Car Industry developments – oil industry challenges

Automotive industry of Europe is one of the greatest economical powers, the „engine of Europe”. It employs directly 2.2 million people and 10 million in related industries and services. Combined turnover of automotive manufacturers reaches 700 billion EUR (retail another 520 billion EUR). The industry is the largest R&D investor in EU. On the other hand the transport sector carries a huge safety and environmental risk. Thanks to this fact the automotive industry is one of the most regulated sectors in the EU. As a result of these regulations: one average car built in 1970s produced as many pollutant elements as one hundred cars manufactured today. These achievements are based on struggles of both the auto and oil industry as parallel with technology development in car industry fuel quality developments achieved by the oil industry drove to a much “cleaner” fuel quality (unleaded sulphur free petrol, reduction of aromatics, benzene; sulphur free diesel, reduction of density, poly-aromatics, etc.). In the end of the 1990s, and especially for the last few years new challenges came into the focus of the auto and oil industry of the EU and the world. Concerns about high energy prices and price volatility, security of worldwide oil supply and climate change became a main policy agenda of the EU and the world. This new policy is reflected in new regulatory initiatives requiring cars using less energy more efficiently, emitting less carbondioxide and using growing proportion of renewable fuels. The European Commission declared the idea of “Cars for Fuels” instead of “Fuels for Cars”. This article discusses in detail the regulations and challenges that rose towards oil and car industry during the recent years. It describes the possible solutions in order to fulfil the requirements of the EU. After that a wide picture is presented without going into much detail on developments of the automotive industry. Developments are divided between vehicle level, engine level and fuel level technologies, also paying attention to technologies that are less known or rather futuristic

The evolution of the car-making industry

Mass-production, cars, pollution – they all have long become well known and well connected phenomena of the modern life. Nowadays the people can also add to the list such items like awareness, scientific approach, long-term thinking, and environmental responsibility. They are surrounded by a multitude of consumer goods, most of which are produced in a scientific manner, and all of which will more sooner than later end up in the garbage. Cars are the most noticeable – both by size and by numbers – and also the most expensive of all the mass products in people’s view. For many of them they are a clear target for reprimand and regulation, and, as a result, the automotive industry is being increasingly brought under bureaucratic control, together with its whole supplier and distributor network. The author started writing this article in an attempt to place the above process under scrutiny, because it is his firm belief that similar measures, similar tough governmental control will inevitably spill over to other industries, which at the moment are producing more inconspicuous, but still polluting products. The present paper shows the relationship between car-making, supply chain management and the efforts of public administration to protect the environment – a connection with clear practical implications

CFD investigation of airflow on a model radio control race car

The modern day design of vehicles, especially in the racing industry involve a great deal of air flow study. This study shows that drag force adversely affects the forward motion of the car and that there is a difference in the pressure between the air flowing above and below the car. This produces forces along the vertical axis. Aerodynamic forces acting on a car greatly reduces its efficiency. If the car is redesigned to optimise these forces it could produce better results. This paper discusses various techniques that have been used to redesign and optimise the aerodynamics of a model radio control race car

European car manufacturers’ latest crisis is only one part ofthe industry’s two-decades of restructuring and decline.

This week has seen car plant closures in Belgium and the UK, consolidation programmes, including a bail-out for Peugeot and GM/Opel, and a squeeze on the profits of all car manufacturers, including the relatively healthy VW. Bob Hancké takes stock of restructuring in the industry over the last two decades, and finds few reasons to be cheerfu

Advertising and the evolution of market structure in the US car industry

This paper focuses on a single simple stylized fact which stands out from the post-war history of the US car industry, namely that industry concentration fell just at the same time as industry advertising expenditures rose sharply. Since both events were almost certainly caused by the entry and market penetration of (largely) foreign owned car producers, this stylized fact raises interesting questions about whether – and if so, how – advertising affects entry. We use a model of consumer switching behaviour to help interpret the facts. The model predicts a simple linear association between market and advertising shares (which we observe fairly clearly at two different levels of aggregation in the data), and provides the basis for arguing that advertising can facilitate entry, but only for finite periods of time

Crime and Custom in Corporate Society: A Cultural Perspective on Corporate Misconduct

Conley and O\u27Barr take an anthropological perspective on three cases of alleged corporate misconduct--car dealer discrimination, Archer Daniels Midland, and the tobacco industry trials

International price discrimination in the European car market: An econometric model of oligopoly behavior with product differentiation

Car Industry;Oligopoly;Product Differentiation;Econometric Models;Price Discrimination

Crime and Custom in Corporate Society: A Cultural Perspective on Corporate Misconduct

Conley and O\u27Barr take an anthropological perspective on three cases of alleged corporate misconduct--car dealer discrimination, Archer Daniels Midland, and the tobacco industry trials

Eastern Europe shifts second gear

The paper describes the recent development in the personal car ownership within the European Union. It stems from the key factors influencing its fluctuations (population, GDP, fleet renewal), which also represent important socio-economic differences between the EU countries. The subsequent part analyses the comparison of the total car parc and of the new personal carc sales and offers the potential prospects of the further development of both indicators in the twelve new EU members.European automotive industry; car ownership; car consumption

Observations: test driving the Internet

Shopping for a new car over the Internet.Electronic commerce ; Automobile industry and trade