AFP - Wednesday, January
16
Green-car market
battle lines drawn at Detroit Motor Show
DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - - The Detroit Motor Show has put a
spotlight on the looming battle for supremacy in the fast-growing
market for green cars, especially between US and Asian auto
makers.
With a rise in worldwide concern over global warming and soaring
oil prices, carmakers from every country have accelerated their
investments into producing cars with improved fuel efficiency and
reduced harmful emissions.
The whole range of new green car technologies is on show at the
annual Detroit exposition, the world's biggest auto show: standard
hybrids, plug-in hybrids, electric motors, fuel cell vehicles, and
flex-fuel engines that will burn biofuels like ethanol and even
fuel made from urban waste.
New green car technologies are a "business necessity and an
obligation for society," said General Motors chief Rick Wagoner
during previews of the show, which opens to the public from January
19 to January 27.
"The demand for energy around the world is growing faster than
supply," he said. "We need to develop alternative sources of
propulsion." Wagoner called for the US government to accelerate
construction of the infrastructure necessary to support an entire
new generation of environmentally-sensitive vehicles.
Among the US auto manufacturers, GM has launched an offensive in
the green car market -- even as it has joined the others in
resisting tighter regulations on emissions.
In Detroit, GM announced that it would launch a plug-in hybrid as
soon as 2010 -- the Saturn Vue sports utility vehicle -- and also
by the same date offer a fully electric car, the Chevy Volt, after
an abortive first try in 2003.
Chrysler, slow to get on the green bandwagon, has presented three
prototype green cars in Detroit. And Ford announced two hybrids for
the end of 2008 and the accelerated development of cars with better
fuel economy by 2012.
But all of them face the formidable Japanese giant Toyota -- now
the number two auto-seller in the US market, after GM and ahead of
Ford.
Toyota has stolen a strong lead in the green car market with its
hybrid Prius, now on the market for ten years.
In Detroit, Toyota presented its new rechargeable hybrid, and
announced projects to develop other clean-auto technologies.
Still up for grabs is the half of the US market that is dominated
by inefficient, polluting SUVs and pick-up trucks -- segments which
have proven extremely profitable for US carmakers.
The Detroit show made clear that all carmakers, especially Asian
companies, are working on clean diesel, hybrid and flex-fuel
versions of their SUVs and trucks.
Even China, with its ambition to get a foothold in the US auto
market, has introduced sedan and SUV models, developed by their own
research teams with the backing of Japanese or other foreign
partners.
The promise and challenge of the green market comes as US
manufacturers struggle to get back on their feet after sweeping
losses and retrenchments.
Ford announced that its plan to return to profitability in 2009 was
progressing well, while GM said it would reap the benefits of its
efforts, and Chrysler talked up its own progress.
But all the excitement about the US market pales in the face of the
looming economic slowdown and possibly recession in 2008, a result
of higher oil costs, the crash of the real estate market and the
resulting fallout in the banking sector.
Both US and Japanese automakers said 2008 would be difficult with
contracting demand.
But European builders remained relatively optimistic for 2008 in
the United States, with attractive new models in both the mini-car
and luxury segments, and a rising demand for their diesel cars.