Environmental Challenges Of The American Automobile Industry

Introduction Automobile usage has increased in America and elsewhere in the world. In a research done by Sutherland, J., et al. (2004) “The US has a contributed to 200 million passengers in cars and light truck over the past few years. Further in 1990, studies showed that US cars increased six times faster than human population. The leaders in the automotive industry must adopt some key elements to ensure success in this fast-moving environment. They must invest in knowing their markets, building brands, adapting product strategies and taking long-term view on their goals and objectives. This paper outlines some of the key factors which should be considered. Environmental factors automotive designers and engineers have always said the main threats in the American Automotive industry are the environmental factors such as fuel economy and the clean air regulations. Automotive Emission posed different problems than manufacturing discharges such as coal smoke. Increased fossil-fuel emission has resulted from the million car increase. Irritation smog, which is comprised of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur oxide and other various chemical mixtures are cited in major cities such as Los Angeles. These auto emissions are also said to cause headaches, visual pollutions, contribute to lung cancers and other respiratory disease. In the end, the engineers have designed cars that are better environmental performers, cost effective and fuel efficient to reduce the environmental

Recently America and the European countries are saying that the automobile industry is very dangerous for our world, and the likes of china should not produce them as we have created a lot of pollution already. What the world should be currently focusing is reducing the pollution, nor creating more cars.

The American Auto Industry, in the form of vehicles it produces, account for almost one-fifth of emissions in the United States. Subtracting emissions created from production,

The United States burns about a quarter of the world’s oil, half of which the gasoline powered automobile is responsible for (Lovins, 2004). For this reason, efficient, electrical forms of transportation are one of the key factors to limiting America’s oil dependence. Dating back to the late nineteenth century, the idea of the electric car is nothing new, however, in just recent years it has finally made significant progress. Innovations have enabled the electric vehicle to be portable and more attractive in recent years causing more people to make the switch from gas to electric. The transition from gasoline cars to electric vehicles projects significant breakthroughs for American energy including low dependence on oil and a cleaner future.

Cars have always been a big deal in the United States. Ever since Henry Ford invented his Model T in 1908, the automobile industry in the United Sates has continued to grow (“Henry Ford Changes the World,” 2005). While Ford was not the original inventor the automobile, he created the first automobiles that were affordable, easy to drive and maintain, which made it possible for everyday people to own cars. Ford’s assembly line building technique became the benchmark for all the big auto manufactures of that day (“Henry Ford Changes the World,” 2005). Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler soon became known as the “Big Three” American automobile companies (Foner & Garraty, 1991). While the automobile industry has immensely grown and changed from the early 1900’s to now, it continues to be at the forefront of industries creating environmental concerns worldwide. Issues currently being faced by the American Auto Industry include: having to handle tough global competition by foreign automakers, figuring out how to incorporate new technology to power vehicles (such as electric or ethanol run cars), and having to face new higher government and consumer quality and environmental standards.

The last several years were also tumultuous for the U.S. auto industry. After dominating the market for decades, American automakers had grown complacent about product development. At the same time, rising gas prices and uncertainty about the economy caused consumer preferences to shift from SUVs to more fuel efficient vehicles. Foreign competitors entered the U.S. market offering more reliable, higher quality and more fuel efficient vehicles at a lower price and began to steal market share away from American automakers. In order to remain competitive, U.S. automakers need to focus on increasing production efficiencies and developing innovative product offerings. Firm Analysis

bikes, trains, or to carpool to go to work or to school. This is a big threat

The Automobile industry volume of growth has tremendously escalated in the United States. Years ago there were about 700 million vehicles registered in the world back in 1999, within the USA it contributed over 200 million passenger cars and trucks. In the 1990s, the number of vehicles in the United States had tripled six times faster than the human population back from 1969 to a global perspective on the environmental challenges. This is unbelievable, how industry multiplied and monopolized from years ago. All these issues point to the importance environmental concerns as they relate to the automotive industry. Recently the auto industry and its suppliers were addressed the

This need to create ecofriendly cars has meant that many American automobile companies have had to overhaul their processes; not only in investing money to find cleaner sources of energy and ways to fuel cars, but also because they have established protocol and procedures already that will also need to be overhauled. This is clearly a difficult demand for long established companies, many of which are American, because in order to keep up not only with the law but also with

With the increase of global competition, the manufacturers of vehicles in the US had been negatively

in each other’s countries (Nauss, 1995). This makes auto parts and auto-replacement parts for Japanese

The American Auto Industry has evolved for many decades with pioneers such as Ford Motor Company. The United States Auto Industry was once upon a time a global leader in the automotive industry but due to knowledge and skills acquisition by other automobile manufacturers such as Toyota, the once American Auto Industry leadership has been surpassed. I will give discuss this following paragraphs.

According to the Environmental Protection article at www.eponline.com, it states that the environmental issues top the list of challenges in the automotive industry, outranking the cost reduction for the first time in 14 years. The survey was conducted by DuPont and the Society of the Automotive Industry. The survey results included the following results and statistics:

When the automobile was introduced to the public, they immediately fell in love with it. It was a welcome miracle of science, clean, efficient and a reliable machine compared to the horse and carriage which required constant cleaning and a large place for storage. As more and more people acquired these machines, no one noticed the changes it made to the environment. The term smog was first used in California around the 1940’s to describe a yellow-brown haze that caused eyes to water, and headaches. It was found that the exhausts of the combustion engine brought forth this poison cloud that caused not only mild irritations but also had long lasting effects such respiratory problems and lung cancer. It wasn’t until 1965 when congress finally decided to do something about it and passed the vehicle air pollution and control act. Yet, it was not enough and so congress later decided that to further protect the environment and its citizens it needed to pass more laws. Laws that determined manufactures of the vehicle, safety, emissions and the use of any new technologies to help minimize the damage to the environment.

The use of automobiles has since increased in the US and other parts of the world. By 1999, the US alone had over 200 million passenger cars and light trucks. The number of cars worldwide grew thrice faster than the human population. The increase in the number of automobiles has become a matter of great concern as it leads to serious air pollution. For instance, European Environment Agency reported that transportation emission presents a huge threat to the environment.