/ 11 January 2007

Avant-garde autos hint at the future

A new electric vehicle, dramatic design cues from staid Asian automakers and space-age innovations sharpened the industry’s cutting edge at the 100th annual Detroit motor show.

The historic show took bolder strides into the 21st century while keeping an eye on the need to woo hard-to-please car buyers with less futuristic changes.

The Chevrolet Volt amounted to a mea culpa by General Motors (GM), which a decade ago earned scorn for abandoning a previous electric vehicle despite investing heavily in the project.

Since the ill-fated EV1, the world’s biggest automaker has lost valuable terrain to Japanese makers such as Toyota and Honda in the fast-growing market for hybrid vehicles.

The electric motors used in the GM car draw their energy from lithium-ion batteries that can be recharged from an ordinary wall socket — useful if you have your own driveway but less so if you live in an apartment block.

The motors need recharging roughly every 64km, which GM says is plenty for the 80% of American commuters who live less than that distance from their place of work. A small internal-combustion engine will extend the vehicle’s range to 1 024km for longer trips.

Global Insight auto analyst Rebecca Lindland said the Volt is three to five years away from production, depending on how quickly GM can get its technology partners to come up with a viable lithium-ion battery.

The car is a “truly exciting” concept to emerge at the Detroit show, compared with some of the “outrageous flights of fancy” presented by Ford, she added.

Ford, which is in even worse financial and sales shape than GM, won plaudits for its menacing Interceptor, a concept sports sedan that the company says “celebrates the best of American muscle”.

But observers were puzzled by Ford’s “Airstream” concept, inspired by the iconic, silver motor homes made by the Airstream company.

Featuring a hydrogen-powered hybrid engine, Ford said the car harks back to the future envisaged in Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, complete with a lava lamp to illuminate the extraterrestrial interior.

“Ford needs to show a grip on reality. It doesn’t have the luxury of fantasy concepts like the Airstream,” Lindland said.

Hydrogen engines

Hydrogen engines, which emit only water vapour, were also on show in new models of BMW’s top-of-the-range “7” series.

Ford did win industry nods for unveiling a new partnership with Microsoft to install “Sync” voice-activated software in 12 Ford models this year.

Using English, Spanish or French, drivers will be able to call out contacts to ring from their cellphone’s address book, or tell the car which song they want to play from their Apple iPod or Microsoft Zune player.

But Ford did not announce pricing for Sync, and JD Power analyst Jeff Schuster questioned whether “the average customer will have the know-how to use it”.

Elsewhere on the technology front, Japanese parts maker Denso showed off a system that can wake up a drowsy driver with a blast of cold air and an alarm.

Infrared lights ensure the driver’s eyelids stay open, and cardiovascular grips on the steering wheel measure his or her heartbeat. Denso hopes to launch the system in Japan in 2012.

Also from Japan, Honda shed its image as a dependable but dull carmaker with a concept coupé version of its best-selling Accord. Mazda wowed the crowds with the swooping lines of its “Ryuga” concept.

Toyota showed it means to compete with the resurgent GM by showing a high-performance hybrid model called the FT-HS.

Kia, another carmaker saddled with a staid image, unveiled its stunning “Kue” concept — derived from the word “cue” to denote the budget South Korean company’s upscale ambitions. — AFP