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I got a free ticket to the Auto Show, and I was going to do a report as a post in the Green Energy News Thread, but I know only so many people go in there, so, I thought I'd broaden my sights a bit and throw this out there for everyone.
Now the grand majority of the cars there are just regular 2008 models. It's largely just a really big car lot, where you can check everything out, kick the tires, see what the best is that each automaker has to offer all in one place and for the newest models with the newest gadgets. But people tend to focus on the concept cars and prototypes. They're the flashy cars that you've never seen before that have all the fanfare, that go on the spinning pedastals and have the (seriously) hot women talking about all the specs and details of them. Saab by the way had actual Swedish blonde twins working their booth. It was a very crowded booth for how few cars they had.
Anyway, most of this post will focus on those concept cars and prototypes, and if the 2008 International Auto Show had one theme this year, it was: Green. Hybrids were everywhere, electric cars, hydrogen fuel cell cars, Plug-In Electric Hybrids, subcompacts, and zero emissions vehicles mixed in. It was a treehugger's fantasyland. Really, I was short of breath when I got there I was so excited. All links will take you to Photobucket where I've posted albums of pictures for the car in question, or single pictures for the cars that didn't warrant multiples.
I'd be remiss if I started with any car other than the Chevy Volt. It's a bit different now than it was. The front end used to be a lot boxier, but they discovered the wind drag was horrible, and smoothed it out. The Volt is slated to go on sale in the Fall of 2010 if the LION battery development goes to plan (as of now, they are on schedule). The Volt, though called a Hybrid is really an all electric car. You plug it in and it charges lithium ion batteries which give you an all electric range of 40 miles. On board is a very small gas generator which is there merely to power the batteries, and at no time does the gas powered generator actually move the car. They'd hoped to get the car in under $30,000, but now it's looking like it'll probably be closer to $35,000, but that'll be before federal and state level rebates, which could potentially bring the car down to the $25,000 range. The car has a 10 gallon gas tank, and I've heard estimates of 600 miles per tank, which would theoretically translate to 60mpg I suppose, but if your daily commute is less than 40 miles, you could potentially never even hit the gas station unless you're going on a trip.
It was a real hit, with tons of people clustered around it. There's been a lot of buzz since it was revealed last year at the auto show purely as a concept, and since then Chevy has pumped money and manpower into it to try and roll out a production model as soon as possible. Not all concept cars make it onto the road, and even fewer make it there looking like what they were born as. But I think you can bet this will be one of the ones that does.
Sticking with General Motors cars, we turn to the Saturn Flextreme. The Flextreme comes out of GM owned European carmaker Opel, it's basically the same car just rebadged. You can't see it in the pictures, but beneath the trunk of the car is housed two Segways, which charge off the battery in the car. I thought it was goofy, for America anyway, so I didn't include it, but you can see it here if you want. The Flextreme is a smaller car, and like it's Volt cousin you can plug it in and drive all electric for 34 miles (3 hour charge time), and then the gas generator kicks in to recharge the battery. This one runs on diesel, which is increasingly a cleaner and lower emitting fuel source than regular gas, especially under the more recent extremely highly restricted new standards set in place by the US and to a slightly lesser extent the EU. If you look at the picture of the inside, you'll see that the side and rearview mirrors are replaced with cameras, and the LCD screens are on the inside dashboard for you to view.
Next up we have GM's potential subcompact cars. The subcompact market in the US is exploding right now. The Chevy Aveo sold out of its production run, and the Yaris (Toyota I think) is also selling very well. People like the high miles per gallon of these smaller but still safe cars. General Motors has three potential designs for new subcompact cars, but they've yet to settle on one or any of them. They are the Groove, the Beat, and the Trax. Personally I like the Trax of them all. The Groove is trying to be a tiny SUV, which sort of misses the point I think. The Trax just seems to marry all the best components of a subcompact and still comes out stylish and not feeling claustrophobic (if you want to know what that feels like, check out the pictures of the SmartforTwo later on).
GM seems to be slapping some form of a hybrid on pretty much all their cars. Sometimes it seems like a ridiculous gesture, like turning the Tahoe into a two-mode hybrid, but compared to its original regular Tahoe counterpart, it gets great gas mileage and doesn't give up performance, as does the Chevy Silverado. As was argued in a different thread, modest miles per gallon increases at the lower levels means much bigger savings down the road. Turning these behemoths into hybrids is more palatable to consumers who refuse to sign on to the smaller cars. I think in essence they're a bridge to what'll be much more efficient cars in the future.
What's slightly less impressive (but I think still necessary) are the so called "mild hybrids" that Saturn has in their Green Line vehicles, the Aura and the Vue. Now the Vue is actually slated to be turned into a PHEV version with GM's E-Flex platform attached to it. Mild hybrids are also a sort of stopgap measure. They're affordable, but don't have a second engine like full hybrids, but instead use a combination of much cheaper fuel savings techniques for a modest 2-6 mpg saving over their original models instead of the uber savings of say a Toyota Prius. It's a way to introduce hybrids at a price that's more afforable. The Vue will, like the Flextreme and the Volt, have an all electric driving range and a gas generator for power. That's slated for release I believe in 2009, Fall.
