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Updated: April 8, 2012
Editors note: This article was originally written in 2007. It provides an interesting historical perspective on where hybrid cars have been and where they going. In a nutshell, Americans just don't care.
Bill Ford told
journalists at the National Press Club in Washington,
D.C., "Now, more than ever, with the competitive
pressures of globalization, America needs to respond to
the economic challenges of our time. This is not the
moment to stop investing and concede our competitive edge
in vital parts of the economy. Just the opposite, we must
take the lead and show the world that there is only one,
true innovative manufacturing giant. And it has three
distinct initials: U.S.A.,(more)."
The world already knows where the innovative giant of auto
manufacturing is located, and it isn't in the U.S..
The Ford
Escape hybrid is a good start at innovation, but Ford
is going to have to look far beyond the hybrid SUV, and
even 250,000 hybrid vehicles by 2010 just won't be enough
- maybe for a follower, but not a leader.
In the 90's American taxpayers gave a billion dollars to
Detroit to create vehicles like the Toyota
Prius, but Detroit insisted - with our money in their
wallets - that such vehicles didn't make sense. Instead,
we should wait for even more senseless (in terms of
current technology and costs) fuel cell vehicles.
In other words we should do nothing and enjoy our
gas-guzzling SUVs.
Well, the Prius has proven Detroit wrong, and experimental
hybrids, such as the Enigma,
demonstrate that the real potential of hybrids is barely
being tapped. Today's technology can change the world at
costs that make fuel cell talk seem almost silly.
Mr. Ford is correct, innovation will be the key. For too
long, GM and Ford have chosen to maintain the status quo
while talking about the technologies of the future. It is
time to stop talking and to start building and selling the
future today.
American made, foreign oil reducing hybrid vehicles - if
you build them, they will come.
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