Ford Motor Co.’s new CEO Alan Mulally (pictured left) risked disappointing many on Wall Street at the Detroit auto show when he said the automaker has no current plans to dump Jaguar, its British luxury car unit.

Mulally, who replaced Bill Ford Jr. as CEO in September, had earlier declined to rule out the sale of Jaguar or other luxury brands in its lineup. It has said its British sports car unit, Aston Martin, is for sale.

Ford bought Jaguar, an iconic British brand known for its leaping cat hood ornament (pictured right, courtesy of Ford Web site), for $2.82 billion in 1989. However, it has struggled to make money with the brand.

Jaguar’s sales fell nearly 32 percent last year in the United States, the company’s largest market. Jaguar showed the C-XF concept car at the auto show and Car and Driver called it a hint at what is to come for the struggling brand.

Ford’s luxury division, called Premier Automotive Group, is expected to post a loss for 2006 and Jaguar remains the biggest drag on the division’s results.

(PHOTO: Reuters)

In an ironic reversal of reputations, GM revived its once-failed idea of an electric car for the masses, while Toyota, lauded for its environmentally friendly cars, showed off a new version of its largest brawny full-size pickup yet.

As expected, GM unveiled the Chevrolet Volt (pictured left, courtesy of the North American International Auto Show Web site), a new concept car designed to use little or no gasoline by drawing power from a next-generation battery pack that would offer consumers 40 miles of driving a day. 

BusinessWeek magazine said production of the car, which will boast the capability of being charged with a standard electric outlet, would be a major shift in strategy for the automaker. Plug-in hybrids are a favorite of many environmentalists.

GM has been stung in the past by criticism — including a new documentary movie last year – that it conspired to kill the EV1, an experimental electric vehicle program it discontinued in 2003. GM CEO Rick Wagoner also said the automaker would be open to partnerships with rivals to further its hybrid technology development.

Toyota’s Prius sedan popularized gas-electric hybrid vehicles that twin battery power and a combustion engine for improved gas mileage, but the Japanese automaker chose to emphasize its Tundra pickup at the show. The 2007 Tundra CrewMax (pictured right) is a version of the big pickup offering the largest cab space. 

Meanwhile, Honda Motor said it also is considering adding a plug-in electric hybrid vehicle to its lineup, Toyota said it expected its U.S. hybrid sales to grow as much as 57 percent this year and Nissan reiterated expectations of having its own hybrid technology, which could include plug-in technology, on U.S. roads by 2010. Details of these stories can be found in Reuters coverage of the show.

(PHOTO: Reuters)       

Take that Honda!

GM swept the 2007 North American Car and Truck of the Year awards at the Detroit auto show, marking the first time a single U.S. automaker has won both honors in the award’s 14-year history.

GM’s Saturn Aura beat out the Honda Fit and Toyota Camry in the car category, while GM’s redesigned Chevrolet Silverado (pictured left) topped the Ford Edge and Mazda CX-7 in the truck segment.

However, Motor Trend magazine wondered why the Edge and CX-7, both crossover vehicles, were classified as trucks.

Last year, Honda Motor Co. became the first automaker ever to sweep the awards with its redesigned Civic car and Ridgeline pickup truck.

The winners were chosen by a jury of 49 auto writers in the United States and Canada.

(PHOTO: Reuters)

Reuters correspondent James B. Kelleher sat down with Angus MacKenzie (pictured left, courtesy of Motor Trend), the editor of Motor Trend magazine, at the Detroit auto show to discuss topics ranging from oil prices to car designs. A transcript follows.
 
Reuters: A consensus seems to have emerged that high oil prices have permanently changed purchasing habits, driving consumers toward more fuel-efficient vehicles. But we’ve seen energy prices plummet recently to their lowest point in 18 months. Does that change anything?
 
MacKenzie: I think fuel efficiency will continue to be an issue. But what you’ve got to remember is that that in global terms, gas prices in the United States are still among the lowest in the developed world. And once consumers get used to gas at $3 a gallon, I think you’ll see they’ll start to trend back toward the vehicles they’re comfortable with. For America, it’s a big country with a lot of room, they like bigger, roomier vehicles. They’d like a little more gas mileage, but will we see lots of small cars zipping around the streets? No, I don’t think so.
 
Reuters: So is the flight away from SUVs a temporary phenomenon?
 
MacKenzie: No. I think there is a change in market tastes for SUVs, definitely. Fuel prices will drive some of it. But it’s also a fashion statement and what we’re seeing is people moving to things like crossover vehicles, which are a bit less like a truck and a bit more like a car but not quite a station wagon. And there’s a fashion element to it. These crossovers are seen to be a bit cooler, a bit more versatile, less of a truck. This is still a country with an active lifestyle that involves automobiles and American families need vehicles with room, whether they’re going up to the lake, going hunting or whatever, and that lifestyle’s not about to change.
 
Reuters: You mention the popularity of crossovers. Ford and GM really dominated the SUV market. The crossover market looks like it’s going to be a lot more competitive.
 
MacKenzie: Absolutely. There are no market niches that are off limits to any automaker. What you’ve seen happen in the American market over the last five to 10 years is that it’s become globalized. Of course, that’s causing pain for the Detroit automakers in that they now have to right-size their business to reflect this globalized market. The traditional SUVs were kind of an American anomaly because they were based on pickup truck platforms and the full-size pickup truck is a uniquely American vehicle. Crossovers give you that versatility, that practicality, that flexibility; a bit better on the gas; a bit more stylish too.
 
