Times says if you want a fast, luxurious EV, just wait 5 years for Audi or Porsche

DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH: Audi and Porsche showed all-electric concept cars at the Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany, above and below, but production models wouldn't go on sale until 2020 -- that's five long years from now.

OH MY ACHING BACK: The low-slung Porsche concept looks like it is aimed at the young and limber. And the 300-mile range would be of limited value to older drivers, who need frequent bathroom breaks.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We're all familiar with the phrase, "Start your engines."

But Tom Voelk, a contributor to The New York Times, really stretches the meaning of "start" in his story from the Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany on Monday.

After noting Tesla Motors has had the market for "high-end electric cars" to itself since the Model S went on sale in 2012, Voelk claims:

"But that is changing as other automakers start to introduce their own models [italics added]."

Really? 

The story is silent on new production models of all-electric cars from Audi and Porsche, both of which are owned by Volkswagen, but does describe two "concepts" that are at least five years away from production.

This is the same kind of hype and exaggeration you see in automakers' TV advertising, but Times readers deserve better.

New Teslas

If Audi and Porsche actually put their EVs on sale in 2020, they will be competing with a Tesla crossover, the Model X, as well as the smaller Model 3 with a range of 200 miles and a price of around $35,000.

A second-generation Tesla Roadster might also be available and could a second-generation Model S be far behind?

Model S still on top

Until then, the Tesla Model S remains the fastest, most luxurious all-electric car you can buy, one that has earned Consumer Reports' highest rating ever.

Unlike the Times and other publications, Consumer Reports' evaluations aren't influenced by advertising or the fleets of free Audis and Porsches available to automobile writers and VIPs. 

Porsche's low-slung Mission E Concept claims an 0-60 time that is already eclipsed by the fastest Tesla Model S.

The German automakers' response to Tesla's zero-emissions cars has been disappointing.

Still, the Mission E Concept shows Porsche learned a great deal from the two Tesla Model S four-door hatchbacks the automaker purchased and shipped to its engineers in Germany.

And given that country's dark past, any future all-electric models from Audi and Porsche likely will meet resistance from affluent Jewish buyers, who rewarded Lexus, Toyota's luxury division, with early and continuing success.

In July, Lexus outsold Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi in the U.S. for the first time.

This soon-to-be Tesla owner wouldn't be caught dead in a luxury car from Germany

An all-electric Tesla Model S on display at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Does any American really need a 155-mph luxury car?

More than 15 years after the introduction of gas-electric hybrids to the U.S., German car makers offer only a handful of green cars.

Their luxury car lines still are filled with gas-guzzling sedans and SUVs that merely aggravate air pollution and hasten climate change. 

Some, like the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, score low on reliability surveys.

Mindless media 

The automotive media are responsible for portraying German cars with hundreds of horsepower from dirty internal combustion engines as viable alternatives to Tesla Motors' revolutionary Model S and other all-electric vehicles.

For example, Car and Driver's blog interviewed Diamler Chairman Dieter Zetsche, who sports a walrus mustache (Diamler A.G. is the parent company of Mercedes-Benz).

One of the loaded questions was posed this way:

"And electric vehicles? Buyers seem unconvinced."

No one said you had to have brains to get a job at a car magazine or a blog like Gas2, which ran the interview recently.

Of course, "buyers" of electric vehicles must have been convinced or why would they have spent $30,000 to $70,000 and more for an all-electric car? 

Tesla Motors is selling about 50,000 Model S luxury hatchbacks annually from a single factory in California.

No ad revenue

The media's hostility toward Tesla might have something to do with the company's no-advertising policy. 

No ads mean no advertising revenue for struggling print and electronic media.

Elon Musk, the genius behind Tesla, didn't even bother showing his new model this week at the New York International Auto Show in Manhattan.

Model S 70D

This week, Tesla announced a new base model, the 70D, which costs $75,000 and has all-wheel drive and slightly more range, 240 miles v. 208 miles for the discontinued Model S 60.

The Associated Press story I saw in my morning paper reported the electric car maker "is going after mainstream luxury car buyers" with the new model.

The story didn't explain why the $70,000 Model S 60 -- which has a 380-horsepower electric motor and can go from zero to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds -- didn't compete against "mainstream" luxury cars.

The new 70D trims only .7 seconds off that 0-60 time, even though it has a motor with 124 more horsepower.

My Model S

I am scheduled to pick up my new Model S 60 next week.

I am sure it will be the best car I have ever owned, and with free updates from Tesla will remain fresh and more advanced than just about anything else on the road.

The only cars we've had for more than a decade are Toyota Prius hybrids, and we have more than 60 solar panels on the roof of our home.

The Model S 60 will be a perfect fit, especially in view of the limited driving I do as a senior.

German cars

In the last few years, I've worked part time for fleet-management companies in New Jersey that supply new cars to the media and VIPs.

I've driven just about every Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Porsche, occasionally as a chauffeur during Fashion Week or other special event.

Some of them have switches and controls that are so hopelessly complicated I had to consult the owner's manual to figure them out.

I couldn't wait to jump back into my 2010 Prius.

