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THAT'S SHOW BUSINESS
Page 48
Page 49
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What connects cows, Kim Cattrall and Koreans? The 2008 North American International Auto Show, as Oliver Dixon discovers.
IL's mid-morning on a bleak January Sunday in Detroit, Michigan, a city much favoured by producers of disaster films because they on't need to spend much on dressing the set. t's a parky old place, boasting an ambient ..mperature a long way south of freezing, and :M is here for the 2008 North American nternational Auto Show (NAIAS).At the loment, we're watching a herd of Longhorn attle meandering up Washington Boulevard. This is a photo opportunity for the latest warnation of the Dodge Ram, and the more pecies-aware among the automotive press are ttempting to establish what it all means. exan cattle from Oklahoma are being driven p a street in Michigan by a group of people in ,eriod dress —attire that can hardly be [escribed as suitable for the occasion as it is ow slightly colder than an ex-mother-in-law's mbrace out here — in order to celebrate the 3unch of a pickup.
Some poor sap from a Korean news agency 3trying to make sense of it all, We suggest he hould he impressed hy the cattle's braven,'; Laving once sauntered down Washington loulevard in pursuit of some Marlboro Lights.
it's a journey we wouldn't undertake again.
And then the inevitable happens.Two of the beasts decide to get it on, and as three tonnes of performing cow start doing the mambo in front of a rather stone-faced corporate America,so Jim Press, Chrysler's vice chairman and president utterslhe immortal instruction: "OK, OK —please look at the truck."
Balance sheet
This is a mantra likely to be oft repeated over the next few months. Look at the products, not the balance sheet. Chrysler is now a scion of American private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management as opposed to a stain on Stuttgart's balance sheet, and, rumour has it, the corporate accounts do not move without a retinue bearing a three-phase defibrillator in close attendance.
It would be nice to report that Dr Dieter Zetsche, chairman of DaimlerAG, gave his address from the newly single Daimler stand while waving a wad of Euros at his ex across the way— but if he did, we missed it. What we don't miss is the announcement that MercedesBenz is to introduce BlueTec-diesel-equipped versions of the RI„M and GL-class passenger cars, adding to the already launched E-class BlueTec, and providing further evidence of Daimler's commitment to SCR in the US.
While Chrysler tries to avoid bovine carnality outside, Zetsche employs some rather more two-legged nudge-nudge stuff inside, with the surprise appearance of Liverpool's favourite
50-something starlet Kim Cat trail, who says of the new M-B Vision GLK Freeside:1 love its masculinity,its assertive qualities, the bulges in all the right places. It's a tight little package.
Snorts of derision
An environmentally friendly Hummer seems a contradiction in terms, but that's the spin on the Hummer HX, an E85-compatible hasbeen powered by a 3.8-litre V6 running on a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% petrol. Once the snorts of derision subside, General Motors (GM) CEO Rick Waggoner also announces that the company has taken a piece of Coskata, a company that can process virtually any source material, including municipal waste or used tyres, into ethanol. GM seems to be getting serious about biofuels, and even demonstrated a corn-fuelled Corvette.
Despite losing S205 a second in 2006,1;ord is still in the automotive business. Ii did rather well in 2007,cutting its losses by $9.9bn (L5.1hn), and bits of it even made money. It launched a 2009 version of its venerable F150 pickup at this year's show—to an ambivalence that seemed to echo through most of Michigan—and. slightly ironically, went big on the Land Rover LRX hybrid concept. We say slightly ironically because it's Land Rover that seems to be the profitable bit of Ford. and, as we speak,Tata chairman Ratan Tata is busy eyeing up JLR.
As is often the case at Detroit, it's to the foreign players that one has to look for some real idea of the future.The Chinese have attended NAIAS for three years now and seem to get more inscrutable every January. Take Geely for example; this year, it showed off a London Taxi Cab — built under licence — but otherwise no clear plans for the future.
It's a different deal at Toyota though, where at last we find something that might bear some relevance to the UK: the A-BAT,or Advanced Breakthrough AeroTruck. First impressions suggest Honda's Ridgeline design team might have been moonlighting at the Toyota design office in California, but peer beneath the skin and it's all about Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive.
It's easy to dismiss hybrids as the preserve of the well meaning, but they don't seem to be going away.When a company the size of Toyota hangs its hat on a technology,you'd do well to pay attention. It's a rare observation to make, but the US is now blazing a trail with hybrid vehicles—from Wal-Mart's Class 8 Peterbilt ti the Prius, the things are catching on.
Which leads us to ask whether or not hybric technology is a truly,single, global technology If it will play in the US, then it's going to play anywhere, and it seems reasonable to expect more hybrid light CVs to emerge on this side of the Atlantic in the none-too-distant.As to whether the argument extends through to European heavy trucks, that is open to debah — but one thing is certain. Hybrids are now very much of the mainstream.
So there you have it. Detroit's over for another year.The Big Three remain in the recovery position and the posturing goes on regardless. Plus ca change. •