Last year, in my highlights from the 2006 NAIAS post, two of the ten highlights were focused on alternative fuel technologies. I commented on Daimler-Chrysler’s exciting announcement of the stateside arrival of Bluetec diesel cars. As a big proponent of diesel power, I was excited to hear the news. Finally, with the growing availability of low-sulfur diesel fuel in the US, we can enjoy the advanced diesel powerplants that Europe (over 50% of new cars sold in the EU are diesel) and other parts of the world are.

For along time I’ve been trying to convince people that diesel represents a better near-term solution for improved energy efficiency than hybrid does. What I’ve been saying all along about diesel’s practical advantages over hybrid is finally being recognized by Honda also. For the next-generation, US-market Accord coming in MY2008, it is being reported that Honda may be replacing the outgoing petrol V6 Hybrid with a diesel V6 or possibly inline-4 turbo-diesel. A diesel Honda?? Yup! Honda has developed their own “i-CTDi” diesel technology which employs similar techniques as found in TDI, Bluetec, etc: high-pressure common-rail fuel ignition, oxidation catalysts and particulate filters to minimize emissions. In typical Honda fashion, though, they’ve one-upped their competitiors by creating a nitrogen-oxide emissions control system which does not require periodic ammonia replenishment (a two-stage catalyst technology actually combines nitrogen and hydrogen to produce ammonia), thus becoming a maintenance-free design. Pretty slick.

With both the Germans and soon the Japanese bringing 50-state legal diesel models to the US, it’s only a matter of time before US buyers throw away their negative perceptions about loud, noisy diesels of yesteryear and embrace modern, efficient diesel technology. Already experts are forecasting diesel marketshare in the US to double to 7.5% by 2010.

The other big news at the show is plug-in hybrids, particularly the Chevy Volt Concept that GM surprised the show with.

The big deal with plug-in hybrids is that unlike traditional hybrids which ultimately rely on gasoline power to re-charge, plug-in hybrids let you run indefinitely on battery, without ever burning a drop of gasoline, as long as you stay within the battery’s range. For the Volt, Chevy is saying 40 miles. However, as is usual the case with electric motivation, the primary obstacle is in the battery. Here’s some info from a recent Wired.com blog post on the Volt:

The lithium ion batteries are managed to not be charged more than 80 percent or less than 30 percent so that they will last the lifetime of the vehicle, according to GM’s Tony Posawatz.

Lithium ion is the better bet than nickel metal hydride to provide more range, according to Dan Edmunds, of automotive website Edmunds.com. If only they could be managed to go closer to 100 percent utilization while retaining their lifetime, we’d see a car that would get an effective efficiency of 200 mpg.

The Wired.com post also points out that the 40 mile electric range of the Volt is a scant improvement over the decade-old GM EV1 electric car. Without a doubt, the hybrid configuration and plug-in charging ability make the Volt a vastly more practical vehicle than the EV1 was. However, it is a sad commentary on the progress that has been made. GM is saying that it will take five years to develop production-ready lithium-ion batteries suitable for a car like the Volt. They’re also hoping that the Volt will excite battery manufacturers to get serious about finding ways to reduce the cost (from ~$10k to ~2k) of large, lithium-ion batteries.

One last interesting bit regarding plug-in hybrids: Honda might be getting into the game!

Once all the big debuts have been made, I’ll do another Top 10 NAIAS highlights post.