The 2018 Detroit Auto Show: Are U.S. Carmakers Still Stuck in the Past?

How strange that this uber-tough truck should become the servant of pampered, prideful wealth, beloved by inked-up louts and dead-eyed daddy’s girls from South Beach to Singapore. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Germany’s Hummer.

The G-Wagen is fairly representative of Daimler’s transatlantic duality: In Europe, post-Paris accord and post-Dieselgate scandal, German carmakers are under intense social and political pressure to clean up their acts. Messaging from Daimler to European audiences stresses responsibility, sustainability and a bright future of vehicle electrification.

But in the United States, where gasoline is cheap and climate change is a Chinese hoax, Mercedes-Benz isn’t afraid to swagger, and thus the Arnold. The new G 550 is huge—2.1 inches longer and 4.8 inches wider than the outgoing version—and rocks a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 with a conveniently unavailable EPA mileage.

The fact is Daimler desperately needs the filthy, frothy profits from North America to invest in next-generation propulsion. So I guess that’s OK.

Like many things in the Age of Trump, the 2018 Detroit show felt a bit surreal. The auto industry is, after all, a global business, and at the moment roughly two-thirds of the globe is pulling in one direction while the U.S. is pulling in another. In Europe, automakers face spiralling vehicle-emissions standards and much tougher, real-world testing. In China—the world’s largest car market with about 29 million light vehicles sold in 2017—the government has announced a strategic pivot toward vehicle electrification, culminating in an effective ban on internal-combustion vehicles by 2040.

By contrast, the Trump administration wants to walk back the U.S. commitment to the Paris climate agreement. Here fuel economy targets aren’t going up; they are dumbing down. The Trump administration effectively suspended, pending review, Obama-era targets for Corporate Average Fuel Economy covering years 2021 to 2025. The automakers complained the targets were unrealistic.

Yes, well, that might have something to do with the ever-expanding size of the vehicles they make. Detroit was a land of sauropods. The new Chevy Silverado, for instance, is nearly two inches longer than the previous model. Raise a hand if you thought it wasn’t long enough already.

Why does the Nissan Xmotion concept tower over its engineers? Why won’t the

BMW

X7 Concept iPerformance bring back the sun?

Or consider this statement of public taste, the North American Truck of the Year, the Lincoln Navigator, a looming brute of a ute with a twin-turbo, 450-hp V6 and 18 mpg at the pump (with four-wheel drive). Not to gainsay the jurists but what the hell?

Bigger cars almost always equal bigger profits for carmakers, which is why they lobbied the Trump administration for regulatory relief in the first place. But it’s not so good for consumption. In December the average fuel economy of new vehicles sold in the U.S. hit 25 mpg, down 0.5 mpg from its peak in August 2014, according to University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.

To be sure, there was some fresh, fuel-saving tech on the floor, including the first generation of mild hybrids with 48-volt architectures. The all-new Ram 1500 uses a belt-driven motor/generator to stoke a 48-volt lithium battery pack. The system is designed to improve start/stop refinement and can temporarily boost torque by 90 ft-lb (with the 3.6-liter V6) or 130 ft-lb (with the 5.7-liter V8).

The Silverado, also completely redesigned for model-year 2019, deploys GM’s extra-cool Dynamic Fuel Management system, using an A.I.-derived algorithm to pause fuel flow in one, two, three, up to seven cylinders, almost instantly.

Against sales of SUVs and crossovers, sedan and coupe sales have fallen through the floor over the past five years, threatening the demise of familiar name plates such as the Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Impala. But a couple of notable family sedans re-emerged in Detroit.

Volkswagen

unveiled its new, U.S.-specific Jetta, built in Tennessee. Toyota brought out the quietly stylish and plenty big next generation Avalon.

The International Auto Show was less international than in years past, with one remarkable exception: The state-owned Guangzhou Automotive Group (GAC) was the first Chinese automaker to appear on the main floor at the Cobo Center. Pleased company execs pulled the sheet off the Enverge EV concept, a sleek small crossover with a 71-kWh battery pack and a claimed range of 370 miles.

GAC has committed to entering the U.S. market by 2019, starting with a Toyota Highlander-sized three-row SUV with a turbo-four engine called—get this—the Trumpchi GS8.

I predict it will be yuge.