Detroit: Asian automakers grabbed their biggest chunk ever of the US car and truck market in 2009, but they will struggle to build on that momentum this year as rivals in Detroit offer a fleet of efficient, small cars.

All automakers that sell cars and trucks in the US will try to woo cautious consumers still nervous about heavy debt, high unemployment and rising gas prices.

Market share held by 10 Asian automakers — including leaders Toyota Motor and Honda Motor — rose to 47.4 per cent last year, surpassing for the first time Detroit's three players, which slipped to 44.2 per cent, according to Autodata.

Those gains will be hard to extend this year. The struggle will centre on small and mid-size cars, as well as alternative-fuel models that run on electric batteries, or hybrid combinations of gasoline and electric.

The rivals all showed their wares last week at the Detroit auto show.

Revamped vehicles

The Asian manufacturers' longtime dominance in smaller and greener cars gives them a running start this year, but Ford Motor has countered with a revamped compact Focus and General Motors is touting an all-electric Volt and new small cars like the Aveo, which is supposed to get about 17 kilometres per litre on the highway. GM and Ford also have strong sales in mid-size cars, and the 2010 Fusion hybrid grabbed the North American Car of the Year award at the Detroit show last week. That's added to growing signs of strength for Detroit, even after a tough year.

Top slot

But that bad year was enough to shift Asian brands into the top market share spot.

That's a big reversal from 1980, when the domestics owned three-quarters of all sales and the Asians held just 18 per cent. Back then, Detroit still ruled a car culture that was just starting to digest the long-term implications of two gas price spikes in the 1970s.

That force spurred a shift toward greater demand for smaller, fuel-efficient cars. The 1990s blunted that, when lower gas prices gave rise to sport utility vehicles and boosted the fortunes of Detroit. Still, the Asian manufacturers, who last year built nearly 60 per cent of their US cars in North America, were on their way to car dominance.

In 2009, Detroit's reliance on trucks came back to haunt it. SUV sales collapsed the year before in the wake record-high gasoline prices. Then came the financial meltdown and credit freeze. With mounting debts, GM and Chrysler Group LLC were forced into bankruptcy protection.