'Freedom car' stalling out.

THERE used to be talk of cars one day getting 80 miles per gallon. They would be built by Detroit's Big Three, developed and engineered with $10 billion in government research grants.

It was a time when gas prices hovered above $1.20 and everything seemed possible, even a joint effort by Ford, GM and Chrysler to build super-duper energy-efficient economy cars. It was 1993.

In September of that year, President Bill Clinton announced plans for a so-called clean car--also known as "Supercar"--thanks to a collaboration between government and industry, called "Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles" He compared the effort to the Apollo space program and promised to bring the new vehicles to life within 10 years.

The goal was to preserve and create jobs, boost the economy and limit Americans' dependence on foreign oil. Pollution would be reduced, too.

PNGV, as it was called, was the product of talks among government officials and Big Three executives. Each company was required to roll out one model with 80 miles per gallon fuel consumption.

What happened since that day when Clinton announced the car of the future?

Well, we know what didn't happen. Eighty-mile-per-gallon American cars didn't happen.

The American car industry went wild for big and bold. One look at the Lincoln Navigator and you could tell there would be an energy crisis--not because of its fuel consumption, but because it blocks out the sun.

Meanwhile, the Japanese introduced gas-electric hybrid technology. Ironically, these innovations were spurred by the Clinton proposal, wrote Jack Doyle, author of "Taken for a Ride: Detroit's Big Three and the Politics of Pollution." Doyle said the Japanese mistook the Supercar for a serious effort at fuel economy instead of the sham it was, so they ramped up their R&D as a result.

And the Big Three kept building cars with no regard for consumers who want fuel-efficient environmentally friendly models.

True, there was the EV1. But that was an alternative fuel vehicle, not the fuel-efficient vehicle that Supercar was supposed to be.

Supercar was fading quietly into obscurity until 2002, when it was killed with President Bush's proposal to build a "Freedom Car," based on hydrogen fuel-cell technology.

Any bets on the future of Freedom Car?

"Every time Congress and the public get close to thinking that real fuel economy is a good idea, Detroit rolls out some whiz-bang autorama to provide the illusion of progress," Doyle wrote.

Today, the Big Three are in big trouble, with GM and Ford having been relegated to junk status by S&P, the credit rating agency. Kirk Kerkorian may or may not be able to bring GM back to profitability, but USC finance professor Lawrence Harris told the Business Journal recently that bankruptcy will likely be the only way out for American automakers.

Meanwhile, Toyota and Honda can't build hybrids fast enough to meet demand. There was even talk of granting special privileges to hybrid drivers--it can't be done due to federal law, however--and letting them use the carpool lanes even while driving solo. Or even letting them skip the fare at meters.

In 1986, I bought a Chevy Sprint, the product of a Japanese-American partnership. It got 55 miles to the gallon and ran for 130,000 miles without any major maintenance. Nobody threw me a parade. And these days, Sprints have all but disappeared from the road.

Alas, Supercar, we never knew you.

Steve Silkin is newsdesk editor of the Business Journal