Detroit Auto Show: Sen. Corker visits the Big Three

The final press day at the North American International Auto Show is usually a quiet one, with plenty of time for journalists to roam the halls and check out the cars (and burn off their hangover in the process). But thanks to Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), today was different.

The junior senator from Tennessee, who gained national attention for his role in last month's Senate hearings on the fate of the U.S. auto industry, made a last-minute appearance in Detroit today. Arriving in the afternoon, he toured the General Motors stand, before visiting Volkswagen, Chrysler and Ford. A throng of journalists trailed him like the tail on a comet.

Behind closed doors, Corker met with GM President Fritz Henderson "to check on the company's progress" in the wake of its receiving authorization for $9.7 billion in federal loans. After that, GM's head of design, Ed Welburn, showed him a number of offerings, including the Chevy Traverse, built in Tennessee, and the Chevy Volt.

There, he asked Welburn whether the extended-range electric Volt would get more than  100 miles per gallon. "Oh yeah," Welburn responded.

Detroit Auto Show: Tesla gets in for cheap

Speaking of Tesla, the upstart electric automaker wouldn't even be at the Detroit Auto Show if not for the dire state of the economy -- further proof that there's a silver lining to every dark recession cloud.

According to Rachel Konrad, Tesla's spokeswoman, the company had no plans to attend the North American International Auto Show. In fact, Tesla has never before exhibited at a car show.

But with exhibitors dropping out of Detroit like flies (Suzuki, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Mitsubishi, and Land Rover all pulled out this year, and Porsche is out for the second year running), the show's organizers were panicked to get exhibitors.

They'd already invited a supplier, Denso, as well as two Chinese automakers, Brilliance and BYD, onto the main exhibit floor (an unprecedented break in institutionalized hierarchy that for years kept all but major automakers in the building's dank basement). They'd already let several local auto dealer groups (such as Mitsubishi and Lotus) erect makeshift stands on the floor to display cars in the manufacturers' absence. They even approved a "lounge" area on the main floor, where a vendor would sell cookies and coffee.

So when the show called Tesla's offices in San Carlos, Calif., Konrad said, they made an attractive offer. She wouldn't say how low the price was, but she ....

Detroit Auto Show: Tesla to make batteries for Smart EV

While Tesla's major-auto-show debut may have lacked style and free espresso, it more than made up for that with actual news (something painfully absent in most press conferences in Detroit this week).

The San Carlos-based electric-car maker said today that it has been selected to provide the batteries and chargers for Daimler's Smart EV and that the company would deliver 1,000 of the batteries this year and next.

"Daimler just gave me permission this morning to announce the news," said Elon Musk, best known as the co-founder of Paypal. He said he had been in discussions with Daimler, maker of the Smart car and Mercedes-Benz, since mid-2007, and that Tesla delivered its first prototype a year ago. If the program develops, Musk said, it could lead to the production of "tens of thousands" of the batteries.

A fleet of electric Smart cars now being tested in London does not use the Tesla batteries, Musk said. The final version of Tesla's battery, which will be built in California, is still in development.

According to a company spokesperson, Tesla's powertrain business, as distinct from its full-fledged electric-vehicle unit (which sells the $109,000 electric Roadster) is "cash-flow positive." Musk said that although the company as a whole is not yet profitable, he expects to find the black on operations by "the middle of this year."

In addition to the Roadster, Tesla is also developing a high-end sedan, the Model S...

Detroit Auto Show: Demonstrations inside and out

The contrast was striking: Featured at GM's news conference was a group of about 600 rowdy GM employees bused in to participate in a "rally," chanting "100 more years!" and waving signs -- "Game Changer," "Charged Up" and "Here to Stay." The message was clearly "save our jobs." At the same moment, across the street from Cobo Center in downtown Detroit, about 50 autoworkers, union members and sympathizers stood in the knife-cold wind to demand the same thing. Only less politely.

"What's disgusting?!" howled a man with a loudspeaker. "UNION BUSTING!!" "What's outrageous?!" "SWEATSHOP WAGES!!"

The recent Washington three-ring circus over government-backed loans for the auto industry turned a harsh light on the United Auto Workers' compensation. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), among others, argued that the government shouldn't bail out the carmakers unless they can extract concessions from the UAW to bring members' compensation in line with non-unionized autoworkers in the South.

It's an argument that -- to say the least -- leaves autoworkers cold.

"Non-union workers who make less than us are taught to resent us," said Dianne Feeley, a retired UAW Local 235 member at American Axle. "We are not enemies; we want the same things they want."

According to Feeley, the industry's problems aren't its labor costs. Rather, she said, they come from overcapacity, bad product choices and the broken economy.

Kirsten Gibbs, on temporary furlough from Chrysler's Warren stamping plant, where she works as a welder, was marching with her father, Joe. He's a retired UAW member who also worked at Chrysler, in the Jefferson North Plant in Detroit.