World's automakers unveil their latest ideas for hastening climate change

Instead of showing a production model of the next-generation Prius hybrid, Toyota unveiled the Mirai fuel-cell sedan at the New York International Auto Show press preview today. Only 3,000 will be available in the U.S. from the last quarter of this year through 2017, a spokeswoman said.

The interior and exterior of the Mirai are underwhelming -- too reminiscent of the Camry. The electric-drive sedan will have a range of 300 miles on a fill-up of hydrogen.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Only a small fraction of the hundreds of vehicles on display at the New York International Auto Show in Manhattan can be considered environmentally friendly.

At today's press preview in the Javits Center, I saw a handful of purely electric cars, maybe a dozen gas-electric hybrids and Toyota's hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, which is going on sale later this year in very limited numbers.

After all, the show is produced by the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, not the Environmental Protection Agency.

At the opening press breakfast this morning, dealer association President Mark Schienberg emphasized that performance is the leading factor driving new-car sales -- followed by technology and fuel efficiency.

In other words, don't look for a great many new products later this year and in 2016 that are aimed at slowing climate change.

The show opens to the public on Friday.

The Toyota Mirai's electric motor (rated at 153 horsepower), fuel cells and hydrogen tank, front to rear. The midsize, four-passenger Mirai will have an MSRP of $57,500.

The Ford Focus Electric.

Volkswagen's all-electric e-Golf.

Mitsubishi's all-electric, hard-to-pronounce i-MiEV.

The low-slung BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car has an MSRP of $137,450, but that doesn't include treatments from a chiropractor.

The new Ford GT, reminiscent of the race car that won Le Mans from 1966 to 1969, is going on sale next year.

Mazda's new MX-5 Miata.

Lincoln unveiled a limousine-like Continental Concept, which is expected to be produced for the 2017 model year. The announcer said the car will have soft-closing doors, which reminded be of the Toto toilet seat.

Automobile writers packed one of the first press conferences of the day, for the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu, which is being billed as finally competitive with the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord in the scrappy midsize-sedan segment. A gas-electric hybrid version also will be available.

Platters of fruit and cheese were typical of the fare offered to members of the automotive media at the 115th edition of the New York International Auto Show. Subaru gave out box lunches with vegetable or turkey wraps. Espresso bars were common, but Porsche restricted its lounge to invitees holding a black card. In general, the automakers seem to be cutting back on food service compared to last year's press preview.

Taxis in Holland, incentives in China, future models and other green-car trivia

A Tesla Model S demonstrator at the electric automaker's new Showroom-Service Center on Route 17 north in Paramus.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I don't envy all of those full-time auto writers and bloggers who have to scramble for green-car news.

Many of them write for sponsored sites, and range far and wide, even years into the future, in search of stories.

Look at all of the copy about the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, which isn't scheduled to come out until late in 2015.

But with a first-year production of only 2,100, it's unclear how many will be available in the United States.

What is clear is that Toyota dealers are sure to squeeze anyone who wants to buy one of the few available for a lot of added profit over the $57,500 base price, if past practice is any guide.

Junket to Japan

One of the blogs that wrote about the Mirai acknowledged Toyota provided airfare to Japan, lodging and meals to enable the writer "to bring you this first-person report."

Another blog, Gas2, even compared the Mirai to Tesla's Model S, which has been sold since 2012.

The writer did note there are only a "couple of dozen" public hydrogen fueling stations in the U.S.

China and Holland

I just read about air pollution in China, and how one city plans to limit registrations of new cars while the government weighs adding incentives for the purchase of plug-in hybrids and EVs.

In Holland, there is a fleet of Tesla Model S taxis at the airport serving Amsterdam, according to Gas2.

None of that is of any interest to me.

I've read that incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles are far higher in Europe than in the U.S., but I haven't seen anything on whether the new Congress will attempt to get rid of the $7,500 federal tax credit for the purchase of a green car.

From hybrid to electric

I live in northern New Jersey and have driven Toyota Prius hybrids since 2004.

Now, I plan to make the transition to an all-electric car, and I want to know all I can about my choices.

The Tesla Model S has twice the range of any other all-electric vehicle sold in New Jersey.

But I just read real breaking news in Automobile magazine, quoted in Green Car Reports, which says Audi, BMW and Porsche plan to attack Tesla with new green-car models due in 2018 to 2021.

Is Automobile magazine suggesting I wait?

Best Cars of 2014 

The Tesla Model S just finished first in Consumer Reports' Best Cars of 2014.

The only other green car on the list, the Mercedes-Benz E250 diesel, finished fifth.

More news I can't use

The annoying Gas 2 blog, which claims to report on "Green Cars that Don't Suck," carries a ton of news that is of little use to anyone planning to buy an all-electric car:

The latest is 15 Electric Cars Hitting the Market in 2015

Only one of the 15 is all-electric -- Tesla's Model X crossover with gull-wing doors -- unless you want to count a Croatian super-car concept with an MSRP of $1 million. 

The rest are plug-in hybrids from BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, Audi and Chevy, but the BYD Tang will be sold only in China.