The Solution: Unleash the Talent in Detroit, Stuttgart, and Tokyo

It may be an unpopular position these days, but I’m going to say this anyway: Stop pointing the finger at Detroit. There’s enough blame to go around for the challenges in the auto industry and it shouldn’t be focused exclusively on Motor City. Now, that’s not to say that mistakes haven’t been made. For years, far too much focus in Detroit has been aimed at more profitable larger and inefficient vehicles to bolster profits and short term shareholder value, when a longer view focusing on building a market for high-efficiency vehicles would have been a smarter move. That’s what Honda and Toyota did with their hybrid programs. Now it’s time for Detroit to step up. By all indications this is exactly what’s happening today.

Too many assumptions are being made that count automakers – and the domestic Big 3 in particular – as being out of touch, or at the least out of their element when it comes to innovating their way to a new generation of cleaner and more advanced vehicles. Out of their element? I have to wonder where this stuff comes from.

Some of these perspectives come from Silicon Valley, where innovation and marketing savvy have brought some pretty amazing high-tech products to market, from cellphones and computers to software and hardware that have literally changed our lives. This same energy is, in some cases, being focused on bringing better and more environmentally compatible cars to market. Kudos to these high-tech entrepreneurs for their drive and ambition, and of course for the advanced vehicles they may be able to bring to the highway. And caution to those who buy into the new wisdom that this is the only way to get the job done. It is not.

A Silicon Valley writer recently opined that legacy automakers could learn some lessons from the chip industry by becoming ‘foundries’ for manufacturing other innovators’ products. The idea is that start-ups could get their advanced vehicle designs to market in much more affordable ways than is experienced today. Integral to this line of thought is that it will require innovators outside of Detroit, or Tokyo, or Stuttgart to create next-generation vehicles for personal mobility.

While we need innovators from outside the traditional auto industry to contribute their vision and hard work to the process – because after all, who knows where the next Henry Ford or Karl Benz of a new generation will come from? – legacy automakers have immense talent already at hand. The challenge is to get those in charge to unleash this talent and back it up with product development programs and, of course, significant financial commitment.

We’re already witnessing this from within the traditional auto industry with near term electric car programs like the Chevrolet Volt. And we’re seeing it from those who have spent a career within the auto industry and have now taken the independent road, like former BMW DesignworksUSA president and CEO Henrik Fisker, who now heads Fisker Automotive with its new Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid launch.

The talent and innovation that can come from independent minds everywhere is very real, and we see the fruits of this through university competitions like the new EcoCAR Challenge and efforts like the Progressive Automotive X-Prize. There’s room for everyone to contribute toward a cleaner and more sustainable transportation future. I’m betting that Detroit will loom large in leading this effort.