Crain's Detroit Business - 2010 North American International Auto Show - (Page 33)

EcoXperience Electric circuit Visitors can take battery-powered vehicles for a spin “It’s really a unique way to showcase the auto show, electrification and the battery companies that are choosing Michigan.” Dancsok is counting on a few things to multiply interest in EcoXperience this year. For one thing, it’ll be the first time that most international journalists and Detroit-area consumers will be able to ride in a Chevrolet Volt, the highly touted “plug-in” hybrid that General Motors Co. soon will produce. “That’s huge,” said Doug Fox, chairman of the show for DADA. “This car was the star of our show four years ago when it was unveiled in concept form, and now four years later it’s driving around the track.” The rest of the EcoXperience fleet is a mix of existing production hybrids and prototype or indevelopment “green” models such as the Ford Escape plug-in, the Chevrolet Equinox fuel-cell model and the Mitsubishi iMiEV plug-in. Another reason Dancsok and Fox anticipate bigger attendance is that EcoXperience doubled the length of its test track, to one-quarter mile, using much more of the 80,000 square feet of available space in Cobo’s basement than the attraction did last year. MEDC has shipped in more than 200 evergreen and deciduous trees, hundreds of flowering shrubs and more than 5,000 flowering bulbs to help create the ambience of a northern Michigan forest. It also built two “water features” with more than 130,000 gallons of water flowing through falls. Show planners also promise that they’ve vanquished a problem that vexed visitors and exhibitors last year: stinky mulch. Turns out it had been treated with a smelly fire retardant. “We reached agreement with the fire marshal,” Fox said, “and there will be no detectable odor this year — but it will still be fire-retardant.” The Alternative Energy Showcase will feature about a dozen companies, ranging from Nissan to DTE, displaying technologies including plug-in charging stations and battery systems. 2010 North American International Auto Show COURTESY OF NAIAS Cars and SUVs tour a green space at Cobo Center during last year’s EcoXperience. The highly anticipated Chevrolet Volt joins the stable of electric vehicles available for test-drives this year. By Dale Buss big part of getting the American public to buy electric cars is to get them to test-drive the battery-powered vehicles to experience their appeal. That’s why the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and the Detroit Auto Dealers Association have expanded and enhanced their EcoXperience electric-vehicle test-drive track in the basement of Cobo Center for the 2010 North American International Auto Show. They expect to more than triple last year’s 15,000 visitors at the first-time display. For MEDC, the state agency charged with accelerating Michigan’s economic comeback, EcoXperience fulfills another purpose: exposing Michigan as a Chevrolet Volt growing hub for manufacturing the batteries and associated systems that are going into these vehicles. So at this year’s NAIAS, MEDC has added an Alternative Energy Showcase featuring some of these major component suppliers. “Both of these things help us promote and articulate to all of the national and international media, and to the general population, that we as a state are investing heavily in the electrification of the vehicle,” said Lisa Dancsok, senior vice president of marketing and communications for Lansing-based MEDC.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's Detroit Business - 2010 North American International Auto Show

Crain's Detroiot Business - 2010 North American International Auto Show
Table of Contents
Overview
Buyers Guide
Small Car Design
Alternative Movement
EcoXperience
Test-Driving
Technology
Poster Contest
Unveilings
Sponsors

Crain's Detroit Business - 2010 North American International Auto Show