Big Three selling optimism at start of Detroit Auto Show

DETROIT — Just weeks after ending a year marked by dismal sales and a federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler, U.S. automakers Sunday touted new products with a focus on fuel efficiency that they say will help ensure their cars and trucks will roll off assembly lines for years to come.

Amid a crowd of several hundred cheering employees, dealers and retirees at the North American International Auto Show, General Motors announced plans to build a 40-mile-per-gallon minicar for the U.S. market and it unveiled an electric-powered Cadillac concept car.

Meanwhile, Chrysler's chief executive told reporters that while its key new products won't show up in dealer showrooms until next year, the automaker expects to survive 2009 and remain and independent company.

Ford said that by 2011, it will sell an electric car that can go up to 100 miles on a single charge and it will offer plug-in versions of its gas-electric hybrid vehicles a year later.

And Toyota told The New York Times it plans to introduce its plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in late 2009, a year earlier than originally planned, and a year ahead of the Chevrolet Volt.

Late last month, the Bush administration approved $17.4 billion in short-term loans for GM and Chrysler after both automakers warned that they could run out of cash soon. Ford didn't take any government money, saying it had access to enough credit.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner said the company's restructuring plans submitted to Congress, which include concessions from the United Auto Workers union and other cost cuts, combined with GM's lineup of new products, will make the company prosper when the worldwide auto market recovers.

"We'll be in a position to run the business at break-even or profitable at a much, much smaller industry than frankly a year ago that we ever felt would be possible to deal with," Wagoner said.

Chrysler's Robert Nardelli said that while his company's plan for new vehicles has a hole in it for 2009, the automaker will make it to 2010, when it plans to introduce an electric car and a subcompact. It also has a new 300 sedan, Charger performance car and Jeep Grand Cherokee in the works.

Many analysts have predicted, however, that Chrysler will be acquired by another automaker by next year, or sold in pieces by its majority owner Cerberus Capital Management.

Ford's executive chairman, Bill Ford Jr., said the company is working on four high-mileage electric vehicles to be introduced in the coming years.

Ford plans to have a battery-powered commercial van on the market in 2010.

GM's stable of 17 new or upcoming models displayed Sunday also had a focus on fuel efficiency.

The Chevrolet Spark subcompact, a three-door hatchback that was called the Beat when GM unveiled it as a concept car in 2007, is set to go on sale in Europe next year and in the U.S. in 2011.

GM also announced that the Chevrolet Orlando seven-passenger crossover vehicle will go on sale in North America that same year.

But the surprise of the automaker's event was the unveiling of the Cadillac Converj concept car, which is designed to go 40 miles on electric power alone after being recharged from a standard wall outlet.

A small gasoline engine would extend the range to hundreds of miles.

It's the same powertrain technology GM is using in the Chevrolet Volt.

GM's Wagoner said the vehicles are smaller, smarter and more fuel efficient, with "enough towing capacity" to pull GM out of its current troubles.

Chrysler unveiled a concept version of an electric-powered sedan and added the Jeep Patriot small SUV to the stable of electric vehicles it is developing.

James Lentz, the president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, said Toyota planned to initially make about 500 plug-in hybrids, which will be made available first to commercial customers. About 150 plug-ins will be scheduled for customers in the United States, Lentz said.

The Toyota plug-in hybrid will be built in Japan, where Toyota also builds the Prius. The first plug-ins will be essentially built by hand, said Masami Doi, Toyota's general manager of its global strategic planning department.

Honda Motor unveiled its next-generation hybrid, the Insight, and said the car will arrive in U.S. showrooms in April. It is expected to compete head-on with the Toyota Prius.

Honda said the 2010 Insight will have a lower price than the Civic Hybrid, which has a base price of $23,650.

Information from The New York Times was included in this report.

Founder's grandson

to head Toyota

Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder of Toyota Motor, was selected by senior board members as the company's next president, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing people familiar with the choice.

The formal decision may be weeks away, with Toyoda likely succeeding Katsuaki Watanabe in June, The Journal said.

Akio Toyoda's grandfather, Kiichiro Toyoda, started Toyota in 1937.