Detroit
America’s most regulated consumer product is made by the auto industry. So the annual North American International Auto Show here has always been a nervous intersection between public and private, between green and sexy, between what Washington wants and what the public wants.
But now that Washington is part owner of two automakers, heavily subsidizes the purchase of alternative-fuel cars and dictates that by 2015 vehicles get 40 percent better gas mileage to fight global warming, the intersection belonged to government at this January’s show.
Less than 3 percent of auto sales are gas-electric hybrids, yet the “green future” dominated Cobo Convention Center. Once banished to Cobo’s basement as curiosities, the small, kit-car makers of oddball alternative-fuel three-wheelers, electric golf carts and battery-powered meter maid vehicles were given prominent space on the main floor.
Mindful that Detroit’s new board members — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow members of Congress — would be coming to the first show week (open only to press and pols) to inspect their investment, the NAIAS grandly dubbed the display “Electric Avenue.” The once misfits were the toast of press releases declaring them the future of automobilia.
Though Pelosi might have been impressed by Electric Avenue, she was less impressed by Ford, hands down Detroit’s most successful automaker this year. Ford had the audacity to refuse government welfare.
When asked by a reporter to assess Ford’s success without begging the taxpayer, Pelosi glowered. “They have been very appropriate in recognizing their responsibility, but also recognizing what our responsibility was,” she said, unable to muster a compliment for Ford’s determined effort to avoid public dependency. “They recognize the responsibility the federal government has to the auto industry. It’s not about companies, it’s about an industry.”
When asked by a reporter to assess Ford’s success without begging the taxpayer, Pelosi glowered. “They have been very appropriate in recognizing their responsibility, but also recognizing what our responsibility was,” she said, unable to muster a compliment for Ford’s determined effort to avoid public dependency. “They recognize the responsibility the federal government has to the auto industry. It’s not about companies, it’s about an industry.”
So strict are Pelosi & Co.’s new federal miles-per-gallon rules that many mass-volume vehicles sport a similar egg shape in order to reduce air drag and maximize fuel economy. The Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, Chevy Aveo, Toyota FT-CH, Volkswagen CC and so on all look like they’ve come out of the same egg carton.
In design, however, uniformity is untenable and automakers have begun to counter the egg with its kitchen opposite — the toaster. The Nissan Cube, Ford Flex and Toyota Scion xB are defiantly squared off — a sort of designer rebellion against the conformity forced on manufacturers by mpg mandates.
The politicians surveyed their kingdom of eggs and toasters, and they saw that it was good. And so they decided to dictate more. In the middle of Electric Avenue, Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Rep. Gary Peters, both Democrats of Michigan, held a news conference to announce an additional $3 billion in federal grants for electric and battery-powered vehicles.
The grants come on top of $25 billion in loans Washington is already giving to automakers, both foreign and domestic, to upgrade U.S. plants to produce battery-powered vehicles.
One loan recipient is Tesla, a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of luxury electrics for the well-to-do. Tesla received $465 million in taxpayer green to spend on the Model S, a stylish sedan affordable to the few at $58,000. Some of the unemployed Detroiters touring the show this week might wonder if this a wise investment of their tax dollars.
But the average Joes attending the second, “public week” didn’t pause long at the Tesla exhibit to contemplate such questions. They ogled the gas-powered sedans, minivans and sport utility vehicles that 97 percent of the Americans still buy. Lurking in the shadows during press week, these bread-and-butter vehicles are the real cars that are the real future of the auto industry. After all, these are the cars that must make a profit.
Henry Payne is a contributor to the Weekly Standard from which this article is adapted.
