Toyota Prius

Esqueça o breve período em que este carro só foi visto nas ruas da capital paulista e com a cor branca e os adesivos obrigatórios para o uso como táxi. O híbrido mais famoso do planeta agora desembarca em nosso mercado com disponível para qualquer motorista, dando mais um passo de grande importância para a introdução definitiva de veículos mais ecológicos em nosso país. Mas além de todo o enorme carisma que esse carro apresenta, este artigo irá mostrar um pouco do que faz do Prius um carro tão adorado.

Entrar no mundo dos carros elétricos e híbridos requer ver o conceito de carro de uma maneira totalmente nova. Aqui a função de transportar não tem como segunda prioridade desempenho, luxo ou preço baixo como normalmente se vê, mas sim à eficiência. Estes carros focam em realizar sua função principal com os menores consumo de combustível e emissão de poluentes possíveis, de forma que aqui são os outros aspectos que fazem concessões a aqueles. Tudo isso parece muito interessante de ver, mas já representou grandes dificuldades nos primórdios do carro elétrico moderno. A questão é que essa tecnologia só voltou a se desenvolver com mais força na década de 1990, de forma que ainda não existia nada avançado demais. Em outras palavras, o famoso Saturn EV1 e seus contemporâneos não podiam escapar de baterias caras e pesadas, autonomia curta, desenho desagradável e custos altos para comprar e manter, um pacote não exatamente sedutor. Claro que a imagem de famosos comprando carros ecológicos para uso pessoal trouxe ajuda enorme à sua popularidade, mas isso não surgiu já de início. Como as marcas continuavam a investir nessa tecnologia, ela só prosperou quando as mencionadas concessões por parte do consumidor começaram a diminuir.

A fama mundial do Prius só foi começar com a segunda geração, de 2003: o desenho ficava muito mais caprichado, as baterias permitiam maior autonomia e a habitabilidade foi melhorada. Sem contar que neste momento já existiam cada vez mais concorrentes, como o Honda Insight. O futuro desses carros passou a ser ganhar as mais variadas melhorias, porque isso só lhes deixou mais próximos do que o cliente sempre esteve acostumado: era difícil fazê-lo trocar o carro com o qual tem costume por modelos que tinham aquelas desvantagens. Hoje em dia já se provou que tudo isso ficou no passado, primeiro para os híbridos e depois para os elétricos, mas existem concessões “menos graves” que ainda não se podem dispensar mas estão longe de trazer problemas. Um caso é o estilo do Prius: assim como em Leaf, Volt e similares, apurar a aerodinâmica é fundamental para evitar que o arrasto desperdice energia. Aqui se usa o chamado Kammback, em que a suave ascensão da dianteira à capota simula a forma ideal de uma gota, mas termina num corte traseiro bem abrupto; é provado que assim se consegue efeito muito parecido ao de prolongar sua queda até o final. Se o segundo Prius trazia visual ainda insosso, a fase atual deu grande atenção a estilizar tudo o que não implique em fugir do tal formato: itens como os farois recortados, lanternas transparentes e laterais imponentes trazem semelhança com modelos esportivos.

Entrar em carros mais ecológicos já não impressiona tanto, e isso é excelente. Afinal, ainda não se veem ambientes de luxo, mas sim o mesmo que trazem carros a combustão com porte similar, talvez com um toque extra de modernidade por causa das telas em LCD do Prius. O modelo brasileiro traz pacote muito parecido ao dos demais com preço ao redor dos R$ 120.830 que pede, em que os destaques são bancos e volante em material sintético ecológico, sistema de som multimídia com Bluetooth e mapas, entrada sem chave, heads-up display (HUD), sete airbags, freios ABS com EBD e controles de tração e estabilidade, entre outros. Há o motor de ciclo Atkinson a gasolina e o elétrico de 650 V de potência, que combinados geram um máximo de 138 cv, com câmbio CVT. Não é um número surpreendente porque o sistema nunca chega a usar os dois motores nas faixas de potência máxima. Também existe a frenagem regenerativa, o que permite explicar o esquema de funcionamento desse carro como se vê em seu hotsite: a partida e o uso em baixas velocidades se fazem somente no modo elétrico. Em velocidade constante os dois motores se revezam segundo o que for mais eficiente, as altas acelerações usam a maior força do motor a combustão, as desacelerações são aproveitadas para recarregar as baterias e ao parar o carro se usa o sistema start/stop, que desliga o motor até que se dê um toque no acelerador.

Cadillac ELR

Multiuse platforms must’ve become one of the best strategies ever created by the car industry in the last years. The idea of not having to start every project from scratch was always a temptation in many aspects, but the biggest barrier was finding the right “tune” between saving money by sharing and giving project freedom for each car. After decades of many GM experiments, this coupé’s proportions now arrive to prove that car-wise, there has never been a Cadillac like ELR efficiency-wise, technology-wise or otherwise-wise!

