The Environmental Challenges Facing The American Auto 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

“The US auto industry directly employs 1.55 million Americans and impacting a total of 7.25 million US jobs, generates $500 billion in annual compensation.” (1) With such a large industry looming in the economy, it is inevitable that it will face environmental challenges. Environmental challenges can be hard to control and are essential to the success of a company. The challenges that the auto industry must contend with are many and complex, such as; global competition, consumer opinions, and new technology, a difficult fight lies ahead.

Several factors have affected how the American auto industry now positions itself on the world market, and big changes have been made to reflect this new direction. The introduction of new technologies in vehicles, the growing market for cars in new developing markets, the impact of the industry on the environment, legislative responses and demands, as well as the increased expectations from consumers, are some of the factors. More international cars are being designed, manufactured and bought by American consumers and exported to foreign markets today than those exclusively manufactured by American companies, redefining the American auto industry, while having a positive impact on its economy. International brands accounted for 45% of total sales in the U.S. in 2013 and have now risen to 59% of the market, and continue to grow. While the amount of American cars has decreased in the local U.S. market share to international ones, the increase of foreign car production on U.S. soil has had the effect of creating new jobs for Americans both in the auto industry as well as in related new industries. The industry has seen huge growth numbers in the last few years with more growth expected.

Global competition in the industry: There are many vehicle manufacturers throughout the world. A few common vehicles seen in my state are GM, Chrysler, Lexus, VW, Honda, Toyota, Ford, and Jeep. Each company tries to stay ahead of the rest. Toyota, based in Japan, for example was one of the first businesses to introduce hybrid vehicles. This was a direct result of the oil embargo. After having three oil shortages automobile manufacturers are creating more fuel efficient, environmentally friendly products.

Like every other industry, the automobile industry in the United States is susceptible to competition. The biggest global contender to the US Automobile Industry is the Japanese Automobile Industry. Trade agreements have been in place since 1995, that make replacement parts for Japanese

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

Ever since the 2008 recession US automobile companies have been on a steady downhill slide, but actually you can trace this downward trend even further back than 2008. US car companies have been feeling the heat since as early as the late 1980s when Japanese car companies laid claim to American manufacturing plants . Despite a shot in the arm in sales over the past five years, American firms are still on the decline. This case analysis aims to diagnosis the problem, provide analysis of the problem, and propose a viable solution to the problem from the perspective of the US automobile market share leader, General Motors.

The American automotive industry is a massive force, to say the least. The historical impacts of automotive technology and assembly line manufacturing has effected economies around the world and has also created world-wide ecological challenges. Governments, under pressure from environmentalists, have had to realize, create, implement, and constantly refine manufacturing and emission standards. Consumers, who foot the gas bill for vehicles, continue to express their desire for less expensive autos that require less fuel without sacrificing style, comfort, safety, or performance.

The focus of this paper to describe how the automotive industry has evolved throughout these past years, and its impact on the U.S. economy. The domestic market has gone from being dominated by the “Big Three” which are General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford to now including other major manufacturers from foreign countries. The industry has become an important economic indicator used to predict fluctuations in the U.S. economy. It currently makes up approximately 3.5 percent of the U.S. GDP. The Foreign manufacturers however are slowly increasing market shares now that the Big Three aren’t so big

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

The U.S. automotive industry is facing a difficult if not unprecedented period of competition and capital spending in its efforts to compete with Japanese automakers and to meet pending government regulations on emissions control and safety. These burdens are falling on an industry trying to cope with massive losses due to the 1990-1991. Despite worldwide capital spending of $90 billion between 1983 and 1989, the domestic manufacturers lost ground in terms of market share to the Japanese automakers. It is estimated that by 1995 Japan 's North American transplant capacity for cars and light trucks could reach 2.8 million units, compared with just over 2 million units in 1991. The combination of Japanese vehicles (imported and locally assembled), imports

The environmental challenges facing American auto industry is very huge, as a result of large number of vehicles on the road causing air emission, pollution of the environment that has a negative impact to people’s health today, due to the toxicology and the effect of carbon, hydrogen and carbon monoxide emission on the environment. These has also contributed to the climate change, death and disappearing of some species of wild life today in the United States. Waste stream has been accumulated with vehicles that are out of service, road ban, and they are contributing to the environmental concerns in terms of their poor storage management and lack of proper plan for disposal of such hazardous material, lack of adequate recycling plan for vehicle component or parts.

The financial crisis starting in 2008 and the following recession hit hard the US auto sector. Traditional car makers had to realise that substantial changes were needed in order to maintain their strong position in the

The United States Automotive industry has been dominated by five major auto manufacturers: GM, Toyota, Ford, Chrysler, and Honda. As globalization increases the domestic automotive market (GM, Ford, Chrysler) suffers from foreign competitors. Although with high entrance barriers the market suffers little to none from new entries. There are several reasons for this the largest being capital. It takes a lot of capital to obtain manufacturing plants, raw materials, as well as to hire and train employees. PASTEL Analysis

The characteristics of the global motor vehicle industry are a boom in certain places and a bust in others all due to economic conditions in different nations. Four years after tow of Detroit Michigan’s big three went into bankruptcy American car makers are going “full throttle” with sales in August hitting an annual rate that if substantiated can take them back over 16 million and that is a rate that was last hit before the economic crisis and 80% higher than 2009 when GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy. The opposite is happening in Europe being in its sixth year slump now and with a weak economy, high petroleum prices and an aging