NewsWeek:Future Look- Hybrid Cars Are Going Mainstream; The Future is All About Horsepower

Hybrid Cars Are Going Mainstream; The Future is All About Horsepower

Over Next Three Years, Just About Every Major Automaker Will Introduce Hybrid Versions of Existing Cars

NEW YORK, Nov. 14 -- No longer a funky little science experiment, hybrid cars are growing up and going mainstream -- and the future is all about hot-rod horsepower. In Detroit and Tokyo, carmakers are finally starting to take the demand for greater energy independence and fuel efficiency seriously by building powerful hybrid cars that consumers want to drive, Newsweek reports in our latest "Next Frontiers" package in the November 22 issue (on newsstands Monday, Nov. 15).

Carmakers are banking on their compelling new pitch-drives great, less filling-to take hybrids to the masses. The coming wave of new hybrids is all about getting more-more power, more mileage, more credit for saving the planet, reports Detroit Bureau Chief Keith Naughton. The first of these have- your-cake-and-eat-it models arrives next month, when Honda rolls out a 255- horsepower Accord hybrid that races from 0 to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds and still gets 37mpg on the highway.

Over the next three years, just about every major automaker will introduce hybrid versions of cars that are already household names. By 2008, J.D. Power predicts that car buyers will have a choice of 35 different hybrids -- everything from Nissan Altima to a Honda Odyssey minivan to a big Chevy Tahoe SUV. And Oak Ridge Labs estimates there will be 1.2 million hybrids by 2008, a sixteenfold increase from this year.

Newsweek's "Next Frontiers" is an ongoing series looking at how technology is changing the way we live and work. In this latest installment, a team of Newsweek correspondents reports on companies that are looking for the Next New Thing-ways to "bring the future rushing into the present faster than anyone expected." Highlights of the "Next Frontiers" package:

   *  Intellectual Ventures: Microsoft alum Nathan Myrhvold's Seattle-area
      start-up Intellectual Ventures doesn't actually make anything, but
      it's hoarding the key to a new business age: intellectual property,
      reports Technology Correspondent Brad Stone.

   *  Product placement in TV shows: With the explosion of product-
      placements on TV shows like ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,"
      the line between programming and advertising is not just blurring,
      it's being wiped out altogether, reports Senior Writer Johnnie L.
      Roberts.

   *  Retailers of the future: Correspondent Jennifer Ordonez reports on the
      new face of retailing. "Companies like Samsung, Sony and Apple are
      building stores that aren't about shelves and checkout lines," she
      writes. "Rather, they're designing them mainly to be cool places to
      hang out."