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The automotive industry and the environment

P Nieuwenhuis and P Wells, Cardiff University, UK

 - addresses the challenges facing the automotive industry, from the increasing unprofitability of volume production to regulatory and social pressures to improve environmental and product sustainability
 - examines how the automotive industry can meet the current challenges in producing a sustainable and profitable industry for the future
 - reviews trends in more environmentally-friendly technologies such as the use of more sustainable fuel sources and new types of modular design with built-in recyclability

The automotive industry currently faces huge challenges. The fundamental technological paradigm it relies on, volume production, has become progressively more unprofitable in the face of increasingly segmented niche markets. At the same time it faces increasing regulatory and social pressures to improve both the sustainability of its products and methods of production. Building on a wealth of research, The automotive industry and the environment addresses those challenges and how they can be met in producing a sustainable and profitable industry for the future.

The authors first discuss the development of the automotive industry and the problems it currently faces. They then consider the solutions the industry can adopt. The book reviews trends in more environmentally-friendly technologies such as the use of more sustainable fuel sources and new types of modular design with built-in recyclability. However, these technologies can only be fully exploited if methods of manufacture change. The book also describes models of decentralised production, particularly the micro factory retailing (MFR) model, which provide an alternative to volume production and promise to be both more sustainable and more profitable.

The automotive industry and the environment provides both a cogent diagnosis of the environmental and other problems facing the industry and a blueprint for a better future. It will be widely welcomed by the industry, policy makers and all those concerned with sustainable transport.

ISBN 1 85573 713 2
ISBN-13: 978 1 85573 713 6
July 2003
272 pages  234 x 156mm  hardback  
£150.00 / US$255.00 / €180.00

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About the authors

Dr Nieuwenhuis and Dr Wells both work at the prestigious Centre for Automotive Industry Research (CAIR) at Cardiff University. Their many publications include Motor vehicles in the environment (1994) and The death of motoring? (1997).

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Contents

Introduction
 - Background
 - Change and complexity-can business really afford to keep things simple?
 - Identifying the problem
 - Roots of the problem
 - The C02 issue-agenda for change

The structure of the automotive industry
 - The automotive industry: a profile
 - The vehicle manufacturers
 - Material and component suppliers
 - Distribution and retailing w Financial performance, structure and the future
 - The direction of the industry: the case of Ford
 - Conclusions

Markets and the demand for cars
 - Introduction
 - The structure of production and markets
 - Fragmentation
 - Brands and the market for alternative technology vehicles
 - Environment, technology and the creation of new market segments: the example ofTH!NK @bout London project
 - Conclusions

From manufacturers to responsible mobility providers
 - Background
 - The EU ELV Directive-forcing manufacturers to take a whole-life view
 - Selling the package: a wider view of costs
 - The car industry responds to the new agenda
 - Corporate social and environmental responsibility
 - Conclusion

Sector shift, inter-sector dynamics and futures
 - Introduction: the question of sector shift
 - Futures and multi-discipline thinking
 - Sustainability and multi-discipline thinking
 - Management science, business strategy and the cult of the guru
 - The automotive industry: an illustration w Micro factory retailing: a futures studies vision of the automotive industry
 - Conclusions

Powertrain and fuel
 - How petrol and diesel came to rule the world
 - The gaseous alternative Liquefied petroleum gas vs. compressed natural gas
 - Dimethylether (DME) and biodiesel: diesel's future?
 - Whatever happened to the electric car?
 - The Air Car-a green car at last?

Fuel cells and the hydrogen economy
 - The car industry goes for the hard cell
 - The role of Ballard
 - Fuelling the cell
 - AUTOnomy-reinventing the chassis to fit the cell
 - A future for the cell?

High volume car production: Budd and Ford
 - Introduction and background
 - History
 - Budd and Ford
 - ZIS: Budd goes East
 - Monocoque construction
 - Buddhism fraying at the edges
 - Steel fights back

Alternatives to high volume car production
 - Introduction
 - Alternative approaches to car production
 - Sports cars: niche vs mainstream vehicle manufacturers
 - Examples of low volume car production
 - Conclusions

Sustainability
 - The sustainability concept
 - An ethical and spiritual dimension
 - Nature and the closed-loop economy

Sustainable mobility
 - Making cars sustainable: a blueprint
 - Product durability and scrappage incentives
 - New product niches
 - Closed-loop recycling

Practical steps towards sustainability
 - Introduction
 - Alternative approaches to evaluating the environmental burden of cars
 - Official and unofficial vehicle emissions and fuel economy guides
 - The Volvo environmental product declaration (EPD)
 - Vehicvle assembly plant rating systems
 - Car environmental rating systems
 - Conclusion

Automobility 2050-the vision
 - Introduction
 - A sustainable world: the context for automobility 2050
 - Automobility 2050: making cars
 - Automobility 2050: the car itself
 - Automobility 2050: cars is use
 - Conclusions: a vision for the future

The distributed economy
 - Introduction
 - Centralization, economies of scale and globalization
 - The distributed economy: an outline of basic ideas
 - The significance of scale and production
 - Conclusion

The shape of the future
 - Introduction
 - Alternative 1: the traditional assembly plant
 - Alternative 2: the modular assembly plant
 - Alternative 3: the global production network
 - Alternative 4: the eco-park
 - Alternative 5: decentralized manufacturing
 - Different shapes to the automotive industry
 - Conclusions

The roadmap
 - Roadmaps
 - The sustainable automobility roadmap: basic principles
 - The Bellagio Principles-a known agenda
 - The mechanics of change
 - Strategic niche management (SNM)
 - Conclusions

Micro factory retailing
 - Introduction
 - Micro factory retailing: a delineation of the basic idea
 - Barriers and opportunities for micro factory retailing
 - Case study: the Air Car
 - Conclusions

Conclusion and implications
 - Summary Our futureThe UK-a special case?
 - Conclusions
 - Our future
 - The UK-a special case?
 - Conclusions