If you want to see what the car industry’s luxury green future looks lIke, keep an eye on the streets of Miami.
BMW i8: Horsepower (total). 357. Horsepower (gas): 228. Horsepower (electric): 129. Electric range: 20 miles. Mpg highway best: 76 mpge. Zero to 60: 4.2 seconds. Top speed: 155 mph (electric/gas combined), 75 mph (electric only). Price: $136,625. Braman BMW, 2060 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, 866-765-3344
Conspicuous consumption is easy. Conspicuous conservation—not so much. The very definition of conspicuous consumption has long been found on the streets of Miami Beach, where you’ll witness a players’ parade of the most expensive and luxurious cars in the world. Once it was the custom bodies of the 1930s and ’40s, then the Rat Pack-ish tail fins and convertibles of the 1950s and ’60s. Later, it was the blinged-out SUVs with giant speakers and monstrous wheels that were heard before they were seen on Collins Avenue. South Beach is simply one of the great cruising strips of the world, and our local valet attendants park the fanciest cars right by the doors, just as they do outside the casinos in Monte Carlo.
But today, more and more, automotive prestige is tied not just to a high mph, but also to a high mpg. Being able to afford to save the planet is its own status symbol. In Los Angeles, that status might take the form of a Prius, but in Miami, you need that extra something special. Tom Musca is a screenwriter and professor who teaches in Miami, frequently works in Los Angeles, and often travels back and forth between the two towns. “On Rodeo Drive, you see the fashions,” he says of the Mercedes Geländewagen spotted one week, then Prius the next. “In Miami, you see a variety of spectacular show-off cars”—Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bentleys, and Rolls-Royces. But over the decades, the qualities of vehicles have evolved, says Musca. These days, it is no longer horsepower but green power that counts.
The dash design of the BMW i8 continues the fluid futuristic lines of the exterior.
Automakers today are grappling to create the highest-end models that are just as clearly eco-friendly as they are powerful. “Expect the volume of hybrid and electric vehicles to slowly but steadily increase over the next five years, both in sales and the number of models available,” says Eric Tingwall, technical editor at Car and Driver. Miami Beach is where you can see the experiments—and the future. Perhaps the best publicized was LaFerrari, a car you had to be invited to purchase—for $1.4 million. With 950 horses, a V12 engine, and electric to boot, it was billed as the ultimate Ferrari. Only a handful were built, and all were sold to very-well-connected individuals before the car was announced. Ferrari chief Luca di Montezemolo described it as “the maximum expression of what defines our company: excellence,” and it radiated the engineering brilliance of Formula 1.
If the LaFerrari has a rival, it is the lithe McLaren P1, which offers a mix of electric power and a 3.8-liter V8. It takes but an eye-blinking 2.8 seconds to reach 60 miles per hour. In shape and visual attitude, it is a combination of beast and spaceship. But as is often the case with pioneer efforts, the P1 has its limitations; a two-hour charge gives it a range of about 6.2 miles. That doesn’t seem to dissuade early adopters with deep pockets, though—the whole run of less than 400 cars has sold out, also at $1.5 million each.
Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid. Horsepower (total): 887. Horsepower (gas): 608. Horsepower (electric): 285. Electric range: 12 miles. Mpg highway best: 67 mpge. Zero to 60: 2.5 seconds. Top speed: 214 mph. Price: $845,000. The Collection, 200 Bird Road, Coral Gables, 305-444-5555
On the other hand, you might not notice that the new Cadillac ELR is an electric—whether from the sidewalk or sitting inside, with an elegant stitched leather interior. But it gets a lot more electric miles than its rivals. Like the Chevrolet Volt, the ELR can operate on electricity for about 30 miles before the gas engine takes over. This happens without the driver needing to even be aware of it. “Cars like the BMW i8 and Cadillac ELR are the auto industry’s best hope for making hybrids desirable, sought-after cars,” says Car and Driver’s Tingwall. “They succeed by shifting the conversation around hybrids from CO2 emissions, miles per gallon, and pennies saved, to one that’s about technology, performance, and design.”
The driver can configure the center console touchscreen to display navigation, climate controls, or the Burmester audio system.
Porsche is proud of its hybrid electrics: The company claims that the Lohner Porsche of 1899 built by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche was the first car using a joint battery-powered/electric and combustion engine system. Today, the company offers several models, with the top being the 918 Spyder hybrid. Its 4.6-liter V8 engine produces a top speed of 214 mph, and it lists for $845,000, but the limited run has sold out. Apparently you have to be on someone’s VIP list to even have the chance to own one. “Cars this interesting and this special only come around every 10 years or so,” adds Tingwall. An S E-Hybrid version of the four-door Porsche Panamera runs on a similar system, with zero to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds and a top speed of 167 mph. Porsche has also recently added a hybrid version of its Cayenne SUV to the mix. The Cayenne SE-Hy brid sells for $76,400 and offers an electric top speed of 78 mph.
