Environmental Challenges Facing The American Auto Industry Essay

Introduction Automobile usage has increased in America and elsewhere in the world. In a research done by Sutherland, J., et al. (2004) “The US has a contributed to 200 million passengers in cars and light truck over the past few years. Further in 1990, studies showed that US cars increased six times faster than human population. The leaders in the automotive industry must adopt some key elements to ensure success in this fast-moving environment. They must invest in knowing their markets, building brands, adapting product strategies and taking long-term view on their goals and objectives. This paper outlines some of the key factors which should be considered. Environmental factors automotive designers and engineers have always said the main threats in the American Automotive industry are the environmental factors such as fuel economy and the clean air regulations. Automotive Emission posed different problems than manufacturing discharges such as coal smoke. Increased fossil-fuel emission has resulted from the million car increase. Irritation smog, which is comprised of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur oxide and other various chemical mixtures are cited in major cities such as Los Angeles. These auto emissions are also said to cause headaches, visual pollutions, contribute to lung cancers and other respiratory disease. In the end, the engineers have designed cars that are better environmental performers, cost effective and fuel efficient to reduce the environmental

Improved air quality wasn’t a subject of national concern until the mid 1900s. After decades of coal burning, unregulated gas emissions from cars and the excessive burning of fossil fuels, people started noticing bad air quality as a hazard to their lives. Over several decades, after seeing the costly effects air pollution was having on the environment and people’s health, interest groups like the Friends of The Earth club and the influences of Theodore Roosevelt and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring finally came together to persuade the government to enforce legislation that would reduce air pollution. Because of these efforts, the policies of the Clean Air Act of 1963 and the Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Act of 1965, that aimed to control air pollution and raise air quality standards, helped create the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on December 2, 1970. Since then, the EPA has passed more air quality improvement acts, and amendments to previous acts passed, to increase restrictions on air pollutants, with their main policy concern being the Clean Air Act. Improved air quality acts imposed by the EPA have been successful in cleaning the United States’ air quality by reducing ground-level ozone pollution and reducing emissions, allowing for a decrease in pollution related deaths/illnesses and a better standard of living. The EPA, through regulations and the Clean Air Act, has delivered it’s promise to improve air quality in the United States.

In America, air pollution was an insidious problem that became so great that the government had to step in and create laws in order to regulate human activity involving pollutants. Humans generate air pollution through the combustion of fossil fuels and wood, driving a motorized vehicle, and industrial processes, such as the smelting of heavy metals. Most air pollution exists in urban areas where heavy industries prevail. The Industrial Revolution in the late twentieth century caused air pollution to greatly increase, and once citizens realized this was causing many consequences for their health, they began fighting for stricter regulations. The gradually improving air pollution problem shows that the legislation controlling

The United States burns about a quarter of the world’s oil, half of which the gasoline powered automobile is responsible for (Lovins, 2004). For this reason, efficient, electrical forms of transportation are one of the key factors to limiting America’s oil dependence. Dating back to the late nineteenth century, the idea of the electric car is nothing new, however, in just recent years it has finally made significant progress. Innovations have enabled the electric vehicle to be portable and more attractive in recent years causing more people to make the switch from gas to electric. The transition from gasoline cars to electric vehicles projects significant breakthroughs for American energy including low dependence on oil and a cleaner future.

The American auto industry has faced several challenges in the recent years. GM was the

The American auto industry face many environmental challenges. Some of the challenges they might face are demographic, political, global, technological, economical, and socio-cultural. All of these aspects can either make or break an organization. Which is why there are many rules and regulations that help the companies stay on track.

of things connected to their vehicles. Historically low fuel costs in the U.S. drive larger vehicle

even today. Only about 14 to 30 percent of the energy from the fuel in your car is converted to

The automobile manufacturing industry is one of the largest industries in the United States and there are some worldwide famous companies such as Ford and General Motors. Henry Ford innovated mass production techniques that became standard, with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler emerging as the “Big Three” auto companies by the 1920s (Foner - Garraty 1991) (Bland,A).”

The amount of factories and industries has grown immensely through the previous years which has resulted in an expansion in the consumption of petroleum products. Innovation has begun to increase and has promoted the expansion of the production of cars. As stated by the Air Quality Research Center, “Air pollution is one of the most dangerous environmental problems, causing many adverse health effects and responsible for 50,000 deaths in the U.S. each year” (Air Pollution and Health – Air Quality Research Center.). The smog and

challenges, however, are the most difficult ones to face and overcome. Some environmental issues that

If greenhouse gases were nonexistent, the Earth’s atmosphere would be 33 degrees Celsius colder than it is currently. Throughout the past century, the entire Earth has increased in temperature by nearly .5 degrees Celsius. (Hopwood and Cohen) One contributor to this problem is vehicle fuel emissions. These emissions are seriously affecting the health of humans. As a result, scientists are working on alternate fuel vehicles and zero-emission vehicles.

The world we know today is the result of millennia of scientific revolution. Mankind has constantly pursued the understanding of the world around themselves, which has led to discoveries, and improvement of the living conditions. One of the single most important discoveries is fossil fuels, which literally fueled the industrial revolution. One of the many convenient products to emerge out of such a revolution was self-propelled personal transport. This invention, better known today as a car, was a important scientific breakthrough, that has evolved over the past century and a half, as well as being adopted by an billions of individuals around the Earth. Cars are now almost the norm of personal transport around the world, as billion of individuals use cars to commute to and from work, among many other less routine destinations. However, this heavy reliance on cars has unfortunately led to environmental issues, as the combustion of fossil fuels is a considerable source of dangerous chemicals that can harm humans, especially the young, the old and the pregnant, as the environment through the green house effect, and the destruction of the Ozone layer. As such, men have tried to work around this issue by imposing strict environmental requirements to the cars, which has led to improved exhausts and reduced engine capacity, making cars slightly more efficient. However, this is not enough, as the regulations constantly evolve as new goals are set in order to meet these new

Environmental challenges facing the automotive industry in the United States of America has changed sharply over the years. When the 2007/8 financial crises hit this was devastating for the industry. Forces beyond the industries control caused untold havoc.

The air pollution is the main issue which is debated among the environmentalists over a decades and recent years. As the technology keep on progressing and emerging, it carries along undesirable effects apart from its broad application and use. One of the main contributors is said to be the emission of harmful gases produced by vehicle exhaust lines. The number of vehicles miles travels per year continues to increase as a result of higher demand and needs. Consequently, an increase in the number led to the increase of the content of pollutants in air. The need to control engine emissions was recognized as early as 1909. Due to the more strict rules and emission standards, automotive manufacturers begun to develop a treatment device for exhaust gases known as catalytic converter for their vehicle models, pollution generated from mobile sources such as automobiles contributes major air quality problems in rural as well as urban and industrialized areas in both developed and developing countries. About 50 million cars are produced every year and over 700 million cars are used worldwide. Vehicle population is projected to grow close to 1300 million by the year 2030.Most vehicular transportation relies on combustion of gasoline, diesel and jet fuels with large amount of emission of carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons (HC), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulates matter (PM) are especially concern. [2]