Auto Show Sees Green Cars of the Future

Auto Show Sees Green Cars of the Future





January 2009 - Automakers will be putting 
their greenest wheels forward at this year's North American International 
Auto Show, using a new indoor track that lets attendees drive or ride in 
the new concept cars. 
After a $17.4 billion loan package for two of the big three U.S. 
automakers extended by the U.S. government in December, it is important 
for the companies to show they can keep pace with recent demand for 
fuel-efficient, low-emission cars. 
The new ride and drive element highlighting the green future of the 
automotive industry added to the show by the Michigan Economic Development 
Corporation is nicknamed the MEDC EcoXperience. 
It will allow the press and members of the public to experience the latest 
in technology instead of being merely passive observers as in years past. 
Show organizers have set aside 70,000 square feet of floor space and have 
built a natural setting inside the Cobo Center exhibit hall to enliven the 
Michigan EcoXperience. The 700-foot-long oval driving track is surrounded 
by about 100 trees and features two ponds with waterfalls.

Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mitsubishi, Tesla and Toyota will showcase 
their latest concept vehicles on the track. 
North American International Auto Show Executive Director Rod Alberts 
said, "This year's NAIAS is historic in its impact on the global economy. 
No other time is more critical for the nearly 6,000 international 
journalists of the world to see the future and strategy of the automotive 
industry."
 
"The MEDC EcoXperience is the best way for automakers to bring to life the 
vehicles that have been on their drawing boards and could be in consumer 
garages very soon," Alberts said. 
The MEDC EcoXperience is intended to showcase what progress the global 
automotive industry is making in the realm of alternative propulsion 
technology.
 
Automakers will share current and future modes of alternative propulsion 
technology on the MEDC EcoXperience course with the vehicles available for 
press test drives.
 
Visitors on public days will be able to experience the track with rides 
chauffeured by either professional drivers or product specialists. 
The course design will allow vehicles up to and including full-size SUV 
hybrids to be driven in the MEDC EcoXperience. In order to ensure the 
safety of participants, a 10 mph speed limit will be enforced and 
crash-barriers will be installed around the perimeter. 
Lisa Dansock, vice president of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. 
said, "To be able to prove to the world that research and development is 
thriving is a clear sign to the public, the legislature and the world that 
while the industry is being cost efficient, it is not willing to mortgage 
its future by being short-sighted."
 
She said, "Alternative powers and innovation do exist and the MEDC 
EcoXperience is proof."
 
The North American International Auto Show will be held January 11 through 
25 at Cobo Center in Detroit. The press preview will be held January 11 
through 13, and the industry preview takes place January 14 and 15. 
The annual black-tie Charity Preview gala will be held Friday evening, 
January 16.
 
Public Days will be held Saturday, January 17 through Sunday January 25. 
In April, Detroit will host The Society of Automotive Engineers annual 
meeting where engineers will focus on combating climate change by finding 
the best balance between reduced emissions, efficiency, safety, 
performance and cost.
 
The theme of the 2009 SAE conference, hosted by Honda, is Racing to Green 
Mobility. 

"Racing to Green Mobility is a challenge to the industry and to each of us 
as individual engineers to act and take responsibility for a goal we all 
share - ensuring the survival of our planet," Masaaki Kato, president of 
Honda R&D Co., Ltd. and the chairman of the 2009 World Congress told the 
NAIAS official publication "Showtalk."
 
Kato said, "Through SAE the entire industry can work together even as we 
compete with one another to address our common goal of reducing the 
greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change."





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