectly replacing the previous IS F sedan, which never quite managed to achieve greatness, the RC F unashamedly aims right for the V8 German jugulars.
Under the bonnet is Lexus’s most powerful bent-eight yet – a new 5.0-litre V8 developing “in excess of 330kW and more than 520Nm of torque”, using an Atkinson combustion cycle at cruising speeds to improve economy before switching to a regular Otto cycle at higher revs to bolster maximum power in an LFA-like fashion.
Driving through a direct-shift eight-speed automatic, the aim is “better than IS F” for 0-100km/h, meaning quicker than 4.8sec, and a top speed limited to 270km/h.
The weight target is “below 1800kg” (as you’d well hope), aided by carbon-fibre roof, bonnet and active rear wing, while traction is handled by a torque-vectoring limited-slip rear differential with three modes – Standard, Slalom and Track. Wheels are 10-spoke, 19-inch forged rims with 255/35R19 front and 275/35R19 rear tyres.
Also on display in Geneva was the regular RC coupe in new 350 F-Sport guise.
Unveiled with a 234kW/380Nm 3.5-litre V6, but set to gain the IS’s excellent four-cylinder hybrid drivetrain (as the RC 300h) by the time it goes on sale in Europe in 2015, the RC is intended to attract younger buyers to the brand.
Lexus Australia hopes to launch the car here immediately after the Japanese release, meaning late 2014.
Occupying centre stage on the Lexus stand was the RC F GT3 racer, which is set to debut at the Nurburgring 24 hour and Japan’s GT Series next year. It features an uprated version of the 5.0-litre V8 with almost 400kW, yet weighs just 1250kg.
Rolls-Royce’s most affordable corporate express, the BMW 7 Series-based Ghost limousine, has had a subtle makeover boasting enough changes to warrant a new model designation.
The Ghost Series II – as the fresh nosed, more comfortably kitted four-seater will be known when it arrives in Australia late this year – also includes a number of mechanical changes to make it quieter, with sharper performance should the need ever arise.
The new Ghost was unveiled in Geneva this week. Rolls-Royce has tinkered conservatively, altering the LED headlights slightly, framing them in daytime running lights.
There’s also a new tapered stripe (called a wake channel) that runs back from the Spirit of Ecstasy statuette gracing the top of the Parthenon grille which defines the brand. According to the British über-luxury marque, it represents the wake of a boat or the vapour trail from a jet engine.
The Ghost’s facia has been altered slightly, feeding more air into the front brakes, and adding chrome features that give an impression of width, while the ‘waft line’ (a crease running along the door skins, just above the rocker panel) has a slightly more rakish angle than before. It gives the suggestion that if Sir really wanted, Sir could tap the full 420kW and 780Nm from the 6.6-litre twin-turbo V12 resting unchanged under the bonnet.
Cossetting owners who prefer to sit in the back, new hydraulic rear axle bearings have made the cabin even quieter, while redesigned front and rear struts and changed dampers help with cornering.
The Ghost Series II chauffeur also gains more feedback from the front wheels via a thicker steering wheel.
The front seats now include adjustable thigh support, while the rear pews can tilt slightly towards each other, and incline independently.
Apple has given the world a sneak peek at how iPhone users will blur the line between smartphones and vehicles in the not-too-distant future.
Called CarPlay and featured in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class coupe, the Ferrari California T and Volvo’s Concept Estate unveiled at this week’s Geneva Motor Show, the downloadable app will be integrated into the latest version of the iPhone operating system, allowing drivers to use their smartphones without a hand leaving the steering wheel or, more importantly, their eyes straying from the road.
The software – part of Apple’s previously announced development of the iOS for the Car electronic interface – makes heavy use of the iPhone’s Siri voice recognition technology to allow drivers to make real-world requests for help.
It allows drivers to access the iPhone’s call functions, and can read out incoming text messages and then take a spoken response and convert it into a text-based reply.
The car can also tie in with the iPhone’s Maps app, attempting to second-guess where the driver is headed, such as work or home, or even a nearby contact’s street address. The smartphone can then give the driver directions via the car’s instruments.
Apple Australia said it was up to individual car makers to decide whether the CarPlay app, which the software and computing giant has warned will cost an as-yet undisclosed fee via the App Store, will feature on cars sold here.
BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota have all said they would roll out CarPlay in future vehicles.
Geneva show goers anticipated the new TT, but nobody expected Audi to show off a 309kW version of its 2.0-litre engine that would, when it goes into production as superhot TT RS, outmuscle AMG’s 265kW 2.0-litre A45 as the production engine with the highest specific output.
Currently a concept, the TT 420 (for its output in metric horsepower, and officially launched as the Audi TT quattro sport concept) is a 1344kg clubsport version of the TT.
Developed under the Volkswagen Group’s new powertrain boss, Fritz Eichler, who previously headed AMG’s four-cylinder engine development, the new Audi engine pumps out 450Nm of torque on a turbo boost of 1.8 bar, the same as the A45.
Audi claims the engine will push the TT RS from 0-100km/h in a mere 3.7 seconds, compared with the AMG’s 4.6 seconds.
Staggeringly, the 2.0-litre’s 309kW is exactly the same output as the 4.2-litre V8 used in the first Audi R8.
Audi’s five-cylinder engine will continue to power the production RS TT as the clubsport has yet to be officially greenlighted, but Audi sources are confident it will hit the showroom as a limited production car, if only to outpoint the A45, sometime in 2016.
Mercedes-Benz has revealed that its hybrid-engined S-Class is set to become the flagship limousine line-up’s cheapest model, but at a cost – it’ll come with a lower specification.
The S300 BlueTEC Hybrid will be priced from $195,000 when it goes on sale in June or July. However, to undercut the $215,000 3.0-litre turbo diesel V6 S350 BlueTEC, the hybrid will come with less equipment.
The diesel-electric S-Class will feature the same 150kW/500Nm 2.1-litre four-cylinder diesel engine fitted to the smaller E300 BlueTEC Hybrid launched in Australia in July last year. That wears a $108,900 price tag before on-road costs and sits mid-way up the E-Class hierarchy.
However, while buyers forking out for the S350 BlueTEC will notice features such as a lane-keeping assistant that stops them straying off the road and an electrically operated bootlid, S300 BlueTEC Hybrid buyers are likely to miss out as Mercedes-Benz Australia juggles the features list to achieve the diesel-electric’s price.
What buyers will get is a 5.1 metre-long saloon weighing more than two tonnes, but officially burning only 4.5L/100km, and emitting 118 grams of CO2 every kilometre – just 0.2L/100km and 5g/km more than the E-Class version.
With the addition of the diesel-electric model, the S-Class range will grow to one hybrid, two diesel and three V8 petrol variants, topping out with the $385,000 S63 AMG.
Except for a name that amusingly resembles one of the uglier vegetables, the Suzuki Celerio offers nothing to excite.
This front-engine and front-drive micro-car, an obvious successor to the Alto, is a painfully conservative and seriously un-fun throwback from an age when visual boredom wrapped around acres of cheap grey plastic defined the category.
Things have moved on, as other cars designed to accomplish exactly the same mission – inexpensive mobility – so eloquently demonstrate. Look to the Renault Twingo, for example.
The Celerio is powered by a 50kW 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine, driving through a five-speed gearbox with manual or robotised shifting.
Suzuki claims class-leading packaging for the car, which does have a decently large 254 litre cargo compartment.
It goes on sale in Europe later this year, possibly to coincide with celeriac season.