Reuters: OK, let’s talk style. How about Ford and the redesigned Focus and 500? Do you like what you see?

MacKenzie: What Ford is doing is bringing some strong family resemblance to those vehicles. This is not the be-all and end-all for Ford Motor Co. (CEO) Alan Mulally’s (pictured right) absolutely betting the farm, having mortgaged the company to the hilt. Ford desperately needs product. Those two cars are stopgaps. The more interesting cars to look at will be the concept cars, the Ford Interceptor and the Lincoln MKR. They give a guide to some of the direction Ford’s going … Absolutely stopgap. The Focus is a facelift of a car that has been superseded by a whole new car in Europe. So it’s a last-generation small car in terms of its technology, refinement, chassis design. There’s a good car waiting to get out of the 500. The original complaint with the 500 was that the styling was a bit too generic European. And so the new grille on the front of the 500 is meant to give it some of that appeal of the Fusion. The guy who’s now running Ford and Lincoln’s design for North America is a guy called Peter Horbury. He’s a Brit who made his reputation reinventing the looks of Volvos. So if you remember what Volvos looked like in the ’70s and ’80s, basically bricks on wheels, and consider what they look like now, that’s down to Peter, who was able to synthesize of the essence of Swedishness and translate that into design. He’s now tasked with the same job here in North America for Ford products. And I think you’ll see Ford cars become much more American, much more confident in their styling, not trying to be European cars, not trying to be Japanese cars.
 
Reuters: How about the Malibu?
 
MacKenzie: It’s proof that GM design is back from the dead. The previous Malibu was quite possibly the worst car to come out of the company that invented automotive design. It was bland, boring, dull, there was no compelling reason to have one in your driveway. This is not just about transportation anymore. You can get any car to get you from A to B. They’re generally all about the same degree of reliability. So there’s got to be a little bit of driveway theater in it, a bit of entertainment. This is what Detroit understood in the 1950s. The new Malibu (pictured right) is a very clean, contemporary, well-designed, nice-looking car. It’s got come class to it, some tailoring to it. GM invented design and it’s the kind of car that GM should have done years ago.
 
Reuters: But is design really the issue? Aren’t there still negative perceptions around engineering?
 
MacKenzie: Absolutely there are and that’s why design is just part of the story. You’ve got to get the customers in the door, so design helps that. But there were some refinement issues. GM powertrains were not perceived as being as refined or efficient as the Japanese. And also GM has also tended to package the model mix so that you couldn’t, for instance, buy a top-specification Malibu with a four-cylinder engine. Now you will be able to. They’ve still got some work to do, but GM’s having to deal with so many different things. This car is very much a positive step forward. They’re thinking more like the Japanese.

(Photos: Reuters)

General Motors trotted out the stars to cast a spotlight on its vehicles in the hopes of sexing up its image. In a company memo that recently came to light in the Detroit News, GM said it needed to appeal better to younger buyers. 

More than 20 Hollywood stars, including singer and actor Nick Lachey, actress and former “American Idol” finalist Jennifer Hudson (pictured left with Cadillac Escalade), and actor and “Dancing With the Stars” performer Mario Lopez strutted the runway next to 17 new GM vehicles and concept cars on Saturday night in downtown Detroit.

“Thank you celebrities for shining on us tonight,” joked comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who served as the master of ceremonies. GM used the invitation-only event, dubbed “GM Style,” to show off an orange convertible concept of its Chevy Camaro sports car (pictured below) for the first time.

After telling the crowd to check their raffle tickets for the one-of-a-kind Camaro concept, Kimmel joked, “Oh, we’re no going to give that away?”

British rapper Lady Sovereign gave her approval. ”Nice bloody car, mate!”

(PHOTOS: Reuters)

Revving up for the Detroit Auto Show… General Motors officials have hinted they will show a concept that could use electricity as its principal source of power. (CEO Rick Wagoner pictured right). Such a product would allow GM to answer critics on the demise of the EV1 electric car and counter the perception it lags Toyota in developing environmentally-friendly cars. 

The show is unfolding at a crucial moment as U.S. automakers struggle with declining sales and an over-reliance on gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles. You can find a media schedule of events for the show here. GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler unit have all made or will soon announce moves to address their problems.

Last year, Jerome York, a former Chrysler Corp. chief financial officer called on GM to step up efforts to stanch mounting financial losses. (He later joined GM’s board as the voice for billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who had then built up a 9.9 percent stake in the automaker. York later quit the board and Kerkorian has since sold.)

This year, models to watch this year – many of which can be seen in Car and Driver — include GM’s newly redesigned mid-sized Chevy Malibu, meant to be a stronger rival to the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord; Chrysler’s new minivans, the automaker’s biggest selling vehicle line and critical to its rebound; the Toyota FT-HS concept hybrid sports car; and the ultimate small car, the nine-foot-long Smart Fourtwo (pictured left) that will go on sale in the United States in early 2008.

Check back for links to stories, pictures and coverage from Reuters Television throughout the show at Reuters.com.

(Photos: Reuters right, official Smart site, left)