Washington Auto Car Show

By: Anita Kinney

Photo Credit; Veronica Silvany

         The Washington Auto Show can be overwhelming for a first-time visitor. Over 40 automakers display more than 700 vehicles over the Washington Convention Center. It’s best to come with a plan of attack: a visitor should decide what they want to see beforehand, so that they can make a beeline for cars in their desired style or price range.

The cars at the 2014 show had a particular focus on gas mileage and other sustainability-related advances. This reporter was surprised at how impractical some of this technology is. Plug-ins (or electric) cars were offered by many manufacturers, but the models on display cannot travel further than 100 miles before running of out of battery power or requiring a gasoline-powered engine to kick in and provide power.  If you can live with a car that has an extreme range limitation and takes hours to recharge (assuming you can find a recharging station) an electric car might be for you.  But even though you won’t have to buy expensive gasoline (which costs approximately $3.50/gallon in the metro DC area), you still have to pay for the electricity that charges the car when you are at home.  The EPA estimates that a gallon of gas is equivalent to 33.7 kilowatt-hours (Kwh) of electricity. In our region, electricity costs an average of 13 cents per Kwh, coming to a total of $4.38 per gallon – not a great investment unless gas prices rise substantially. Toyota’s Prius hybrids are extremely popular and do consistently average more than 40 miles per gallon.  The downside to Toyota’s hybrids are the high price tag – there’s almost a $20,000 price difference between the hybrid version of the Toyota Highlander and its regular counterpart. The hybrid only gets 5 more miles per gallon, making it only two cents cheaper per mile to operate, which is not nearly enough to justify the initial price differential. Looking at other technology, diesel-powered vehicles consistently attain better mileage.  However, automakers also make you pay a premium for diesel-powered cars and diesel is more expensive than the highest-grade of gasoline. Interestingly, no Chinese automaker exhibited at the car show.  China manufactures more cars than does the United States and exports more than 800,000 vehicle per year.  However, its automakers have not replicated the success of Japanese and Korean automakers, which account for 35% and 9% respectively of new auto sales.  Given the enormous economy of scale advantages that Chinese auto manufacturers enjoy, it is surprising that they have not being able to field cars that can succeed in the American market. Overall, the Washington Auto Show is a great experience for those looking to purchase a vehicle. There is simply no other opportunity to see so many different makes and models of cars under one roof.