Yes, it’s that time once again, when the annual gearhead juggernaut known as the Chicago Auto Show parks its latest toys at McCormick Place. We checked it out last night. General impression? Despite all the current buzz about green tech, it was pretty much business as usual. Lots of moderate to low fuel-efficient models. Utilitarian ho-hum design. Slick brochures, slicker salesman, and eye-candy models trying to give the status quo a sugar buzz. If this is any indication of middle America’s attitude toward green mobility, seems we’ve got our work cut out for us in playing matchmaker between the mainstream and EVs.
Unlike Detroit’s sprawling “Electric Avenue,” there’s no concentrated effort here to spotlight electric vehicles as the bright, hopeful future of a reenergized auto industry, the cornerstone of a domestic economy built on clean, green tech, and a remedy to curbing our carbon footprint.
But there were a few intriguing concept cars that got our attention: Hyundai’s Blue-Will plug-in hybrid and Toyota’s FT-CH compact hybrid:
Hyundai’s Blue-Will, the automaker’s first plug-in, looks pretty James Bond 2.0 and can run solely on its lithium polymer battery for a range up to 40 miles. The FT-CH takes the Prius notion a step further for youthful urbanites who grew up on a steady diet of video gaming and anime and are more willing to spend less on a smaller, even more fuel-efficient set of wheels. We’re assuming they won’t all be so in-your-face Kermit-the-frog green, but hey, if you want to be a mobile advertisement for environmental progress, we’ll honk when we see you rolling down Michigan Ave.
