Green is the Theme at Washington Auto Show

11 February 2010 No Comment

The 2010 Mercedes Benz gullwing.

The 2010 version of the Washington Auto Show – its 68th – was entitled “Change Happens Here” and ran from Jan. 27 to 31 at the D.C. Convention Center. Its title was an apt description of the show, with the current emphasis of the federal government on energy and environmentalism and its large ownership of General Motors.

As has been the trend the last few years, the show emphasized the green aspects of new vehicles and built on last year’s show, which was entitled “Driven by the Environment.” Another year of research and development of green vehicles has led to the predicted introduction of a number of them in 2010.

Though the number of green vehicles on display increased and the show’s chairman Charles Stringfellow remarked, “You’ll see more green cars here than at any other tier-one auto show in America,” the show still had a wide range of autos, trucks, SUVs and minivans on display.
There were luxury autos from makers such as Rolls Royce, Mercedes, BMW and Jaguar, and trucks such as the huge pickups from Toyota and Ram (Dodge) to the small Connect trucks and vans from Ford.

There were small cars soon to be introduced, like the Ford Fiesta and Focus, the Mazda2, and the Chevy Cruze, and high-powered vehicles like the Ferrari, Chevy Corvette, Audi R8, Camaro, Challenger and the Nissan GTR. New SUVs included the mammoth Lincoln MKT with three seats.
Fiat, with its new ownership of Chrysler, even made a brief appearance with the Fiat 500, its hotrod Fiat Abarth and an electric vehicle based on the 500.

Green vehicles were included in the Advanced Technology SuperHighway area, which was set up in coordination with Federal Government agencies such as the EPA, DOT and the Dept. of Energy. It featured displays on bio-fuels, diesel, petroleum, ethanol, natural gas, safety, hydrogen and electric. Vehicles featured included the Nissan Leaf, Nissan’s electric vehicle scheduled for a late 2010 debut, various diesel vehicles like the Audi A3 TDI, the Wheego electric car, the Mercedes Fuel Cell car, the frame and power train of the Chevy Volt, the Fiat electric car and various utility vehicles.

Still, the number of vehicles on display had decreased from previous years, resulting in more open space and additional dining space. Vehicle makers that chose not to exhibit included Infiniti, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Suzuki, Range Rover and makes that are slowly disappearing, such as Saturn and Pontiac. Even Toyota’s recent poor financial results were reflected in no big Toyota contest, like the “Hands-On” and dancing contests of recent years.

There were, however, the usual additional guests, including Washington Redskins cheerleaders, Washington Capital hockey players, World Wrestling superstars Batista and Randy Orton, Raheem Devaughn, sports mascots and Max the Magician, as well as Rock-It the Robot and Dora the Explorer for the younger set.

The show again had two public policy days before it officially opened to the public. The first day included a two-hour Green Car Summit on Capitol Hill, featuring public policy, “clean” transportation and industry panelists, including Steven Jacoby, CEO of Volkswagen of America, newly headquartered in Herndon, VA.

The second public policy day was held at the D.C. Convention Center and featured manufacturer presentations plus an expanded list of smaller company presentations as well as an address by the U.S. environmental protection administrator Lisa Jackson.

Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford, gave an exuberant keynote talk on the second day entitled “The Ford Story” and then answered questions. He mentioned that Ford has decreased its number of nameplates from 97 to 20, and has seen its market share increase in 14 of the last 15 months.

Ford will build the 2011 Ford Focus in a current truck plant in Michigan. Its smaller Ford Fiesta will debut in the U.S. in a few months. Ford has been working on concerns such as energy security, mileage, regulations and a comprehensive energy policy.

In an answer to a question concerning Ford’s situation versus General Motors and Chrysler, which have had previous debt wiped out, Mulally said that in contrast Ford has continued to operate and has honored its bondholders, shareholders and dealers. It has kept investing, has a viable cost structure in place, and has kept producing.

Ford is developing two power trains as an interim solution to future electrification and plans to launch all-electric Focus and Connect models. Ford will use Lincoln to compete against other luxury brands and will use Mercury as its focus for smaller vehicle development and production.
George Starke, a former Redskin Hog and former Ford dealer, made some remarks that might be of interest to the NOVA automotive department. He said that finding competent technicians had been a big problem at his dealership and was the reason that he had started a technicians’ training school.

Other manufacturer presentations were made by Chevrolet in its “Gas Friendly to Gas Free” talk, Mercedes on its vehicle safety development, BMW on American experiences with its electric vehicles, Mazda on its research and development and Nissan on its Leaf electric car.

Interesting information from the second public policy day included Chevy announcing that it would develop the motors for electric cars within the company and surprisingly the manufacture of three new small cars in the U.S., though perhaps not so surprising considering that GM’s major shareholder is based in Washington D.C. Previously most of these vehicles were built in Asia for cost reasons.

The Chevy Spark, the smallest car, is to be built in the U.S. in late 2011; the Chevy Cruze, the Cobalt replacement, is to be built in Lordstown, Ohio later in 2010, and the Chevy Aveo, the middle-size car of the three, is to be built in Michigan in 2011. Chevy’s General Manager Jim Campbell announced that the Chevy Volt will be launched later this year-first in D.C., California, and Michigan. Lisa Jackson, the EPA Administrator, spoke on the “Launch of the Advanced Technology SuperHighway.”

Speakers from smaller concerns included Ricardo on its technology for efficient and low-emissions flex-fuel vehicles, Wheego on its electric cars, THINK on its city electric cars, and Salvatore Scuderi on the family developed Scuderi Cycle engine which holds the promise for efficiency gains of up to 50 percent with up to 80 percent less toxic emissions compared to a conventional four-cycle engine.