Honey, I Shrunk The Car
We may like to think that the recent spike in small-car sales is driven by altruism. But auto executives say it's a pocketbook issue: U.S. gas prices have doubled this decade. "The worst thing that could happen to us now is if gas prices fell back, because that would take the pressure off," says Ford executive chairman Bill Ford Jr. "We've all started down this path now." And there's no turning back. Forecasters predict oil prices, global warming and emerging-market desire for cars will continue to rise. As long as those factors drive demand, small cars will rule the road.
With Jason Overdorf, Patrick Crowley and Mary Hennock
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: bhees @ 04/05/2008 7:32:08 PM
Comment: It's easy to make a $2500 car if 1) your definition of "car" is little more than a souped-up golf cart, 2) you do it in a country with low taxes and cheap labor, 3) you don't have to spend $2000 of every sale on pensions of retired workers, 4) you keep the car itself simple and put all your engineering efforts into making it cheap to manufacture, 5) you don't change models every three years just for the sake of fashion, and 6) you have a will to make such a car -- i.e. customers who want to buy such a thing.
Also, Europeans benefit from small cars because their cities have a lot of teeny European roads. The Chinese, from what I've seen (Shanghai), don't have tiny 400-year-old roads; they bulldoze whole city blocks and rebuild everything new. They have modern American-sized roads, hence American-sized cars. I don't know where India fits in this comparison.
Posted By: akennedy @ 04/04/2008 7:39:16 PM
Comment: I want one!
Posted By: Happyjake @ 04/04/2008 4:09:46 PM
Comment: I would love to have one of these electric autos to travel on secondary roads,and around toun for
shopping,and I would too if we realy did have a free enterprise system and democracy.