People often speak of the pavement on the road to hell, rarely about the traffic. These days, that particular avenue is gridlocked with American cars. Big, stupid, gas-guzzling American cars.
Global warming, a terrestrial version of hell 150 years in the making, is sore upon us. Here in the nation that contributes more to global warming – and does less about it – than any other, half our greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector.
The solution is easy: stop using so much gas. The thing that has prevented us from doing exactly that has been the bad intentions of the people who run the American auto companies. They used to be called “the big three,” but they’re no so big anymore. General Motors is, for now, still the biggest car company in the world, but Toyota is number two and moving into the passing lane.
There’s a reason for that. General Motors and Ford and Daimler-Chrysler have placed their bets for the past 25 years, on big vehicles, first mini-vans, then SUVs, then light trucks, then asinine “concept cars” like the PT Cruiser. It was great short-term thinking, because the cars were cheap to make and sold for a hefty profit. Instead of using that quarter-century of profits to cut their middle-management bloat and prepare for the future, the executives who run American auto companies figured they’d be retired before the future got here and to hell with everyone else.
Toyota executives, by comparison, started preparing. They introduced the gas-electric hybrid-powered Prius to America in 2000. Unlike the big U.S. cars, Toyota doesn’t make much money on each unit, but when the price of gas went through the roof, as everyone knew it would, Toyota was positioned to take over the market.
A few weeks ago, Ford announced it would lay off 4,000 white-collar workers and offer 75,000 factory workers lump-sum payments of $140,000 each to go away. That’s what an American manufacturer considers a good deal.
A week later Toyota announced it will double its production of Priuses in 2007 to 300,000 cars per year and expects to double that production again within five years. The Prius gets about 50 miles to the gallon. The gas-stingy American models might get 35 mpg. By 2010, Toyota expects to introduce a plug-in hybrid Prius, which will average 100 miles to the gallon. At that rate, between the cost of electricity and gas, drivers will be paying the equivalent of $1 per gallon.
The cheapest car to fuel on the American market is the Honda Civic GX, which runs on compressed natural gas. It’s on sale on the west coast, Arizona and is coming soon to New York and Massachusetts. You can buy a natural gas hookup for the car, refill it at home and never go to a gas station again. Problem is, the car has a 200-mile range and can take up to 12 hours to refill the tank. Good commuter car, though.
I get no joy from seeing American auto companies getting their asses kicked by the competition, but let’s face it – environmentalists, consumer advocates and automotive journalists have spent decades begging these idiots to do the right thing to no avail.
Which is not to say the U.S. automakers are doing nothing. Daimler-Chrysler, GM and BMW are working on a hybrid engine prototype. It will be introduced in the 2008 Dodge Durango pickup and is expected to improve gas mileage by 25 percent. The Environmental Protection Agency says the 2006 Durango has the worst mileage of any vehicle on the road – 12 mpg city/15 highway. Improve that by 25 percent and you’re up around 15 city and 18.5 highway. Oh boy, can’t wait for that one.
All this involves more than global warming. There’s also the dependence on “foreign oil” politicians are always crowing about, although those same politicians have been the chief enablers of the deluded auto execs. It’s not about American jobs, because Toyota and Honda build their American-market cars in U.S. plants (albeit, at much lower salaries than the union jobs in the Detroit factories).
Like the issue of global warming, it’s not too late to turn the American auto industry around, but as is the case with global warming, we have to start now and we no longer have any margin for error.
The Road to Hell
People often speak of the pavement on the road to hell, rarely about the traffic. These days, that particular avenue is gridlocked with American cars. Big, stupid, gas-guzzling American cars.
Global warming, a terrestrial version of hell 150 years in the making, is sore upon us. Here in the nation that contributes more to global warming – and does less about it – than any other, half our greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector.
The solution is easy: stop using so much gas. The thing that has prevented us from doing exactly that has been the bad intentions of the people who run the American auto companies. They used to be called “the big three,” but they’re no so big anymore. General Motors is, for now, still the biggest car company in the world, but Toyota is number two and moving into the passing lane.
There’s a reason for that. General Motors and Ford and Daimler-Chrysler have placed their bets for the past 25 years, on big vehicles, first mini-vans, then SUVs, then light trucks, then asinine “concept cars” like the PT Cruiser. It was great short-term thinking, because the cars were cheap to make and sold for a hefty profit. Instead of using that quarter-century of profits to cut their middle-management bloat and prepare for the future, the executives who run American auto companies figured they’d be retired before the future got here and to hell with everyone else.
Toyota executives, by comparison, started preparing. They introduced the gas-electric hybrid-powered Prius to America in 2000. Unlike the big U.S. cars, Toyota doesn’t make much money on each unit, but when the price of gas went through the roof, as everyone knew it would, Toyota was positioned to take over the market.
A few weeks ago, Ford announced it would lay off 4,000 white-collar workers and offer 75,000 factory workers lump-sum payments of $140,000 each to go away. That’s what an American manufacturer considers a good deal.
A week later Toyota announced it will double its production of Priuses in 2007 to 300,000 cars per year and expects to double that production again within five years. The Prius gets about 50 miles to the gallon. The gas-stingy American models might get 35 mpg. By 2010, Toyota expects to introduce a plug-in hybrid Prius, which will average 100 miles to the gallon. At that rate, between the cost of electricity and gas, drivers will be paying the equivalent of $1 per gallon.
The cheapest car to fuel on the American market is the Honda Civic GX, which runs on compressed natural gas. It’s on sale on the west coast, Arizona and is coming soon to New York and Massachusetts. You can buy a natural gas hookup for the car, refill it at home and never go to a gas station again. Problem is, the car has a 200-mile range and can take up to 12 hours to refill the tank. Good commuter car, though.
I get no joy from seeing American auto companies getting their asses kicked by the competition, but let’s face it – environmentalists, consumer advocates and automotive journalists have spent decades begging these idiots to do the right thing to no avail.
Which is not to say the U.S. automakers are doing nothing. Daimler-Chrysler, GM and BMW are working on a hybrid engine prototype. It will be introduced in the 2008 Dodge Durango pickup and is expected to improve gas mileage by 25 percent. The Environmental Protection Agency says the 2006 Durango has the worst mileage of any vehicle on the road – 12 mpg city/15 highway. Improve that by 25 percent and you’re up around 15 city and 18.5 highway. Oh boy, can’t wait for that one.
All this involves more than global warming. There’s also the dependence on “foreign oil” politicians are always crowing about, although those same politicians have been the chief enablers of the deluded auto execs. It’s not about American jobs, because Toyota and Honda build their American-market cars in U.S. plants (albeit, at much lower salaries than the union jobs in the Detroit factories).
Like the issue of global warming, it’s not too late to turn the American auto industry around, but as is the case with global warming, we have to start now and we no longer have any margin for error.
© Mark Floegel, 2006