Hot Wheels Design Challenge

Dodge XP-07

Designer: Mark Reizen

When he got word of the Hot Wheels competition, Reizen already had an idea that he'd been tinkering with in his head for years. It was like a Dodge version of the Batmobile. This one would be turbine powered, just like the experimental Chrysler turbine cars of the 1960s. The Design Challenge would provide an opportunity to bring the project to life, if on a lilliputian scale.

At the time, Reizen was already working on a full-sized concept car - a modified Dodge minivan called the Black Jack - to be presented at the same Las Vegas custom car trade show at which these cars are being unveiled.

Hybrid

2007 Ford Escape Hybrid

Hybrid

Gas/electric hybrids use electric motors to assist a gasoline engine in driving the vehicle. In hybrid cars now on the market, the batteries for the electric motor are charged by the gasoline engine and by power recaptured during slowing and stopping of the vehicle.

Vehicle costs: Adds about $2,000 to $3,000, but hybrid models usually have unrelated additional features making it difficult to assess the cost of the hybrid feature alone.

Efficiency: Increases fuel efficiency by anywhere from 25 to 40 percent compared to vehicles with similar-sized gasoline engines.

Fuel costs: Uses gasoline, so reduces fuel costs to the same degree that it increases fuel efficiency

Performance: Depends on the setup. Can actually boost performance while still increasing fuel efficiency compared to a non-hybrid car. But more performance will mean less efficiency.

Greenhouse gases: In any vehicle, CO2 emissions vary directly with the amount of fuel burned, so hybrid vehicles reduce CO2 emissions to the same degree that fuel efficiency is improved.

Other pollution: Reduces emissions of other pollutants to the same degree that fuel efficiency is improved, assuming hybrid and non-hybrid vehicles are otherwise the same.

The future: General Motors is working on two new plug-in hybrid vehicles, but it has not set a specific timeline. A plug-in hybrid could have its batteries charged by plugging into an electrical outlet as well as by using power generated from an on-board engine. The first GM vehicle would be a plug-in version of the new Saturn Vue Hybrid. The other would be something like the Chevrolet Volt concept car, where the wheels are driven by electricity alone, and an on-board engine is used only for back-up generator power.

Robocar 2057: 8 visions of the future

Car designers show off their ideas for the ultimate robot-controlled cars of the future in the Los Angeles Auto Show's 'Design Challenge' contest.

Honda 1⁴ Honda designers have come up with a clever way to get around "High Occupancy Vehicle" lane restrictions that they expect will still be around in 50 years.

The Honda 1⁴, or One to the Power of Four, is Honda's concept for a solar powered hybrid robotic vehicle. It would allow commuters to use restricted HOV lanes, but as the vehicle nears its final destination, it would transform into four smaller cars to take occupants to their final destinations.

Molecular engineering would allow the individual vehicles to reshape depending on whether they were separated or combined into one or two.

Chrysler plugs in to electrics

Chrysler will unveil three electrically driven concept vehicles at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show in January.

Dodge ZEO ZEO stands for Zero Emission Operation.

Described as a 2+2 sport wagon - meaning it has small back seats - the ZEO does not have any form of on-board power generation. It is purely a plug-in vehicle with an expected range, Chrysler says, of 250 miles on a charge.

The ZEO is supposed to be a performance car, fitting the image of Dodge as Chrysler Corp.'s performance brand. To emphasize that, its design features a long hood despite the fact that it wouldn't have a big gasoline engine. It will ride on huge 23-inch wheels

Aptera

In November 2008, Steve Fambro will begin selling the Aptera. That means "wingless" in Greek, but don't think this car won't fly. It's a sleek two-seat, three-wheel electric vehicle with a top speed of 95 miles an hour, and it comes in two versions: all electric and hybrid.

Made of a Space Age composite material, the hybrid gets 300 miles per gallon, while the electric goes 100 miles on a single three- to six-hour charge.

Putting the zoom into electric cars For the first time since the early 20th century, America is seeing a flowering of entrepreneurship in the auto industry. Today at least 11 new electric car companies, each working on a wide range of technologies, have launched or plan to launch models. These upstarts are not modest. They believe they can do what major automakers have failed to do: bring an electric car to the mass market.

