MANUFACTURING TRENDS: MOTORIZED VEHICLES Photo courtesy General Motors Co.


General Motors Co.’s Cadillac CT6 uses a mix of aluminum and high-strength steels to reduce vehicle weight, part of the automaker’s efforts to produce lighter vehicles to help meet fuel economy standards.


Industry Faces Short-, Long-Term Challenges


Sales are peaking, fuel economy demands ramp up


Bill Koenig Senior Editor


F


or the auto industry, the festive times are ending for US vehicle sales. At the same time, the hard part is coming because of the need to meet tough fuel economy and emission standards. Sales of cars and light trucks plummeted during the Great Recession and General Motors Co. and Chrysler emerged from government-back bankruptcies in 2009. Since then, total industry deliveries have surged, hitting a record 17.47 million in 2015, ac- cording to Autodata Corp. Through the fi rst nine months of this year, deliveries edged


higher, up 0.5%, to 13.1 million. If that pace were maintained for the full year, another record would be set. But there were signs of weakness. There were monthly declines in August, September and October for total deliveries. Through October, total deliveries of 14.48 million were 0.2% lower than a year earlier. Meanwhile, car deliveries noticeably weakened. Passenger car sales slid 8.9% for the fi rst 10 months. The today’s buyers favor trucks: pickups, SUVs and the like. Those sales surged 6.9% during the fi rst 10 months.


December 2016 | AdvancedManufacturing.org TRENDS 9


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