January 19, 2009
/24-7PressRelease/ -- Can Auto Manufacturers Meet New Fuel-Efficiency Standards Without Compromising Safety?
Article provided by Phillips & Lyon. Please visit our Web site at
www.phillipsandlyon.com.
When laws and regulations seem to collide in their intent, the result is almost always litigation and, more often than not, numerous appeals. The courts, attorneys, plaintiffs and defendants can spend years determining the final outcome of such cases. Nowhere perhaps is this more evident than where safety issues meet environmental concerns. As automobile manufacturers strive to meet new federal fuel-economy standards, the race to produce lighter, cheaper vehicles could possibly lead to an increase in vehicle defect litigation.
Vehicle defect cases are often based on the concept of "crashworthiness" - a vehicle's ability to protect its occupants during a collision. In an accident, well-designed vehicles limit intrusion into the passenger compartment from the exterior and provide a friendly interior that absorbs and carefully distributes the physical impacts of the accident, among other things.
In late 2007, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Act, aimed at a trifecta of concerns, including energy independence, the volatility of oil prices and the contribution of vehicle emissions to global warming. EISA was the first significant resetting of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standard since its 1973 inception in wake of the Arab Oil Embargo. In laymen's terms, CAFE is the average miles per gallon for an auto manufacturer's current model year fleet.
Because the overwhelming majority of a vehicle's energy need is a direct result of its weight, traditionally, auto engineers have looked to increase fuel efficiency in vehicles by decreasing an automobiles overall weight. However, past studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have shown that passenger deaths increase as the weight of a car decreases.
With recent financial developments in the auto industry, it is logical to conclude that the industry will look for the most inexpensive alternatives to meet looming CAFE mandates. Most likely, manufacturers will choose to design cars with less weight, or look to the energy industry to provide it with a better formulation of fuel.
It is unlikely that a viable alternative fuel for automobile use will reach the mass market anytime soon, so manufacturers will be left to design cars less likely to tip the weight scales. The decisions made here - as the auto industry looks to recreate itself in the wake of financial crisis - may well determine if vehicle defect cases related to crashworthiness increase.
According to a report from the U.S. State Department, new materials and technology exist to lower the weight of vehicles, including SUVs and small trucks, without compromising safety. New light weight steels and advanced polymer composites, which can also absorb greater impacts than steel, are also less expensive than materials like aluminum and magnesium that auto makers looked to in the past to lower vehicle weights.
But that doesn't mean they'll be cheaper for the consumer. Built in the traditional fashion, light steel and polymer vehicles would add a few thousand dollars to a car's suggested manufacturer retail price. But if manufacturers are truly ready to invest in better car making, there are newer, simpler manufacturing methods that could allow the industry to market vehicles made of newer materials at the same price as their steel contemporaries.
If auto makers stick with to the same old same old methods of manufacturing cars, their attempts to meet new, stricter CAFE standards for their products could result in an increase of lawsuits related to overall vehicle crashworthiness. However, if industry managers make sound decisions and are truly dedicated to reviving the flagging auto industry in the United States, their corporate counsels could have more time to address other, perhaps more pressing issues and concerns.
Source: Phillips & Lyon
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