I won't lie when I say that GM has impressed me the most this past year with their Green efforts. I think they are responding to a combination of demand from the people and prodding from the government, but mostly I think they see which way the wind is blowing and they'd like to be around in 10 years. Regardless, they aren't sticking their heads in the sand and crying about it like the US automakers all did in the 90's.
On second thought, I'm not going to do the whole thing tonight, lots of pictures to post and write up, so, tonight I'll just do General Motors, and maybe Ford later if I have time, and then tomorrow afternoon I'll do a couple more carmakers until I finish. I will say this though, in closing for this update: By far I was the most impressed with the American cars. Maybe because they've done so little to impress lately, but they had the largest variety of new ecofriendly cars, seemed to be making the most attempts to make cars that people really want but to actually make them eco-friendly, and came out with the biggest number of totally new designs. Even if at the end of the day most of it is lip service, at least they are getting ideas out there. I was underwhelmed by the Euro and Japanese automakers. Their cars were either more of the same (not necessarily bad) or priced out too high (mostly the Europeans) for mass market appeal. The Prius is still a big seller, and but their attempt at an electric car (which Honda has said it has no plans to make and Toyota refuses to make with Lithium Ion batteries) used old style batteries which are heavier and hold less energy than the newer ones in development. One gets the feeling from the cars on display that they're resting on their laurels a bit.
I'll leave you with a little bit of non-Green eye candy for the muscle car enthusiasts. The Chevy Camaro "Bumblebee", and it actually said Bumblebee on the display board. You'll recognize it from the Transformers movie, and man, is it ever sharp.
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I must have been to the Auto show six or seven times, and I've never been really disappointed. I might end up going this time, if it's in the cards. Great pics.
As an aside: you've been to Hell too? Awesome. It's a great place, innit?
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Well I think today is the last day to go, it might be tomorrow. I had some free tickets, I should have said something.
I went to hell a year and a half ago on 6/6/06. There was a HUGE gathering of people there, which is amazing considering the town is about four buildings and is maybe a tenth of a mile long. It was certainly a sight to see.
I'll be doing Chrysler tonight, and then rounding out the rest of the show on Sunday night or Monday.
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Chrysler had three big concepts to roll out, the Dodge Zeo, the Chrysler ecoVoyager, and the Chrysler and the Jeep Renegade.
They also had a featured display for the Chrysler Aspen Two-Mode Hybrid. The Two-Mode is projecting a 25% improvement in fuel economy on the highway and 40% for the city. It'll be released in the fall of 2008.
Now for the concepts. The Jeep Renegade is their entry into the Plug In Electric Hybrid market. It's a sharp looking two seater I think designed for use on dunes and off roading. The design isn't very practical for everyday voters, with no top (only a roll bar) and cutouts in the doors so you can see the road. Part of that is their claim that it uses less materials, but, it's not an everyday car, at least not in that form it's not. It has a battery that'll get you 40 miles before a small Bluetec Diesel engine kicks in to recharge the battery. Estimated miles per gallon? 110. She's sharp looking, and I'd like to see a more practical version if they ever actually brought it to market. It's part of what Chrysler calls their new "ENVI" line of Green cars.
Next up we have the Chrysler ecoVoyager. It has smooth looking lines, and is also a PHEV, but instead of a gas engine to recharge the battery, it uses a hydrogen fuel cell. As such, we're talking about a car that's very unlikely to hit the roads within even the next 10 years. It does have some neat features though. The seats all have individual massage and heating controls, as well as directional speakers in the headrests that allow each passenger to listen to whatever music they want without bothering other passengers and sans headphones. It's a platform for experimental technology more than it is a car they have any intention of making soon.
Last we have the Dodge Zeo, a sharp, sporty looking muscle car. The muscle behind it is a bank of batteries that allow it to go 250 miles on a charge, with an impressive performance estimation. The woman on the podium was even talking about how it might need a governor on it because torque and power are instantaneous due to it being all electric and built for power. The downside? All electric, and requires 8 hours to charge. Not a big deal if you're just headed to work and back, but for a trip? Not ideal. But this is the sexy sports car of the Chrysler Envi line.
Last for Chrysler is the Fortwo, which is being released by their (child?) company Smart. The Fortwo is a subsubsubcompact. It's 8 feet long, and will be available for sale next month. It's a glorified golf cart, for all intents and purposes, but the performance is impressive though it tops out at I think 90mph or so. The back is almost nonexistant, with a tiny amount of storage space, but the actual sitting space where you and your passenger would sit was surprisingly roomy. The dashboard and such didn't feel cramped, and I felt like I could drive one and probably be comfortable. It gets fantastic gas mileage as you'd expect for a car the size of a thimble.
Next post I'll cover the Ford Verve, Ford Explorer America, Hond FCX Fuel Cell Car, and the Toyota A.Bat.
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