Cars, cars and more cars were on the Globe2008 trade show floor, from the buyable 2008 Chevy Malibu Hybrid to Toyota’s futuristic Hybrid X concept car.

As far as fun goes, the Hybrid X was clearly the star of the show. Its design is sleek and sexy with eye-catching seats, steering wheel and lines that made conference attendees gawk and press their noses up against the car’s window panes. But much to the dismay of gawkers asking when they could purchase it, the car will not be manufactured. For more information and pictures, press here.

Other cars at the event looked similar to what you’d see on the road but featured hybrid, fuel cell and cellulosic ethanol propulsion systems. The Ford Focus fuel cell vehicles are hybrid electric fuel cell cars that never use a drop of gas. Ford made 30 of them in 2004 that are currently being tested in different climates like Florida, Michigan, and British Columbia. The hope is to eventually mass produce them.

If cars aren’t your dig, there are always electric scooters and bikes that plug into your wall. Canadian company Ecodrive Technology Group was exhibiting different models.

Other cars from Volkswagon, Chevrolet, General Motors and Peugeot were displayed.

Cars like this will help move the auto industry away from being petroleum-based, said Beth Lowery, vice president for environmental energy with GM’s global operations. And those cars will get more important as the world’s population grows, she said. Today, there are 6.6 billion people in the world and 890 million vehicles, she said, but by 2020, there will be 7.5 billion people and at least 1.1 billion cars.

Lowery also advocated for international and market-based regulations that could be applied on an economy-wide basis, rather than state standards, which impede the auto industry’s ability “to improve our technologies globally,” she said.

What do you think? Will the auto industry ever totally move away from petroleum? Are you despairing that you will never buy the Hybrid X or is its design just too odd? Let us know!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Cars, Globe2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.