It’s a Gas--Not : Burbank Holds Expo for Alternative-Fuel Vehicles
From a Chevrolet fueled by a mixture of garbage and cheese whey to an electric-powered Porsche, makers of alternative-fuel vehicles will show off their wares today in what is billed as the nation’s first all-non-gasoline-powered auto show.
AlTransEx ‘92, or the Alternative Transportation Exposition, which continues through Sunday at the Burbank Airport Hilton convention center, features more than 60 cars, trucks and buses that run on methanol, natural gas, hydrogen, propane, electricity or ethanol.
Eight of the companies will be offering test rides to the public. Many of their vehicles are available for purchase now in Southern California, according to Sanford Feldman, who produced the exposition.
Car makers’ interest in alternative-fuel vehicles has intensified in recent years, particularly in Southern California, where tough state and federal regulations designed to reduce vehicle air pollution will start taking effect in 1994.
Most stringent are state regulations that by 1998 require at least 2% of all major auto makers’ fleets sold in Southern California--about 40,000 cars--to be zero-emission vehicles. By 2003, 10%, or about 200,000 vehicles, will have to meet the requirement. These vehicles almost certainly will be powered by electricity, or perhaps hydrogen.
But vehicles operating on other alternative fuels, which create lower emissions than gasoline, will have a substantial role under the new regulations.
Exhibitors at this weekend’s show range from Detroit’s Big Three auto makers to tiny companies that convert existing gasoline models to run on alternate fuels.
General Motors is showing off the Impact, which was designed by Monrovia-based AeroVironment Inc., likely to be the first mass-produced electric passenger car. GM says it plans to put the car on sale--with a less crash-prone name--in the mid-1990s. Southern California Edison says GM has advised the utility to have recharging stations and other services available by Jan. 1, 1995.
Ford’s Ecostar electric van, also on display, will be available in limited quantities for fleet purchases in 1993.
Chrysler Corp. will display a Plymouth Acclaim that runs on methanol.
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Most of the cars now for sale sport conventional auto bodies but engines converted to run on alternative fuels, some of which are highly unconventional. One GM Lumina runs on ethanol produced from garbage and cheese whey.
Other conversions include a Porsche that runs on electricity, displayed by Green Motor Works of North Hollywood, which recently opened the first sales and service operation for electric cars in the Los Angeles area.
One alternative-fuel vehicle that won’t be at the show is the much-vaunted LA301, winner of a $7-million contest sponsored by Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. CleanAir Transport, a company that promised to deliver thousands of the electric cars to the Los Angeles market beginning this year, has foundered.
