Live updates from the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show

As if we don’t spend enough time at home and at the office staring at screens. Automakers now make cars where we’re staring at them while we drive, too. Well, hopefully you don’t really stare at them – eyes on the road, people! – but you’re looking at them a lot. Almost all new cars these days have them.

But wait until you get inside Porsche’s first electric car, the Taycan. This car takes it to another level.

The Taycan has digital gauges that appear on a curved glass screen behind the steering wheel. There are touch screens in the center console between the seats, as well as a very long screen across the dashboard. The nice thing is that long screen extends in front of the passenger where there’s an area just for them to use. That allows your passenger to enter destinations into the navigation system while you drive.

Touch screens can be annoying to use while driving, but Klaus Zellmer, CEO of Porsche North America, assures me the Taycan’s controls have been thoroughly tested and found to be largely annoyance-free.

Then there’s the Chinese automaker Byton, which has its first production car, the electric M-Byte, on display here. The M-Byte has a screen roughly the size of a snowboard running the entire dashboard. But it also has a screen in the steering wheel.

Seriously, in the steering wheel. The screen manages to stay still while you turn the wheel – a major engineering challenge. You use the screen as a touchpad to control things on the big dashboard screen while you drive.

“It’s logical to put it where my hands usually are when I’m driving, in the steering wheel,” said David Twohig, Byton’s chief technical officer.

Valid point. He also insists this interface is easy to use. It’s impossible to tell sitting in a stationary car at an auto show display, though. I’ll circle back on that when I get behind the wheel of the M-Byte and I’ve tried to adjust the stereo volume while going around a curve.

While checking out the new Lamborghini Sián hybrid supercar, I grabbed a few minutes with Maurizio Reggiani, Lamborghini’s chief technical officer. We’ve spoken in the past about Lamborghini’s plans to electrify future models so I knew Reggiani wasn’t a fan of battery power. Batteries are just too big and heavy. Weight is the enemy of performance and, if you’ve ever sat inside a supercar, you know there’s not a lot of room to spare.

Reggiani has been talking supercapacitors instead. That’s what powers the Sián. Supercapacitors store power using an entirely different method from batteries. When you rub your feet on a carpet then give someone an electric shock, or when you see a lightning strike, those are examples of natural capacitors storing and releasing electricity.

Maurizio Reggiani, Lamborghini's technology chief, says batteries and supercars don't mix.

Supercapacitors are ideal for supercars, Reggiani says, because they’re light and they can transfer electricity quickly without losing energy as heat. They charge up during braking, then blast out electricity during acceleration. The Sián’s 34 horsepower electric motor can drive the wheels directly to get the car moving and to keep pushing it along between shifts in its automatic transmission.

But the Sián isn’t a hybrid like the Toyota Prius. It’s a “mild hybrid” (if anything carrying the Lamborghini brand can ever be called “mild.”) It can’t drive even a short way under electrical power alone. The V12 engine does the vast majority of the work.

Someday, maybe, supercapacitors will be able to drive electric cars with no gasoline power at all. That’s something Lamborghini is working on with MIT as shown in the Lamborghini Terzo Millennio concept car. But that’s many steps away in a fairly distant future, he said.

“This is the first step on the road and the Terzo Millennio is the arrival point,” he said.

Electric vehicles are nothing new to Honda - its EV Plus, which debuted more than 20 years ago, was one of the first all-electric vehicles from a major automaker. It has introduced other EVs since then, but it has never been a major player in the all-electric market.

But at Frankfurt, the Japanese automaker debuted the Honda e, its biggest effort yet in the electric market – and it has gotten a lot of attention at a show where EVs have been front and center.

The cute subcompact takes some styling cues from the original 1972 Honda Civic, including headlights and front grill. It also offers up some interesting features, including a side camera system to replace the traditional side view mirrors and retractable door handles, both of which are designed to improve its aerodynamics. 

But the Honda e’s range will be modest compared to many electrics already on the market. Designed more for urban commutes than long road trips, the Honda e will only be able to go 200 to 220 km on a single charge, or about 124 to 136 miles.

The Honda e will debut in Europe next year. So far, it’s not slated to be released in the US. The price will be 33,850 euros, or about $37,300, for the base version, and 36,850 euros, or about $40,600, for the advanced version, which has more power.

he Honda e will debut in Europe next year. So far, it’s not slated to be released in the US. The price will be 33,850 euros, or about $37,300, for the base version, and 36,850 euros, or about $40,600, for the advanced version, which has more power.

The new Lamborghini supercar is focused on the company's future but the name is all about its past.

Lamborghini has just revealed some important details about its new hybrid supercar, including its full name and price.

