THE main hall of the Detroit auto show has long been a place of Machiavellian maneuvers, with powerful carmakers defending their prime turf while banishing the weak and the weird to Cobo Center’s basement.
But this year at the North American International Auto Show — with brands like Pontiac, Saturn and Saab dead or dying, and high-end manufacturers like Porsche, Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin staying away — the main hall suddenly had room for Chinese hybrids, Korean electrics and other “green” cars whose makers invariably billed themselves as visionaries.
The mass-market automakers left standing soldiered on, determined to do something to revive morale for the beaten-down industry. And this year’s show certainly improved on last year’s grim spectacle, which was followed by General Motors’ and Chrysler’s plunge into bankruptcy and government bailouts.
Modestly optimistic that sales have bottomed, the gathered companies could again perform their trickiest balancing act: hedging their green bets so they devote neither too few resources, nor too many, to technologies that could save, distract or bankrupt them, depending on how they roll the dice.
For example, judging from the prominence of the 37,000-square-foot Electric Avenue exhibit, an observer might think that most Americans buy hybrids, or that electric cars exist beyond golf-course communities and a handful of upper-crust garages.
The cold reality, which G.M. and Chrysler in particular must acknowledge as they seek to serve customers, shareholders, employees — and now government overseers — is that nearly 98 percent of Americans choose conventional internal-combustion cars. Hybrids, which still have gasoline engines, account for most of the rest.
Yet despite the need to sell many more cars in 2011 and beyond, automakers large and small seemed to agree that dazzling, affordable battery vehicles are what’s required to rescue the industry, save the planet and get average people excited about cars again.
Adopting that auto-show story line, automakers took turns declaring a desire to seize electric-car leadership. Jesse Toprak, vice president for industry trends at TrueCar.com, a consumer Web site, said automakers’ environmental efforts seem increasingly sincere, driven in part by tough fuel economy standards to take full effect in 2016.
The strategy is, “If I’m forced to produce these green cars, let’s figure out a way to make money and make a splash,” Mr. Toprak said.
But winning the lead role at auto shows doesn’t guarantee stardom in the showroom, especially if gas prices remain tolerable. Most of the production-ready hybrids shown in Detroit will arrive too late to lift near-term sales, Mr. Toprak said. Perhaps counterintuitively, a sales recovery for full-size pickups and crossover S.U.V.’s would be more crucial to an industry rebound, he said.
“The reality is that what makes money is still bigger cars and internal combustion engines,” he said.
Over two days of dirt-dry press previews largely bereft of the old Motown razzle-dazzle — obligatory dance routines at VW and Mini, and the rapper Nelly posing with a custom Mustang were as far as it went — automakers delivered a small batch of significant cars.
Sergio Marchionne, the casual-Fridays boss of Fiat and Chrysler — perhaps the world’s most watched auto executive as he leads Chrysler’s latest turnaround effort — took a Congressional delegation including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a professorial tour.
Mr. Marchionne could well have skipped the catch-all Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Fiat exhibits, where not a single new model was formally introduced.
Although Chrysler used to roll out crowd-pleasing concept cars, Audi seems to have taken up that glamorous mantle, delivering the delights that any car-absorbed teenager expects at an auto show: the E-Tron electric sports car concept and two production models, the redesigned A8 flagship sedan and the hedonistic $175,000 R8 Spyder.
G.M.’s chairman, Edward Whitacre Jr., was walking the show floor when he responded to a reporter’s questions. The Congressional delegation, he said, “sat in our cars, and they liked what they saw.” Asked what message he would deliver to Washington, he didn’t hesitate, “We’re going to sell a lot of cars, and we’re going to pay you back.”
That’s a sentiment, at least the payback part, that Toyota lovers wouldn’t argue with — at least until automakers are healthy enough to fight over every square inch of Cobo once again.
Here are some of the notable production cars introduced in Detroit:
FORD FOCUS The long-awaited European-market Focus could end up being the best small car ever from Detroit. On sale in early 2011, the Focus looks smashing as either a sedan or four-door hatchback. This global Focus brings the sophisticated design and engineering that have become common in European compacts, with a 2-liter direct-injection 4-cylinder engine; a 6-speed dual-clutch automated manual; and an upscale interior with the new MyFord Touch system, which uses voice recognition or touch screens to manage cellphones and controls for audio, navigation and climate. Ford has promised an electric Focus in 2011; enthusiasts can expect a turbocharged EcoBoost version.
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