2011 Detroit auto show: Fuel efficiency reigns as gasoline heads back up
Hyundai is expected to reveal the 2012 Veloster hatchback for the first time Monday at the 2011 North American International Auto Show. Powertrain testing and calibration on the vehicle was conducted at the company’s technical center in the Ann Arbor area.
Photo courtesy of Hyundai
As gasoline prices edge north of $3 a gallon for the first time in two years, automakers are seeking to convince consumers that they’ve got the most fuel-efficient cars - without giving up styling and high-tech features buyers are starting to expect.
Experts expect the automakers to use the 2011 Detroit auto show to reveal an assortment of electric vehicles, hybrids and fuel-efficient cars with internal combustion engines.
“All the automakers are making an extended effort to try to deliver the same performance with better mileage in a variety of ways, whether it’s a combination of hybridization and electrification or different design,” said Bruce Brownlee, senior administrator for external affairs at the Toyota Technical Center, which employs 1,000 people at its campuses in York Township and Ann Arbor Township.
2011 Detroit auto show
- When: Jan. 10-11 for media; Jan. 12-13 for industry; Jan. 15-23 for the public
- Where: Cobo Center in Detroit
- Tickets: $12 for ages 13 and up; $6 for 65 and older; $6 for ages 7-12; ages 6 and younger are free.
- Vehicles: More than 500 on display, including 30 to 40 vehicles seen for the first time globally.
- Highlights: A new Toyota Prius concept vehicle; a compressed version of a minivan called the Ford C-MAX; the new Buick Verano compact luxury sedan; a new Porsche coupe based on the 918 Spyder; the 40-mile-a-gallon hatchback Hyundai Veloster; a new midsize sedan from Volkswagen.
- Website: www.naias.com
- AnnArbor.com’s coverage: Follow Nathan Bomey’s reports Monday at AnnArbor.com.
That theme underpins the 2011 North American International Auto Show, which kicks off Monday with a show-and-tell for the media and opens to the public Saturday. Some 4,500 journalists are expected to attend the media preview, and automakers are expected to show off 30 to 40 vehicles for the first time. Some 715,000 members of the public attended the show in 2010, and that’s likely to tick upward for the second straight year.
For the most part, the automakers have discarded wild concept vehicles in favor of realistic cars that people can imagine in their garage.
The shift is mostly practical: the automakers want to turn auto show buzz into actual sales. Gone are the days when automakers measured its success purely by the level of media coverage they generated.
That’s not to say there won’t be a few surprises.
But the automakers are generally focused on improving fuel efficiency in internal combustion engine cars, pursuing new alternative propulsion vehicles and integrating electronics and safety features into styled but affordable cars.
“That’s what we see at the auto show - we see things that are really new that are a dream for some of the companies, and then we see some things that are more close to home, like ‘You’re going to see this within two years,’ or, ‘You’re going to see this within one year,’” said Bruce Belzowski, an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute.
Belzowski said the fuel-efficient cars are a direct response to the federal government’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which dictate that average fuel economy for automakers’ entire fleet must reach 34.1 miles-per-gallon by 2016.
“To me, that’s the backdrop for these vehicles,” Belzowski said. “I’m looking at them and saying, ‘What kinds of things are they doing to meet their regulations,’ in particular the Big Three, which tend to be focused more on light trucks.”
Among the cars expected to hog the spotlight at the show:
--Toyota is introducing what it’s calling a “family of vehicles” based on the popular Prius hybrid. The reveal will include a Prius concept vehicle.
--Ford will feature the electric version of the Focus sedan, though the vehicle was to get its first official introduction Jan. 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This car is viewed as Ford’s answer to the extended-electric vehicle Chevrolet Volt and the pure electric Nissan Leaf, long-anticipated vehicles that are now available for sale.
GM is expected to show the Buick Verano to the media for the first time at the 2011 Detroit auto show.
Photo courtesy of GM
--General Motors is expected to feature the 2012 Buick Verano, the brand’s first compact luxury sedan, which will be available in late 2011.
--Hyundai is introducing the Veloster, a hatchback that the automaker says will get 40 miles a gallon on a four-cylinder engine.
The fingerprints of Ann Arbor area engineers are evident on several cars to be displayed at the auto show.
All the powertrain testing and calibration for the Veloster was completed at the 170-person Hyundai Kia America Technical Center in Superior Township, spokesman Dan Bedore said.
Bedore said Hyundai is committed to alternative propulsion vehicles like hybrids and electrics but that the automaker also believes consumers want better fuel economy out of traditionally powered vehicles.
“A focus for Hyundai in particular will be our 40 mile-per-gallon commitment,” Bedore said. “Given the fact that people keep talking about $4 a gallon gas and $5 gallon a gas again, I think the timing is right for that.”
Meanwhile, the Toyota Technical Center in York Township coordinated with electric car startup Tesla Motors to provide engineering to make an electric version of the RAV4 SUV. That car was first revealed at the Los Angeles Auto Show in December but will be on display at the Detroit auto show, as well.
Toyota’s decision to give its U.S. engineers more authority reflects a general trend, Belzowski said.
“When I look at the evolution of what has happened at the Toyota Technical Center, it’s been substantial. They do much more work here than they used to,” Belzowski said. “Basically it was the Japanese gaining confidence that these guys were going to do it the way we do it. I took them years to get to that point, but it did happen.”
Brownlee said the shift has meant more work for the Toyota Technical Center, which also provided engineering for the Venza crossover and other cars in recent years.
“We continue to be asked to take on increasing responsibilities,” he said. “The more that Toyota will be manufacturing in North America we’ll have increased responsibilities for the design, engineering and development of those vehicles.”
Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.
Comments
braggslaw
Mon, Jan 10, 2011 : 7:16 a.m.
Limited regulation? I don't think so, The U.S. Tier 2 Bin 5 and CARB regulations for automobiles are the toughest in the world... tougher than Europe and Japan. Most European diesels cannot be homologated to U.S. emissions without urea SCR. Europe (for financial and competitive reason) has more lenient standards on NOx and particulates. In Italy you will notice the fine diesel dust on many buildings.
Speechless
Sun, Jan 9, 2011 : 5:31 p.m.
Don't know if it will happen sooner rather than later, but at some point in the future the price of gasoline will rise significantly and remain high, not going down later on. As they've done in the past, people in the U.S., together with their leaders in business and government, will express shock and surprise as if there were no long-term warnings that this could ever come to pass. Rather than live — and pollute — for today, with no care about tomorrow, it's time to at least adopt policies that recognize the true costs of energy use and consumption. One immediate goal would be to adopt high use taxes for gas and coal that appropriately cover the major costs of remediating (as best as can be done) the big mess they create in our planet's atmosphere. Instead, industry can freely pollute with only limited regulation, and the government will dutifully clean up afterwards whenever voters become sufficently upset by resulting environmental damage. Just another example of socialism for the rich, and smash-mouth capitalsim for everyone else. Along with universal health care and public education, one of the best possible reallocations for our wasted $700 billion annual military budget would be to divert it toward retrofitting the national economy for lower power usage and clean, renewable energy sources. Letting the allegedly "free market" (no such thing) decide means taking the road to economic ruin due to a near-complete lack of advance planning.
John B.
Sun, Jan 9, 2011 : 5:24 p.m.
@Townie: I'm generally with you, but with two caveats: One, Big ('Murrican, anyways) Oil is technically an Oligopoly (a few very, very, large providers), not a Monopoly (one single provider). Two, the fairly swiftly-increasing crude oil demand from China and India (among others) is putting a ton of upward pressure on Global crude oil prices right now, and will do so for the foresee-able future, so I doubt we'll see any significant decreases in fossil fuel prices here in the US anytime soon (other than the usual Holiday up-and-down games, but those are nickel-and-dime market manipulations, really)....
braggslaw
Sun, Jan 9, 2011 : 4:15 p.m.
Roads are necessary. I would like to see a targetted gas tax for road construction and maintentance. It would serve the purposes of increasing gas to take us off foreign oil and it would not be tied to the general fund so that it could be robbed for political pet projects. The benefit would be that a necessary service is paid for, consumers can decide to buy their vehicles, and the direct connection between use and service would be made. If somebody wants to buy a Suburban with gas at 5 bucks a gallon, that is his decision. Maybe he is towing horses or a camper... I don't care, leave it up to the consumer.
Insightman
Sun, Jan 9, 2011 : 4:02 p.m.
My Honda Insight hybrid was designed in 1998 and can easily achieve 70 mpg. Being the first hybrid sold in the US, it's a rather primitive implemetation of the technology. Isn't it interesting that all these years later, no company has built a car that can surpass its fuel efficiency? Perhaps it's because govenment subsidies and corporate tax breaks keep the price of gas artificially low, encouraging people to purchase large gas-guzzling vehicles. "Let the market decide" doesn't mean anything if the government is altering the factors influencing the market to accommodate special interests.
Townie
Sun, Jan 9, 2011 : 1:32 p.m.
The oil companies, like drug dealers, will make sure the price never becomes high enough to motivate people to buy more fuel efficient cars. Have you ever noticed how just about the time prices get high enough to start people buying fuel efficient cars the price suddenly slides downward again and everyone gets back to 'business as usual'. The oil companies don't want the economics to move us toward fuel efficiency -- and the oil companies aren't a 'free market' - they're a monopoly.
debling
Sun, Jan 9, 2011 : 11:51 a.m.
People by in large make decisions based on financial reasons. Why? Things like feeding your family, planning for retirement, paying your mortgage, etc. are the real priorities to American families. Unless alternative energy vehicles like electric powered cars are priced at a point where they are less costly than competitive alternatives, they will not be adopted by the consumer. This is why the Chevy Volt with it's + $30K pricetag is not likely to be more than a novelty. Now, as long as the cost of pollution is borne by society as a whole, dirty energy technologies from things like coal and oil will always appear the "cheapest". Only when the real cost of damage to the country from CO2 or smog/acid rain is charged back to the offending fuel will alternative energy systems look attractive. Clearly a carbon tax and pollution tax is needed on coal and oil consumption. Until then, the cost for the thousands of dead acidified lakes, health bills and soon to come, coastal floading and lost real estate will be covered by taxpayers and they will keep buying gasoline powered cars.
braggslaw
Sun, Jan 9, 2011 : 10:54 a.m.
Andy, that is absolutey right. The pelosie gerrymandering of the market through CAFE does not work. People will buy what they want and when gas is expensive they won't buy SUV's... Let the market decide.
Soothslayer
Sun, Jan 9, 2011 : 9:56 a.m.
People won't care about conservation until they have or are forced to. Truck and SUV sales beat out all others in 2010 and hybrids are in decline. I can only hope we immediately raise the gas tax to $5 now as an investment in Michigan transportation infrastructure so that when it actually reaches that rate we'll have new nuclear/electric powered transit options available. Low income and working class poor can be issued gas discount cards which mostly eliminate the additional tax so they can stay mobile and work. Sorry urban sprawlers. You should have thought about the ramifications of your decision to supplant farmland for your homes sooner.