Environmental Challenges Facing The Auto Industry Case Study

Written Assignment Unit 5
Environmental Challenges Facing the American Auto Industry
In order to compete globally there has been a dramatic shift in the structure and ownership of the “American” auto industry. It should be more precisely called, the “international” auto industry due to the fact that the American auto companies have merged with overseas companies becoming large global conglomerates. For example: Chrysler has merged with
Daimler-Benz, Ford has merged with Volvo and General motors has merged with Saab
(Highfill, 2004). These mergers have put the U.S. and the European auto companies in better positions to compete globally. Another development that has change the global auto market is the creation of the “Alliance of Automobile
The foremost being driven by concerns about global warming. Legislation requiring better fuel economy and lower carbon and carbon monoxide emissions have driven the development of alternative energy vehicles. The industry has put most of it efforts into electric or gas/electric hybrid vehicles, but some manufacture are producing vehicle fueled by natural gas, propane and biodiesel. Other fuel technologies on the horizon are hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Though these technologies are promising the auto industry has been slow to bring these cars to market, especially in the United States where fuel economy and lower emissions has largely been ignored. Another technological change in the industry is the way customers purchase, compare and receive technical data for car purchases. The internet has change the way people shop and decide on what car to buy. It allows easy pricing comparisons and access to consumer guides, making the customer very well informed.(Greenburg, 2003)
In the United States the buying trends have been for larger vehicles, SUV, mini vans and fullsize trucks. The cultural buying habits do not seem to be concerned with carbon
The market does provide a large selection of small fuel efficient vehicles but when it comes to trucks there is no alternative but high horsepower gas guzzling models. This is hard to understand because in the 1970’s there were several manufacturers and models of small trucks that were ranging in the high 20’s to low 30
MPG. Yet in a time when fuel prices are triple what they were in the 70’s, there are millions more vehicles on the road and we confront serious consequences if the carbon emissions are not decreased, most trucks in the U.S. are getting in the low teens MPG and the best are getting 20 MPG. This is a hard to comprehend. (Kisiel 2004)
I have a very difficult time understanding the automotive culture of the United State that ignores the environmental impact of its need for large, low MPG, high emission vehicles. The auto industry needs to respond to environmental concerns by providing a wider range of fuel efficient vehicles. There is a large service industry that is in need of trucks that can hauls medium-sized loads and maintain good fuel economy. The small trucks available in the U.S. get the same or only slightly better gas mileage than the full size trucks. There are no small