DETROIT--This week the annual North American International Auto Show, a $300-million spectacle of new models and concept vehicles, will draw 800,000 car-loving consumers and 6,400 journalists from 61 countries. So why are auto makers rolling out models that no one would want to buy?
From Ford Motor Co., for example, comes TH!NK, the industry's first "environmental" brand. Its offerings include a $27,000, two-seat electric car with a 50-mile battery range; a two-speed modified golf cart (with cup holders); and a 24-volt bicycle that company officials swear will scale a San Francisco hill on a single charge.
![[Eco-Cars]](../images/ecocar.gif) TH!NK-mobile: A vehicle only regulators could love. |
General Motors Corp. is offering two versions of its Precept sedan--a diesel-electric hybrid and a fuel-cell model that reportedly ranks as the costliest car ever produced. And Toyota is showing its Prius hybrid that currently sells in Japan-- with the help of a $3,000 government subsidy.
Auto makers know this isn't what the public wants. Powerful and roomy sport-utility vehicles, light trucks and minivans now comprise nearly half of all new vehicle sales. Indeed, auto show spectators are flocking to such offerings as Ford's three-ton Equator and two redesigns of its Explorer; GM's crossover Avalanche and a new 7,000-pound, 6.5-liter turbo-diesel Humvee-1; and Toyota's jumbo V8 Sequoia. For every eco-car the Big Three have headlined, they have rolled out at least three more SUVs.
So why offer so many eco-cars? Because the auto industry isn't catering to consumers but to environmental bureaucrats, who blame the internal-combustion engine for global warming. Never mind that some 98% of auto emissions have been eliminated in the past three decades. Auto makers now face crippling fines unless they fulfill sales quotas of zero-emission vehicles in some of the nation's biggest markets, including California and New York. Even if the quotas are met, they will have negligible impact on carbon dioxide emissions--but they may well reduce driver safety by putting smaller (and hence less crashworthy) cars on the road.
Nevertheless, billions of dollars annually are being invested in industry/government consortiums like the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles. William Clay Ford Jr. boasts that his company now spends half its R&D budget on low-emissions vehicles. Much of the money is wasted. GM, for example, invested more than $350 million in its EV1 electric car before quietly announcing last week it would stop production for lack of consumer interest. They couldn't give the things away. And no wonder: Who wants a car that needs to be plugged into the wall every 50 miles for an eight-hour recharge?
Or take a Toyota Prius--please. This fall Autoweek magazine took a Prius up to New Hampshire to mark the centennial of the first (steam-powered) car to climb 6,000-foot Mount Washington--and to see how far alternate fuel cars had come. Just two miles up the mountain's steep 7.6-mile road, the Prius had to stop to recharge its batteries. Yet while Toyota can barely meet demand for its new sport utility vehicles, company officials are determined to bring the Prius to the U.S. market this year to demonstrate their green pedigree.
It is no accident that the new "environmental mobility" is gaining the most ground in socialist economies. The Norwegian government provides a $5,000 subsidy for each TH!NK vehicle purchased, and Ford hopes to expand the line to Vietnam and China, where the governments will underwrite a costly network of refueling stations.
Congress earlier rebuffed President Clinton's proposal for a $3,000 subsidy to buyers of zero-emission vehicles. But auto makers have not lost all hope. Dodge, for example, is demanding a federal subsidy to market its hybrid Durango. Meanwhile, millions of consumers are shelling out tens of thousands of dollars of their own money to buy conventional vehicles they actually want to drive.
Ms. Katz writes on automotive and technology issues for The Detroit News editorial page. Mr. Payne is an editorial cartoonist and writer for the News.