Small and green in Detroit

The 2008 North American International Auto Show is being held at Detroit from Jan 13 to Jan 27. It will be open to the general public from the 19th.

The history of the show:
The first auto show occurred in Detroit in 1907 at Beller's Beer Garden at Riverside Park and was held there every year except 1943-1952. It was renamed the North American International Auto Show in 1989. Since 1961, it has been held at Cobo Center where it occupies 1 million square feet of floor space. The show is particularly important because the Metro Detroit area is the location of the headquarters of the Big Three American automakers, Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors.

Given the efforts of car makers to produce hybrids, keeping in mind climate change, and the requirements of the new energy bill, the themes for this year's auto show are "small and green":
Small and green

LAND Rover has unveiled a bold new diesel-electric hybrid concept at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The LRX, a sleek sport utility vehicle, promises to get 50 miles per gallon of petrol.

“We’ve got to make sure if we are moving into a different segment with a different type of Land Rover, that we actually produce a vehicle that people want to buy,” said Popham.
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Earlier this month, Ford named Indian automaker Tata Motors as the top bidder both Land Rover and Jaguar, replacing the other two bidders, Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra and U.S. private equity firm One Equity Partners, as most likely purchaser.

Tata Motors announced a new small car of their own in Delhi last week – the Nano –- which will be the cheapest production car in the world , as part of an aggressive strategy for expansion that included its largest ever presence at the Delhi Auto Expo, showcasing a new range of 17 models of cars, utility vehicles, trucks and buses at the 5200-square meter Tata-Fiat pavillion.

“Our expectation is that if we are sold, the purchaser would be investing in the business based on the business plan that the board has presented to them,” Popham said after unveiling the white concept vehicle. “That includes the opportunity for this car.”

The concept comes at a time when many major manufacturers are looking to produce smaller vehicles, and the motoring industry as a whole is moving gradually towards a greener agenda. BMW has unveiled its first diesel-powered vehicles for the US market, the 335d coupe and X5 xDrive35d sport utility vehicle.

Toyota announced plans to offer a plug-in hybrid to compete with GM’s electric Chevy Volt – both are set to hit the road in 2010 – and promised to introduce two new dedicated hybrids at next year’s Detroit Auto Show.

Honda unveiled the FCX Clarity fuel-cell powered sedan, which will be leased to a limited number of customers in California later this year, and vowed to increase hybrid sales to 10 per cent of its global volume by 2010. And even Ferrari has a biofuel vehicle on display – the F430 Spider.

The LRX is one of a number of ambitious concept vehicles which will be presented to the public for the first time when the motor show in Detroit opens on Saturday, January 19.

More on the cheapest production car in the world, whose price has not been given above, see the Tata Nano:

Tata’s $2,500 Nano car may not have been unveiled at the Detroit auto show, but that didn’t stop it from being the talk of the show. Auto executives said the car could have far-reaching impact. Ford’s head of Asia Pacific, John Parker, certainly thinks so.

“It is a groundbreaking product,” Parker told reporters. The car will “cause people to think differently about the car. I have a lot of respect for Tata.”

Calyon Securities analyst Mark Warnsman in a research note released during the show pointed out that the Nano took its bow this month in India almost 100 years after Ford revolutionized the global auto industry with the Model T car.

“Will the Nano revolutionize the global auto industry in the way that the Model T originally did? In brief, our answer is no, but there are a number of aspects of the Nano that we do find interesting,” he said.

“The Nano may not be revolutionary in its technology, but it is state-of-the-art in the way it has tweaked existing technologies to target an as-yet untapped segment of the market,” Warnsman added. “For this, it will be worthy of study, and imitation, by automobile manufacturers everywhere.”
Nissan executive vice president Carlos Tavares was very interested in the Nano’s reception last week. The Japanese automaker, along with partner Renault and India’s Bajaj Auto Ltd, is studying whether it can profitably develop a $3,000 car to rival the Nano.

“We’re very excited to see the reception that the Nano got,” Tavares told Reuters. “It’s very impressive. Hopefully they will deliver on the promise, and of course we will benchmark against the Nano.”

Other executives heard talking about the impact of the Nano, which will be offered in India later this year, included General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz and AutoNation CEO Michael Jackson.

For more on the Tata Nano, its technical specifications and how it was built, see the very small car!