Auto Industry Flashes the Green at Winter Auto Shows

Every year at the various Auto Shows around America, representatives of the big three U.S. automakers give a short presentation to the local media about their new cars.  Two years ago, the talk was all about big - bigger cars and SUVs with bigger engines than the year before. This year, the trend is mostly in the other direction, and you’ll be able to see the difference at this winter's Auto Shows.

Back in November, I went to the Los Angeles Auto Show to get an early look at the 2009 prototypes and concept cars. Every manufacturer at the L.A. Auto Show wanted to talk about green. Not just the color of money, but about alternative fuels, hybrid engines, and clean transportation.

Alan Mulally, President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, offered the keynote speech in Los Angeles. He spoke about sustainability and the effect of technology on fuel efficiency, saying “We’ve made a commitment that by 2012, fifty percent of our vehicles with internal combustion engines are going to be flexible fuel compatible.”

And after Mulally, almost every press conference and product rollout stressed innovation in alternative fuels and drivetrain design. Bob Lutz of General Motors devoted the GM presentation to the company’s prototype hydrogen, biofuel, and hybrid offerings. “We’ve said time and time again that we intend to be part of the solution to society’s energy issues for reasons that involve energy efficiency, energy security and environmental responsibility,” Lutz said.

It is easy to dismiss these statements as hollow - certainly the big three are still producing their share of big, slow gas guzzlers. But the twin forces of consumer demand and government action are driving all automakers to reduce weight, increase fuel economy, and seek new sources of energy.

And believe it or not, this is good news for performance and motorsports enthusiasts. 

Among the many new alternative fuel cars you can see at this year's shows will be the clean diesel 2009 Jetta TDI sedan and the 2010 TDI Touareg SUV from Volkswagen. Ford and General Motors will show their lineup of hybrids. Chrysler and GM will also feature their lines of E85-capable vehicles.  VW already has a racing series planned for the new Jetta TDI, and every series from Nextel Cup to Champ Car is talking about the Cars of the Future. Champ Cars already run on pure methanol - and there's nothing magical about petroleum that makes it the sole source of fun cars.

Here's where it matters to the street enthusiast: the automakers stress that before alternative fuel vehicles can hit the mainstream market, the price and performance have to be up to the standard we expect from cars today. Consumer-level pricing remains the biggest challenge, but performance is coming along nicely. The Chevrolet Equinox electric vehicle uses a hydrogen fuel cell instead of gasoline and produces zero-emissions. This prototype crossover SUV does 0 to 60 mph in 12 seconds and offers 236 pound-feet of torque and a top speed of about 100 miles per hour. Nothing neck-snapping there, but not bad compared to a base model SUV today. Give it time and we'll see something truly fun.

And another thing is, that’s not just one experimental car - GM’s Project Driveway has 100 drivers in New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles driving these cars today. It’s still a long way from your dealer showroom and a hydrogen station on the corner, but that’s the nature of research and development.

“There is no 100-mile-per-gallon carburetor or other secret solution that will solve all our energy and environmental problems overnight. But we can make a difference - a big difference - by working the challenges from many different angles at the same time,” Lutz says.

That’s really the bottom line. The cars we drive today are faster, cleaner, and get better fuel economy than the cars we drove 30 years ago. Take any car from the 70s with up to twice the displacement of a Mitsubishi Evo or a Subaru STI and put them side by side. There's just no contest about which is the better car. Research and development made that happen, because it had to. We demanded high performance and good gas mileage and cleaner cars - and we got it all. Now a whole new generation of better, cleaner cars is on the way, and that’s good news for driving enthusiasts as well as environmentalists.