The company will make 63 Lamborghini Siáns, with prices starting at €2,010,000, or $2.2 million. The production figure commemorates the year Lamborghini was founded — 1963.

The car’s full name is the Lamborghini Sián FKP 37. Sián means “bolt of lightning” in the traditional Bolognese dialect of Lamborghini’s northern Italian home. FKP stands for Ferdinand Karl Piëch, the former head of the Volkswagen Group who died late last month. The number 37 is for the year of his birth, 1937.

In 1998, under Piëch’s leadership, Volkswagen acquired Lamborghini, the same year that it also bought Bentley and the Bugatti brand. (There was no Bugatti car company at the time.)

“The Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 provides fitting recognition of the role Piëch, and the Volkswagen Group, played in facilitating our flourishing brand today, as well as heralding Lamborghini’s innovative route to the future,” Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali said in a statement.

At the Frankfurt Motor Show, the USA is mostly MIA.

Ford is the only US automaker with any presence, and it’s a relatively quiet one. No press conference. No big news or vehicle to reveal.

Fiat Chrysler, despite its European home base, passed on attending the show. Auto analyst Jeff Schuster, head of Americas Operations at LMC Automotive, says its absence is a sign of the lessening importance of auto shows.

“It used to be you went to every auto show because it’s what you did,” he said. “But if you don’t have a significant launch, there’s no reason to be here.”

General Motors also isn’t here, but that’s hardly surprising. GM pulled out of Europe altogether two years ago when it sold its Opel and Vauxhall Motors brands to French automaker Groupe PSA.

Despite its growing European sales, particularly in Scandinavia, Tesla is also a no-show. Although Tesla doesn’t typically spend money on auto shows and has never advertised, so it’s absence isn’t so surprising.

Chinese automakers are far more visible at the show with several, including Byton, Great Wall Motors, Hongqi and Wey all holding events. And if you count its Land Rover and Jaguar brands, India’s Tata has a higher profile than any US automaker on the show floor at Frankfurt.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that this year was the first time Fiat Chrysler had not attended the auto show.

The tires on Bugatti’s specially modified Chiron might not have lasted very long at 305 miles per hour, but they would have certainly been good for at least 10 minutes or so. That’s more than fine because, driving at over 300 miles an hour, the Bugatti Chiron would have drained its 26-gallon, or 100-liter, fuel tank in six minutes and 50 seconds.

“The great thing about Bugatti is every single thing you talk about in terms of numbers is extreme,” said test driver Andy Williams.

It’s remarkable that tires designed to be legally used on ordinary public roads can withstand such speeds for even a few seconds. To test them, Michelin had to use special equipment located in North Carolina that was used to test space shuttle landing gear tires. The Bugatti’s tires were tested for speeds somewhat higher than 305 miles an hour, or 490 kilometers an hour, to allow for a respectable safety margin, said Benjamin Vilpert, Michelin’s Super Sports Tire Developer. The tires were also X-rayed before the drive to make sure there were no hidden flaws in them.

Despite having complete trust in the tires and in all the people who developed the car and assisted with the test drives, going over 300 miles an hour can be a scary business, Williams said. A former racing driver, he’s used to extraordinary velocities but this was the fastest he’d ever driven by far, he said. The slightest steering error could have disastrous consequences. The brakes and gas, likewise, had to be pressed with great care.

The top speed was approached only after testing with computer simulations and many days of driving at the track going incrementally faster and faster to make sure the car behaved predictably, Williams said. The smallest road imperfections became issues. A tiny seam in the pavement was nicknamed “The Jump.” On his fastest run, he hit it going about 278 miles an hour, or 447 kilometers an hour. What might ordinarily would have just made a sound, made the car bounce.

“That gets your attention, definitely,” he said.

There are few SUVs more famous than the Land Rover Defender, the classic off-roader.

Now the British carmaker is hoping to extend the Defender’s illustrious 70-year run with an all-new version unveiled Tuesday at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

It retains the Defender’s famous boxy shape, but with more modern lines and new technology. Like a Jeep Wrangler, the Defender is built to withstand serious off-road use –even though many buyers will rarely take it beyond the suburbs. 

The new Defender rides 0.8 inches (2 cm) higher off the road than other Land Rover models and offers a camera system that allows drivers to see what’s passing underneath the front wheels

In addition to its rugged off-road credentials, it offers luxuries such as a 10-inch (25 cm) touch screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, systems that allow drivers to interact with their phones while driving. 

It will initially be offered in the Land Rover 110 range with seating options for up to 7 people. A smaller Land Rover Defender 90 will be available later. Prices for the larger model will start at just under $50,000 when it goes on sale in the Spring.

The ID.3 is the first fully electric car to go into production from Volkswagen’s “ID family.” It will be sold in Europe starting this spring.

