Carmakers Plug-in Their Green Technology at the Detroit Motor Show

Well, 'ere we go again with the first major motor show for 2008. This is the big one opening this weekend, and the battle lines are truly drawn in the green car market stakes. All the established,and some not so well known ,carmakers are showing their determination to make a difference with new concept and production cars which are more fuel efficient and have reduced levels of harmful emissions.

AFP, the global news agency, today report General Motors chief Rick Wagoner as saying during previews of the show ,which opens to the public from 19th to 27th January,that new green technologies are a "business necessity and an obligation for society." This truth has been taken very much to heart in the US where the gauntlet has been thrown down to the Asian carmakers in the battle to win supremacy in the fast-growing market for green cars.

One big fight will be between General Motors and mighty Toyota. As well as conventional hybrids, we can expect to see results of the accelerating pace of development in the plug-in cars. These are the rechargeable cars which can be literally plugged-in to be recharged at any electrical socket. The pressure challenge still ahead is to mass-produce these cars in order to make them safe and commercially viable. GM are still looking to get its Chevrolet Volt into production by 2010.Toyota,now believed for the first time ,according to the Financial Times,to be the world's top selling car company ahead of GM is feverishly working to crack the technology to be able to mass-produce the lithium-ion batteries essential for its plug-in hybrids.

So,there will be the sleek, the magnificent,the fast,the expensive ,the economical, the large and the small ,all in a fascinating mix being showcased in Detroit. I hope to report on some of the more "muscley" cars that will be on show, over the next week or so.But, in the meantime,let me leave you with the quirky, "the Book of Songs" concept electric car (appropriate now that all makers are tending towards singing from the same green hymn sheet) from the Hang Lua deign studio, shown at the top of this post. This just a glimpse of the presence of the Chinese carmakers and designers who will be at Detroit in numbers, and who are really a growing force in world carmaking. More in a day or two.

Copyright (c)2007.CFM(Services)Limited.All rights reserved.