The Japan That Can Say Yes
Japan has reminded the world who is in the driver’s seat among auto makers. In a pattern now painfully familiar, two Japanese car companies say they have developed more fuel-efficient models using a version of a technology discovered--but never exploited--in Detroit.
Honda Motor Co. announced Tuesday that it will start selling a redesigned version of its Civic model in the United States this fall. It will reach 60 miles an hour in less than 10 seconds, get 55 miles to the gallon on freeways and meet California smog standards.
Mitsubishi Motors says it too has a new engine, one that will improve mileage 10% to 25%. Toyota and Nissan are thought to be not far behind in the science of fuel efficiency.
In the meantime, Detroit is telling Congress, in a furious public relations campaign, that getting even 40 miles to a gallon 10 years from now would require it to build tiny, flimsy and unsafe cars. Now the Civic is not exactly an Abrams tank, but it is a real car that seems to hold its own about as well as the others that share roads with Peterbilt rigs and stretch limos.
Detroit’s target of 40 miles per gallon is the standard that all cars sold in the United States would have to meet by 2001 under a bill sponsored by Sen. Richard H. Bryan (D-Nev.). Under present standards, the large and small cars in a manufacturer’s annual production must average at least 27.5 m.p.g.
The trick in getting both high performance and high efficiency lies in putting extra valves in cylinders, then getting them to open and close on computerized demand, burning less gasoline each time the spark plugs fire.
But how it happens is probably less important than the fact that the Japanese made it happen. Some American auto executives shrugged off the announcements, or argued that the trick is not as easy with larger engines--a feat that the Japanese agree will take a few more years to figure out.
For now, with the real price of gasoline down to near the levels of the early 1970s, fuel efficiency may not be a big seller. But if global warming proves a real threat or oil-producing nations decide again--as they did in 1973 and 1979--that oil is too cheap, guess who’ll be ready to meet a new demand for fuel-efficient engines? At this rate, not Detroit.
