THE BIG BUZZ
Electric is all the rage at the 63rd Frankfurt Auto Show this week in Germany, and nearly every major automaker has at least one on display.
If the models unveiled are any indication, the notion of electric cars as small, stunted boxes with little range is about to be junked.
THE BRANDS
France's Renault stole the spotlight at the show, unveiling four electric cars and pledging to bring them to market at affordable prices within three years.
Tesla Motors' sleek, two-seat Roadster sells for $101,500 in the U.S. and has a range of 244 miles on one charge. Its planned Model S, which will seat seven and has a 300-mile range, will go for $49,900.
Daimler said it will put its first electricity generating fuel-cell car on the road by the end of this year, the B-Class F-Cell. It will also develop a high-performance electric sports car, its Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.
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Volkswagen AG will put its new E-Up electric compact into production in 2013. VW did not disclose how much it will cost or when it might be available in the U.S. It said the battery will give drivers a range of around 80 miles, or about 130 kilometers.
QUOTABLE
"People have realized that … electric vehicles don't have to be golf carts. They don't have to be anemic little putt-putts."
— Diarmuid O'Connell, vice president, Tesla Motors Inc.
DID YOU KNOW
Tucson will be among the first markets to get Nissan's new electric vehicle, the Leaf, and charging stations under a nearly $100 million federal grant awarded earlier this year to a Scottsdale company.
AND ON THE NON-ELECTRIC FRONT
• Ford Motor Co. used the Frankfurt show to unveil a new compact minivan this week. It will go on sale in the United States in 2011. The seven-passenger Grand C-Max minivan will use a four-cylinder engine with Ford's Ecoboost combination of turbocharging and direct fuel injection to boost fuel economy about 20 percent versus a conventional engine, Ford says.
• Lamborghini, Ferrari and Bentley Motors are shrugging off the economic recession by flaunting some of the most expensive high-performance vehicles they've ever produced. Undeterred by a 40 percent slump in the luxury-car market in the past 12 months, Lamborghini is using the Frankfurt show to unveil the 1.1 million-euro ($1.6 million) Reventon Roadster supercar, the costliest model it has ever made.
Wire service reports