The Saturn AstraAs part of our launch week celebration, the guys have sent me to (very cold) Chicago for the Auto Show. Getting acclimated, but a few upcoming events ought to be of interest to GO readers:

• Saturn is unveiling the Astra, it's "new European small car." With Chrysler planning to bring the SmartCar to the US next year, maybe (please maybe) we'll see some focus on small and fuel-efficient vehicles vs. gas-guzzling behemoths!
• GM is taking bloggers (and there are a number of us) on a "walk-through" of the Chevy Volt, their concept plug-in hybrid.

I'll also be talking to a couple of GM execs later today, and hope to have audio of the discussion for you.

GM is sponsoring my trip to the Auto Show — they've done the same for a whole slew of bloggers — we're well-represented! They've asked that we disclose that relationship, and we're happy to do it.

Got to run… that seems to be standard operating procedure at these things… back with more later!

There's no definitive answer to that question (yet), but the Detroit Free Press reports that Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm is putting the hard sell on California-based Tesla Motors (creator of the very cool electric vehicle, the Tesla Roadster) to locate a new manufacturing facility in the Wolverine State. Earlier reports had the $100 million, 300-employee factory going to Arizona, North Carolina or California, but Tesla realizes that Michigan, and Detroit in particular, has the talent pool it needs to move to the next level. The company has already moved to locate a technical center in the area:

Tesla's U.S. manufacturing plant and the [Detroit suburb] Rochester Hills engineering center would be focused chiefly on the company's next-generation electric vehicle, a sedan that Eberhard hopes will cost around $50,000 and sell about 10 times the volume of the roadster.

Tesla has raised about $60 million, including $27 million from PayPal Inc. founder Elon Musk and small investments from Google Inc. founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Initial employees at its San Carlos, Calif., headquarters were primarily engineers with backgrounds in electronics, but as the company moved toward mass production, [Tesla CEO Martin] Eberhard said experienced automotive engineers were needed. "And the fact is, those people are in Michigan," he said.

David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, called Tesla's decision to put a tech center in Rochester Hills "an affirmation of the fact that if you want to be major player on the automotive scene, you've got to have a presence here."

With GM's recent announcement of its new Volt concept car, as well as plans for a plug-in hybrid version of the Saturn Vue, Detroit could quickly become a hub of EV research, development and manufacturing. "Could" is the operative word there, of course: the Big 3 are still moving relatively sluggishly on new-generation, gas-sipping (or gas-free)automobiles. Tesla's presence may just get that engine revving a little harder… Thanks to GO Beta Tester Eric Benson for passing that along.

Detroit Free Press: "Granholm Going After Jobs"