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This is not a useful comment, but I think Detroit has a capacity for 12-16 million cars/year....Like in your cartoon prosperity sized Americans don't fit well in tiny alternative fuel cars...nor do the kids and friends. The Prius for all its fame has not sold any where near 16 million cars. The Volt at $40,000 each will not do much in this economy either....The rest of the story, I've already heard numerous reports and comments about the instant irrelevance of the January Auto show's fuel efficiency thrust....This from folks who found that the falling gas prices diminished the urgency to make the fuel efficiency switch. Thanks, Charles

charles Johnson
Owner
ICON Ind Res
Michigan

You say that Detroit automakers have been inflexible in adapting to new technologies and trends and consumer preferences and that Japan-based automakers like Toyota and Honda have comprehended the value and appeal of more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly cars in the U.S. market for more than 30 years. Interesting and popular misconception, but it doesn’t explain why Toyota and Honda have been increasing the size of their vehicles and offering larger SUV’s and trucks in the USA. Ford has had an Escape Hybrid for years, which began development more than a decade ago. GM has been working on an electric car (the Chevy Volt) for quite awhile. In the past few years, Honda introduced the Ridgeline, with a “High torque 250-hp, 3.5-liter, 24-valve SOHC VTEC® V-6 Engine” and Toyota introduced the Toyota Tundra – 15 miles per gallon city, 19 miles per gallon highway (Information from Honda’s and Toyota’s websites, respectively). So, an alternate way to look at the latest TREND, is that Detroit has recently developed hybrid and electric cars and Japan has been introducing gas guzzlers that they previously didn’t offer. This is a more accurate statement, although overall, Japan sells a higher percentage of fuel efficient cars. Many of the consumers Detroit has lost have been to Honda’s and Toyota’s trucks and SUVs. I agree that having Detroit (and a huge part of the entire manufacturing and economic base of the USA) build alternative fuel vehicles is essential to the planet´s future as well as America’s economic future. I would be willing to bet that Detroit automakers, who have already spent billions developing hybrids, electric cars and more fuel efficient cars, would agree.

Roger Kalinowsky
Senior Vice President
NTH Consultants
Northville, MI

If we are going to build alternative fuel vehicles and get off of foreign oil, why not build natural gas vehicles that can be refueled at home overnight while we sleep for less than $1.00 per gallon. With 130 octane we can get the performance and range (over 300 miles on a tank full)that American has come to expect. Put people to work building new natural gas vehicles. We can even build natural gas hybrids and use our own domestic fuel rather than foreign oil

Ron Smith

Great to see the comments so far are from people in Michigan, home of the dying american car companies! Millions of americans drive smaller cars with no problem at all, no one 'needs' a gas guzzler, even a large family can fit comfortably into a smaller vehicle. This nation should NOT be subsidizing companies that continue to make gas guzzling large vehicles no matter what the cost of fuel is! The foreign car makers (in the lower/southern states) are making money, and have better cars (mind you, a good part of that is because of their foreign & forward thinking owners, and the lower medical & retirement costs). Michigan will become a ghost "state" unless the big "3" wake up & soon. it's their own fault (big 3 that is).

WD Hope
Boston

Please, car makers, add one more component to plug-in hybrids: Be sure they (as well as every car manufactured) have flex-fuel capability. With change buffeting us from every direction and with the liquid fuel for even hybrids still gasoline with all its problems, give us options.

Rosemary Lombard
Owner
Lombard Technologies
Oregon

Would love to see an independent study performed on the Hydrogen Hybrid Converter kits. Lots of claims and promises being made. We need to do something with the tens of millions of pollution spewing vehicles soon or it wont matter that the Prius and Volt really do. Any news on these Water For Gas companies and engine additives like EthosFR?

Parma Magoo
President
ParmaMagoo
NYC

The North American population is having a diffcult time understanding the difference between rights and priviledge. WE have been stuffing our faces with prosperity so long that our fat attitude can't or won't fit into new "clean" vehicles. Realistically by the time the auto industry spends the time and money required to truely create new clean sustainable technology, our greed based economy will have imploaded and we won't be able to afford them anyways. The government did not bail out the auto industry, it is desperately trying to preserve a way of life that no longer exsists. Hold onto your pennies and nickles!

Ed Walter
Ontario

My family consists of myself, my wife, two daughters (one of whom plays ice hockey)and two 80 pound retrievers. Our family fleet consists of a Camry and a Corolla that between them average 33 mpg. Average size families can certainly live comfortably and recreationally in smaller vehicles.

Jon Tulman
Associate Planner
Eau Claire County
Eau Claire, WI

Technology is not the major stumbling block; the ability of government to monetize (a.k.a. "TAX") the new technology is the major stumbling block. Taxation on alternate fuels can be most easily regulated among the business sector mandatory reporting of certain practices is common. However, if a citizen charges a car from the electric grid or fills the tank with natural gas, then the proportion and quantity of these fuels allocated to vehicle use is difficult to tax and until the government can figure how to get its bite then there will be a lot of technology siting on the shelf. The average citizen will not keep track of allocated expenses; trust me. Considering the natural gas engine issue, industrial engines have been running for years as dual fuel (Diesel/natural gas) wherein the Diesel mostly provides the spark and natural gas the fuel. In industry this technology has been a great tool to arbitrage fuel costs; when Diesel is cheaper per btu than gas, they burn all Diesel and when gas is cheaper, they burn only enough Diesel as the engine requires. As I said, it's available technology, it provides a proven economic alternative, and it works. Greg Nothacker, MBA Sr. Consultant ZenMark, Inc.

Greg Nothacker
Sr. Consultant
ZenMark, Inc.
Greater New Orleans

A couple of general threads in the comments are life style and resources. What kind of vehicle you believe you need is a life style choice? You could be Amish and drive a buggy or a hippy and drive a VW van, or a soccer mom or dad and have the big SUV. Each consumes resources regardless of the fuel. In nearly all the cases we are currently dealing with there are limits to how much of those resources (electricity, gasoline, alcohol, diesel, bio fuels, natural gas, hydrogen, etc.) we have available and can make available (electric plants, hydrogen production and distribution systems, fields of corn or crops used for fuel production, coal mines, steel mills, copper, aluminum, petrochemicals, etc.) and we have to start recognizing those limits and plan for facing the limits and the consequences of expending the resources. Cost of fuel like so many costs that we discuss are relative. We hardly ever evaluate anything and include all the cost of the process (we generally can't) and we rarely include the true cost of replacement of the resource (in many cases it is not replaceable) and we sure don't do a very good job of preserving resources. We bury in landfills tons of resources that are not renewable and make them nearly impossible to recover and include only the cost of putting them there not their replacement value. So what is the bottom line? It is complex and painful but at some point we have to consider that we have to put limits on how many of us can live here. Even then we will probably not last as long as we could.

Robert Ressl
Environmental Engineer
Self
Arlington, Texas

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