Where's the innovation from US automakers?
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AS THE Big Three automakers were pleading their case before Congress and the American public this week for $25 billion in emergency financial aid, the fundamental question that remained was what happened to American ingenuity and innovation?
The chief executives for Ford, Chrysler, and
But it is the historic failure of the industry to innovate in a global economy that is the dead weight wrapped around its ankles. American ingenuity and innovation is, in fact, thriving, but you wouldn't know it as you drive past car dealerships that are stuffed with SUVs and V-8s that are the latest hangover of the spiking energy costs. And you just know that the softening of gas prices will cause carmakers to declare that happy days are here again.
So, where is this ingenuity that is somehow not getting to Detroit? Locally it is in the town of Upton, where my company has been perfecting a hydraulic hybrid vehicle capable of getting more than 100 miles per gallon (city driving).
A product engineer at Ford wrote a letter on the company's behalf stating emphatically: "I believe it is very likely that the Sanderson mechanism engine will enable significant efficiency and performance benefits for on-road vehicles," he wrote, adding, "With the economic and societal cost of energy and transportation fuels, funding technologies to substantially improve on-road fuel economy is critical."
The project engineer for the highly successful Northstar engine that has been used in Cadillacs since 1993, who is now since retired from GM, said in a letter about our engine: "This is an exciting invention that holds the probability of improving the efficiency of future engine designs and power transfer mechanisms."
And we're hardly alone on the innovation front. There are more than 20 official design and innovation teams competing for the prestigious Automotive X Prize with the goal of building the first car able to exceed the 100-mile-per-gallon barrier.
You won't find the Big Three on the list of competitors, and you won't be surprised to learn that GM and Ford have largely ignored the enthusiastic endorsements of the Sanderson Engine by their own engineers and former engineers.
These are smart guys in an industry that has been the bedrock of American soil for generations, so what could explain their failure to understand the "innovate or perish" 21st-century imperative? As one automotive engineer explained it to me, Rule Number One in the automotive manufacturing business is that if you are selling cars don't mess with success by changing what you are doing. Rule Number Two is that if your innovation nudges the price of that car up past your competition, you are in violation of Rule Number One.
Earlier this fall, Congress appropriated $25 billion in loans for automakers to retool their factories and produce more fuel-efficient vehicles in 2009. It was apparent in their testimony this week that the Big Three are focused more on survival than retooling anything.
In his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee this week, Rick Wagoner of General Motors Corp. commented that the auto industry "needs a bridge to span the financial chasm that has opened up before us."
If Congress decides to build that bridge, it needs to extract guarantees from the auto industry that they can actually get to the other side of that bridge as an innovative industry capable of adapting to new technologies. And for their part, Congress needs to acknowledge that it has effectively enabled the industry's addiction to yesterday's technology by not mandating higher fuel efficiency standards in US vehicles.
As Ford rolls out its 2010 Mustang at this weekend's car show in Los Angeles, one can only imagine what a buzz its unveiling would create if it were capable of getting 100 miles to the gallon.
John Fox is president of Sanderson Engine Development in Upton.
