Top 10 New York Auto Show Debuts

Top 10 New York Auto Show Debuts
How GM Engineered a Lighter Chevy Malibu
What it’s Like Refueling with Hydrogen
Average Fuel Economy Increases in March
Tesla Delivers 10,030 Vehicles in Q1 2015
Self-Driving Audi SQ5 Completes Cross-Country Trip

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There's an awful lot to see at the Javits Center and I'm betting your short on time so we're going to take you through the highlights.

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  10. Lincoln Continental Concept
  Kicking things off, we've got a conceptual preview of Lincoln's next flagship sedan. The Continental is coming back in a year, but we're getting an early peek in NYC. It uses a 3.0-liter turbocharged EcoBoost V6 held in reserve for the Continental. Lincoln is being forthcoming with its plan to push the car into the real world in the near future, so it's no surprise that it looks close to being showroom ready.
  
  9. 2016 Scion iA
  Scion has a new product! Somebody tell the media! Oh, wait…
  The Scion iA is A Mazda. Literally. It's a badge engineered Mazda2. For about 16 grand you can take one home later this year loaded with the same technology and engineering that we're already so fond of. For example, it gets the same infotainment screen that you would find in the Mazda3 as well as the enviable control knob that you use to navigate its menus. And it doesn't stop there because the iA also comes with a pre-collision alert system.
  
  8. Subaru STI Performance Concept
  Juice up your rascal and take the 30-mile journey to the North Hall in the Javits Center where Subaru is hiding a 350 hp version of the BRZ. Even if this thing never reaches production, Subaru says the concept is a sign of more STI tuned cars coming to this market in the future. Truth be told, the chances of a street legal BRZ with 350 hp, but the notion of more STI models is positively tantalizing.
  
  7. 2016 Mazda MX-5 Club
  No, this isn't a "world debut" and no it doesn't matter. Mazda is showcasing the range-topping club version of its roadster in New York and with goodies like Bilstein shocks and an LSD. While it might be disappointing to learn that you're going to get a limited slip rear end shy of shelling out for the priciest model, it's also hard to argue with how mean the MX-5iest Mazda looks. Expect a pricing announcement mid-April.
  
  6. 2016 Nissan Maxima
  Four cylinders of Japanese goodness not enough? Nissan is taking it to the Maxima with the latest version of its mid-size sedan. They call it a four-door sports car, which is a stretch but I'm still not going to complain about its new looks. It's longer, wider, lower and 10 percent better at cutting through the air than the generation it replaces while using a thoroughly revised 3.5-liter V6 and continuously variable transmission.
  
  5. 2016 Lexus RX
  Just like the Nissan, Lexus is introducing a new measure of aggression to its styling and you can have your fill with the brand new RX350. Like before it uses a 3.5-liter V6 but unlike before it makes 300 horsepower. As was the case previously, you will be able to choose between the RX350, RX350 F Sport and the hybrid RX450h.
  
  4. 2016 Porsche Boxster Spyder
  Through lightweight wizardry, Porsche managed to cram a larger engine into the Boxster while maintaining its sub-3,000 pound curb weight. The list of upgrades is a long one, but here's a sample: brakes bilked from the 911 Carrerra, a stiffer suspension that sits 20 millimeters lower to the ground and a 375-hp 3.8-liter flat six. Just in case you're wondering, that's the same engine you would find in the hardcore Cayman GT4.
  
  3. 2016 Cadillac CT6
  Cadillac's new full-size luxury sedan gets a new 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 that makes 400 horsepower and an equal measure of torque. Want to have your mind blown? This thing is actually lighter than the mid-size CTS if you compare the four-cylinder CT6 rear-wheel drive model to the 2.0T rear-drive CTS.
  
  2. 2016 McLaren 570S
  Speaking of lightweight performance, McLaren brought yet another iteration of its carbon fiber tub powered by a boosted small displacement V8. This one is called the 570S and it's priced to poach customers from Porsche who might otherwise buy a 911 Turbo S. As with most of McLaren's products, the name says it all. Or at least it  says enough the "570" part indicates the number of metric horses the 3.8-liter twin-turbo powerplant pushes to its rear wheels.
  
  1. Honda Civic Concept
  We started this list with a concept and by George we're going to end it on one too. That is if you haven't already figured out the fact that Honda's idea of concept cars usually involves putting downsized side mirrors on a production car. The 10^th gen Civic gets a 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine, but best of all it sounds like we might finally get our own version of the Type R right here in America.

