Gas engines and buggy whips

 

I read this article today, Electric cars give Japan anxiety over fate of gas engines and I'm reminded of the stockholder meeting speech delivered by Danny DeVito's character Larry 'the Liquidator' Garfield in the movie Other People's Money when he said "I'll bet the last buggy whip maker made the best damned buggy whip you ever saw. How'd you like to own stock in that company?"

The point he was trying to make was that times change, and as they change, companies must change with them. Making buggy whips was big business when horses drew carriages. When the internal combustion engine became the heart of the horseless carriage, it was only a matter of time before the last horse-drawn cart would be left behind. The companies who accepted this reality and migrated their core competencies survived; those who held on to a dying paradigm died with it.

Which brings us to the gasoline engine, and the cloud of parts manufacturers surrounding it. Like the horse as a mode of transportation, and the ancillary components surrounding it such as buggy whips, it's all long in the tooth.

An emerging paradigm

A few years ago, back when I worked at a leading OEM, I floated an idea to my supervisor during a casual lunch conversation. He said I was nuts. These few years later, it's becoming clear that, if I am nuts, I'm not alone. I've been sitting on this idea for a little while now, and a couple of articles and auto industry posts of late reminded me to finally put something down.

The Crazy Idea

The idea was that auto manufacturers could not sustain a profitable future based on a "consumer ownership model;" as such, a "loss leader service model" could build up and extend the industry's strengths.

While this idea was my own, I would eventually find that I wasn't the only one to conceive of it. Not by a long shot.

Oil on the brain, and pretty much everywhere else

I am all for efficient vehicles that use less or, better yet, no petroleum whatsoever. However, I'd like to remind all those self-righteous people who do not drive that they are still a part of the problem, even if they think the price of gas is neither their fault nor their problem.

Here's a partial list of items that are made from oil. If you buy any of these items, you are a part of the demand for oil...