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Tesla Exhibit at the Detroit Show (NAIAS 2009)

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Detroit Auto Show: The 11 Most Depressing Moments Of The 2009 Detroit Auto Show - Jalopnik

3.) Michigan Hall Basement Smell

Though it gave us a chance to drive the Ford Escape Plug-In Hybrid, the electric test track in the basement smelled awful. Was it the cars? No. Was it the Wayne State Formula SAE team? No. Actually, it was the mulch. The smell was so intolerable indoors, the VW booth above was forced to run their air conditioning to blow the smell out. That caused the air conditioning units to drip water into the basement, onto the track where it ran off into the mulch — thus causing the smell to become worse. By the end of the press preview, the Volkswagen booth was smelling like the inside of an abandoned Westfalia camper.


2.) Tuesday


Tuesday is usually a down day for the show, reserved for non-product press conferences and demonstrations. This year there was so little to report on we ended up in a two-way battle with dozens of auto reporters to get to the Tesla press conference and then again to get to Senator Bob Corker. Seriously, ou'd have thought Elon Musk and Corker were both Bono. Neither needs the added ego boost.
Elon_Musk_Tesla.jpg
 
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For other NPR nerds, I caught part of this on FreshAir yesterday: Fresh Air from WHYY : NPR

Economy
Cars In Crisis? A View From The Detroit Auto Show

As the auto industry struggles, the Detroit Auto Show has been dramatically scaled back. Auto writer Paul Eisenstein, who's been covering the annual event, talks to guest host Dave Davies about what this year's gathering says about the current state of the industry.

Eisenstein writes for The Detroit Bureau, an independent auto-news service. He has reported on the automotive industry for more than 30 years, and was the publisher and director of the auto-news Web site The Car Connection. (Comments)



Environment
Daniel Sperling: A Billion Cars And Counting

Transportation expert Daniel Sperling estimates that the world's car population — which currently stands at one billion vehicles — is likely to double in the next 20 years.

Sperling is the co-author (with Deborah Gordon) of Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability, a book that considers the environmental impact of so many automobiles and suggests ways that politicians, car companies and the general public can curb car-ownership and reduce climate change.

Sperling is a professor of civil engineering and environmental science and policy at the University of California, Davis and the founding director of University of California, Davis' Institute of Transportation Studies. (Comments)
Tesla was mentioned quite a few times.
 
Battery-powered cars not yet practical for mass production - Business ? cleveland.com

NAIAS-related...

There's an old saying in the auto industry when it comes to developing technologies like the new electric cars: You can get them on the road fast, reliable or cheap. Pick two of the three.

Tesla and Fisker have gotten into the market by choosing fast and reliable. Cheap, not so much. Tesla has sold a handful of its $109,000 Roadster sports cars. Fisker's $88,000 Karma plug-in hybrid should be on sale late this year.

Mike Donoughe, a Fairview Park native and vice president of engineering and manufacturing at Tesla, said early entries into the market will be outrageously expensive for mainstream buyers. But those early products help establish a market.

The Roadster "has the technology that we think will drive down the cost curve," Donoughe said.
 
More on that 10 MPH track they had in the basement.

Detroit 2009: Michigan EcoXperience turns Cobo Hall into surrealsville [w/VIDEO] - AutoblogGreen

There is a special smell coming up from the basement of Cobo Hall. We're not sure which combination of chemicals and fakery makes up the distinctive odor, but we know that it's the fault of the "Michigan EcoXperience," aka the forest in the basement. To spare you the wrinkled nose hairs - and as a service to those of you not able to come to Detroit - we headed down and got not just pictures but also a video of what it's like to drive among the trees and yet be inside a basement at the same time. Surreal doesn't begin to describe it...