Automakers aim for green nirvana in Detroit

Dan Carney • E-mail

With our freshly minted new president's inaugural call for shared sacrifice still echoing in the ears of the nation's consumers, we might expect that shoppers would be ready squeeze into tiny, fuel-efficient transportation boxes. Driving spartan, minimalist vehicles could be the Obama-era version of the Victory Garden.

But for some consumers, the willingness to sacrifice only goes so far. Buying a hybrid sounds like a good idea, but some folks are just not ready to give up the luxury amenities and red-carpet treatment of a prestigious brand.

For them, luxury car makers are preparing fuel-efficient models that will permit them to express green consciousness without the hardship of enduring — to paraphrase President Richard Nixon's description of his wife's coat — "respectable Republican cloth seats."

Up until now, most hybrid-electric cars have been built with fuel economy, not comfort or prestige, in mind. That means thin soundproofing and tinny stereo speakers, and probably no multi-adjustable leather seats or cushy ride.

But Cadillac, Lincoln, Lexus and others are planning luxury green models that will offer great gas mileage without asking the driver to wear an automotive hair shirt.

Many luxury car buyers are hot for hybrids, according to Lexus.

“More than 60 percent of entry-luxury car buyers would have considered buying a hybrid if one had been available,” according to Mark Templin, vice president and general manager for Toyota's luxury division.

At this year’s Detroit auto show, Cadillac forecast a future when fortunate sons (and daughters) will be able to whir along on almost-silent electric power in cars as sleek and sexy as the ones they forsook when they switched from buying Hummers to buying Toyota’s Prius.

Cadillac’s “Converj” concept car not only represents the convergence of creative spelling with prestige automobiles, but also the convergence of efficiency with sporty style. The Converj employs the plug-in hybrid drivetrain technology (now called Voltec) previously unveiled with the Chevrolet Volt to provide the same ability to drive 40 miles on pure electric power.

The car’s striking styling would, if it went into production, mark a dramatic departure from the purely wind tunnel-sculpted high-efficiency hybrids that we’ve seen in cars like the Prius and Honda Insight. The production Volt’s styling differs tremendously from that of the swoopy concept, much to the disappointment of many would-be customers, but designers of the Converj kept production constraints in mind when sketching the concept car’s lines, according to GM vice chairman Bob Lutz.

The company has not announced production plans for the Converj, but if it does get the green light, a production version would look very much like the concept, he said.

“This time we did all that work up front,” Lutz said.

Whether the Converj will actually be built depends on many variables, said John Howell, product director for GM’s premium products. If government policy shifts in ways that support hybrid use, through tax incentives, expansion of the electric charging infrastructure and permission to use car pool lanes, for example, then the company would feel more confident committing the resources to its development, he said.

Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images Lexus calls the HS 250h the first dedicated luxury hybrid.

“There is no room for frivolous investments,” said Howell. “We are probably more risk averse now than Citibank is in its mortgage lending.”

One government policy-related obstacle to the sale of green luxury cars is that the alternative minimum tax excludes taxpayers who make more than $100,000 from receiving the tax credit for purchasing an alternative fuel vehicle, said Howell. That excludes pretty much the entire customer base of premium automotive brands.

However, one reason to target such customers is that they spend enough money on their cars to pay for pricey new drivetrain technology, pointed out Lutz. 

“It is one of the reasons we want to proliferate the Voltec technology,” he said. “Other brands aren’t as (price-constrained) as Chevrolet is.”

A barometer of the potential of such vehicles is the reception that low-volume, high-priced exotic cars such as the Tesla Roadster and the Fisker Karma are getting, Lutz said.

“A lot of wealthy people will pay good money for something like this,” he predicted.

Another green luxury bellwether is the new Lexus HS 250h, a car the manufacturer touts as the world’s first dedicated luxury hybrid, meaning that it is not available in non-hybrid form. While the HS 250h may look a little bit like a Prius with a trunk in place of its hatchback, it’s based on the platform of the Euro-market midsize Avensis and is built as a luxury car from the ground up.

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