Fresh warning for automobile sector

Monday 02 November 2009

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A new study of the global automotive industry concludes with a warning about the sustainability of car manufacturing.

The report's authors are the Queen's Management School in Belfast, alongside colleagues from the Euromed Management School Marseille, and the Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (IZT) in Berlin.

It was compiled using data between 1999 and 2007.

The woes of General Motors are fortuitously described as a 'poor financial performance... accompanied by the worst sustainability performance recorded.'

Last year, GM was given a multi-billion dollar bailout by the US Government, in order to keep it afloat.

Key findings show that Asian car manufacturers are outperforming their North American, and many of their European competitors, in using their economic, environmental and social resources more efficiently.

Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan, Honda, and to a lesser extent, Suzuki have all out-performed their North American competitors.

In stark contrast to the Asian manufacturers, both North American carmakers Ford and General Motors (GM) lie well into negative territory, with GM showing the most striking downside trend.

There is a mixed picture among European manufacturers - BMW tops the ranking of all 17 manufacturers in most of the years assessed.

Other European carmakers PSA (Peugeot, Citroën), Renault, Volkswagen and DaimlerChrysler/Daimler AG only occasionally keep pace with the industry leaders.

And FIAT Auto consistently falls behind throughout the entire review period.

Professor Frank Figge from Queen's Management School, one of the authors of the study, said: "While issues such as fleet consumption and CO2 emissions have been firmly put on the public agenda, the equally considerable environmental impact of the production phase of car manufacturing has as yet been largely ignored."

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