Despite environmental concerns being the big issue at the LA Motor Show, some of the world's biggest engines were still on display, writes Donal Byrnefrom Los Angeles.
A few hundred metres from the Los Angeles convention centre - where executives from the world's major car companies seemed to speak of little else other than environmentally-friendly technology initiatives - the traffic on Interstate 10 was at a crawl. This is a city of seven million cars and a rush hour that starts at 6am and ends around midnight with almost incalculable emissions levels.
The age and condition of many of the cars on the city's road networks suggests that green motoring is not going to be a reality any time soon, even in a state that is more passionate than any other about the impact of climate change.
Even the announcement at the LA International Auto Show of this year's American Green Car of the Year for 2008 is enough to raise European eyebrows.
The Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid four-wheel-drive weighs three tones and has a 5.3-litre V8 engine. The fact that it achieves 50 per cent better fuel economy than a conventional V8 seemed enough to win the day, but it can still manage only 21 miles to the gallon. However, it is the start of a new approach and the Tahoe will sell in millions, creating a cumulative improvement, say its supporters.
Inside the show, Toyota - a company with greener credentials than many of its competitors - was being targeted by environmental protestors in a row over legal action being brought by the State of California seeking tougher fuel economy rules. After an angry confrontation with a protestor, Toyota's general sales manager for North America, Bob Carter, said the fuel economy measures needed to be introduced on a federal and not a local level.
At practically every stand there was emphasis on fuel cell technology, cleaner fuels, hybrid engines and cutting emissions levels but there was also plenty of typically American design on view - trucks, SUVs and cars still have some of the biggest engines in production in the world today.
While the environment was the dominant theme at this year's show, one does not detect the sort of urgency about the issue that one might expect. Fuel cell technology, using hydrogen for power and creating zero emissions, received a significant boost here when Honda announced it will start selling hydrogen-powered cars from next summer, but only in limited numbers and only in the State of California.
Toyota has been testing the same technology but, according to Irv Miller, a group vice-president of Toyota in the United States, it is "still 10-15 years" down the road.
"We have been developing new technologies, such as hybrid engines and fuel cell power, but there are a lot of different factors involved in creating the right package," he told Motors.
"We still have to get a package that is good for the customer. What can we give them for, say $35,000 (€23,672), and get it right so they want to buy that package. We are not there yet."
Two things are quite evident when speaking to those involved in developing and promoting these new green technologies. The first is that there is no agreement on which technology is the best for the mass production of cars. The second is that the big car manufacturers are not exactly in a rush. "It is a curious and complex mix of business, politics and human behaviour and it is going to be a long time before all sides are satisfied," says one industry analyst.
The managing director of Jaguar, Mike O'Driscoll, says the challenge for his company is to make performance cars that are as environmentally-friendly as possible. "I think everyone in the business is looking at different solutions and there are different solutions. Hybrid is one answer, but so too is cleaner diesel technology, but diesel is not as accessible as it should be.
"We used aluminium technology to reduce the weight of the Jaguar XJ and XK by 400 pounds and that had a significant impact. It is fair to say that companies have different answers and there is no great consensus," he told Motors.
Much of the attention at the show was focused on Honda's FCX, which uses hydrogen from a fuel cell, has zero emissions and goes on sale in California in the summer.
It is a move that surprised many in the industry because hydrogen cannot be stored at certain temperatures and is not easily available.
Honda's Chris Naughton concedes the project is still far from viable. "Yes, we are still some years away from this being a volume car.
"We have managed to get the fuel cell pack down in size (the latest fuel cell is about the size of a small piece of luggage, whereas in 1999 it was almost four times the size) and the car can accommodate four people comfortably.
"We have spent a lot of money developing this, but we are also continuing to develop other technologies, such as clean diesel and improving normal gasoline consumption," he said.
Charlie Gill of the Los Angeles New Car Dealers Association is not convinced that the FCX is going to be a success.
"Until the price is right and the car technology is self-contained - in that it does not require any special filling technique or having to store hydrogen - people are not really going to go for it.
"The Prius and the Ford Escape hybrids have been very popular here in California, but people are still very price sensitive," he said.
His dealers sell some 500,000 new cars a year in Los Angeles County and, while he says Californians might be more concerned about climate change than others, the price of a car and the practicality of running it environmentally are still the bottom lines.
In the meantime, the world's car manufacturers are warming to a new theme of "sustainable mobility", meaning that they want the car to be seen only as a part of the resolution of emissions problems.
"There are more people living in cities now than in any rural environments and the car has to be a part of new transport systems - connecting people by car with public transport and so on," said Irv Miller of Toyota.