Good Will Hyundai

Submitted by Karl Brauer, Edmunds.com

If a 300-plus horsepower V8, rear-wheel drive, a 6-speed automatic transmission and radar cruise control don't sound like something you'd find at the local Hyundai dealership - well, you don't know the new Hyundai.

The Concept Genesis that Hyundai unveiled at the New York Auto Show today puts the rest of the auto industry on notice - this company ain't just about inexpensive economy sedans and SUVs anymore. Aimed squarely at luxury cars like the 5 Series and E-Class, the production version should be priced closer to the Chrysler 300 , meaning around $30,000.

Breaking out of your "assigned" market in the auto industry isn't easy, and it isn't always successful (did someone just say "Phaeton"?). But if you build a solid product and offer it at a highly competitive (or just plain cheap) price, buyers will materialize (did someone else just say "LS400"?). I think the Genesis will prove more like the Lexus than the Volkswagen in terms of its success. We'll know soon enough....

2007 GMC Acadia General Motors' big crossover, a first for GMC, has a lot going for it.

Cost: $29,000 to $38,000
Seating: Seven standard, eight optional
Fuel mileage: 20 mpg overall with AWD
Power: 3.6-liter V6, 275 horsepower, 6-speed transmission

From the outside, it looks like a GMC SUV. Yes, it's a bit more rounded than you'd expect from an big truck. Its sides slope inward, giving it a stable, almost sporty stance.

From the driver's seat, the difference is more remarkable. The Acadia doesn't feel its size. The benefit of so-called unibody engineering, which doesn't involve the heavy frame typical of a pickup truck, is that a vehicle can ride more smoothly, get better fuel economy and handle better.

The Acadia's no sports car, but the power from its 3.6-liter V6 engine is more than adequate. In turns, it feels stable and predictable with good steering feel. Despite being big enough to get the "oversized" surcharge from a parking garage, the Acadia really does feel more like a car than a large SUV.

Trax, Beat and Groove

Submitted by: James Bell, IntelliChoice.com

The New York Auto Show is known as a fashionable event with many of the debuts collecting points for style and exclusivity.

But Chevrolet decided to crash this party. It introduced three minicars that have healthy dose of fun and creativity. The Trax, Beat, and Groove are the result of a challenge from General Motors to its Korean Design Studio to imagine a future vehicle that would package individuality and expression with economy.

And the real fun starts for you today. Chevrolet has released www.vote4chevrolet.com to the world and asks for your help in deciding what it might build.

Now that is fun!

The subcompact segment heated up in a big way since the introduction of the Nissan Versa, Honda Fit, and Toyota Yaris. Those three were sent to do battle against the Chevy Aveo.

But the next frontier might be even smaller cars that provide all the comfort and security of today's modern vehicles with the style and presence of the upcoming Smart car from DaimlerChrysler in 2008. Especially when you factor in the real world threat of permanent $3.00 per gallon gas ... or higher.

That is not an exciting prospect, but helping Chevy build the right car for such a future is. And according to GM, as of 8:00 Wednesday night, almost 96,000 of you have logged in and cast your vote. And I hear the results are not showing a clear winner as of yet.

Me? I like the Beat. It best fulfills Bob Lutz's promise that "Style will lead this brand ... not the other way around."

Volvo PV4

Submitted by: Eric Evarts, ConsumerReports.org

Amid all the flashy paint in New York's Javits Convention Center is a boxy, dull blue car rotating atop a pedestal at the Volvo exhibit. It isn't new. In fact, it's the second vehicle the then young automotive group built under leader Oscar Gabrielson and Gustav Larson, a 1927 PV4. And it looks a little out of place as one of the ubiquitous auto-show "stand boys" polishes its chrome and meticulously wipes finger prints off its windows during press days.

The PV4, looking like a grandfatherly patriarch over the glossy, colorful, wheeled jelly-beans on the rest of the stand is part of a clandestine attempt by Volvo North America's to build a history for the brand in this country. It also represents the efforts of a small cadre of Volvo PR people just trying to have a little fun.

It all started in an effort to celebrate the Swedish firm's 70th anniversary in 1997, when a couple of Volvo workers found a 1958 "Suga" military off roader for sale on a Colorado used car lot. (Suga means "sow" in Swedish, which the car resembled.) Volvo bought it sight unseen and won't specify how much the company spent restoring the car before it drove on-stage at the 1999 Detroit auto show as a prelude to the company's first modern off-roader, the "CrossCountry" wagon.