Detroit auto show dazzles

DOWN UNDER: Hydro Magnesium program manager Lisabeth Riopelle checks out the instrument panel substructure in a cross-section display of the 2002 Cadillac Escalade.

(Jan. 20, 2002) Hundreds of new cars and trucks - many with parts made from light metals supplied by Hydro Aluminium North America - dazzled nearly one million visitors at the 2002 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, Michigan.

"There's Hydro aluminium in the rear bumper support beam here," says Hydro Magnesium program manager Lisabeth Riopelle, crouching behind a 2002 model of Buick's Park Avenue sedan. Hydro Automotive Structures Holland in Michigan delivers both the front and rear aluminium bumper beams for the Park Avenue.

"General Motors (the maker of Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and many others) is our largest customer in North America," she comments.

On a nearby stage, thudding rock music and lights synch with a young woman's rap recital of new features on the 2002 Buick LeSabre series. Parked on an upper tier are several GM prototypes, including the Autonomy, designed to run on hydrogen-based fuel cells and drawing admiration from an American audience yearning for a more fuel-efficient future. Below, a salesman trumpets Cadillac's new Escalade as "the most powerful SUV (sports utility vehicle) in the world" with a Corvette-inspired 345 horsepower V8 engine. "This is America, you can keep backing up if you want to..." he crows while introducing Escalade's laser back-up sensors for tight parallel-parking situations.

RESPECT: Mary Haynes from General Motors' Lake Orion, Michigan plant presents the 2002 Buick Park Avenue at NAIAS. Hydro supplied fabricated aluminum extrusion for the bumper beams.

US automakers increasingly use aluminium and magnesium when feasibly possible to lessen both auto weight and fuel consumption.

"Hydro magnesium," Riopelle says prosaicly, pointing to the Escalade's transfer case (where the drive is distributed to all four wheels in all-terrain vehicles) in a displayed cross-section of the luxury SUV. Escalade is one of many GM truck-based vehicles - including the Suburban, Sierra, Tahoe and Avalanche - with Hydro-supplied magnesium for instrument panel substructures (made by partly Hydro-owned fabrication company Meridian).

Hydro owns 49 percent of Canada-based Meridian Technologies Inc., the world's leading producer of die-cast magnesium parts for the automotive industry. In addition, Hydro Aluminium supplies aluminium extrusion-based automotive parts and precision tubing for heat transfer applications from plants in Michigan, Mississippi and Florida.

Hydro Magnesium, part of Hydro Aluminium North America's Metal Products, presently participates, along with GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler, in the USAMP (United States Automotive Materials Partnership) research and development project that focuses on resolving critical issues limiting large-scale application of structural cast magnesium castings in automotive components. The US car industry currently uses some 70,000 metric tons of magnesium each year, about 3.5 kilograms per vehicle. Cast magnesium structures have the potential to cut 100 kilograms of vehicle mass, reduce emissions by five percent and boost fuel economy by one mile per gallon.

COUNTING THE WAYS: A saleman counts the numerous high-tech features on the 2002 Cadillac Escalade - billed as "the most powerful SUV (sports utility vehicle) in the world."

Back at the show, in Ford territory, one finds everything from battery-powered Thinks, originally developed in Norway, to Jaguars, with front fenders that taper into headlight sections like the paws of sleek mechanical animals. US/German DaimlerChrysler displayed its new Jeep Cherokee on a simulated bumpy road in front of a digitally-choroegraphed waterfall (with high-pressure nozzles) that alternately spelled out such slogans as "united we stand, 4 x 4" and "there's only one Jeep." A few years back - in the pre-Daimler era - Jeep introduced its new Cherokee model at the show by driving it through a huge plate glass window above the heads of car execs reading the parables, says Riopelle.

Started in 1907, the Detroit Auto Show has since evolved into the world's second-largest annual car exhibition after Frankfurt. The event moved to Detroit's enormous Cobo Center in 1965. Since becoming an international event in 1989, the NAIAS has had 665 North American and worldwide vehicle introductions.

One of the two-week long event's highlights is the Charity Preview, which has helped raise more than USD 32 million for Detroit-area children's charities since its inception in 1976. This year's Charity Preview raised USD 6.125 million.