The disappearing American car

[Storebought]

A long article from CNBC says that the Big Three Two-and-a-Half will devote almost the entirety of their production to pickups and SUVs.

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Cars are already terrible enough, but now they are being replaced by the far worse SUV and pickup.

But I dispute the article's contention that Americans are flocking to trucks and SUVs as a stated consumer preference. US trucks are being subsidized through tariffs, lower fuel emissions standards, and worldwide low gas prices.

Thanks to the quaint Chicken tax, the light truck sector is the only segment of US automobile manufacturing that is protected explicitly by a tariff and not subject to direct foreign competition.

As the article linked to the New York Times says, in the 1970s, light trucks were also exempted from the higher fuel efficiency standards placed on cars.

The NYT article also says the SUV boom is taking place worldwide. That's of course not due to US tariffs, but to low gas prices, even in western Europe.

On the one hand, the 1960s truck tariffs and the fuel economy exemptions protected the US auto industry from total oblivion -- on the other, you can't deny that American auto makers making small trucks to the exclusion of everything else, and with such high guaranteed profits (I recall Ford makes nearly $10,000 per pickup), is a gross distortion of the market.

[Storebought]

At least now we see that Americans don't buy foreign-made or marque cars out of "disloyalty" -- they buy them because foreign cars are literally the only ones still sold in the US.

[Storebought]

Electric vehicles beware: Customers prefer SUVs

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The highlighted part isn't just true in the US: in most of the world, trucks/heavy vehicles are subject to less stringent emissions standards than standard cars.

That's also the reason why I don't think electric/autonomous cars will be the revolutionary change everybody thinks they will be since people worldwide will drive fewer cars in general.

[Green Line]

The American car companies are focusing on what they're "good" at and trimming the fat, that's all.  I think Americans are still buying the little compact cars, they just won't be buying them from GM, because they suck at it.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The American car companies are focusing on what they're "good" at and trimming the fat, that's all.  I think Americans are still buying the little compact cars, they just won't be buying them from GM, because they suck at it.

They may well be buying them from GM, it just will be that GM won't be making them.

[Storebought]

In an entirely expected development, Ford will cut its auto division to just two lines:

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Europe was the only region to turn a profit for Ford.

It's grating, though, when obnoxious German commentators will still crow that Americans are incapable of making autos that people actually want to buy.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Electric vehicles beware: Customers prefer SUVs

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The highlighted part isn't just true in the US: in most of the world, trucks/heavy vehicles are subject to less stringent emissions standards than standard cars.

That's also the reason why I don't think electric/autonomous cars will be the revolutionary change everybody thinks they will be since people worldwide will drive fewer cars in general.

Ford, I believe, has a long-range plan to produce a fully-electric F-150. They envision people using it to camp and running electronic devices from it.

Such a change, if successful, would likely cause GM to follow suit and create an arms race within the pickup truck/SUV market. If you convince people they can get the same power and reliability but not have to put gas in it, you're going to make lots of money.

[Storebought]

Electric vehicles beware: Customers prefer SUVs

You must be logged in to read this quote.

The highlighted part isn't just true in the US: in most of the world, trucks/heavy vehicles are subject to less stringent emissions standards than standard cars.

That's also the reason why I don't think electric/autonomous cars will be the revolutionary change everybody thinks they will be since people worldwide will drive fewer cars in general.

Ford, I believe, has a long-range plan to produce a fully-electric F-150. They envision people using it to camp and running electronic devices from it.

Such a change, if successful, would likely cause GM to follow suit and create an arms race within the pickup truck/SUV market. If you convince people they can get the same power and reliability but not have to put gas in it, you're going to make lots of money.

Ford has plans to make a hybrid F-150, to come out in 2020, or sometime:

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Pickups in the rest of the world are used more as true work vehicles than in the US (with exceptions: Australia and South Africa), so the need for an electric vehicle might be less pressing than it is here. In any case, electric technology is far less developed for trucks/SUVs than it is for standard autos. That is a shame, because even more fuel-efficient pickups and SUVs are still bulky and more hazardous to operate on streets than cars are.

I think the only way out of this now-international cycle towards big trucks/crossovers is for governments to hike gas/petrol prices.