This report will focus on the environmental challenges that the American automobile industry is facing today. First, we will discuss global competition for American automobile manufacturers. Next, we will look at new technologies …show more content…
The two innovations I will focus on are alternative fuel development and self-driving cars.
The two primary automobile alternative fuel options are hybrid vehicles and the electric vehicles. Hybrid vehicles combine a combustion engine (that runs on gas), with an electric motor, whereas an electric vehicle solely relies on electric power. There are also new developments in combining solar power with the previously mentioned vehicles, but it is in an earlier stage of development than the traditional hybrid and electric vehicles. There is a lot of pressure on automobile manufacturers to implement hybrid and electric technologies into more of their vehicles as concern over emissions becomes a larger issue in the US. This has created opportunities for the forerunners in the technology to get market share while their competitors try to play catch up. An article on HYPERLINK "http://www.hybridcars.com" www.hybridcars.com (Leaf, 2014), showed that in 2014, the number one selling “plug-in” car in the world was the Nissan Leaf. Nissan, Chevy (Volt), and Toyota (Prius) have all done a good job of grabbing market share as they develop their technology, but the company to watch for is Tesla. Tesla has created an industry buzz with the planned release of their Model 3 electric vehicle. Tesla is advertising more power, …show more content…
As such, Americans want to be the best at everything. This includes automobile manufacturing. But American consumer money isn’t necessarily following their hearts. Of the top selling cars in June of 2016 (based on stats from HYPERLINK "http://www.goodcarbadcar.net" http://www.goodcarbadcar.net), only six of them were America. Of those six, the top one was the Ford fusion at number 6 on the list. American manufacturers did much better in the pickup truck category where they dominated the top 10. It seems that generally, consumers tend to trust foreign-made cars over domestic, but have a much higher opinion of their pickup