Schizoid automakers get green but stay mean

Everybody is happy, and the environment doesn’t really suffer for it, because even “bargain” supercars like the ZR1 cost $100,000, so they sell in exclusive numbers and are frequently garage queens that see little time on the road.

“The [Dodge] Viper, Bentley — cars with engines that are getting 9 mpg — [that’s] a real small segment of the automotive market,” CSM Worldwide’s Barber said. “The growing number of smaller cars we are seeing on the road far offsets whatever pollutants the larger cars may be putting out there.”

Even stalwart environmental watchdogs can agree that low volume “play” cars aren’t relevant in the larger scheme of environmental concern.

“It’s not the range of offerings per se but the distribution of vehicles that affects the bottom line,” explained Therese Langer, transportation program director for the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy.

Making efficient mainstream products in high-volume sales segments is the priority, she said.

“Outliers are not such a big deal,” said Langer. “You’re always going to have a variety of vehicles across the spectrum of size and the spectrum of power.”

Langer is encouraged by the proliferation of environmentally friendly technology beyond the original niches where it was initially deployed. 

“If you were looking at hybrids in the early days, you were buying a compact car,” she said, adding that today the use of hybrid technology stretches from subcompacts up to the largest pickup trucks.

Consumers agree with Langer, according to MyRide’s Web survey. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they view the introduction of vehicles like the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, a full-size SUV that manages 20 mpg in the city and on the highway, as a positive development, Chee said.

The mainstreaming of fuel-efficient technologies is crucial for manufacturers to achieve the newly-endorsed federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, said Barker. And the shift toward greener power is paying dividends for manufacturers’ reputations.

MyRide’s survey found that more than half of respondents had a more positive perception of General Motors than they had one year ago, due in part to the company’s high-profile Volt hybrid-electric concept car, which was first introduced at last year’s Detroit auto show.

As for the new hot rods, maybe they aren’t as green-unfriendly as they appear. The Corvette has historically extracted stunningly good fuel economy from its iconic smallblock V8 engine, observed Barker.

The 2008 Corvette earned a 26 mpg highway score on the EPA’s tougher new fuel-economy test, and Dave Hill, Corvette’s recently retired chief engineer, reported that engineers working on the car could achieve a fuel economy 30 mpg.

So the supercharged ZR1 could surprise us when its official fuel-economy numbers are released, potentially offering some lucky drivers the ability to have fun and feel socially responsible at the same time.

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