Carmakers Taking Two-Track Approach With New Models
The auto industry is being driven in two directions this year as it tries to cash in on very different trends: hybrids and horsepower.
At the North American International Auto Show, which opens here Friday to the public for a 10-day run, carmakers are touting a slew of ecologically friendly gasoline-electric vehicles as well as a host of pedal-to-the-metal gas guzzlers.
For instance, Toyota Motor Corp. executives have talked up their green vehicles -- noting that they plan to add a hybrid engine to their Lexus GS sedan in 2006 -- while displaying a high-performance concept car called the LF-A.
Toyota sources say that if the two-seat LF-A were to go into full production, it would feature the company’s biggest engine ever -- 500 horsepower with eight or 10 cylinders -- and reach a top speed of 200 mph. Its competitors would include Ferraris, Porsches and Aston Martins.
“These shows highlight the schizophrenia of the auto industry,” said Jason Mark, vehicle programs director for the Union of Concerned Scientists. “They trumpet their green image while offering high-performance, inefficient cars to consumers.”
Toyota President Fujio Cho agreed that the industry’s latest products could be seen as “bipolar.”
But the combination of “environmentally friendly vehicles and vehicles that are fun to drive,” he added, simply “reflects customer demand.”
Ford Motor Co. is also playing both sides of the street.
It has promised to introduce four hybrids over the next three years. They will supplement the Ford Escape hybrid sport utility vehicle that the company introduced last summer.
“There will come a time when every car and truck is a hybrid of some sort,” said Mary Ann Wright, hybrid programs chief at Ford, which has vowed to become the industry leader in environmentally friendly vehicles. “People are waking up” to the idea that “we can’t keep trashing our ecology.”
But for all that, Ford is clearly hoping to wow showgoers with raw power.
“Not everybody is interested in hybrids,” said Ford Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. “Some long for the more traditional turn-ons in cars and trucks: horsepower and performance.”
To enter the company’s sprawling display at the Detroit show, viewers pass a row of souped-up 2005 Mustangs with 300-plus-horsepower V-8 engines; the limited-production, 550-horsepower Ford GT; and a gleaming polished-aluminum Shelby GR-1 concept car with 605 horsepower.
“People are competitive,” said performance-car builder and racing great Carroll Shelby. “A powerful car lets you run faster than the other guy.”
The only new “green” idea being highlighted by Ford is its Mercury Meta One diesel-electric concept, mostly suited for European markets.
For some carmakers, the aim seems to be to sell successfully to both hybrid and horsepower fans without offending either. Toyota’s Cho, for example, pointed to the upcoming Lexus RX400h hybrid SUV as an example of straddling both worlds.
Engineers were able to tweak the design so that the RX400h boasts a rating of 268 horsepower -- more oomph even than the gasoline-powered RX330.
Toyota plans to promote the RX400h’s dual personality by advertising that it has the equivalent power of a V-8 engine and yet still gets 28 miles per gallon -- just like a compact sedan.
The goal, Cho said, is to “develop high performance and high fuel economy simultaneously.”
Shelby is also trying to play to these seemingly disparate elements. Besides helping design the GR-1 -- capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in less than four seconds -- he has a hand in Hydrogen Car Co., a Los Angeles enterprise that hopes to develop autos powered by clean, renewable energy.
“It’s a big balancing act,” Shelby said, “to get to where you can have sensible cars that also excite people.”
