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4:05:00 PM EDT
U.S. vs. Europe in Cars, Gasoline and Energy
Perspective From Switzerland: The Washington Post's car columnist, Warren Brown, wrote a bunch of good pieces this week about European cars and car culture vs. U.S. cars and car culture. Brown is covering the Geneva International Motor Show, which continues the week of March 12.
The stars of the show, Brown writes, are "the cars ordinary European consumers actually buy," all small- to mid-size models.
His column from March 7, "Why You Can't Buy This Car," focused on the Opel Corsa OPC, built by General Motors. It's a sports coupe that "looks sharp, runs fast and gets 30 miles per gallon," says Brown. "But Opel has no plans to bring that hot little number to the United States ... "
GM executives say they could not sell the Corsa in the U.S. and make a profit, because Americans would be unlikely to buy it unless gasoline costs rose to about $6 per gallon, like they are in Europe. Later, Brown quotes a GM exec who says, "We build and sell big cars and trucks in the United States because that is what consumers there say they want." The exec goes on to say the U.S. government needs to establish parameters to make the market work for more fuel-efficient cars.
In reality, GM and the other U.S. automakers have lobbied hard since the 1980s to keep U.S. fuel-economy standards much lower than those in Europe and China. GM makes money selling gas-sipping cars in Europe, but apparently does not want to do that here. Brown included a graph with his article, that showed data from a Pew Center on Global Climate Change study (see PDF) comparing fuel economy for the European Union, China and the United States. The U.S. fleet gets 24.8 miles per gallon now; China about 35 mpg and Europe about 37 mpg. Next year, automakers will implement voluntary standards to boost European fuel-economy to 44.2 mpg and China will hit 36.7 mpg. The U.S. will remain the same at 24.8 mpg.
Not because it's not possible to increase the mpg for America, but because automakers want to keep selling SUVs.
The benefits to higher mpgs are many: Less air pollution, less oil and gasoline use -- which means greater national security and less reliance on oil from the Middle East, and thus probably fewer wars over that oil.
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In his "On Wheels" column today, "Too Little to Fly in Size-Obsessed America," Brownwrites about how Europeans "seem to have a sense of balance" and are "motivated by the expectation of pleasure at the end of the trip" -- not obsessed with how they are getting there or how cool their ride is.
Why can't smaller cars take hold in the United States right now? Brown says "At the moment, the answer is that we in America are unbalanced. We have developed a cult of bigness, largely afforded by cheap gasoline." I agree.
Mid-size and small cars are not any worse or less safe than the large-size and over-size cars and SUVs. But many folks continue to buy SUVs -- in part because of slick marketing by the automakers.
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Brown also weighs in on the upcoming hearings on Capitol Hill that will focus on improving U.S. fuel economy and reducing tailpipe emissions ("Some Other Inconvenient Truths").
He describes how this will be traditional Washington theater, with lots of outrage and lobbying and probably a few sound bites. But he thinks it won't amount to anything, unless the Congress gets tough and insists on large gas taxes and engine taxes like Europe has. Consumers will have to sacrifice some in order for that to happen, says Brown, and nobody in America -- politicians or environmentalists -- wants to ask them to do it.
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3/15/07 9:40 PM
We have decades of catching up to do in the fuel efficiency category, mainly the result of our love for sports utility/large pickup vehicles. Towing our snowmobiles, boats and trailers, we have even ignored the obvious...diesels...to mitigate our foreign dependency..while Europe is currently at approx. 50% diesel new vehicle sales penetration.
Obviously, our priorities are vastly different from those of Euro/Asian drivers, with our higher earnings and cheaper fuel. Change is in the air however!!
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