"What frustrates me is that they're comparing us to the Southern worker. But our cost of living is higher," said the younger Gibbs. She said public perceptions of how much autoworkers make are greatly exaggerated. "It's ridiculous that people think we're all walking around with money falling out of our pockets."

-- Dan Neil

Photo: UAW protesters picket Sunday outside the North American International Auto Show outside Cobo Center in Detroit. Credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times.

Detroit Auto Show: Ford's BEV-erly Hills

Strolling innocently through Cobo Hall, I was suddenly abducted by a gang of well-meaning Ford PR flaks and Magna representatives. Their motive: To get me to drive the early prototype of Ford's Focus-based battery electric vehicle (BEV), on which Ford and Magna will be technology partners.

A couple of reporting notes: Program Chief Engineer Dick DeVogelaere said that Ford and Magna will commit to building the vehicle's batteries in North America, most likely in Michigan or Canada. (Magna's U.S. headquarters are in Troy, Mich.) This follows GM's announcement on Sunday that it will build a battery-assembly plant in southeast Michigan.

The BEV will be a C-class, that is midsize, car, but it may not be fitted to the highly anticipated European version of the Focus. The BEV may be based on a dedicated platform.

Behind the wheel, the Focus BEV is unexceptional. There's a bit of howl from the hydraulic pump -- it has conventional brakes -- and the electric-parking brake disengages with a bit of a moan. All prototype stuff.

The most fascinating thing is that we were driving this thing in the miserably slushy, snow-glazed streets of Detroit. Most carmakers would be very reluctant to take their high-voltage gizmo out in such conditions. Ford seemed real OK with it. That's progress.

-- Dan Neil

For more details, here's Magna's news release on the BEV; Ford's is here.

Photo of Ford BEV courtesty of Magna.

Detroit Auto Show: Who is the car czar?

A mysterious figure has been haunting the meeting rooms and vast showfloor of Detroit's Cobo Hall, hanging, just beyond sight, around incessant conversations about the industry's future. Who is that enigmatic soul?

None other than the dreaded, fearsome, terrible ... car czar.

Since autumn, and increasing now that the federal government made $13.7 billion in emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler, there has been talk of Washington appointing a middleman or quasi-regulator to oversee the crippled U.S. auto industry as it staggers toward some kind of better new day.

Since the idea was hatched, it's been greeted with suspicion and hostility in Michigan, which has a well-developed sense that Washington knows roughly as much about the auto industry as the Detroit Lions do about winning football games.

Now, with Barack Obama mere days from taking office, the industry is busy playing a high-stakes speculation game on who might be the chosen one. An early candidate was Kenneth Feinberg, a D.C. attorney who ran the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund. But his name hasn't been heard lately.

The newest name being bandied about? Former Federal Reserve Chairman and octogenarian Paul Volcker. He was name-checked on Sunday night by Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr., who also took the opportunity to deny that he himself could do the job. "My chief loyalty is to the blue oval," Ford said.

Bob Lutz, vice chairman of GM, suggested that an auto czar, rather than a nagging hindrance to the industry, could actually be a good thing. "To have a person who we can actually dialogue with, I actually think this could be a very beneficial institution," said Lutz, adding that he had seen a list of about five possible candidates. He wouldn't name them, but assured reporters that former Vice President Al Gore was not on the list.

Whispers abound, but there is little clarity on this great unknown. Stay tuned.

--Ken Bensinger

Upper photo: Bill Ford Jr. Lower photo: Bob Lutz. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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Can the new Taurus save Ford, again?
Fisker Droptop concept debuts, and more blue sky
Building a better Prius
A Cadillac defibrillated by a Volt
Toyota's all-electric city car
GM says, 'We're a freedom company'
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In photos: Detroit Production Cars
In photos: Detroit Concept Cars

Detroit Auto Show: GM gets U.S. bailout, buys Korean

After a long and brutal competition, General Motors has picked a winner in the two-way competition to produce the battery for the Chevy Volt. It ain't the American guys.

At a news conference today at Detroit's North American International Auto Show, GM's chairman and chief executive, Rick Wagoner, said the company had selected South Korean giant LG Chem over Massachusetts-based A123 to produce the lithium ion cells for its long-awaited extended-range electric car, due out late next year.

Wagoner said that GM would assemble the T-shaped, 16-kilowatt-hour battery in the U.S., most likely in Michigan, and that GM would open the country's largest battery research lab, also probably in Michigan.

But the vital task of producing the essential cells for the battery will rest on LG's shoulders, and although GM said it would continue working with A123 on other projects, it's a clear victory for the Koreans and a letdown for team U.S.A.

According to Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman, the A123 product was "very good" but the company simply didn't have the expertise in the kind of chemical structure that the automaker feels is essential for the car. "LG just has a several-year head start on them," Lutz said.

