Detroit Motor Show goes green…

For decades the Detroit Motor Show, the seminal automotive event of the year, has been a rip-roaring 100bhp petrol heads dream, but all of that is coming to an end; the days of the SUV and the gas-guzzling 4X4 are well and truly over – enter 2010: The year of the electric vehicle.

This year electric cars and vans are due to take Detroit by storm. All the major manufacturers, including GM, Chrysler and Ford, are set to display a variety of low CO2 emitting vehicles that will use a mixture of electric and hybrid petrol technologies. The shift towards ‘greener vehicles’ and a more eco-friendly automotive sector is a strategy currently being developed by both the Obama administration and the ‘big three’ in order to revive the US’ ailing car industry. The idea behind the initiative is to reinvigorate the sector, while at the same time, securing renewed investment and helping to tackle CO2 emissions responsible for global climate change.

The government’s participation in the automotive industry has not been without controversy however. Many Americans have become increasingly sceptical about the $80bn that the Obama White House has pumped into Detroit. Unemployment within the Detroit and Michigan area still stands at around the 15% mark and there has been no real positive sign of this changing, even after the American government stepped in with an unprecedented bailout. The show itself is reportedly costing $10m to host; critics have denounced this outlay as a further extravagance on the already overburdened tax-payer.

Aside from the $80bn bailout, the Obama administration has also invested millions in the ‘cash for clunkers scheme’; a programme designed to boost the auto industry by allowing consumers to trade in old vehicles and used vans for newer models. On the CARS website the US government proudly boasts that within a few short weeks “nearly 680,000 older vehicles were replaced by new, more fuel-efficient vehicles.”

President Obama has taken a huge gamble on this matter, his hope, along with many other Democrats, is that the new style Detroit Motor Show and its ‘Electric Avenue’ will be enough to return Detroit to its rightful place as the car capital of the world.

Vroom vroom