In secure conference rooms, engineering centers and design studios across metro Detroit, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors are working to create a new generation of fuel-efficient vehicles without repeating the mistakes that crippled them when oil prices and emissions regulations shook their world in the 1970s and '80s.
They are honing new technologies, refining designs and scouring the Earth for fun, fuel-efficient cars they can build or sell in North America. From Chevrolet Corvettes and Ford F-150s to small cars engineered in Europe and Asia, every vehicle is being rethought as fuel prices skyrocket and new fuel-economy rules loom.
Haunting their efforts is the ghost of failures past. Detroit's automakers reduced emissions and fuel consumption in the '70s and '80s, but at the cost of style, performance, quality and reliability -- the things that make a car desirable.
The things that keep a car company in business.
An even playing field
Chrysler, Ford and GM can't afford to blow it again, and getting it right this time presents huge opportunities. Unlike the 1980s, when small Japanese cars started the race a full lap ahead of the Detroit Three, the new technical challenges are equally daunting for everyone. "They've all been dealt the same hand this time," said Michelle Krebs, editor of AutoObserver.com. "Now it's a matter of how they play it."
Every automaker is scrambling. Ferrari, for instance, just announced that it is eyeing two technologies GM and Volkswagen already offer and that Ford will use to boost F-150 fuel economy.
In labs and on test tracks around the world, GM and Toyota are racing to be first and best on the road with extended-range electric vehicles, cars that go up to 40 miles on battery power and use their engines only for occasional recharging.
Ford and GM have tapped their European operations for compact and subcompact cars like the Ford Fiesta.
GM's Asian engineering centers are working on a funky little Chevrolet based on the Beat concept shown at the 2007 New York Auto Show to challenge Toyota's hip Scion brand.
"Any manufacturer that doesn't make vehicles that are appealing and enjoyable will suffer," said Rebecca Lindland, analyst with Global Insight of Lexington, Mass. "Somebody else will build that car, and the American people will buy it."
The answer lies in advanced engine technologies, widespread use of technologies borrowed from hybrid cars, lightweight materials and creative design. Along the way, the big SUV will virtually disappear and well-equipped small cars like those that dominate Europe will become common.
The automakers that offer style, fuel economy and fun will win. Those that don't may be left at the starting line.
"A car that's fun doesn't have to be blindingly fast," said Jim Hall, managing director of 2953 Analytics, a Birmingham consulting and forecasting firm.
A fresh start?
Just as American politics sometimes seems to be trapped in the 1960s, endlessly repeating arguments about Vietnam and civil rights, discussions of the U.S. auto industry often seem to be a freeze-frame of the late '70s and early '80s, complaints about gas guzzlers and lousy quality.
Vast and slow improvements in the cars the domestics build haven't been enough to change that perception. The massive, fast changes every automaker must make in the next few years could be their last chance to hit the reset button on how the American public sees them.
Those are the stakes. Here are the tools they'll use:
• Auto stop. Systems that shut engines off at stoplights and when the vehicle is idling are already key to hybrids' fuel efficiency. They will become nearly universal on all new vehicles. Look for widespread applications in high-volume cars soon.
• Booster batteries. A new generation of small powerful batteries will provide extra power for acceleration in vehicles with engines as small as 1.0 liter.
This boosts high fuel economy significantly because the little engine provides all the power necessary for steady-speed cruising.
The batteries supplement them to provide confident acceleration from a stop and on highway entrance ramps. GM will launch the batteries in 2010 and plans to use them in large numbers of vehicles around the world.
• Turbocharging and direct injection. V8 power from four-cylinder engines. The Pontiac Solstice GXP wrings 260 horsepower from a turbo DI 2.0-liter engine. Ford will offer the combination in virtually every model it builds, including a V6 F-150 pickup in 2010.
• Diesel. Imagine the head-snapping acceleration of 297 pound-feet of torque and 40-plus miles per gallon. That's what GM scored in European tests with its 1.9-liter twin-turbo Saab 9-3.
• Compression-ignition gasoline engines. Look for fuel-efficiency improvements up to 50% from gasoline engines that run like diesels but produce fewer emissions. GM is pursuing the technology aggressively.
• Transmissions. Every leading compact car will move to six-speed automatic transmissions. Larger cars will have even more gears.
Dual-clutch systems, which combine the efficiency and sporty character of a manual with the ease and comfort of an automatic, are common in VW cars and loom large in Ford and Chrysler's plans.
• Plug-in hybrids. Electric power isn't just about fuel efficiency, Car and Driver editor Csaba Csere recently pointed out. The Chevrolet Volt's "battery has enough juice to produce 644 horsepower for one minute," Csere wrote, predicting that plug-in hybrids would become "the hot rods of the 21st Century."
• Aerodynamics. The science and art of crafting fuel-efficient shapes has come light years since the 1980s jellybean look.
"Brand identity is vital," said Michael Simcoe, GM chief of exterior design for North America. "Aerodynamics won't drive the sameness of design you saw in the past." Designers will spend more time on vehicle underbodies to reduce drag and tweaking trim in ways that have little visual impact but improve aerodynamics significantly, he said.
Contact MARK PHELAN at phelan@freepress.com