John Krafcik thinks our world is in the middle of a revolution, when an era of greed is stepping aside for simpler times. And today's auto manufacturers won't have a place at the table unless they clean up their image.

"If the President of the United States can admit he screwed up on some of his cabinet nominations, then we shouldn't be bashful in acknowledging that we have been far from perfect in our actions," said the the president and CEO of Hyundai on the eve of the Chicago Auto Show, held Feb. 13-22.

Hyundai will try to boost its image by meeting an average fleet-wide fuel economy rating of 35 mpg by 2015, five years ahead of the federal cutoff. It will do it "with 1,000 individual actions," he said, including downsizing gas engines, turbocharging, introducing a gas-electric hybrid Sonata next year, adding more gears to automatic transmissions and electrifying power steering.

Did anyone hear diesels in the plan? Nope, you didn't, because Krafcik later admitted that diesels don't fit into Hyundai's super-value business model. "We've looked at diesel every which way for this market, and we cannot for the life of us figure out any way to make it economically viable."

Diesel engines in small cars, he noted, cost about twice as much as gasoline engines. Then, you add in the tailpipe aftertreatment, such as particulate filters and urea injection, and they cut into the manufacturer's margin pretty quickly.

"You add all those costs together...you're talking about a $5 to $6,000 premium, unless you are doing a diesel as a kind of promotional stunt," said Krafcik.

--Tudor Van Hampton