Car Wars, Part II

I have a clarification on my previous post regarding the new Federal automotive fuel efficiency standards. The 35 mpg requirement is for passenger cars and light trucks combined. The requirement for passenger cars is that the corporate average hits 42 miles per gallon.

I was curious as to how many cars currently on the market meet that standard. So I visited the official EPA fuel efficiency website (www.fueleconomy.gov). They have a searchable database where you can look for cars that meet differing levels of fuel efficiency. Do a search at meet or exceed 40 mpg, and you come up with two, count ‘em two, models. If you want a car that meets the 2016 standard today, you can get a Toyota Prius or a Honda Civic Hybrid.

It kind of reminds me of Henry Ford’s old dictate regarding the Model T. “You can have it in any color you want, as long as it’s black.”

Typically, cars are developed in what’s called a platform. The platform includes the chassis, the suspension, the powertrain; basically, all of the guts and structure between the seats and the body panels. Usually, more than one model of car is built off of the platform. For example, the Honda CR-V is built off the Civic platform. The Ford Fusion and the Mercury Milan also share a platform.

Developing a new platform takes between three and five years. Not only does the platform have to be engineered, but a lot of the subassemblies will also be new designs. Then the tools to build the new parts have to be designed and built. Once the new parts are made, then the assembly processes to make the subassemblies have to be designed and built. I have seen times where getting just one part for a new automotive subassembly took over 18 months between the first quotation to delivery of production parts.

Because of the enormous cost of developing a new platform, particularly once you get to the stage of building production tools, car companies usually bring only one platform to market in any one year.

To arrive at the mandated targets will require new platform development for almost every platform over the next 8 years. If you listen carefully, you can hear faint screams of agony coming from all directions. Those are the screams of product planners and design engineers from all over the world being told about the new North American standards they will have to meet, and the timetable for meeting them.