As the premier auto show in North America, Detroit is where automakers can be expected to pull out all the stops. At Car and Driver, we mobilize our worldwide staff to attend and report on the 20-plus automaker press conferences in addition to covering a lot more than a dozen evening events. And we do it all in service to you, the reader. From Sunday afternoon via Tuesday, it’s a blizzard of activity, which afterward starts to coalesce into clear themes—and pounding hangovers. Here, then, are our 5 takeaways from the 48 Hours of Detroit:
The Horsepower Ratings Are Unreal
Advances in technology—such as the widespread adoption of turbocharging—are fueling an extraordinary horsepower race. And it is getting accomplished with smaller sized engine displacements. Ford’s GT supercar concept debuted with a twin-turbocharged V-6 that is stated to make far more than 600 horsepower. The V-8 isn’t dead, of course: The 2016 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R promises much more than 500 horsepower from its naturally aspirated flat-plane-crank V-8, and Cadillac’s CTS-V ultra sedan’s supercharged 6.2-liter LT4 V-8 proffers an insane 640 horsepower. That latter figure, with each other with the BMW M5’s 560 horsepower and the Mercedes-AMG E63’s 550 ponies, set the bar at such a nosebleed level that the new Lexus GS F, which also produced its debut at Detroit, was immediately dismissed for having just 467.
The power madness extends to trucks, as properly, with the new Raptor anticipated to deliver 450 to 500 horsepower—again, from Ford’s EcoBoost V-6—easily surpassing the 411-hp figure from the preceding model’s 6.2-liter V-7 And overmuscled SUVs are represented, too, with Porsche taking the wraps off the 570-hp Cayenne Turbo S and Mercedes trotting out the 577-hp GLE63 AMG (which will be sold right here only in extrapotent S kind).
Plug-In Hybrids Are a Issue, Too
But for practically each large-energy beast that blitzed Cobo Center, there was also a plug-in hybrid introduced—and often from the very same brand. The purpose is straightforward: Companies require these electrified models to meet ever-tightening fuel-economy requirements both here and abroad. European producers are specifically keen on the technologies, even as numerous of their executives have gone on record as hating it, due to the fact PHEVs can accomplish ridiculously lofty—and almost unobtainable in the real world—fuel-economy numbers on a special Euro test cycle. But plug-ins also offer bonus credits for manufacturers in their quest to meet U.S. CAFE regulations.
The headline PHEV was, of course, the all-new Chevrolet Volt, which has increased EV variety and a new 4-cylinder range-extending engine. Honda also announced a stand-alone plug-in model set to arrive by 2018. The VW Group, which significantly prefers diesel technology to hybridization, plugged in with the Volkswagen Cross Coupe GTE notion and the production Audi Q7 e-tron, whilst Mercedes countered its wild GLE63 AMG SUV with a sensible plug-in C-class sedan. Finally, Hyundai added a Sonata plug-in to its lineup to counter corded loved ones sedans from Ford and Honda.
Truckin’ Trucks to Motown
It utilised to be that, on the automotive calendar, the Chicago auto show was known as “the truck show.” It was there that manufacturers for whatever purpose decided to debut their latest and greatest workhorses, industrial autos, and boulder-bashers. That seems to have definitively changed here in Detroit: With gas costs still hovering about $ 2.00 per gallon in the location, this year saw not only the gnarly second-gen Ford Raptor take the stage, but also new trucks of all sizes from Toyota (Tacoma), Nissan (Titan), and Ram (Rebel). And what’s this? Even Hyundai showed a truck? And it was shockingly cool and probably headed to a dealer close to you? It is true—as is the truth that Motown is down with trucks.
Detroit Diesels
Regardless of the truth that nearby gas stations were promoting unleaded for significantly less than $ 2.00 per gallon, Detroit was a hotbed of diesel enthusiasm this year. The largest headline came from Nissan, whose all-new—and somewhat curiously styled—Titan XD packs a 5.-liter turbo-diesel V-8 built by Cummins. Nissan’s betting large on purchasers who want massive-time torque (555 lb-ft of it in this case, alongside 310 horses) but do not want to step up to a heavy-duty pickup.
Nissan wasn’t the only automaker showing off compression ignition on the show floor, even so. Land Rover introduced the Variety Rover and Range Rover Sport powered by the JLR Td6, a torquey powerplant promising up to 28 mpg in the posh SUVs. Hyundai got in on the game, as well, sneaking an oil-burner beneath the hood of the charmingly wacky Santa Cruz concept. And there had been a lot more-familiar diesel-powered faces, as effectively, like Volkswagen’s Golf TDI SportWagen and Ram’s EcoDiesel 1500. Someday, anthropologists may refer to the 2015 Detroit show as a turning point in Americans’ acceptance of diesel technologies.
No Indicators of Forced Entry, But Ford Clearly Stole the Show
Just 2 hours into the show, with only a handful of vehicles debuted, Ford ushered a horde of journalists and sector insiders into Joe Louis Arena—home of the Red Wings and adjacent to Cobo Center—dimmed the lights, and blew us all away.
Ford may as nicely have turned out the lights in the entirety of Cobo, since after introducing the wicked F-150 Raptor, sliding the flat-crank-V-8–powered GT350R across the stage, and right after dropping jaws with the mid-engine GT hypercar, what was left to see? Even at a show positively packed with crucial and impressive debuts—including the new Acura NSX and the stunningly beautiful Buick Avenir concept—everything paled in comparison to the Blue Oval’s power trio. While the rest of the automakers file a police report for this theft, we’re already wondering what subsequent year’s event will hold and no matter whether anyone can prime Ford’s utterly dominant Detroit displaying. A mid-engine Corvette, perhaps?
The 5 Trends and Takeaways from the 48 Hours of Detroit
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