Detroit Auto Show: Fisker Droptop concept debuts, and more blue sky

Though the mood in Detroit is somewhere between dour and hang-me-with-a- bedsheet, over at the Fisker Automotive stand confidence is soaring. According to company officials, Fisker is on track to begin serial production of the Fisker Karma -- a high-performance range-extended electric, aka a plug-in hybrid -- in May 2010, with annual production targeted at 1,200 per month. The car will be constructed in Finland at Valmet, a well-known high-end coachbuilder.

To underscore the company's lust for life, it today unveiled a retractable hardtop version of the Karma, called the Karma S ("S" stands for "Sunset"). It's essentially the same car with a wheelbase 250 mm shorter. Only 15% of "A" surfaces are common with the four-door coupe. Production is tentatively slated for mid-2011.

Meanwhile, the hard numbers for the propulsion system, developed by Fisker and Quantum Technologies, keep coming. The company promises 50 miles of all-electric range. The battery is rated at 22.6 kilowatt-hours, with a peak discharge of 200 kilowatts, 403 total electric horsepower and a peak torque of 959 pound-feet, 0-60 in 5.8 seconds and a top speed of 125 mph.

The hardest number of all remains the same: $87,900, on sale before the end of 2010.

Other fun facts:

Detroit Auto Show: Car and truck of the year named

The Hyundai Genesis was named the 2009 North American Car of the Year at the Detroit auto show, while Ford's redesigned F-150 pickup truck took home top honors in the truck category.

The win by the Genesis, Hyundai's top-of-the-line sedan, was the first for a South Korean automaker since the award was launched in 1994. It was the fifth Truck of the Year award for Ford and the third for the F-150.

The awards are based on factors such as innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value. Reliability isn't considered because the vehicles are new.

To qualify, vehicles must be "all-new" or "substantially changed" from the previous model. The Genesis is a new entry from Hyundai, and the F-150 was given a complete makeover for the '09 model year. 

The Genesis barely beat the Ford Flex, receiving 189 points from the judges versus 180 for the Flex. The third-place finisher, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI, received 131 points. The F-150, by contrast, blew away the truck competition, getting 259 points versus 167 for the Dodge Ram pickup and 74 for the Mercedes-Benz ML320 Blue TEC sport utility vehicle.

The annual car and truck awards carry some weight in the automotive community because they are presented by a panel of 50 journalists from TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. That's a broader base of opinion than what underpins many of the other automotive "best of" awards doled out each model year.

Detroit Auto Show: Building a better Prius

Toyota Motor Corp. finally lifted the veil from its completely redesigned Prius this morning in Detroit at the North American International Auto Show. The big news: 50 miles per gallon.

Spy shots leaked on the car not long ago, but Toyota's Bob Carter, group division head and general manager, did titillate the standing-room-only audience with a few details about the new car, due out in the U.S. and Japan this spring.

Carter said the third-generation Prius would beat its predecessor by 4 mpg, a 9% improvement in fuel economy, thanks to a more efficient engine and smaller, lighter components. At the same time, this Prius ups the engine-only juice to 98 horsepower thanks to new, 1.8-liter four-pot, and the combined electric/internal-combustion hybrid potency is up to 134 horsepower (the second-gen Prius pumps out 76 hp and 110 hp, respectively).

Rumors of a solar roof option proved to be true, but not as people had imagined. Instead of a solar-powered air conditioning system, the new Prius has a solar-powered ventilation system. Carter explained that this would take some of the load off the air-conditioning system by pre-cooling the interior of the car on hot days. That's nifty, we think, but not exactly game-changing.

Apparently it takes quite a bit of juice to run an air conditioner. But because the A/C typically draws on the engine thanks to belts, Toyota has invented another nifty feature: belt-less air conditioning. Instead, the new Prius will have air that runs entirely on battery power, which Carter called the first of its kind.

To further reduce parasitic drain on the engine, the Prius' water pump is also electric. Without all the hindrances, the Prius is able to drop its zero-to-60 time to 9.8 seconds from 10.4 seconds, "on par with a mid-sized sedan," Carter said.

The new car will use the same battery as the old one, but Carter said it would be able to operate in a pure-EV mode as well as "economy" and "power" settings. No word on how much range it will have on battery power alone.

Carter said the new Prius' coefficient of drag drops to 0.25, which is one-hundredth of a point better than the current model. All while increasing interior volume by 5 cubic feet.

Toyota sold about 160,000 Priusi (Priususes? Prions?) last year. In its first year of sales, Carter predicts, the new model will move about 180,000.

Take that, Honda Insight!

-- Ken Bensinger

Photo (top): The next-gen Prius will get 50 mpg, Toyota says. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Photo (botto): A roof ventilation system is designed to ease the load on the A/C.

Related photos: 2010 Toyota Prius