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Green hue, clean view in spotlight at L.A. show
(Chicago Tribune (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) LOS ANGELES _ The vehicle that attracted the most camera operators, photographers and media covering the Los Angeles Auto Show was the one that brought the Arnold to the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Couldn't see the car that delivered Gov. Schwarzenegger, but it was fashionably late.
While auto shows are held to spotlight sheet metal coming soon, the focus here wasn't so much on new styling as it was how green and clean they operated.
The big news here, of course, was that while Toyota is talking about a plug-in hybrid, General Motors said it will build one. GM Chairman Rick Wagoner said it would be a version of the Saturn Vue sport-utility but no word on when.
And there in is the rub. "They are talking about developing a vehicle using technology they have no control over," noted Jim Hall, a vice president of AutoPacific.
Plug-ins, like hybrids, come with a battery pack and a gas engine. The beauty is that for commutes of 40 to 50 miles a day, you run in electric power only. After 40 to 50 miles you switch to gas to keep going or stop to recharge the batteries overnight.
But that leaves GM, which makes cars, at the mercy of companies that make batteries to come up with a higher-power, longer-lasting one that can handle the frequent charge/discharge cycles of short hops.
Toyota execs weren't at the show, but John Mandel, senior vice president of Honda, said Honda has no plans for plug-ins that run on batteries only. You see, it has a few straight hybrids in which the batteries take some of the load off the gas engine.
"There's no one silver bullet for energy conservation," he said. "We're talking natural gas and diesels, they're talking plug-ins. Not all the solutions will be identical."
GM also used the show to unveil the Buick Enclave crossover that goes on sale next summer.
There's speculation GM is so confident that crossovers will replace minivans that a version for Chevrolet also is in the works. Wagoner was typically coy. "We have no announcements to be made at this time."
Already on sale are the Saturn Outlook, which will replace the Relay minivan, and the GMC Acadia. Enclave displaces Terraza and a Chevy would succeed the Uplander. The vans should all be gone by 2009.
Tiger Woods unveiled Enclave, calling it "hip, bold and elegant." With a twinkle in his eye, he added that he found the vehicle appealing since, "I'm getting a little older," a reference to the age of the typical Buick buyer.
At 30, though, he's hardly ready for the Seniors Tour.
And being L.A., Woods, of course, was not the only celeb on hand. Volkswagen called on Paris Hilton for its cocktail party. VW would neither confirm nor deny her visit cost $25,000.
The more down-to-earth Nissan simply used the show to reveal its first Altima coupe, which goes on sale next summer and sets the stage for an Altima convertible. Nissan took a cue from GM and remained mum.
But why a midsize coupe when that market is primarily four-doors?
"Because Toyota and Honda have coupes, that's why," said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific. And though Toyota has been rumored to be dropping its Solara, it says the coupe and convertible are still in its plans.
"And because Ford is going to have new coupes, first the Focus, then the Fusion," chimed in AutoPacific's Hall, though not elaborating on the timetable for the Ford.
NO DEAL: Carlos Ghosn, head of Nissan and Renault, has said he's interested in adding U.S. capacity to assemble what he sees as a growing number of Nissan products here soon.
That prompted us to ask Troy Clarke, president of GM's North America operations, whether GM has offered any vacant plants to Nissan or Nissan has inquired about any. After all, the two were locked in alliance speculation for months.
Clarke's response was short and to the point: "No."
While Ghosn now says he could use some capacity in the U.S., GM sources said that topic came up when the three were talking alliance. Nissan expressed absolutely no interest in any GM facility.
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(Write to Jim Mateja, Chicago Tribune, 616 Atrium Drive, Vernon Hills, IL 60061-1523, or send e-mail, including name and hometown, to jmateja@tribune.com.)
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(c) 2006, Chicago Tribune.
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