Figure 1 Savings to the
consumer and the environment
(Source: http://theexpiredmeter.com/2012/08/the-unitended-consequences-of-higher-gas-mileage-standards/)
Company X
To analyze
the dilemma facing automotive manufactures, they will be broken down into two
different theoretical companies. Company X is the conservative company that places money
before anything else. It could be compared to most large corporations in the
Unites States economy. Company X realizes the unreachable technology feat that
must be overcome to reach the 2025 CAFE Standards to help the environment. The
company reaches a decision to not increase funding in research and development in an effort to reach the milestone. After all, Company X cannot stand to lose any of its profit
margin, so therefore, their increase in cost would be turned over to the consumer. The consumer
would see the extraordinarily high priced car and not want to purchase it.
Instead, the company decides to stick to its current project and development
plan and wait till the year 2020 to ask the government to lower the CAFE
Standard of 54.5 mpg to a more realistic number.
Company Y
Company Y on
the other hand, loves leading the industry in innovation. This company has no
concept of profits and spends as much as it needs to reach the concept design.
This company realizes the need for environmental improvement within today’s
automobiles. Therefore, Company Y dumps millions of dollars into research of
lightweight body design. Through the use of lightweight metals and brand new
manufacturing processes, Company Y is able to decrease the weight of its automobiles
without compromising any luxuries to meet the new standards. The cost of this new technology raises the cost to
manufacture the automobile, but Company Y decides in the best interest of the
environment that it would offset some of the cost to the consumer by cutting
into the company's profit margin.
Who is Right?
After seeing
both sides to the ethical issue it may be easy to see the problem plaguing
automotive manufacturers today. It is hard to pick from what is right, by helping
the environment with a cost of a loss in profit, or what is wrong, by
keep profits at the cost of hurting the environment. Company X realized that at
the rate they are going in advancement in order to reach the 2025 CAFE Standards their production car
would have to have less than a one-liter engine and be smaller than today’s
Ford Focus. Company X realizes that no one would buy such a car that they would be capable of designing. In the grand scale of the issue, Company Y moved in the right and
ethical direction by taking the initiative to help the environment by
increasing fuel economy and decreasing pollution with developing a new lightweight car design. In the end, with the consumer
savings at the pump and the environmental savings to the planet, the method of Company Y is
the only way to go. The drawbacks, due to the loss in profits, are minimal compared to the lasting effects of not abiding by the CAFE Standards. After all, if today’s cars continue to destroy the
environment, soon there will not be a world left to drive them in.
This is a great example of an ethical dilemma in mechanical engineering. I can see why you would side with Company Y. It is extremely important to the environment to make cars more fuel efficient. Plus the push for technological advancement is what engineers strive for and dream of doing. Company Y is in a predicament though. If they can’t make the cut by 2025, they are out a large sum of money and may not make it. Most companies are designed to make money unfortunately. Company X is more like the majority of companies that continue to increase the prices of their automobiles. I fear that the market for a car or light truck may out price itself from the general public because of the money it will take to reach such a feat. Vehicles are already at an all-time high for price and with the money it will take to fund such a project, prices may take a leap and the average or even slightly above average person may not want to buy such an expensive automobile, especially when they may not be a power house like other cars in the same price range. Also I fear for the popularity of a light truck with that kind of fuel mileage. The fact of the matter is that the technology to make a half ton pickup that an American would buy is a slim window. People in America are used to using their roomy four door pickups that have the power to tow what they please. That being said, I hope a company like Company Y will make a break through, but they have a long road ahead of them.
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