Here in the UK we’re so downtrodden by extortionate petrol prices that the prospect of driving fuel efficient green cars carries obvious appeal. However, what about our US neighbours where ‘gas’ prices are distinctly lower and so-called muscle cars are seen as almost iconic and part of the culture? Can green cars really be a turning point for the country’s troubled automakers? Warren Brown in The Washington Post took an in depth look at the issue and here is a summary of his arguments:
According to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in its 35-page document “Fixing Detroit: How Far, How Fast, How Fuel Efficient“, the Obama administration’s push for more vehicle miles per gallon could return the industry to profitability.
It believes that many of the domestic industry’s problems stem from an underestimation of US consumer demand for green cars. This failure, it believes, has prompted US car manufacturers to lose market share to foreign rivals and particularly those from Japan such as Toyota and Honda.
However, while this argument seemed to carry strong weight when US gas prices reached $4 a gallon, they now seem less relevant. In May 2008, Toyota saw its Prius hybrid car turn it towards profitability in America and it scrapped plans to build a sport utility truck plant in Tupelo, Mississippi and chose to build a Prius plant there instead.
Yet when gas prices tumbled later that year, plans for the Prius plant were shelved. While sales of vehicles slumped all around in the US, it was the fuel efficient cars that took arguably the biggest hit. Whereas overall car sales in the US market were down 34 per cent in May 2009 compared to the same month in the previous year, some of the most popular fuel efficient cars took even bigger hits – the Ford Focus down 54 per cent; the Honda Civic down 61 per cent; the Chevrolet Cobalt down 52 per cent.
It could be argued then that America is still drunk on cheap gasoline. If high gas prices aren’t an issue then most Americans opt for the horsepower of bigger cars and trucks.
Clearly petrol prices will eventually spiral in the country again, and with oil running out and greenhouse gas emissions proving an increasing problem something must be done to change this culture. However, without a sensible Federal policy in place that affects the price of petrol in the long term, few customers may pay attention.
What do you think of the American green car problem? Will green cars ever be popular there? Does something need to be done to push petrol prices up? Or should Americans be allowed to buy the vehicles they want irrespective of environmental damage or a lack of resources? Leave a comment with your thoughts.
