Driving the EcoXperience at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show
It might be hard to believe from the photos, but a tree grows in Cobo
Hall at the North American International Auto Show here in Detroit.
Well, "grows" is probably too strong a word for trees planted into dirt
along with a few flowers, but the idea is to give consumers a chance to
drive some of the many new hybrid models that have come out recently or
will come out soon.
It's no Space Mountain, let me tell you. Closer to Autopia, I'd say.
I hopped into a Saturn Vue 2 Mode Hybrid and was indeed impressed by
the silent ride (I had to keep the speed down to around 5 mph). It's a
fairly short course — maybe a quarter mile for the two laps I made —
with the only real excitement being a surprise waterfall from the
basement ceiling at Cobo. Apparently an air-conditioner line had broken
somewhere (perhaps it burst in the Arctic temps here) and sent water
cascading down into the display.
"We're turning it into a pond," my ride-along hybrid expert volunteered
as we negotiated around the falling water and the scrambling workers
and groundskeepers.
Beyond the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, Ford Fusion Hybrid and Cadillac Escalade
Hybrid, the true star at the display was a right-hand-drive Mitsubishi
iMiev all-electric car, which most of the journalists in line were
waiting to drive. It's very golf-cart-like, but certainly seemed like
the most fun offering on the course.
On the other hand, the trees and flowers that lined the track helped me
forget the Iditarod I faced on the drive from the airport to the hotel
last night.
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So they got the Mitsubishi i there??