100 years ago, the automobile industry was rapidly expanding in America. The internal combustion engine [ICE] autos were rolling out of factories in ever greater numbers. The prices had just come down, installment payment plans were created to fuel the sales of the auto companies and the automobile started to become part of the American […]
We are now about 130 years into the automobile era. Starting with Karl Benz’s patent in the 1880s the automobile quickly became widespread with Henry Ford’s model of mass production scaling up the market 100 years ago. Since then there have been waves of significant changes. The first stage was about mechanics and engines and […]
To many, the absolute collapse of the magazine industry in 2009 may seem stunning. What is stunning to me is that the industry didn’t see it coming and take steps to avert this collapse. Once again, another industry can only see a year ahead and thinks that a down year – 2008 – would be […]
“The chances further down the road seem to me better on the fuel-cell side than on the battery-electric side” There are a number of readers of this blog and members of the audiences when I speak that just seem to think that hydrogen fuel cell autos are a pipe dream that has no chance of […]
In the last column we looked at the general dynamics underlying the reality and need to create an automotive industry in the U.S for the 21st century. We now take a look at what this industry might look like. An analysis of trends, developing technologies and the role that the federal government can and should […]
It is about time! The first steps that President Obama took recently to open up the U.S. policy towards Cuba are long overdue. It has been clear to me for the past 15 years that the Federal Government’s policy on Cuba, instituted 50 years ago is a worn out relic of the Cold War era. […]
The discussion about bailing out the Big Three has been couched in terms that imply that the Big Three represent the complete future of the automotive business in the U.S. As I have suggested, if they are to be bailed out they should be given money based upon measurable metrics. I have also suggested that […]
In the last column here, I suggested that any bailout of the Big Three include alternative energy metrics against which the three companies compete for better loan repayment terms. In the week since that column was published there has been much discussion about whether America can afford to allow its’ auto industry to go down […]
Recently, I wrote about the Big Three Auto companies and how they need to change, and change their product lines if they wanted to stay “big”. Since those columns there has been even more evidence that these companies are struggling to keep up with current realities. Additional plants have closed, the production of trucks has […]
Two weeks ago I said that I would be writing several columns about transportation in the U.S. This is the final one of that series, at least for now. In the life of this blog I have written about the future of transportation and what it will and should look like. I am sure I […]
