DETROIT: It's winter, but Detroit is turning green. Although the audacious concept cars turn heads, hybrids are becoming part of the mainstream. Hybrid technology was a hit at the North American International Auto Show. One of the most important hybrids shown was the 2007 Toyota Camry, the leading seller in the U.S. the past several years.
The 2007 Camry, unveiled here and slated to be on sale in the spring, will be available with a gasoline-electric hybrid engine. In hybrid form, the Camry should get 43 mpg in the city, 37 mpg on the highway. About 15 percent of Camry sales will come from hybrids. The outside dimensions are virtually unchanged in this fifth-generation Camry, but it's a bit sportier looking, and the passenger compartment is slightly roomier.
Some of the hybrids are a bit more outrageous, such as the Ford Super Chief (F250 pickup) prototype. Despite being almost as long as a locomotive (the name is railroad-inspired), it's a tri-flex fuel vehicle: The supercharged V10 engine can run on hydrogen (if and when you can find it), gasoline, or B85 ethanol (85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline).
More than half a dozen subcompacts debuted in Detroit. Not all of them are hybrids, but they sip whatever fuel they burn. These include the Chevy Aveo (167 inches long), the Honda Fit (157 inches), the Nissan Versa (176 inches), and the Toyota Yaris (169 inches). None fit the rubber-mats-on-the-floor econo-box model of the 1980s energy-crisis era. The Fit and the Versa are both described as hatchbacks, a feature that died in the U.S. a decade ago -- but this time around they look more like station wagons.
Bigger cars, such as the Chrysler Aspen, economize in other ways. The Aspen's Hemi V8 has displacement on demand and can throttle back to four cylinders when the car isn't accelerating. And GM showed the Tahoe Dual-Mode hybrid SUV. The V8 engine combines active fuel management (GM-speak for displacement on demand) and a hybrid-electric drivetrain developed in partnership among BMW, DaimlerChrysler, and GM.
The Ford Reflex, a sporty concept car -- concept means a less dramatic version might get into production in a couple years -- has a diesel-electric engine that can get up to 65 mpg. And Mercedes-Benz announced what it says is the world's cleanest diesel-engine technology, called BlueTec. A Bluetec E320 (a mid-size sedan) will get about 35 mpg; Bluetec may come to Mercedes SUVs by year's end. BMW has powerful, clean diesel engines in Europe (one has two turbochangers); the leading seller of luxury sedans in the U.S. says it will wait until it can emissions-certify them for sale in all 50 states. (California, New York, and other New England states have more stringent rules.)
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