Hybridcarblog.com
picks the best of the LA Auto Show
Monday, November 19, 2007
The
Honda FCX was the most important car at the LA Auto Show
Lately, the LA Auto Show has kind of been nicknamed the
green car show. Well, hardcore green car fans were
probably disappointed with this year's show. For starters,
the opening day of the show was odd. GM's press
announcement was the definition of green: Hybrids, the Volt,
small cars. On the other hand Toyota focused on a large
SUV (more
on this role reversal).
Then there was the green car of the year award, which went
to the Chevy
Tahoe hybrid, a $50,000 full-sized hybrid SUV.
Thus, I'm just not sure this year's LA Auto Show was
really green.
Anyway, here are my picks for the Best of the LA Auto
Show.
First place goes to the Honda
FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle. Not only is this
vehicle production-ready, it's just plain sexy. More
important, it's going on lease this summer. Still, that
wasn't enough to give it my top pick. What pushed the FCX
Clarity to the pole position was Honda's focus on the
limitations of the hydrogen highway and trying to provide
solutions to those limitations, such as the Home Fueling
Station (more).
Second place goes to the Chevy
Silverado hybrid, the first full hybrid pickup truck.
Yes, this vehicle will probably be expensive when it hits
dealerships in late 2008, but it's a Chevy hybrid pickup
truck - now that's an American revolution.
Third place goes to the Mercedes
S400 diesel hybrid. This car is absolutely gorgeous,
and I liked it more than BMW's Hydrogen 7 - another
stunningly beautiful green car - because it's more
realistic today, and it could be a big hit with Europe's
elite. It SHOULD be a big hit for wealthy Europeans that
care about the planet. Also, I really like the the
prospects of diesel hybrids, especially outside the U.S.
Fourth place is a five way tie amongst the Chevy Tahoe
hybrid, GMC
Yukon hybrid, Cadillac
Escalade hybrid, Chrysler
Aspen hybrid, and Dodge
Durango hybrid. These full-size SUVs provide amazing
fuel economy for such large vehicles. In fact, as I walked
through the Mini Cooper section of the show, I noticed
that these large hybrid
SUVs can achieve about the same city fuel economy as
many Mini's - that's impressive.
Fifth place goes to the Toyota
Prius that was converted into a plug-in hybrid vehicle
by the protesters across the street from the LA Auto Show
(more).
Toyota missed a fantastic opportunity to put to rest many
of the environmental attacks that have recently plagued
the automaker. The Toyota Prius is one of the hottest cars
in Los Angeles, and California is by far the biggest
market for hybrid
cars, yet Toyota chose to focus on the Sequoia SUV
rather than a glimpse of a third generation hybrid? Sad.
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