Opel unveiled new gas and electric versions of the Corsa, as well as a new hybrid.

Opel was sold by GM to France’s Groupe PSA two years ago as the American automaker exited the European market. But it took Opel until Tuesday for it to unveil its first new cars since the change in ownership.

The German automaker, which General Motors (GM) sold along with Britain’s Vauxhall Motors, debuted new gas and electric versions of the Corsa at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It also unveiled a new version of the Astra and the Grandland X plug-in hybrid.

Opel had been part of GM since the 1920s, but it had lost money for the last 16 years as part of the US automaker. PSA, which makes Peugeot and Citroen cars, has turned things around pretty quickly. Both Opel and Vauxhall are now making money again.

Prices for the new versions of the 1929 'Blower' Bentley will be negotiated with individual buyers.

Bentley is truly making them the old fashioned way. In fact, a dozen people will be able to buy a brand new, freshly built 1929 “Blower” Bentley.

The 12 cars, built by Bentley’s Mulliner customization division, will be copies of four original supercharged Bentley race cars from the 1920s.

The original cars were modified by Sir Tim Birkin, one of the renowned “Bentley Boys” racing drivers of the 1920s. The cars are commonly known as “Blower” Bentleys because “blower” is a slang term for a supercharger, a mechanical device that increases power by pumping air into the engine. Those four original race cars, which have 240 horsepower 16-cylinder engines, are considered the most valuable Bentleys in the world today.

To make the new copies, Bentley will completely disassemble the one original “Blower” Bentley the company still owns and digitally scan all the parts so exact copies can be made. New tools and manufacturing techniques, as well as original 1920s-era tools, will be used to make new parts. It will take Bentley about two years to build the cars, the company said. Prices will be negotiated individually with buyers but will, presumably, be very, very high.

After unveiling a new brand identity and logo, Volkswagen revealed a new electric car to go along with it.

The ID.3, a compact hatchback, is the first in a planned family of ID electric cars from the automaker. It’s roughly the size of a Golf on the outside, but with a shorter hood — since there’s no engine — and a larger, roomier passenger area.

At the event in Frankfurt, Germany, VW executives spoke a lot about how the ID.3 needs to represent Volkswagen’s return to its early days as a likable maker of fun cars like the Beetle. So designers gave the ID.3 a gently smiling “face” up front, with headlights that will turn on and flutter like eyes as the driver approaches. The brake and gas pedals are also decorated with pause and play icons like an MP3 player. VW also promises it will be fun to drive, but we’ll have to see about that later.

The base car will start at under €30,000 euros. The first cars will be delivered to customers in Europe in the spring.

Volkswagen unveiled a “new” logo Monday evening that looks a lot like its previous logo, just more stark and two-dimensional.

The new logo comes as the company, badly tarred by the emissions cheating scandal, tries to reposition itself as a more likable, eco-friendly automaker. The unveiling comes during a Volkswagen Group event being held in Germany the night before the start of the Frankfurt Motor Show.

“The new brand design marks the start of the new era for Volkswagen,” says Jürgen Stackmann, the VW head of marketing and sales. “Now is the right time to make the new attitude of our brand visible to the outside world.”

Also during the event was the official unveiling of the Volkswagen ID.3, the brand’s first car designed from the start to be electric. Volkswagen’s earlier electric cars, the e-Up! and e-Golf, were built on platforms made for petrol and diesel cars.

The Chiron Super Sport 300+ has a longer tail than a prototype that recently went nearly 305 mph.

Some of Bugatti’s best customers will soon be given the chance to own a car that can go over 300 miles an hour, assuming they can find somewhere safe to go that fast.

Not long after announcing that a modified Bugatti Chiron prototype had hit nearly 305 miles (490 km) an hour on a test track. Bugatti told some of its best customers that it would make a similar version of the car for them to buy. Bugatti says it is the first production auto manufacturer to make a car that has exceeded 300 miles per hour. 

Only 30 of the cars will be made. The Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ will cost $3.9 million. That’s less than $1 million more than the standard Bugatti Chiron, which costs about $3.2 million. It’s also much less than some of the brand’s recent limited edition models, such as the Divo, which costs $6 million, and the Centodieci, which goes for $9 million. Then there was the one-off La Voiture Noire, which costs almost $19 million, including taxes. 

The 16-cylinder engine in the Super Sport 300+, although largely the same as the one in the Chiron, is tuned to produce 1600 horsepower, 100 more than the base car. To optimize aerodynamics, the Super Sport 300+ has a longer body than the standard Chiron. The exhaust pipes have also been repositioned to improve air flow past the back of the car.

Maruti Suzuki was forced to suspend production for two days at two of its biggest plants.

