Fast Company has an interesting story in their April issue entitled “10 Ways To Jump-Start the Auto Business”.  The on-line version has been expanded to 25 ways, so I guess there are a lot of opinions out there for our auto industry.  This is a thought provoking article that highlights many of the current problems and offers some potential solutions.

Some of the issues they address include:

• Higher gas tax
• Car design
• Advertising
• Social networks
• Alternative fuels
• Monorail technology
• Hybrid vehicles
• Buy American
• Sell your car

All of these ideas to get the auto business moving again are well intentioned and very valid if you agree with the premise of the article.  My problem is that I think the last thing we need is more cars.  We already have plenty of cars, we just need to make more efficient use of the existing “fleet”.

So instead of trying to improve a broken system, I believe we should go in a new direction.  We have to explore a broad strategy to get people out of their cars.  Increased ride share, car share, mass transit, biking and walking are the future.

photo credit: vieux bandit

The Detroit Lions went 0-16 this year, while the auto makers are going 0-3.  Yes, it has been a rough year in Motown.

There is an opinion piece that ran in the NY Times last month by Thomas L Friedman entitled “While Detroit Sleeps”.  Now no one wants to see the auto industry fail, but he poses the question that we may be spending good money after bad.  You get that feeling of losing in Vegas and then trying to make it back on the next spin of the wheel or deal of the cards.  He equates investing in our current auto makers to putting money into other doomed technologies:

In order for the Big 3 to be a good investment, they need to change their ways.  Since gas prices have fallen so sharply, there is a tendency to delay research on gasoline alternatives.  Unfortunately, we know prices are going to rise again and we need to be better prepared next time oil goes over $100 a barrel.

In a story on Huffington Post called “Is There An Option More Promising Than The Plug-In Electric Vehicle?”, Patrick Takahashi discusses our future options.  He argues for the use of wind and solar energy to charge battery-powered cars.  This will take many years, but we have to make this a priority now.

So what should we do?  Chase our loses while doubling down on a bad hand or quit gambling with foreign oil and make sound investments in gasoline alternatives?  The Detroit Lions fired their GM and coach to change direction from their losing ways.  Sounds like a good strategy that could also be applied to our auto industry.

photo credit: Dave Hogg

With bankruptcy hanging over the big 3 automakers, they feel many people are shying away from buying a new car.  Yeah, we should be hesitant to buy new cars until they can make more fuel efficient vehicles.  If there were better options available (electric, hybrids, alternative fuel), people would be purchasing.

In a BusinessWeek story, they talk about the union suspending their program called JOBS bank.  This program paid workers a large percentage of their salary while they were not working.  The union has also agreed to delay payment to their health-car program.

In a USA Today story, they spell out 5 critical issues to address the bailout:

1. Overpaid workers - the UAW is taking much of the public blame for the automakers’ woes.
2. Overpaid executives - members of Congress have argued that the CEOs haven’t made enough personal sacrifice to justify the bailout they seek.
3. Green cars - U.S. automakers focused on more profitable SUVs and trucks at the expense of developing more cars and fuel-efficient technologies.
4. Too many dealers - the Detroit 3 have too many stores for their market share.
5. Bias in Congress - politicians from Southern states have been very critical.

All of this is reactionary management based on a very bad economy.  Unfortunately, the management executives should have been more proactive in addressing these issues.  They were happy with big profits on SUV’s and now they can not give them away.  Should congress approve a bailout?  I don’t think they deserve it, but what are the ramifications of letting any one or all three fail?

To address our problems, we need aggressive, proactive solutions.  I believe Passenger Energy could make a difference today, not in 2-3 years.

photo credit: rezsox