The Continental: Frankfurt Electric Facts, a Faster Mondeo, and German Enthusiasts Aren’t Saving the Manuals

Each week, our German correspondent slices and dices the latest rumblings, news, and quick-hit driving impressions from the other side of the pond. His byline may say Jens Meiners, but we simply call him . . . the Continental.

The Frankfurt auto show has closed its doors for another two years, and I am recovering from miles of walking corridors and exhibition areas with no air conditioning. This year’s IAA did not send a coherent message, which is a good thing. There was a peaceful coexistence of electrics and high-powered supercars—and absolutely no one seemed to pay attention to the various electric scooters, which are a pointless diversion for carmakers.

One great effect of electrics is the fact that they may lead to a redefinition of urban mobility. The Audi Urban concept, the Opel Rak e and the Volkswagen Nils represent a new type of vehicle, and a welcome departure from the obsession with passive safety that has made modern cars as heavy as tanks, and twice as clumsy. That’s not to say these city cars aren’t safe—in fact, they are, but they are also compact, lightweight, and they do without a dozen air bags, cameras, and exterior mirrors the size of elephant ears.

Personally, I liked Opel’s and Audi’s concepts better than VW’s. The Opel Rak e was obviously developed with cost in mind; it has a high-strength-steel structure and a fiberglass body; the co-driver is seated behind the driver; the interior is positively minimalistic and dominated by a screen; the view forward resembles that of a bike more than a car’s.

Audi’s Urban concept, by contrast, uses an aluminum space frame and a sort of trough made from carbon fiber, which defines the shape of the two seats. Their offset arrangement allows the co-driver to look forward onto the road, and it makes the car wider. Internally, Audi has created three versions: a “Sportback” with a canopy roof, a roadster, and a coupe (which was not shown). The styling language is characteristically Audi; in fact, designers insist the Auto Union Silver Arrow Typ D, a legendary late-1930s race car, was their inspiration.

VW’s one-seater Nils is a less convincing entry. Internally, engineers have worked on the Nils for three years, with structural work handled by Audi. The project was stalled for some time, but when Audi designers got wind of it, they decided to do their own interpretation—and suddenly, the VW Nils was back on track as well. But the vehicle looks tiny and static next to the Audi (and the Opel).

A Technology Update from France

In Frankfurt, I spent some time with Martin Haub, head of R&D at supplier Valeo. He believes in the electrification of the car, especially in range-extender concepts. But he says that the cost for such systems must come down significantly. His proposal for the “affordable hybrid” aims to halve the cost of hybridization by bringing down the voltage to 48 Volts, and by improving battery and/or supercapacitor systems. A prototype shown by Valeo integrates stop/start functions, regenerative braking, and an electric boost function, and can drive on battery power at constant velocities with an electric motor with just 10 to 20 hp. Haub also says that Valeo is working on an “alternative hybrid” that uses an electrically driven supercharger to “indirectly” boost the engine at low rpm.

Valeo is a technology leader on headlight systems, and Haub boldly precicts that from 2016 onwards, xenon headlights will be replaced by LEDs. While Haub has little doubt that the HID, as we know it, is doomed, the question remains whether halogen light will eventually become relegated to the dust bin. “I am convinced that we will see this moment. In the long run, LEDs will become the cheapest light source. They will dominate the market,” says Haub.

Fast Ford and Bad News from Porsche

Ford is adding a six-speed manual version to its top-of-the-line European-market Mondeo—a 2.0-liter, 240-hp turbo. The fastest Mondeo ever maxes out at 155 mph; fuel economy is 30.9 mpg in the European cycle. The Mondeo is sized like the Ford Fusion, but it uses an entirely different platform; the next model generations will share a platform again, like the first-gen Mondeo. Its U.S.-market sister models were the Contour and the Mercury Mystique.

Ford’s decision makes sense as 72 percent of cars on the German market, according to enthusiast magazine Auto Straßenverkehr, are equipped with manual gearboxes. But the troubling fact is that manual gearboxes increasingly become a low-cost choice, not a choice made to enhance driving pleasure. While 92 percent of subcompacts have a manual in Germany, the number decreases to 62 percent for mid-size cars and 35 percent for upper-midsize and premium cars. The most disturbing number by far: Only 16 percent of Porsche’s vehicles are sold with a manual transmission in their home market.