The slump in India is getting worse. Car sales plunged 41% in August compared to the same month last year, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. That’s the biggest monthly drop in two decades, and a tenth straight month of declines.

India had been a bright spot for carmakers until recently, with annual sales of passenger vehicles rising by about 33% over the past five years.

Global players, like Hyundai and its subsidiary Kia, invested billions to expand in India, and new players like Chinese state-run carmaker SAIC have also tried to grab a slice of business.

Before the slump hit, India was predicted to overtake Germany and Japan to become the world’s third largest car market by 2020 — behind only China and the United States.

But the country’s biggest carmakers are now struggling. New safety and emission regulations have driven up prices, troubles at India’s consumer finance providers have hit lending, and a broader economic slowdown has made people reluctant to spend on big items.

Maruti Suzuki, India’s biggest carmaker, suspended production at two of its main plants on Saturday and Monday.

Read more about the downturn in India’s car industry here.

Volkswagen hasn’t even unveiled the new ID.3, the brand’s new mass-market electric car, but all 30,000 of the special “First Edition” models have already been spoken for. VW has been accepting €1,000 refundable reservations since May. Prices for the cars will start at less than €40,000. At least initially, the ID.3 is only being offered in Europe.

Volkswagen has said the new ID.3 will look sort of like a Golf on the outside, but will have the roominess of a Passat on the inside. After years of concept cars, we’ll finally get a look at the car all these people have already agreed to buy at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Porsche will be bringing its first all-electric car to the show, too. The Taycan was already officially unveiled last week, but this will be our chance to see it up close. 

Porsche insists the Taycan will offer better overall driving performance than anything on the road now. It will corner and handle better – plus, it can be driven harder for longer – than any electric car out there, they say. 

I’ll be most interested in the Taycan’s “glass cockpit” with its heavy reliance on touchscreens. Those screens look great, but they could be awful to use. 

It’s not like hybrid supercars are a new thing – Ferrari and McLaren have made them before – but the new Lamborghini Sián represents a big step, and not just for supercars. This is one of those cases where the technology appearing in a car that only the super-wealthy can afford today could, just maybe, end up in everyone’s cars years from now.

You see, the Sián doesn’t store energy in a battery pack like other hybrid and electric cars. Instead, it’s got a supercapacitor, an entirely different way of storing electricity.  Supercapacitors are lightweight and can absorb and release energy very quickly. But they have some downsides, one being they’re expensive, but Lamborghini engineers love them.

The Italian automaker has teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop these supercapacitors. Together, they revealed a fully electric concept car in 2017 with a body described as being made from supercapacitors.

The ultimate goal of this work is lightweight, powerful supercapacitors that can drive electric cars. For now, a small supercapacitor in a super-expensive hybrid is a step toward that goal. The 63 people paying millions of dollars each for a Sián are helping Volkswagen Group, Lamborghini’s parent company, come up with what could be a revolution in the way cars are powered someday.

The Frankfurt Motor Show, one of the largest in the world, should be a time for the industry to celebrate. But there are a lot of problems looming over the industry, making this the most nervous time for the auto industry since the financial meltdown a decade ago.

Number one is weakening auto sales. China, the driver of growing auto sales for most of this century, has become a major problem. Sales are down 11% so far this year, due to the weaker economy there. And economic slowing could hurt sales in other major markets. Sales are down in the US and UK and flat in Germany, as recession worries mount in all three markets.

Then there’s the problem of Brexit and what that might do to supply chains for the auto industry throughout Europe.

And while the show will highlight lots of new offerings in electric cars and the promise of self-driving vehicles, automakers have had to invest billions developing that next generation of vehicles long before there is a major global market for them.

The Frankfurt Motor Show – officially the Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung or IAA – starts Tuesday morning in Germany. This will be where Volkswagen will officially step out as an electric car brand.

Not only will VW reveal the ID.3, the first car to be sold under its new ID electric car sub-brand, but VW will also unveil a new logo. (Don’t expect anything shocking. It’ll probably be like the VW logo went to a plastic surgeon for a lift and a tuck.)

As with most car shows these days, the biggest news will be around plug-in cars and, in this case, one very fast hybrid. Volkswagen Group, in particular, will have lots to talk about with a new VW electric car and one from Porsche as well and that new hybrid Lamborghini.

Honda will also unveil its own cute little EV and, on a larger scale, Mercedes-Benz will show off an electric luxury sedan.

But it’s not all cool new technology and flashy designs. These are tough times for the car industry. Trade wars are starting to take a toll, the Chinese auto market, long a rich source of sales, is on a slide and Britain is getting ready for a possibly very messy Brexit.

Still, the industry goes on and, in the end, it’s all about products.

Stay tuned as we look at the latest cars and trucks from a rapidly changing industry.