YOUR NEXT CAR WILL BE A VOLT:

Not too long ago, the conversation about fuel-efficient cars was led and conducted almost entirely by foreign companies--hybrids from Toyota, clean-diesel vehicles from Germany, the Nissan Leaf. But that's changed. And this year, American companies in particular seem to be leading with efficiency. The revival of the U.S. auto industry--the recovery of GM and Chrysler from bankruptcy, and Ford's wrenching restructuring--has been one of the great, under-appreciated stories of the last several years. In New York this week, however, the comeback is on full display.

In the GM pavilion, the attractive spokesperson held a group of dealers spellbound as she ran through the virtues of the Cadillac ELR, which in many ways is a more upscale version of the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. "It can be an electric car for those who want to drive it as one," she said. The corridor leading to GM-land was lined with small gas sippers; it looked like the lineup at a car-rental stall in Italy. There was the tiny Spark, which arrived last July and retails for $12,995; the subcompact Sonic; and the slightly bigger Cruze, which can get up to 42 miles per gallon.

At GM, small is the new big beautiful. And 30 miles per gallon is the new 20 miles per gallon. The Impala, the boat of my Michigan youth, and the Camaro, the 2013 edition of which was growling loudly in the back of GM's area, both get 30 miles per gallon on the highway. "Most of the car markets are demanding efficiency," said Christie Landy, marketing director at GM for small vehicles like the Spark and Volt. The Volt, which can run for about 30 miles on electricity and has been slow to catch on, has been mocked by critics of GM. But there are 30,000 on the road, and their drivers have collectively driven more than 150 million miles on electricity. More important, notes Landy, "we have the most satisfied buyers in the industry, and we've shared the technology in the Volt with other vehicles." The system that powers the Volt can be found in the Cadillac ELR and in the new Spark EV, an all-electric car that GM will launch in select markets this summer.

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