DETROIT — This is what the North American International Auto Show, which opens to the public this weekend, ought to be — less glitz, less glam, substantially more substance. It was forced into that functional austerity this year by circumstances mostly beyond its control — a collapsed economy, a frozen credit market and drastically reduced sales for all major car companies doing business in the United States. Put the emphasis on major. Global Electric Motorcars (GEM), a Chrysler-owned company, actually had its ‘best year ever’ in 2008, said company President and Chief Operating Officer Richard J. Kasper. GEM makes battery-powered neighborhood cars, those bubble-shaped conveyances often dismissed by serious car people as ‘golf carts.’ GEM, based in Fargo, N.D., and in business 11 years, has 40,000 vehicles in operation in the United States — a tiny fraction of the slowest selling, mass-produced automobiles with traditional internal combustion engines. So, Kasper’s ‘best year ever’ might be taken with a bit of suspicion. Still, he has a point, as amply demonstrated by a walk around the cavernous Cobo Hall, the annual site of the Detroit show. Electric cars, both ready-for-market and concept models, are in. […]