Concept Cars Essay Research Paper Concept Cars

Concept Cars Essay, Research Paper

Concept Cars: Automobiles for the Future

No one knows where automobiles are going but concept cars provide us with a small window to look into their future. Different automakers use concept cars in various ways and they all devote a lot of time and money toward developing their cars of the future. The first thing an automaker does is decide what kind of market (what age group, what style of driving) it should target to gain the most customers. For instance, Ford builds mainly vehicles which target families with kids. Every year Ford comes out with new concepts appealing to families. Examples might include four doors, room for a dog, and the ability to go anywhere. Ferrari, on the other hand, builds cars for the rich auto enthusiast who likes to drive fast and race. Ferrari may come out with one new concept every year targeting this extreme group of car enthusiasts. All automakers create concept cars but they may explore different ideas and markets.

In the beginning car design was simple. All cars had four wheels, a couple seats, a motor, and a steering wheel. Henry Ford offered his model T in any color you want, as long as it s black. Today creating cars has become more complicated. Not only must a car look good but it also must be safe and fuel-efficient. Most of this pressure comes from consumers, but they aren t the only ones who have to be pleased. The United States Congress pushes auto makers also, but more along the lines of safety and fuel economy (Butterworth 1). They don t really care how it looks.

Beyond meeting the demands of consumers and Congress, car designers must also make actually building the car easy on their car engineers. For example, some Mercedes Benz models have everything smoothly bolted in from the engine to the suspension, instead of putting together individual pieces in an assembly line. This takes a lot of time and in the car building process time is money. The Mercedes 500 SL is made primarily by hand in 150 hours and it costs 90,000 dollars. Its baby sister, the 190E sedan, is made in 50 hours and sells for 30,000. If a car takes too long to build, it will cost too much and no one will buy it. A car lives or dies by the cost of its design (Butterworth 2).

In the research stage the automaker decides what kind of car to build for what kind of buyer. Often, a car is aimed at filling a special niche in the market. The development starts after the car s type is decided. With CAD (Computer Aided Designing) designers copy, modify, and manipulate cars at the push of a button. Then, if the design is approved, the result is turned over to a computer robot that carves a three-dimensional model of the car. This mock up then goes before the company s executives. If it s rejected the car goes back to the computer to be revised and presented again later. If the design is approved, the concept moves on and a prototype is built. The prototype is then tested to work out all of the problems. Testing will be conducted in many places and ways including roaring wind tunnels and outdoor proving grounds. After all the problems are worked out and the public has accepted it through various car shows, the design moves on to the manufacturing stage. The trip from the computer to the assembly line can take from three to five years.(Butterworth 3)

Automakers use concept cars to introduce new designs to attract more customers. Performance is something that auto makers stress as a selling point. Many people are interested in how fast the car accelerates, how well the car handles and how much fun it is to drive. Almost every year automakers make a more powerful engine. Take the Honda Accord for example. In 1993 its engine created approximately 125 horsepower, then in 1998 it made 150 horsepower. It doesn t sound like much, but automakers will brag about even the slightest performance increase just to show that their car is better than its competitors cars.

Handling is a big part of how a person feels in a car and concept cars often stress this. Automakers produce commercials that show their car speeding down a windy road, and they show the driver perfectly relaxed like he might be just driving down the freeway. Some people want a Cadillac ride, just as smooth as can be, almost like floating along. Some people want a Corvette ride, slightly hard, but just hard enough to go around that 35 mph corner at 70 mph no problem. Other people want to be able to bounce through road less forests and streams. Concept cars explore all these ideas and more.

Automakers are faced with increasing pressure from the government as well as the people to build more fuel efficient cars. Fuel economy is something America hasn t thought much about lately but the harsh reality is hitting us now. Gas prices have gone up almost a dollar in two years and are expected to go up even more this coming summer. Automakers also have to conform with laws controling the amount of carbon dioxide and monoxide released from a car. Concept cars show how automakers are responding to the cry for better fuel efficiency. Honda and Toyota were the first to release an actual electric-motor powered car, although these models are not fully self reliant on electric (Ball 1). The Honda Insight gets 61-70 miles to the gallon and can travel up to 600 miles on a single tank. The Toyota Prius, gets from 45-52 miles to the gallon, slightly l