After spending the past two years recovering from the near-mortal wounds of the 2008 financial crisis, Detroit displayed its improved health with a spate of electric models unveiled at the North American International Auto Show.
The timing of these green car releases looks smart given recent oil price increases. Wall Street economists and suburban commuters alike are beginning to worry again with petrol prices flirting with $100-per-barrel levels. Prices at the pump reflected supply worries fueled by a leak at a key relay station on the Trans-Alaska pipeline, as they neared the psychologically important $4 per gallon mark in some markets.
While GM and Chrysler inched back from the brink of bankruptcy, auto makers’ attention shifted towards China, now the largest market by sales, and away from Detroit’s historical focus on horsepower towards a variety of eco-technologies.
The SUVs and big trucks that have long dominated the Big 3’s profits and production lines were still at the annual car show in force. But the emphasis on electric models may mark this as the year when US automakers finally go from talking about efficiency to selling greener models in substantial numbers.
Grabbing the main headlines was GM’s Chevy Volt, a 60 mpg hybrid electric car loaded not just with batteries, but with expectations of repairing GM’s wounded reputation. While the $41,000 vehicle’s ultimate commercial success remains an open question, it won the show’s big prize -- the prestigious title of North American Car of the Year from Automobile magazine, voted on by a panel of car writers. 
And like the Leaf, Ford’s battery-powered car will go 100 miles, for a sticker price rumored to be around $30,000, available in 2011. In addition to the Focus Electric, Ford announced two new green micro-vans, bringing to seven the number of electrified vehicles in its product pipeline.
"We do believe at Ford that the price of gasoline is going to march upward over time," Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford told Reuters during the auto show. "We've built our whole entire strategy around that."
Last time oil prices hit current levels, during 2007, sales of SUVs and trucks plummeted, and Detroit had few alternatives to offer drivers so lost sales to Asian and European eco-models. Come the next oil price spike, Detroit will be better positioned.
