Toyota Passes Ford in US Sales

Well, I've been writing about the influence of rising energy costs on US consumers, and about the growth opportunities for businesses that help the trend toward green products, even reducing carbon emissions. Enter Toyota, winning in the US based on fuel efficiency. And Ford continues to flounder. Now comes this from Bloomberg:

Toyota Passes Ford, Leads Asian Brands to U.S. Record (Update2)

Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. outsold Ford Motor Co. in July to rank as the No. 2 automaker in the U.S. for the first time, helping Asia-based companies win record market share as buyers shift to fuel-efficient models.

Toyota, which trails only General Motors Corp. in global sales, sold 241,826 vehicles in the U.S., up 12 percent from a year earlier, and 427 more than Ford. Gains of 6 percent for Honda Motor Co. and 6.2 percent for Hyundai Motor Co. helped the Asian companies boost their market share to 41.4 percent from 33.1 percent a year earlier, according to Bloomberg data.

``It's a different world. GM by itself used to have half the U.S. market,'' said Walter McManus, director of the University of Michigan's Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation. ``Sales are being driven by fuel costs, fuel efficiency, passenger cars. Toyota, and Honda to a lesser extent, added trucks but kept solid portfolios of cars.''

Toyota has benefited this year from demand for fuel- efficient cars such as the Corolla and Scion models and RAV4 small sport-utility vehicles as gasoline prices have stayed near $3 a gallon. As Toyota prepares to add capacity to build about 500,000 more cars and trucks in North America, GM and Ford are cutting a combined 60,000 U.S. union jobs and closing 26 locations to try and halt losses in the region.

The US is losing the innovation battle by failing to accept reality: energy costs are not going to come down much over the longer term unless new technologies are created. And yet, the oil lobby fights tooth and nail for any regulatory giveaways it can get to maintain its death grip on windfall profits and federal giveaways for as long as it can. I see a lot of this, with my proximity to Washington DC, in ways many people just don't see. The selfish, protectionist instincts of big American businesses are killing innovative American business writ large.

Real leadership accepts reality, and actualy leads businesses in directions that not only serve profits and shareholders, but the common good. These are not and need not be divergent goals. We used to know that in American business, historically. But now, American business has lost much or all of its former good sense. I agree with Leo Hindery: America's leadership class in business has lost its moral compass. It's good business to do, well, good business.

Here's an example of another well paid for, well lobbied giveaway to the oil lobby, passed by the US SEnate, but not yet cleared through the House of Representatives. The Gulf coast is so overdeveloped, with so few wetlands left intact, that another big hurricane season (as predicted) could bring more havoc and death again this summer. More offshore drilling will only weaken the Gulf Coast area's coastal integrity. From the Wall Street Journal (subscription online required):

Senate Clears Gulf-Drilling Bill,
Setting Up Showdown With House

By LAURA MECKLER
August 2, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Senate approved legislation that would open 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil-and-gas exploration, splitting with the House over the scope of new drilling and casting final passage into doubt.

A House-passed energy bill would allow drilling up and down the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, 356 million acres in all, lifting a moratorium that has been in place for a quarter-century. Senate Democrats vowed to block any compromise, insisting that the House accept the Senate version.

The Senate bill passed 71-25, with supporters saying it will increase domestic supply and ultimately drive down the price of gasoline. "In this case, the benefit so outweighs the risks... that we should have a stampede, not a vote," said Sen. Pete Domenici (R., N.M.), chairman of the energy committee. The oil and natural gas available has "USA stamped all over it," he said, but "we have been sitting idly by year after year saying no, no, no because we want a moratorium to protect against something that needed no protection."

Lengthy negotiations produced a measure that could clear the Senate -- where drilling bills have died in the past. The bill provides protections for Florida, barring any drilling within 125 miles of the state's coastline, with the buffer zone even greater in some areas. It allows Louisiana and three other Gulf states -- Texas, Mississippi and Alabama -- to share in energy-production royalties for the first time; at present, the money goes entirely to the federal government.

That money will be "so important" in helping rebuild and secure the coastline, said Sen. Mary Landrieu (D., La.), who helped pull the deal together.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist engineered the debate to bar any amendments to the bill, denying lawmakers the chance to try to attach conservation and other measures to the legislation.

Opponents objected to the royalty provisions, which would provide tens of millions of dollars for coastal restoration, saying it was a windfall for four states at the expense of the others. Sen. Mark Dayton (D., Minn.) called it "nothing more than a special-interest boondoggle."

Over the next 10 years, the measure would generate $1.5 billion in royalties, according to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office. The federal government would keep half, with 37.5% going to the Gulf Coast states and 12.5% going to land- and water-conservation funds in all 50 states.

The measure drew opposition from environmentalists, who want to keep the drilling restrictions in place to protect fragile coastlines. It was supported by business groups, who argued that additional supply will bring down prices.