Slideshow: Detroit Auto Show's Concept Cars Roll Hybrid

The 2012 North America Internation Auto Shows displayed concept cars from Cadillac, Lexus, VW, Chrysler, and other car makers, spotlighting electric and hybrid power trains.

Charles Murray

February 27, 2012

1 Min Read
Slideshow: Detroit Auto Show's Concept Cars Roll Hybrid

Concept cars can range from conventional to racy to downright wild. This year's auto shows in Detroit and Chicago offered a little bit of each. Honda and Lincoln gave show attendees a taste of the conventional, while Chevy focused on racy designs for younger buyers.

For their part, Volkswagen and Smart took aim at the future with a pair of unusual pure electric vehicles. However, if there's a common theme, it's hybridization. Even conservative automakers like Cadillac and Lexus rolled out hybrid powertrains.

Click on the picture below to see our slideshow of 17 appealing concept-car photos:

Lexus's LF-LC concept is the result of the company's effort to build "a future hybrid sport coupe." Lexus hasn't said much about the vehicle's powertrain, but the LF-LC is notable for the sculpted 3D spindle grille and its use of technology, including twin 12.3-inch LCD screens in the interior.

Related posts:

  • For a close-up look at GM's Chevy Volt, go to the Drive for Innovation site and follow the cross-country journey of EE Life editorial director, Brian Fuller. In the trip sponsored by Avnet Express, Fuller is taking the fire-engine-red Volt to innovation hubs across America, interviewing engineers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and students as he blogs his way across the country.

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About the Author(s)

Charles Murray

Charles Murray is a former Design News editor and author of the book, Long Hard Road: The Lithium-Ion Battery and the Electric Car, published by Purdue University Press. He previously served as a DN editor from 1987 to 2000, then returned to the magazine as a senior editor in 2005. A former editor with Semiconductor International and later with EE Times, he has followed the auto industry’s adoption of electric vehicle technology since 1988 and has written extensively about embedded processing and medical electronics. He was a winner of the Jesse H. Neal Award for his story, “The Making of a Medical Miracle,” about implantable defibrillators. He is also the author of the book, The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer, published by John Wiley & Sons in 1997. Murray’s electronics coverage has frequently appeared in the Chicago Tribune and in Popular Science. He holds a BS in engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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