Auto shows bring hope for Hybrids

Hybrid vehicles are taking center stage at this week's Detroit and Los Angeles Auto Shows, but the future cannot come soon enough:

Ford Motor says it will build more hybrids than announced and do it sooner than planned. General Motors says it is leaping closer to real-world hydrogen fuel-cell power. Volkswagen banged the table at the Los Angeles auto show a few days ago about the need for more diesels.

But each alternative-power vehicle on display at the shows or scuttling around downtown here advertising its maker's prowess is carrying a heavy load of challenges. Before any of the promising alternatives makes a difference in oil consumption or air quality, prices have to come down, reliability has to be proven, consumers have to be sold, and in the case of hydrogen, cheap, safe and convenient ways have to be found to make, transport and dispense the fuel.

A new fuel dawn it truly seems to be. But midmorning might be a long time coming.

"Internal-combustion engines are here for the foreseeable future," says Ford's Mary Ann Wright. That's no small acknowledgment for the enthusiastic director of Ford's hybrid and hydrogen vehicle programs. Still, she swears, "There'll come a time when everything's a hybrid; it's inevitable, because of the fuel economy and performance and (air pollution) benefits."