Detroit show marks a trend toward green

The Detroit Auto Show has been a pillar of the automotive industry since its inception in… The Detroit Auto Show has been a pillar of the automotive industry since its inception in 1907, but it hasn’t made an effort to go green until just recently.

Each year, companies show off their new creations to adoring automotive fans or make themselves known to the newcomers.

Big-name companies like Porsche and Rolls-Royce always attract a crowd of people wishing they could afford the luxury and the power, and General Motors, Chrysler and Ford display their concept vehicles to foreshadow a high-speed future.

Before the increase in gas prices, the auto show had showcased some of the largest, most powerful cars available for the road: The fact that their engines guzzled gas took a backseat to the fact that they could accelerate from zero to 60 in a ridiculously small amount of time or that they could seat 12 people comfortably.

This year’s auto show, however, displayed the anxiety of the average automotive consumer and how the automobile manufacturers are attempting to quell concerns.

Detroit displayed the greener aspects of the future’s automotive concepts.

You might think that automotive companies are attempting to push hydrogen-fuel-cell designs to eliminate emissions.

This was the case a little while ago: General Motors vowed to concentrate more on hydrogen, instead of going in the same direction as Honda and Toyota by making hybrids.

Because of market pressures, however, General Motors came out with hybrid versions of its Chevy Tahoe and announced the planning of the Volt – a smaller, plug-in hybrid.

Despite this slight turnaround of G.M.’s position, the company still seemed fascinated with the possibility of developing a viable, commercially available, hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicle line.

Instead of showcasing hybrid technology, many companies displayed their passions for an additional type of alternative fuel, biodiesel.

Put simply, biodiesel is created from the oils of formerly living materials. In other words, biodiesel is made out of animal fat or plant oils.

In this country, biodiesel is created commonly from corn – to us, it’s known as E85 ethanol. The excitement comes primarily from the increasing success biodiesels have seen in Europe, in response to Europe’s rocketing petroleum prices.

Many cars on the streets of London and Paris proudly wear the seal of biodiesel ability, and European car companies have increasingly been touting the reduction in overall carbon-dioxide emissions that tends to go hand in hand with biodiesel consumption.

This is an excellent step in the United States, isn’t it? Shouldn’t American car companies, in addition to companies like Honda and Toyota – both of which have strong footholds in the American automotive market – be seriously considering and investing in biodiesel? Biodiesel has its limitations in the United States, unfortunately.

First of all, biodiesel in the United States is produced using corn.

Corn is a relatively inefficient plant because it requires large amounts of fossil-fuel consumption to successfully harvest it, not to mention a large amount of real estate in order to grow it.

When refinement and transportation are taken into account, it can be argued that more energy and fuss go into creating E85 Ethanol for U.S. drivers than ever is reclaimed in engine combustion.

There have been numerous proposals to derive biodiesel from sources already available.

For example, engines have been created that are able to run on the refuse from fast food chains.

In addition to being renewable, the energy source gives these cars a pleasant French-fry smell wherever they go. Companies have started providing biodiesel to select customers around their operating bases.

Still, for the majority of the U.S. market, driving on French-fry oil isn’t a viable option.

E85 Ethanol also has the drawback of being burned slightly less efficiently than traditional gasoline. America’s biodiesel supply, therefore, would actually reduce fuel efficiency in the cars designed to burn it.

What does all of this mean for the American car companies?

Perhaps the Detroit Auto Show is an indication that American car companies are attempting to go down the wrong path.

Unless additional technology comes along that allows the United States to successfully create more efficient and readily available biodiesel, it might behoove American car companies to focus more attention on hybrids.

This is not to say that American car companies like General Motors should abandon their original plans to skip directly from fossil fuels to hydrogen fuel cells, but when considered in a purely business fashion, the companies might do better monetarily by providing “green” cars to customers with more affordable, instantly available technologies.

After all, in this new world of global warming, expensive fossil fuels for automobiles and slow-moving change toward environmentalism, the logical short-term choice is not to attempt a complete overhaul of the fuel-dispensing infrastructure of the United States.

The best choice might be simply to limit the consumption of already-available fuels by creating efficient designs.

Once the efficient designs are taking over the market and consumption of fuel has been reduced, we can direct attention toward improving the system.