Impacts of fuel shortages on R & D in the automotive industries

Abstract Historically, R & D efforts in the oligopolistic automotive industry have dealt mainly with seeking the changes in styling and other visible characteristics of automobiles which would appeal to the status-conscious American public. Recent fuel shortages coupled with the national desire to achieve certain environmental goals promise to change the character of automotive R & D, at least in the short term. The conclusions of this paper are that major emphasis will now be placed on (a) the development of improved lightweight vehicles and (b) the development of new propulsion technologies having desirable fuel consumption as well as pollutant emission characteristics.