Wanted: Automotive Visionary

There’s talk that the incoming Obama Administration wants to create a “Car Czar,” a White House leadership post that could serve as a point person for federal agencies that deal with automakers. If this position is created it can also help steer the nation’s auto companies in the right direction, towards the color green, of course.

With about 1 in 10 Americans employed at some level in the auto industry (from the dealership up) the failure of one company would send tremors through an already shaking economy. (Keep in mind, though, that we’re talking about a failure of GM, Ford, or Chrysler, perhaps all three; not any of the foreign-based brands that have set up shop here. Those companies are healthy. I think.)

Czar is probably the wrong title to use for the position whose assigned duties are more than point man or woman. Czar implies that the White House will be forcing the Detroit Big Three in its desired direction. A better title might be “Official Automotive Visionary” or a more mundane “Director of Automotive Technology.”

The fascinating automobile industry has been full of visionaries:

Consider Karl Benz who saw the need in 1886 for purpose built passenger cars, a step beyond steam-powered wagons;

Or consider Henry Ford who thought cars should be affordable to all and assembly line workers should earn enough so that they could afford the cars they built;

Or Ferdinand Porsche who built the first electric hub motor and four wheel drive electric car a century ago, but is better known for the creation of the Volkswagen Beetle and, of course Porsche sports cars. Electric drive and hub motors are making a comeback in green cars;

Or ace mechanic Soichiro Honda who knew from his first hand-built motorcycles that it was always important to think ahead in the vehicle building business. Honda is the most thoughtful major car company now;

Or Lee Iacocca who thought that a sporty, pretty car built on a mundane platform, the Mustang, would sell like hot cakes and that families needed a car-like truck to haul kids and stuff around, the minivan. He created a class of automobile. We need a new class right away:

Or perhaps Steve Fambro, today, who thinks car design needs a major rethink and is determined to prove it with his Aptera Typ-1. That extreme-green design is probably the class we need.

And that’s just the shortlist of visionaries, but note that there is no citation for anyone currently working at the Big Three. That is probably the problem. Current leadership in Detroit is based on dollar making not car making. (And they’re not good at that, either.)

As above, a position in the Obama Administration wouldn’t tell Detroit what to build, but it could lay out a good case – examining all options – for the direction the industry should go in. The Official Visionary, through the President, could lay the automotive future on the line with the public, who will ultimately buy the vehicles, and with the car makers who would build them. As a White House position it could make its decisions without the constant pressure from lobbyists. (It’s much more difficult for special interests to heckle the White House than Congress.)

There is some precedent for government to steer industry in directions it thinks prudent: It’s how Japan built prominence, and excellence, in manufacturing. In the 1960’s or so the Japanese government looked for global opportunities for specific products that seemed to be missing – everything from medium-sized delivery trucks to grand pianos to subway cars. By building those products with high-quality and reasonable prices the country rebuilt its industries and its economy. Japan is still the model in manufacturing. The US should do something similar.

Whether the Detroit Big Three survive over the next few months – and whether it’s important for them to do so – is now in the hands of Washington. But if they survive it seems likely the Obama Administration will take a role in poking, pushing and prodding the visionless, mistake-prone industry in a new direction, a new vision.