Green Gasoline

The Detroit auto show is where automakers showcase their latest Big Ideas, and this year's show features some of the most advanced green technology to date.

But you won't see many hydrogen, electric or hybrid concept vehicles unveiled. Rather, you'll find green tech in the gasoline and diesel engines that will power most of our cars in the next decade.

"The internal combustion engine is not going away for a very long time," said Casey Selecman, an industry analyst at CSM Worldwide. Cars will become much cleaner and more fuel-efficient, he said, but "it's going to be an evolutionary change, not a revolutionary one."

It's a chaotic time for the industry as it moves toward a greener future without surrendering its past. Despite a worldwide push for vehicles that run on alternative fuels, the industry has invested too much in the combustion engine to abandon it. That's why the North American International Auto Show in Detroit Jan. 19-27 will see the unveiling of the 620-horsepower Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 and Kia's latest sport utility vehicle alongside the Saturn Vue Green two-mode hybrid and Toyota's A-BAT hybrid pickup concept.

Concept cars will provide glimpses of where automakers are headed. General Motors is touting hydrogen with the Cadillac Provoq. Chrysler's bringing the Dodge ZEO electric sports car. BMW will bring along the X6 Active Hybrid concept.

But the greenest stars may be the gasoline-burning Ford Explorer America and Audi R8 diesel concept vehicles. Both feature what several industry experts called the engines of the future, and they highlight the trend toward turbochargers, variable valve timing, direct fuel injection and clean diesel. Automakers see such technology as the fastest way to significantly improve fuel efficiency and emissions.

"None of this sounds green, but it's the dominant green technology we'll see alongside hybrids for the next 10 years," said Eric Noble, president of Car Lab, an auto industry consultancy.

The new Explorer, expected to see production in 2010, looks like just another SUV, but it redefines the genre. It is smaller and lighter than earlier Explorers, a trend automakers are adopting as consumers shun SUVs in favor of car-like "crossover utility vehicles," or CUVs.

But the biggest change is under the hood, where Ford installed its new EcoBoost four-cylinder turbocharged direct-injection engine. (Production versions will have an optional EcoBoost V6.) Ford says the 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine produces 30 percent more power and up to 20 percent better fuel economy than the 4.0-liter V6 it will replace.

Ford plans to build 500,000 EcoBoost four- and six-cylinder engines a year within five years, and Noble says most of its competitors have a similar level of commitment. The 9-4x CUV that Saab will unveil in Detroit uses a similar engine with flex-fuel capacity.

"All the manufacturers are validating this technology, because you really do improve efficiency with turbos," he said. "They're not talking about it, because it's not sexy."

The Detroit auto show also will see the first rounds fired in the coming clean-diesel revolution. The BMW X5 xDrive35d and Mercedes-Benz GLK Freeside concept are among the diesels appearing in Detroit. But the one that will get the most attention will almost certainly be the 500-horsepower V-12 Audi R8 diesel.

Audi wants to build on the success of its R10 TDI LeMans racecar to start pushing diesel in a big way. The company plans to produce a diesel R8 if the car is well received in Detroit.

Ron Cogan, editor of Green Car Journal and GreenCar.com, said high-performance diesels like the R8, BMW 335d and Mitsubishi RA concept would go a long way toward dispelling the perception of diesels as loud, dirty and slow.

The diesel revolution of the 1970s "left a lasting impression that diesel is not good technology," he said. "They don't associate it with cars that will get your blood pumping. As we see high-performance diesels coming out in sports cars, in luxury sedans and affordable cars that do everything you need while being clean and getting 30 percent better fuel economy, they will catch on."

Critics will point to the debuts of vehicles like the Corvette ZR1 (one pundit called it "an old-school exercise in automotive pornography"), Ford's new F150 pickup or Hyundai's 350-horsepower V8 Genesis sedan and say the industry's talk of going green is just that -- talk.

Automotive trend watchers said that although things move slowly in an industry where it can take several years for an idea to reach the assembly line, change is coming, and soon.

"This is not PR," said Aaron Bragman, an analyst with Global Insight. "These are actual programs. They're throwing a lot of money at this. They know they have to meet these regulations. Times are changing. People want to see something different, and we're starting to see those cars rolling out."