Many Cars, Many Truths

DETROIT

Automotive exhibits, such as the North American International Auto Show here, represent a collection of truths. The temptation, for reasons of easier public consumption, is to present them as one theme. But that approach speaks more to marketing than it does to accuracy.

It is better to examine truths separately, an exercise facilitated in this instance by the more than 750 vehicles, concepts and production models on display in cavernous Cobo Center.

Each vehicle speaks to a different reality. We'll use this limited space to examine those speaking the loudest this year at the 100th anniversary of the Detroit show.

Truth: The world's car companies are global enterprises with global intelligence. They are run by people who are well aware that oil is a finite resource being depleted by rapidly growing global demand. Most of their cars and trucks run on fossil fuels. The survival of their businesses depends on the development, design, manufacture and sale of publicly acceptable automobiles that use less of the stuff.

General Motors' concept Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car and Mercedes-Benz's Smart ForTwo city car get the most attention here.

The Volt is an attractive family car with a lithium-ion battery that can be charged at home or office on a standard 110-volt circuit. When fully charged, electric power alone can drive the car 40 miles before a three-cylinder, fossil-fuel engine starts to generate more electricity.

Huge amounts of recyclable materials -- plastic derived from discarded water bottles, for example -- are used in the Volt, thus increasing its environmental friendliness. How? Each Volt car would represent the equivalent of 400 plastic water bottles not going into a landfill somewhere.

Suppliers, such as General Electric, have come up with interesting weight-reducing solutions, such as taking the pounds out of the Volt's transparent canopy by using a polycarbonate plastic (GE's trademarked Lexan) coated with a thin layer of glass. The Lexan canopy weighs 50 percent less than glass. Lower weight means the car's gas-electric power system works less and uses less energy.

Success of the Volt and the development and sale of similar models being considered by Ford, Toyota and visionary entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin will depend on the development of an affordable, reliable, robust lithium battery.

It may take five to 10 years to bring the Volt to market. But what is important is that GM, still the biggest car company in the world, has committed to spending billions of dollars to develop the Volt and similar electric vehicles. This column sees that as a very good thing.

The Smart ForTwo from Mercedes-Benz, introduced in 1998, is to be available in the United States in the first quarter of 2008. About 770,000 ForTwo cars have been sold in Europe and Asia. The updated European model on display here is much improved over the original in terms of safety, comfort, ease of use, amenities and appearance. The U.S. version will get those changes as well as a consumer-friendly automatic transmission. Mercedes-Benz plans to bring the Smart ForTwo to the United States at a price competitive with the least expensive Korean car, roughly $11,000 to $15,000.