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DETROIT — While speakers all across The Business of Plugging in conference are obsessed with fuel economy and reduced emissions and how to get there, John Waraniak just wants to talk about how cars will continue to be fun.

Waraniak, vice president for vehicle technology for the Specialty Equipment Market Association, said during a panel discussion at the conference that tuners will continue to have fun modifying electric vehicles, just as they do with the current internal combustion engine in today’s cars.

“Horsepower and green power can coexist,” Waraniak said.

In between friendly jabs from fellow panelists about his mullet hair style and cowboy boots, Waraniak said aftermarketers will create the buzz to show that electric vehicles can be cool.

“We’re talking about hot rod hybrids and high-performance electrics,” Waraniak said. “This is one of the neatest times to be in the auto industry.”

He said there are four megatrends that dominate the auto industry: Green, safe, connected and cool.

Sure, performance cars will be different. While today’s generation of hot rodders grew up on the sweet smell of exhaust and the loud sounds from big-block V-8s, the next generation might take a completely different view of performance. Waraniak said it is sort of like today’s young people who never heard a dial tone on a home phone.

“My car’s quieter than yours,” Waraniak said future hot rodders might say to each other.

At the same time these new machines push the performance boundaries, they will also get superior fuel mileage. For example, Waraniak talked about the Lincvolt, a 1959 Lincoln with 500 horsepower that gets 80 mpg that is owned by musician Neil Young. Waraniak said Young chose the massive Lincoln to show high fuel mileage is possible in any car.

Waraniak said SEMA’s members are working on other technologies, such as using suspension motions to generate electricity to help drive the vehicle. So the pothole actually is good for something.

He said that green performance is a major growth area for SEMA and will have a major presence at the association’s annual mega show in Las Vegas Nov. 2-5.