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American Case Study: Automobile Industry Dilemma

The automobile industry needs immediate and urgent reform. Its leadership is non existent, but its micro-management style is out of touch, arrogant, and self- serving, with massive salaries and bonuses. Yes, we can save the automobile industry and modernize it, but these men have done nothing in the past to justify keeping them in control. They failed everyone, particularly the autoworkers. They are not agents for change and modernization. They killed many golden opportunities to diversify and prevent future turbulence. They killed the electric car and produced SUVs instead. Only recently have consumers twisted their arms to produce more environmentally-friendly cars.

These scare-mongering CEOs do not take notice of new discoveries, inventions, and innovations because they are like dinosaurs, unable and incapable of change and dealing with the realities of rapid technological advances. They accuse emerging technologies of being disruptive technologies to justify and continue the same old-fashioned routine and regime to fill their pockets with money and bonuses to maintain the status quo in the industry without any regard to anyone else but themselves, even if this approach compromises their long term strategy. This qualifies as "failed management syndrome" because they consider themselves royalty and a class above the rest of us. They must go to make way for a new strategic management/leadership team. It is time to stop incompetence, manipulation, and the culture of greed. There is no room for champagne societies and social gatherings to discuss the current economic crisis. Change must be radical, measured, adequate, responsive to immediate challenges, and, above all, based upon the use of the tools of scientific and strategic methodologies.
Automobile Industry Diagnosis

The oil industry and the automobile industry work in tandem. Both have lobbying powers. Because the complicity between these two industries is paramount, they depend on each other heavily, and one cannot survive without the other. The proof is in cross investment and behind-the-scene ownerships.

The automobile industry is unable to shift its fundamental belief in the internal combustion engine to more innovative technologies, including alternative energy such as the electric vehicle that works on a battery system and innovations beyond it. The oil industry is unwilling to replace gas stations with wind turbine electricity generating stations that charge these batteries on the highway (in theory at least). Yes, we can produce clean energy that does not use fossil fuel—for the sceptics about the electric car out there, but few automobile industry manufacturers are taking the trouble to improve or produce a better option for the electric car.

In order to appease the majority of us, the automobile industry is focusing on CO2 reduction because it has to follow government guidelines and internal combustion engine downsizing. The automobile industry shot itself in the foot by producing SUVs, and heavy vehicles. Now, it is forced to shut these manufacturing plants or allocate them instead to building small sizes cars with much smaller engines of 4-6 cylinders. By contrast, electric vehicle technology is less explored and less developed in spite of the fact that this technology works with fewer components and is much better for the environment.

Systematic Failure

The biggest question of all time: What really did globalization achieve and contribute to human progress? The answer may not be that far away. Many jobs, by the millions and not the thousands, have been lost or shipped away to low cost producing countries. Many of these countries’ workers are paid less than a dollar an hour, with workers in some countries averaging less than one dollar a day.

The other big question: Where did this massive savings go? The answer is simple. Into the shareholders’ bank accounts or their off shore bank accounts or pockets. This is a fact. We are losing jobs constantly, but workers in the recipient countries still live in poverty, and their lifestyle is not less hellish than before. And we wonder what we have done.

From the above analogy, we must ask ourselves how much of each automobile’s body parts, systems, and powering equipment is made in the USA? Big question mark? How many American parts made in USA are used in the assembly of a Ford, a GM, or a Chrysler? The answer is not many. Most of these parts are made abroad. That's the only help that globalization can afford us. The automobile industry needs a leader to emerge with a strategy of change, revival, and survival by new technologies, inventions, and innovations.

The automobile industry, while it tries to project a sincere image to the public by maintaining that it is developing electric vehicles, remains adamant that this vehicle type is not worthy of full scale investment but rather is simply an option for consumers who require a car for short journeys. This behavior undermines the image of the electric car, reduces its market demand, and kills all efforts to develop improved technology. The automobile industry goes further by elaborating on the negative range of the EV generation, emphasizing its small size and low top speed. But why care so much about speed, knowing that speed limits are rigorously enforced and exceeding them can lead to heavy fines? Consumers all over the United States are screaming for small size vehicles, so why bother again about speed and prestige? The answer is systematic consumer brainwashing. That's manipulative and false marketing. Ford answered the call, but ten years late and only after consumers virtually twisted the arm of its incompetent management.

