faster more luxurious bigger and now
greener there's a tradition at the new
york auto show held annually around
easter is the u.s. is big showcase for
performance and luxury cars theoria is
after all rich in well paid
professionals looking to turn their
bonus checks into high-performance
playthings and big cars particularly
sports utility vehicles have enjoyed
fast rising sales in the last 18 months
falling fuel prices have made consumers
forget about the cost of running them
but this year's New York shall also
betrayed signs of a factor that's
pushing automakers in another direction
government rules introduced in 2012
obliged us carmakers nearly to double
their vehicles average fuel efficiency
by 2024 vehicles unveiled in the first
day of this year's New York show were
consequently a strange mix there were
futuristic highly efficient vehicles
like a new version of Toyotas Prius
hybrid there were also vehicles it would
be just as at home on a racetrack as an
urban street and road hogging beer moths
it's not clear how many people will buy
the greener vehicles we have not seen
people by alternative fuel vehicles
hybrids as much v's but there may come a
turning point in that I don't know when
that will be and there may have to be
more government incentives to make that
work infrastructure changes have to be
made especially for EVs I don't know
when that turning point is but we
certainly are seeing more
electrification of vehicles and the
tides got a ship to some point the
clearest example of the resurgence of
the big SUV was the unveiling of a new
version of the lincoln navigator an SUV
so vast and luxurious that when it first
came out rappers like to brag about
owning one yet the chief executive of
Ford Lincoln's parent insists even this
vast beast has been put on a diet
what's under the hood of this concept is
a 3.5 liter v6 engine that puts out 400
horsepower so traditionally in a vehicle
this size you'd have to put v8 engines
or larger so clearly we want to make
sure in all of our vehicles in their
respective segments they're either the
best or among the best in terms of fuel
economy in the segment our makers in the
u.s. faced a conflict between what they
want to do and what they need to do what
they want to do is meet resurgent
consumer demand for expensive profitable
sports utility vehicles like this
Lincoln Navigator what they need to do
is to satisfy strict new US government
fuel efficiency standards and to do that
they need to sell an awful lot more
highly fuel-efficient vehicles like the
new Toyota Prius Prime behind me here
the good news is that with US auto sales
running at boom levels car makers can
afford to satisfy their desires and do
what they have to the bad news is that
with fuel prices at such low levels the
exciting dream cars on display here are
going to be very rare sites and the
roads indeed Robert right financial
times new york international auto show