Gain Without (Mentioning) Pain

By Warren Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 15, 2008

DETROIT

The energy problem facing the United States is best summarized by one question: Is it possible to get consumers to accept changes that require some degree of sacrifice without asking them to sacrifice anything?

Attempts to answer in the affirmative have given us a federal energy policy that demands no consumer participation in energy conservation, either through extra fuel taxes or prescribed actions to be taken.

It has yielded an automotive industry response, amply demonstrated by the vehicles and technological concepts on display here at the huge 2008 North American International Auto Show, that promises to give consumers all of the horsepower and high-performance driving prowess they desire, all of the vehicle size and utility they want, all of the safety and reliability . . . and all of the fuel economy they demand at affordable prices.

"We are shielding consumers from the truth," said a General Motors executive, speaking on background.

What is that truth?

"We can't have an effective fuel conservation policy without asking consumers to give up something. But who wants to be the first car company to tell consumers that?" the GM executive said.

Executives from Ford, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW -- from nearly all of the auto companies exhibiting here -- expressed similar sentiments.

There were a few exceptions. Executives representing super-luxury brands such as Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati, said, quite frankly, that their clientele are unwilling to sacrifice anything for energy conservation and that the companies have no intention of ever asking them to give up anything.

"You have to understand," said Stephan Winkelmann, president and chief executive of Italy's Automobili Lamborghini, "we serve islands of wealth around the world."

Winkelmann said that Lamborghini clients on those "islands of wealth" -- such as the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and wealthy corners of China and Eastern Europe -- "do not share the same concerns about political correctness" possibly held by Lamborghini clients in North America or Western Europe, who might have image problems driving a high-powered, super-expensive car in a political milieu demanding more fuel conservation and more environmental responsibility.

Lamborghini will do what it can to make its cars, in which high-horsepower engines are standard fare and fuel economy is nonexistent, less consumptive. "But we will do absolutely nothing to diminish Lamborghini's super sports-car DNA," designed to yield maximum speed and performance, "and even a certain sound" from Lamborghini exhaust pipes, Winkelmann said.

At Maserati North America, where sales of cars costing from $80,000 to $110,000 were up 56 percent in 2007, similar comments were offered. "We are not a company that makes cars that people have to move up into, such as from a BMW 3-Series to a BMW 5-Series," said James Selwa, MNA president and chief executive. That means Maserati clients seldom worry about low fuel economy.

"We sell well-engineered cars of understated luxury to people who have a lot of money and who value our product," Selwa said.

Mass marketers such as Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Toyota, Chrysler and Volkswagen do not have the luxury of an exclusively wealthy clientele. Their buyers span the economic spectrum. Those buyers are demanding better fuel economy. They also are asking for many of the things taken for granted in luxury-performance models -- power, speed, safety, convenience. On top of that are what might be considered the mass market's more proletarian demands for practicality and utility.

Thus, among the mass marketers exhibiting here, there is product schizophrenia. Ford, for example, unveiled its Verve high-mileage concept cars -- a sedan and a three-door hatchback. Designed by Ford's European arm, the Verve concepts are meant to show Ford's direction in developing small, fuel-efficient cars that supposedly will allow their drivers to go fast but use less fuel in doing so, all the while keeping driver and occupants in contact with the rest of the world via a series of standard and optional telecommunications devices. And, of course, they will be safe.

"This is a very significant car for Ford" that will be available in about two years, said Jim Farley, Ford's group vice president for marketing and communications.

But Ford also introduced a remake of what might be called a very significant truck, the 2009 F-150, for 31 years the best-selling pickup in the United States. Determined to defend its crown against such rivals as the humongous Tundra -- a high-horsepower, consumptive pickup truck produced by otherwise greener-than-thou Toyota -- Ford will offer its new F-150 in 35 different configurations, replete with "class-leading towing and payload capability," Ford officials said.

That means more powerful engines, of course. But trying to meet the twin mass-market demands of more power and more fuel economy, Ford executives promised that the more powerful engines also will deliver higher mileage.

How's that?

Ford and all other car companies exhibiting here, including the super-luxury brands, are investing heavily in lightweight materials and more lightweight engines. Lighter weights reduce fuel consumption. The companies also are spending money on alternative propulsion systems, such as the concept 4.3-liter, 510-horsepower, Pure Power Bio Fuel Ferrari V-8 ("just in case America wants it," said Adam Rowley, vice president of technical services for Ferrari North America). In the exotic cars, materials investments are manifested in expensive items made of titanium and carbon fiber.

Some mass-market cars, usually those at the higher end, are using those materials. But more common in the mass market's pursuit of fuel economy without sacrifice is an approach best described as "saving your cake and eating it too."

Consider Ford's EcoBoost engine technology, which will debut in 2009 on its high-end Lincoln MKS sedan and other models. Lincoln buyers traditionally demand V-8 engines and the power those engines deliver. But V-8 engines are typically heavy, which means they consume more fuel -- not a good thing for Ford and all other mass-market car companies that must meet a new-fleet mileage average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020 under the energy bill Congress approved last year.

The problem is that many Lincoln buyers who might have applauded that energy legislation are the same people who want their new Lincoln cars to have all of the get-up-and-go and luxury of their current automobiles.

EcoBoost technology, which will be applied to Ford's new inline four-cylinder and six-cylinder engines, is engineered to reduce fuel consumption without penalizing power by twinning direct injection of fuel into combustion chambers with supercharging to force more air into the engine. The hoped-for result is more bang per liter of fuel used.

EcoBoost will cost cash-strapped Ford millions. But Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. assured reporters in an interview that his company has protected its research and development fund in its current financial restructuring.

Ford conceded at a dinner meeting that he is worried.

"Now that we've headed down the green road, the worst thing that could happen to us would be to have fuel prices drop," Ford said. "I don't think that's going to happen. I hope that won't happen," because the primary thing driving American consumers toward fuel-efficient cars is higher gasoline prices, Ford said.

On Tuesday, at a meeting here with manufacturers and retailers, Michael J. Jackson, chairman and chief executive of AutoNation USA, the nation's largest auto retail group, will be more succinct.

Jackson will tell the industry what he tried to tell Congress while it was mulling the energy bill that asks consumers to do nothing. He will tell them that America needs to get serious about energy conservation, and that getting serious means asking consumers and everyone involved in the energy development and consumption cycle to accept some degree of sacrifice on behalf of conservation. Here's betting that Jackson's appeal will be accepted here as well as it was in Washington.