Michigan’s current automotive labor challenge and opportunity is the subject of this study, the first automotive labor market report produced by CAR’s Program for Automotive Labor and Education (PALE).
In 1957, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. set up a small dealership in Hollywood, California. By 1975, Toyota became the bestselling import brand in the United States. In 1986, Toyota began manufacturing operations in the United States with General Motors at a joint-venture manufacturing facility in Fremont, California. In 2003, Toyota crossed the two million sales threshold for the first time and in 2006 Toyota sold over 2.5 million vehicles in the United States. The process of building motor vehicles necessitates a great many workers assembling those vehicles. In addition to the workers employed in Toyota’s U.S. assembly operations, many more people are needed to supply the goods and services that are directly or indirectly related to the operations of a motor vehicle company. This study will estimate the total number of workers related to Toyota’s U.S. motor vehicle assembly operations.
The gestation of a new component made by an automotive supplier typically begins with a Request For Quotation (RFQ) being issued by the supplier’s customer, the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). The supplier typically has about two weeks to submit its response.
This report, undertaken at the request of the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA), will provide an estimation and analysis of the employment and economic contribution of the supplier-related jobs in all of the fifty states and the District of Columbia.
A great deal of public discussion has focused on petroleum use and greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. An inevitable response has been to call upon automakers to produce higher-mileage vehicles. Many policymakers have suggested regulations to spur more fuel efficient designs. But little effort has been made to explain to policymakers and the public the intricate decision-making process entailed in changing vehicle designs or adjusting product plans to meet new needs.
The new business forces acting on the industry are challenging traditional beliefs, and only those capable of adaption will survive.
The purpose of this study is to conduct a preliminary investigation into the future business potential for automotive electronics, particularly for general Taiwanese companies. Although many Taiwanese companies are targeting China as a growth opportunity, our preliminary investigation was based on North America with the understanding that a more targeted investigation for China could be a future investigation. We recognized that the North American perspective would provide significant input, even to the Chinese market, because many of the auto companies and supplier’s practices and projections are easy to generalize from since they are global.
The following report describes the current state of the art in vehicle recycling by focusing on operations that affect the recycling of copper. For this purpose, selected dismantlers and shredding companies were visited and representatives from industry organizations were interviewed. Selected OEMs have also been interviewed to better understand the impact of regulations on their vehicle design and on their research focus.