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How GM Engineered a Lighter Chevy Malibu

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The Chevrolet Malibu is all new for 2016 and it certainly looks the part, but more importantly than design is just how much weight this midsize sedan has lost. Engineers have trimmed it down by around 300 pounds. That's like dropping the equivalent of a professional wrestler!

Unquestionably the amount of mass they took out of the new Malibu is impressive. On the surface Ford's claim of cutting 700 pounds from the F-150's waistline sounds even more compelling, but when you think about how big a full-size truck is they have a lot of areas and systems they can optimize. That's not the case with a midsize family car, which is small in comparison. This makes GM's achievement particularly remarkable.

Of the 300 pounds Chevy's 2016 Malibu has lost some 120 were removed from the structure itself. This car rides on the company's new Epsilon II architecture.

Jesse Ortega, chief engineer of the Chevrolet Malibu said, "One of the techniques we've been bringing forward is optimizing around lower variations." He explained that the car has been designed to only offer four-cylinder engines (like today's model). This simplifies the structure and provides the opportunity to use down-gauged materials.

"We weren't going to try to be an architecture that could do everything, because at the end of the day you're just carrying that mass," said Ortega. He also mentioned that in some instances it makes sense to offer a V6 engine along with four-cylinder powerplants but that was not the case with the new Malibu.

Complete 2015 New York International Auto Show Coverage

Beyond a sensible powertrain lineup GM did a lot with advanced simulation. "We have a computer-aided approach, which we call multi-disciplinary optimization and you create the structure in math and then you run all the load cases, whether they're crash, whether they're stiffness, whether they're structural, whatever they are, and then the computer goes in and says you can take mass out of here but you need to add here," Ortega said.

Thanks to advanced computer modeling, he said Chevrolet is able to add high-strength steel only where it's required, something that helps cut unwanted mass.

Beyond all of this Ortega said, "We have an aluminum hood," though there's "no structural aluminum." This car is built almost entirely out of conventional steel.

Of course the main reason for mass reduction is to improve fuel economy. When equipped with the base 1.5-liter turbocharged engine the 2016 Malibu is estimated to return 37 MPG highway. Not surprisingly the hybrid variant will be even more economical, delivering at least 45 MPG combined.

At the end of the day GM engineers were able to deliver a 300-pound weight loss without resorting to exotic or pricey materials, which is truly an impressive achievement for a car many Americans can actually afford. the 2016 Chevy Malibu is slated to go on sale in the fourth quarter of the year.

Discuss this story on our General Motors Forum.

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What it’s Like Refueling with Hydrogen

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s I readied myself for a day behind the wheel of Hyundai's 2015 Tucson Fuel Cell hydrogen powered crossover, it was brought to my attention that I would first have to fill its fuel reserve.

That meant heading out to one of the few hydrogen filling stations currently located in North America, which in my case was the Powertech filling station located in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.

"But wait, isn't hydrogen incredibly dangerous," I wondered? "If I screw up, couldn't I wipe the entire Rocky Mountains off the face of the earth? Would I need a hazmat suit or full bomb squad gear?"

Well as it turns out, filling up a vehicle with hydrogen isn't any more dramatic than filling one up with gasoline or diesel. Safety concerns are real when refueling with hydrogen, but every safety precautions ensure trouble-free refueling.

Standardized and Controlled

Most hydrogen pumps in North America conform to pressure and fueling speed protocols set by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J2601. It takes into consideration factors that include the starting pressure of the vehicle's tanks, the outside ambient temperature and so on. Although this standard isn't law quite yet, it will be in the future.

The hydrogen pump "talks" wirelessly to the vehicle through a receiver. The pump monitors the fuel tank's temperature, pressure and fuel level. The actual pressurized hydrogen that's fed into the car is super-cooled to between -27F and -40F. That means the pump handle becomes cold during the fueling process, but the process is similar to that of a gasoline fill up other than that.

Filling Up Made Simple

The hydrogen pumping station looks similar to a regular fueling station except for the giant touch screen on the center of the pump. Two different fuel hoses were set up on the Powertech pump, rated using a measurement of pressure known as bar. A 350 bar nozzle on one side for older hydrogen vehicles and a more powerful 700 bar hose for vehicles like the Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell.

