Carmakers turn "green" but is it a smokescreen?
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Green is the color at the Frankfurt International Motor Show, with carmakers tripping over each other to make eyebrow-raising claims their vehicles are "clean" and environmentally friendly.
But is it all just a giant green smoke screen?
Even while showing off their new-found clean and green credentials, carmakers filled hall after hall in Frankfurt with powerful, tire-squealing sports cars boasting up to 530 horsepower, or giant gas-guzzling SUVs.
After long resistance to the debate over climate change, carmakers have shifted into overdrive, insisting they have long been working on low-emission cars and are not bowing to political pressure to reduce greenhouse gases.
In any event, some serious low-emission and even zero-emission cars shown in Frankfurt are in the pipeline or about to hit the market.
"Many of you have doubtless asked yourselves 'How green is this Motor Show?'," DaimlerChrysler (DAIGn.DE) Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said as he presented 19 "clean today and clean tomorrow" cars.
"We have been focusing on this issue for some time."
Zetsche, whose powerful premium Mercedes cars strike fear into other motorists as they zip down German motorways at speeds above 200 kph, said the new vehicles were just "the latest stage in our journey towards an emissions-free future".
One clear highlight was news on Tuesday that Mercedes-Benz will begin limited serial production within three years of a small car powered by a zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cell.
Fuel cells use the interaction between hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity that powers the car while emitting only water, but they have not yet become commercially viable.
Mercedes was also proud of its new DiesOtto engines, which combine the high torque and low fuel consumption of a diesel engine with the power and low emissions of a petrol engine.
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Ford's (F.N) Volvo introduced the Volvo ReCharge Concept, a plug-in hybrid for its C30 model that can be charged up from an ordinary outlet and has a range per charge of 100 kilometers.
Toyota (7203.T), whose Prius hybrid has been out for 10 years, announced a partnership with French utility EDF (EDF.PA) to set up a network of plug-in points for recharging batteries.
Stung by criticism even from German political leaders that they were asleep at the wheel and failed to match Toyota and Honda (7267.T) in producing hybrid petrol-electric engines, German companies are eager to make up lost ground. Continued...
