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New developments in automotive design have also come from outside the ordinary consumer-industry relationship. Governments have begun to encourage better technologies and more efficient cars through legislation. Western European nations and Asian countries have long imposed various types of restrictions that include imposing higher taxes on gasoline than in the United States, charging purchase and income taxes proportional to the size of the automobile, and even requiring proof of a parking space before allowing the purchase of a car, as in Tokyo. Taxes are unanimously unpopular in the U.S., and increased gasoline taxes would generate political turmoil. However, some recent measures have been taken to encourage a broader thinking in America, such as California’s Clean Air Act that mandates that manufacturers develop zero- or low-emission vehicles and implements new legislation regarding pickup trucks and SUVs. Other regulatory attempts include the founding of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) in 1993, an automotive think tank supported by the three major American manufacturers: Ford, General Motors, and DaimlerChrysler.
Although governmental legislation has been essential to encouraging research and development, another perhaps more explicit evolution has come from within the automotive industry. The growing globalization of manufacturing has resulted in larger worldwide markets. And with the recent merger frenzy, specialized car markets are declining. Instead, the private car is becoming more universal, and the money savings afforded by the use of shared platforms encourage the manufactures to market the same types of autos internationally. Consumers in Asia and Europe have already embraced smaller, more practical vehicles, which in turn motivates the new, larger motor conglomerates to further develop these car markets elsewhere. Eventually innovations originally pioneered for these smaller, more efficient cars–or even the cars themselves–will appear in the U.S. market. The potential universality of the car market would increase the profit margin for the industry, contradicting the old adage "smaller cars mean smaller profits."
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Photo: Michael Moran
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What should be done to ensure that we still have enough petroleum deposits, enough clean air, and enough room to maneuver our cars and prevent global warming in the coming century? One extreme and unfeasible suggestion is that we abolish the private car altogether and find other forms of transportation. However, the most immediate and realistic solution appears to start with a rethinking and redesign of the car itself. Make the private car better; make it a more intelligent and a more efficient machine. Ecologist Amory Lovins refers to this approach as mining the potentially rich "oil fields under Detroit."
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