FORD MOTORS

Ford Motors

Introduction

Automobiles

The gasoline-powered automobile was introduced in the 1880s, but by the time it reached its first century, it had already become implicated in a range of environmental problems. As the largest, most complex consumer good, the consumption of automobility is also often one of the areas of greatest impact of personal consumption patterns in industrialized nations. Initially, industry saw the environmental debate as yet another temporary fad that could be addressed by technology and then quietly forgotten about.

However, increasingly people realized that the environment was not some external entity deserving of our benevolent protection. Instead, at issue was our own living environment—mankind's ability to live on a planet that could survive perfectly well without us. As this realization spread, and with it social and legislative pressure on the car, the debate became incorporated into motor industry strategy such that the car and its use became increasingly shaped by environmental requirements.

At first the debate focused on toxic emissions from car exhausts, which this was reflected in the legislation that followed. Over the years, the scope of the debate widened to include other issues such as energy use, raw materials use, traffic congestion, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as end-of-life issues such as recycling, reuse, and vehicle durability. As a result, a more global assessment of the car's impact became possible, leading to a so-called life-cycle approach to the problem (William, 2002, pp 645).

The Rise of Motoring

Similar to the bicycle, the car was initially marketed as an adventurous machine for the sports enthusiast. Gradually, practical considerations were introduced, and the car also became a means of transport. Various professions envisioned business opportunities offered by the car. Taxi firms were the first users of the car purely as a means of transport, whereas commercial vehicles, often based on a standard car chassis, also developed. Commercial travelers, doctors, and veterinary practitioners were among the first to adopt the car for professional reasons (Klier, Rubenstein, 2008pp 52).

By 1907, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States had become the world's most motorized countries, with one car per 640 people in the United Kingdom, one per 608 in the United States, and one per 981 in France. In comparison, Germany had one car per 3,824 people. By 1910, Belgium became another country that motorized early on had one per 1,180. Japan had fewer than 200 cars in total. In doing so, it established many of the values and problems now associated with automobility as a mass phenomenon. The craze soon spread across the United States, but the rest of the world took longer to follow. By 1930, car ownership in Germany was 10.6 per 1,000 people, compared with 31 in France (Lacey, Robert, 2006, pp 1011).

Even by the turn of the 21st century, car ownership in the United States was still higher than anywhere else, although Italy beat Canada and Germany into second place during the middle of the 1990s. Nevertheless, mass motorization was still largely confined to ...