Porsche’s clever engineers play some tricks with their systems. The Hot Lap button allows the driver to add the output of electric battery and motor to that of the gas engine. There’s also an option to recharge the battery from the engine while driving. With another mode, you can rather perversely pour all the energy saved from the battery into the system to get extra horses, for a burst of excess (environmentally irresponsible) power. McLaren’s P1 offers a similar system.
Tesla Model SP85. Horsepower total (fully electric): 416. Electric range: 265 miles. Mpg highway best: 94 mpge. Zero to 60: 4.2 seconds. Top speed: 130 mph. Price: Starting at $71,070. Tesla Dania Beach, 1949 Tigertail Blvd., Dania Beach, 754-816-3069
Still on the horizon is Mercedes’s S500 hybrid, not yet sold in the US. The Mercedes-Benz S Class is the legendary top of the company’s line, and it has now been electrified as the S500 Plug-in Hybrid. The drive pairs a 329-horsepower, 3-liter V6 with an electric motor that generates 114 horsepower; the combined output is 436 horsepower. Engine and electric can be combined in a variety of modes: electric only, engine only, a mix of the two, or charge battery only. The car lives up to S Class standards with a top speed of 130 mph, but its electric-only range is limited to about 20 miles. It will start around $105,000.
There’s even a good old American “muscle car” in the works: the exotic Renovo, a limited-production hot electric hiding inside a classic Shelby Daytona coupe, with original Shelby chassis and body updated by original designer Peter Brock. Not to be outdone, Lamborghini showed off a future plug-in hybrid concept car, the Asterion LPI 910-4, in Paris last September.
The Tesla’s interior includes a 17-inch touch screen with controls for media, communications, and cabin comfort.
There is still a ways to go to get all car manufacturers up to speed, so to speak. And even the greenest of luxury cars cannot compare to a 50-mpg Toyota Prius. But in 2013, “the average new vehicle had a fuel-economy rating of 24.1 mpg, meaning a BMW i8 is more efficient than the typical newly purchased vehicle,” says Tingwall.
Distinguishing themselves clearly from the crowd of supercars are the Tesla and the BMW i8. The Tesla looks like a very elegant car of the present—the body is graceful but not avant-garde. It was designed by Franz von Holzhausen, a veteran of Volkswagen and GM, who shaped the cunning Solstice sports car. Still, it’s the car to make a statement with. It may be to luxury electrics what Prius was to hybrids. Watch one silently push g-forces around a corner and you’ll be sold. With a claimed range of 265 miles, the Tesla Model S sedan seats four and can be recharged with the company’s proprietary system about twice as fast as other electrics. It has no gas “helper” engine to weigh it down; it is pure electric. Tom Musca bought a Tesla. “It performs as promised,” he says.
Cadillac ELR. Horsepower (total): 217. Horsepower (gas): 83. Horsepower (electric): 181. Electric range: 37 miles. Mpg highway best: 82. Zero to 60: 7.8 seconds. Top speed: 106 mph. Price: $75,995. Braman Cadillac, 2020 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, 305-929-8367
Musca believes the change to electric drive is inevitable. “Once you’ve driven one, you will never go back,” he says. “Those who have not driven an electric don’t understand. It puts all the power at your fingers.” Acceleration is seamless and smooth in a pure electric like the Model S, compared to even the best mechanical transmission. It’s true sports car luxury, however you color it.
As sound as the Tesla is, BMW’s i8 is a first: a green sports car. A British auto magazine called the i8 the first car to aesthetically express the idea of “future green.” It is the flagship of the company’s new “i” line with innovative carbon fiber bodies and plug-in electric and hybrid powerplants. The idea is to show that eco responsibility does not mean giving up the sort of muscular performance associated with the ultimate driving machine.
The driver can select from four instrument display modes, from “classic” to “modern enhanced.”
The i8 looks futuristic and swoopy, with flowing lines and a characteristic blue glow seeping from inside, suggesting the electrical propulsion system. Sexy scissor doors, deep slices in the body, and floating panels make up what Senior Vice President of BMW Group Design Adrian van Hooydonk calls “layering design.” Underneath is the so-called efficient dynamics system, essentially a plug-in electric system with internal combustion assist—a scheme in principle not unlike that of the Chevy Volt. But the i8 is full of aerodynamic, material, and manufacturing innovations. The catch is that the car only gets 20 miles of range when running on electric. On the other hand, it goes from zero to 60 in 4.2 seconds and is one of the most gorgeous things on the road. Most of all, it looks like the future. Buy one, and that future will be now.