Auto Design

Lee Iacocca was absolutely right when he proposed again and again to double the price of fuel. Would the U.S.A. car industry be so much in trouble if they had listened to him?

I am calling on my readers from the U.S.A. for help. If they share my point of view, they could help filling the holes in this commentary and try to send it to their President or his staff. Just to qualify myself just let me say that I anticipated the dramatic Fiat crises foru to five years earlier in a report for the annual publication of the Brithsi Guild of Motoring writers as well as the failure of the Fiat-GM alliance when it was announced in a number of printed magazines published around the world.

Today it is time to take position on the North American car industry.

First, I wish to thank you President Obama for his courageous decision on the dramatic developments of the American car industry. Second just check with his administration and members of the Congress if they are considering some of the following strategic policies as a way to steer private and public transportation developments of the Nation.

If one of the two most troubled Bigs in Detroit has to fold down and let die, this is GM not Chrysler. This has nothing to do with Fiat and their alliance under discussion.

The reason is simple: to rescue the gigantic GM requires so much time, so much money and such a change in company culture (intended from Saturn but never achieved due to Detroit’s influence) that I consider it an impossible mission in the medium or long term. All the money being put into GM can only gain them some time and see if and how they can survive.

Chevrolet 2009 Spark for Europe.

However, the risk is just too high and the best result that can be hoped for, these days, is a GM that survives by downsizing itself. Eventually it may survive by downsizing to what current Chrysler standards and that – most probably – at the cost of scarifying Chrysler. It is a better deal to save Chrysler and work to make it stronger and possibly a bigger player. Being smaller, it is much nimbler and reactive, it needs less money to recover, and it can prosper again, much faster than GM. They could well be back to profitability with production at high, if not full speed, by 2011. Timing in the current circumstance is absolutely crucial.

However, the American car industry is not just about GM and Chrysler, there is Ford, and there are all the companies that produce in America cars for the Americans (and some export markets). They are also fighting to keep the industry and the economy running and deserve attention. In addition, there are the car buyers, car dealers, car sales and service business. In other words: the market and the oil companies. The environment and the need to save energy.

Well, now America has a great chance to design a new policy, a real policy, for private and public transportation, for the conservation of energy, and of the environment, based on the experience gained by other nations.

The administration can positively drive the market and the car industry towards more sensible, safe and efficient passenger cars by letting the free market organise itself with medium term plans, by simply announcing today that in three years (or five, if this is actually needed) the price of gasoline will be increased by 50% (or similar) and that a couple of years later the price will be increased another 50% (or similar) as a consequence of a tax on fuel. The income would be invested in the expansion or updating of the private and public transport infrastructure and for incentive to replace old big cars with new, fuel-efficient, passenger cars, buses, subways and trains.

This will give American drivers the time to make plans and prepare themselves for the near future, and, at the same time, will steer the design and engineering of new American cars in a clear, unquestionable direction (rather than zig-zagging according to the oil price, decided by forces that no nation seems to be able to control). Towards much more fuel efficient cars, and the use of additional energy sources such as diesel, LPG, CNG, hybrids and electricity.

Mercedes-Benz E 320 CDI                    Ford Mondeo SW Turbodiesel

The fuel budget for the average American family will be unchanged if the gasoline is twice the price but their cars need half the fuel. We all know that American too can have top cars with double mileage. (Have you seen and driven a diesel powered Audi, BMW or Mercedes-benz recently? That is just the beginning.) The announcement of such a policy will only make the development consistent and will accelerate the expansion of the car or MPV to choose from while monster SUV will disappear or replaced by smaller ones. Chrysler, Ford and GM will be convinced that there is only one way to move ahead.

Audi 2008 A4                                                       BMW 3 Series Touring

As soon as the Detroit’s big are ready with the new cars, the Administration could well launch an incentive plan for scrapping old gas-guzzlers, to be replaced with modern, nimbler safer and cleaner American cars. Just as many European countries are doing right now and have been doing in the past.

Lancia 2008 Delta                                               Alfa Romeo 2008 MiTO

Passenger cars should complete (not be) the transportation system on wheel of a nations, not just be the only options. If more people commute to work on comfortable and attractive public transportation, there will be less cars on the road and driving them selectively might return us some freedom and contribute to the environment. Airplanes are all right but can the U.S.A. prosper without a proper and efficient railways system, now that bullet trains are operating in Japan, China and throughout Europe? Can metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles prosper without an efficient metro system the like of New York? Building a railway network these days is easier and faster that it used to be when the Nation was still in the making.

How can such a dynamic and powerful nation as the U.S.A. do without these vital infrastructures serving all citizens? The rich and the poor.

I think Americans can do a lot better than serving as police force for the entire world and it is time to put public money in something useful for their own people. Perhaps some of you, my American readers, remembers that there used to be a very fast and efficient “Tram” (or train) serving the Los Angeles – San Diego communities. It was bought over (I am told by an American fellow) by GM, Firestone (or Goodyear?) and Esso (or Shell?) only to be stopped, in favour of land consuming highways and millions of car doing millions of miles day after day.

Now, how wrong am I? Please do not hesitate to make your point. I am eager to read your comments.