From empty, the 700 bar is designed to fill up both of the Tucson's fuel tanks in just three minutes. Although this can be a bit harsh on the equipment, this time frame was established to show consumers that hydrogen powered vehicles can refueled just as quickly as gasoline vehicles. Even if fill-up speeds were dialed back to a more equipment-friendly five minutes, it's still far quicker than waiting for a stage three charger to repower an electric vehicle.

It's Like Pumping Gas!?!

Upon arriving at Powertech, I parked the Tucson in front of the hydrogen pump. I picked up the fuel nozzle and attached it to the Tucson. Since this is pressurized fuel, the nozzle actually attaches to the vehicle instead of just sitting in the fuel neck. A simple click and twist and the coupling is complete.

Next I enter a PIN on the touch screen and select the fueling process to begin. PIN's are given to authorized users of the hydrogen pump since the fuel is free right now and, as I mentioned earlier, can be very volatile if not handled properly.

Once the PIN is accepted, the pump whirls to life and high-pressured hydrogen begins to flow into the Tucson. At any time during the fill-up, if something goes wrong I can hit an emergency stop fueling button on the touchscreen. If that doesn't work, there is a mechanical red emergency stop button attached to the pump, just like at your local Exxon or Shell station.

Could This Be the Future?

Even if hydrogen somehow manages to escape through the various emergency valves built into the fueling hose, it dissipates into the atmosphere so quickly that a catastrophic incident is very unlikely. Still, smoking during refueling isn't recommended. No duh.

Once the Tucson was filled up, a message on the touchscreen said it was filled up and to click finish. I then returned the nozzle to the holster on the pump and I was done. Simple as that, refueling a hydrogen powered vehicle is like driving one – remarkably similar and lacking in any complicated technological drama. Hydrogen fuel cell power may have a bright future if a proper infrastructure can be built. Of the current alternative fuel sources, it requires the least amount of consumer behavior change – something that will be critical to any new technology's success.

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Average Fuel Economy Increases in March

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Fuel economy is back up slightly after a dip in February.

By using the monthly sales of individual models of light-duty vehicles, which includes cars, SUVs, vans and pickup trucks, along with the combined-mpg ratings published in the EPA Fuel Economy Guide, researchers Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute has reported that fuel economy for cars sold in the U.S. is back up to 25.4 mpg. That figure is the same as it was in January 2015, prior to a slight drop to 25.1 mpg in February.

The researchers believe the change reflects the increased price of gasoline from February to March, although fuel economy is still down 0.4 mpg from the peak reached in August 2014. Since the start of monitoring by Sivak and Schoettle (October 2007), fuel economy has risen 5.3 mpg.

Discuss this story at our alternative fuel forum

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Tesla Delivers 10,030 Vehicles in Q1 2015

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Tesla has set a new company record for the most cars delivered in a quarter.

The American automaker has announced that it has delivered 10,030 vehicles in the first quarter of 2015, marking a 55-percent increase over 2014's first quarter. This also represents the first time that Tesla is announcing its sales figures closer to the end of a quarter, rather than waiting for its next quarterly report. According to Tesla, it will moving forward publish the number of new car deliveries within three days of a quarter's end, but does warn that there may be small changes to the delivery count, but that's usually under one percent.

It's also a nice boost to sales compared to the fourth quarter of 2014, when Tesla sold 9,834 cars. The number does include vehicles sold worldwide and the American automaker didn't break down units sold per region.

Discuss this story at our Tesla forum

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Self-Driving Audi SQ5 Completes Cross-Country Trip

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A self-driving Audi SQ5 has completed a 3,400-mile road trip.

The journey was organized by Delphi and started in San Francisco before ending in midtown Manhattan yesterday, taking nine days and is the first coast-to-coast trip done by a self-driving car. The company wanted to test its autonomous driving technology and according to Delphi, 99 percent of the trip was done with the car in automated mode.

Throughout the trek, Delphi complied with state laws by having a person in the driver's seat at all times, ready to take over if necessary. Other engineers on the trip were on hand to monitor data gathered from the numerous autonomous driving technologies including the radar, high-end microprocessors and software that has been outfitted on the SQ5. Delphi has no plans on building its own self-driving car but hopes to sell the technology to automakers.

"Along the way, the vehicle encountered complex driving situations such as traffic circles, construction zones, bridges, tunnels, aggressive drivers and a variety of weather conditions," Delphi said in a statement.

Discuss this story at our Audi forum

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Saturday, 4 April 2015