All the Big Three auto manufacturers have been unable to develop with a sensitive strategy to start phasing out the ICE, at least those with horse power of 4, 6, and 8 cylinders. Most new electric car technology can provide the same horse power, and even more efficiently, by building electric motors into each wheel, where no transmission of power is lost. This concept is a challenge for most big players because they are not tapping into new technologies and because they simply do not want to.

Future Foresight

The automobile industry must embrace long term strategies and adopt the term "Electro-Automotive Technology / Industry, Electro-Automotive workers and Electro-Mechanics." To do so requires a total shift from the old paradigm, with its outdated values and old corporate cultures. That's the only change we need for survival and revival.

The upcoming change will not cause automobile industry workers to lose their jobs. Only their title will change—from Mechanics to Electro-Mechanics workers. Fears are ill-founded. Therefore, there is nothing to worry about. We must change an outdated paradigm. That's the only strategy for the future. Globalization mired the automobile industry in the past and keeps it from looking into the future. It still invests in its old infrastructure and refuses to invest in any innovative infrastructure, since it is heavily dependent on its old one.

Thinking Outside the Box

The traditional hostility to the electric car is these voices who proclaim that the electric car causes or contributes to pollution because it uses the national grid, which in turn uses fossil fuels that emit CO2 and other pollutants. This finding put the final nail in the coffin of the electric car. The challenge is accepted, and we shall try to bury this argument once and for all.

It is wrongly believed that all electric vehicles shift the problem of CO2 to power stations. This psychological barrier prevents new scientific research from going around the problem, if not solving it, with new advanced technology. Research and development costs are another barrier to finding a solution. Many governments worldwide cut their R & D budgets, which is an act of suicide for additional technological advances. Most solutions are a compromise and will be redundant shortly, following the development of new and advanced technology. We must raise the bar and meet it, not be satisfied with half measures and half solutions. That's a waste of time and resources at the same time.

Innovation always brings new and tangible solutions and better technologies for the electric car’s design and concept. Indeed, range improvement is already here. A fully powered vehicle by electric motor or motors with little or no dependency on the national grid at all, i.e. self-generating power technology, is possible. Thinking outside the box is a challenge to the old-fashioned way of understanding the laws of physics and thermodynamics. The simple reality is that these laws can be re-visited from a different angle to achieve scientific and technological breakthroughs, if not a revolution, a second industrial revolution, and that's the real challenge.

Naturally, the concept is a financial risk for so many, especially the sceptics and those stuck in time. Only a few are willing to dare to tackle this technological challenge. Graviton Dynamics, a young and new company in Delaware, is conducting the necessary research, development, and design to bring this new invention and new EV technology and industry to life. It is carrying on experimentation with little and limited resources, simply because the current negative climate is obscuring future visions for urgent, demanding, and challenging solutions. The lack of finance is hindered by acute bureaucracies that have no basic knowledge of inventions and innovation, simply the curiosity to know everything without any formal guarantees of support. These bureaucracies also do not understand federal rules regarding patents and the confidentiality of new inventions. Commercial spying is rife and reflects the absolute and utter greed and sheer stupidity of certain CEOs, including some in the automobile industry, who want Graviton Dynamics to waive its rights, or any rights, for the sake of one greedy player in the industry; because they feel that they are invincible.

Graviton Dynamics’ new invention is based on "Self-Generating Power Technology" with a "Vehicle-To-Grid" concept that will be improved by increasing energy storage capacity without the need for an expensive battery system. The invention also has more than one application and can apply to all forms of transport, light railway systems, and, most important, commercial transportation and long haul 16-18 wheelers, which is good news for a suffering and ailing industry. The Vehicle-To-Grid concept is going to be the ultimate solution to the reduction of overload on power stations because further development of this electric vehicle is going to make it the ultimate power sub-station. These cars will discharge excess energy into the grid. Graviton Dynamics Inc. is developing the ultimate "People Car" for all walks of life. We are reaching out to you in a human and civilized manner to bring about a revolution in inventions and innovations, while at the same time triggering an environmental and second industrial revolution. It is time to stop our addiction to oil and drilling. Graviton Dynamics offers an immediate future solution that requires all the help that it can get. Helping new and emerging technologies is the duty of everyone because it is in the best interests of the American economy to bounce back and prosper again. New technologies are beacons of hope for a brighter future, new jobs, and new opportunities. Thank you.

Stéphane De Roche,
Founder of Graviton Dynamics Inc.
E-mail: Graviton.Dynamics@yahoo.com