The first picture’s contrast between the writing style of brand and model’s names is a great example of what Cadillac has done in the last decades to stay successful and profitable. That excessively extravagant style from the 1950s could have been beautiful and irresistible (for many people it still is, in fact), but it wasn’t hard to expect it wouldn’t last long. Not only because of the plain time passage, events like the oil crises and the technology advances had a huge influence at the very concept of an automobile, which demanded a huge attention from the involved companies to keep offering something the customers would be willing to buy. This was a very important point specifically for GM’s luxury marque because after the drastic changes performed during the 1970s and the 1980s, their cars survived the following decade pretty much adrift. That’s why the 2000s seen such a revolution created by Cadillac: the whole new design language came with replacing the older projects with not only up-to-date ones but also shared with GM’s other brands, enabling it to participate much more intensely at the upcoming technologies’ development. ELR is precisely the youngest result of this new operating strategy, because it’s the luxury version of GM’s urban hybrid cars – that’s right, this car shares very much with Chevrolet Volt and Opel/Vauxhall Ampera.

If you’re familiar with the Converj concept, it won’t be necessary to explain very much about the design. ELR comes as its production version, so the designers’ idea was to keep the changes to a minimum. The design was smoothened, indeed, but it seems more elegant now. Some measures were changed in order to fit Volt’s platform, but they’ve also helped this car to avoid resembling the coupe CTS too much. But besides the boomerang-shaped lights, imponent front grille, gorgeous 20” wheels, LED-composed headlights and the typical very strong cuts and creases, the cabin really brings the expected finesse. Its four passengers will all enjoy very spacious individual seats, whose stitched leather can be paired to several options of coating colors and materials, including fine woods and real carbon fiber. And if you’ve noticed the big central console, this is one of Volt’s genes. The pictures show the T-shaped 288-cell, 16.5 kWh battery lies at the car’s center, to work with the two electric engines and the gasoline one, a four-cylinder 1.4L. This combined powertrain results at 208-hp power and 295-lb-ft torque, which doesn’t achieve the same performance as the sedan’s because they’re lighter cars: it’s estimated that ELR will make the 0-60 mph in around eight seconds. The all-electric mode’s autonomy will be 35 miles, extended to 300 miles with the 1.4 and technologies like regenerative braking. ELR will be priced only when closer to hitting the streets, which will be done around the end of this year.

Lexus IS 3

Do you know what does “L-finesse” stand for? This is Lexus’ latest design language, like Ford’s Kinetic or Hyundai’s Fluidic Sculpture. Toyota’s luxury brand is starting to succeed at the long-term desire of creating a more inspired style for their cars, an initiative that has recently received great help from LFA’s production. They’ve already renewed the bigger brother GS and facelifted the even bigger LS, but the entry-level became much more different. This article will show a little more about this “entry-luxury” sedan.

As it has been mentioned several times by the specialized press, each automaker has created their own visual identity in order to distinguish their cars from the competitors. Besides, this came in handy for the Eastern brands because of their own design issues of that time: those cars were excessively alike until the 1990s, all of them with too classic lines and plain shapes. The Japanese started to change that around the early 2000s, but the Korean took some more years. Lexus’ problem, in turn, wasn’t creating good-looking designs but more appropriate ones. The bigger complaints went to the fact that they didn’t look like the upscale vehicles they are, which led many people to mistake them for cheaper cars. Acura and Infiniti faced the same problems at some time, too, but neither took too long to solve it: Honda’s brand decided to follow the North-American luxury cars, with smoother volumes and straighter lines, while Nissan’s division tries to follow the Europeans: the organic shapes contrast with stronger creases and very well divided volumes, which helps to give a high-performance impression. And now Lexus seems to have found the path to follow by looking at its own homeland. The new IS proves that Lexus is investing on acute angles and strong creases, which have all been the Japanese recipe for sportiness for decades.

That’s what explains this front design which will certainly turn each and every neck from which this car passes near. Whether for the tuning-like aggressive air intakes, the headlights with separate-but-visually-connected LED part or the most imponent spindle-shaped grille you’ve ever seen, taking inspiration from the LF-CC concept car has worked very well for what’s Lexus’ sports sedan now more than ever. The sides preserved the elegance of few creases and taller windows, but with a hint of sportiness that will be finished with the rear section: that elevated rear window cut without following the door handles line comes from the very first IS, taking the memory back to 1999. The second generation made it more visible and imponent, giving a very nice look with the chrome contour. Now there weren’t big changes to its shape, but it became paired to a very strong line born beneath the B column: it rises in the exact same proportion as the rear windows, creating the very nice impression that the car is always moving – it’s a complete change from the first IS, where all those horizontal lines made it too bulky. And the Grand Finale is made by these tail lights which seem to take more space from the sides than the rear. Paired to the absence of many lines, they give the last section a slim look which could easily be found at many current sporty coupes. This is definitely the right car for who doesn’t appreciate “limousine-like” sedans.

The first official pictures show only the F-Sport version, so the ones who didn’t like the scarlet seats shouldn’t worry. However, it’s hard not to notice the beautiful interior, with plenty of black and chrome as most of the sportier cars. But Lexus states there’s much more to observe: the bigger wheelbase improves the internal comfort, while the whole cabin became more ergonomic. The luxury extremes were restricted to IS’s bigger siblings, but the F-Sport version brings aluminum pedals, perforated leather steering wheels and even metal details with 3-D effects. This car will be officially presented at the upcoming Detroit Auto Show at all its versions: IS 250, IS 350 and IS 300h – the hybrid one being the first one to bring the Lexus Hybrid Drive. The respective engine options will be a V6 2.5L with 200 hp, a V6 3.5L with 300 hp and a four-cylinder 2.5.