Eco-Friendly Cars : Design studios of major automobile manufacturers are revving up projects in the county.
If you are wondering if there is anyone out there working on a really eco-friendly automobile, you need look no further than the Ventura County border. I’m not talking about some back-yard inventor or remanufacturer of Nash Metropolitans. I’m talking about the big guys.
Besides General Motors’ Advanced Concept Center in Newbury Park, which is working on the electric-powered Impact for GM discussed in an earlier column, Ventura County is the location of the advanced design studios of several other major auto manufacturers--BMW, Volvo, Volkswagen and Audi.
Odd as it may seem, they are here partly because of bad air. I mean to say they are in California not just for a glimpse at future trends, but because of our environmental problems and the laws that were passed to mitigate them.
“California is way ahead of anything in Europe,” says Bill Mason, chief engineer of Volvo’s monitoring and concept center in Camarillo. “European cities remind me of U.S. cities 30 years ago. It smells like I remember as a kid growing up in L.A.”
Mason worked 20 years with GM before switching to Volvo five years ago. “I got tired of butting my head against the wall about environmental (aspects),” he said, explaining the job change.
“Without us, Volvo would be missing out on . . . the revolution in autos. The next dozen years are going to change the industry completely.”
Mason doesn’t have to prove anything to Volvo in this respect. Not only does every major foreign and domestic auto manufacturer have design and research labs in Southern California, but Volvo’s closest market-niche competitors are here as well.
BMW’s presence was initially a result of a contract with the Newbury Park-based Designworks/USA. Late last year, BMW bought a controlling interest in the firm to guarantee that Designworks would be working exclusively for BMW. Last week’s L.A. auto show had on display an attractive all-electric BMW concept car from Designworks. A version is being road-tested in Europe.
Not to be outflanked by their fellow countrymen, the Volkswagen-Audi combine set up shop on the other side of the hill in Simi Valley nine months ago. The parent company already has several prototype eco-cars in the testing stage in Europe.
What is exciting to me about the Volkswagen project is that along with the eco-emphasis under the hood, the company’s designers also want to create a sexy-looking car that will appeal to Californians.
“Our board of directors believes the future will be with the hybrid engine,” says Verena Kloos, chief of design at the Simi Valley facility. This is a kind of engine that can switch to electric power in smoggy city areas, then to gas on the highway. Since the hybrid engine will be no larger than the ordinary engine, this leaves Kloos free to design the outside of the car in a way that she and her team think will please American buyers who may or may not be interested in the environmental features. And it won’t look like a Checker Cab.
This year VW is launching another eco-program, a completely recyclable automobile. Beginning with one model of the Golf body style, VW is specifically manufacturing all the parts of the car so that when its useful life is over--or it’s totaled in an accident--it can easily be dismantled and its parts sent to recycling centers. The idea is as simple as one we previously thought impossible--the recycling of the aluminum can.
We’re recycling almost every one that is made. If the recyclable car idea catches on, it may mean bye-bye auto cemetery, hello eternal life for windshields, bumpers, chasses and tires.
A network of Volkswagen contractors is being organized to do this in Germany. But since VW is the fourth largest auto maker in the world--after GM, Toyota and Ford--it can have a big influence in the trade.
It is ironic that many of the talented, young auto designers in the world today seem to be Americans working for foreign companies in this county.
My informal survey turned up the designer of the hot new Dodge Viper now working for Audi in Simi Valley. In fact, the entire design staff at the Audi center is American. And let’s not forget Mason at Volvo and the Designworks/USA team at BMW.
It’s not that they are lured away by heaps of foreign gold. Wages are the same, they say. It’s because of all the “butting heads” with U.S. management.
Although foreign management lets them pursue their artistic and environmental goals--and even lets them work here in California--a good reason they are here, they say, is that our state leads the world in governmental protection of the environment.
Detroit is responding to environmentalism by hiring lawyers instead of designers. Europe is responding by hiring Americans to design eco-cars to sell back to us.
Instead of trying to open markets for cars that no one may want, President Bush should take a harder look at the cars that people do want--cars such as Volvos, Audis and BMWs. It won’t be long before he will have to consider bringing his Detroit entourage to Ventura County.
