Auto makers are always behind the curve. They missed that America and the world would prefer smaller, well-built cars over the chrome stratoliners of the late fifties...they missed vans, SUVs and the truck market. Now they are gearing up a massive electric car market which is going to put GM out of business when it fails.
We need to go back in time. The most efficient users of fuel to move cargo are trains, not trucks. Trains will still work when the infrastructure and grid begin to break down.
The automakers ought to develop a 'Model-T' ....or a new Jeep. Something one can buy and expect to last for thirty years and a million miles like Big-Rigs. Instead of spending millions on marketing gimmicks like 'Corinthian leather seats' which meant dyed, cheap, split-frain cowhide that would only last a few years, they ought to build in reliability. I know just how to do that. Hire a Russian military manufacturer to consult on the mechanical design. The Russian military philosophy has been and still is to build everything to be reliable under any conditions with minimal or no maintenance. Some examples are the T-34 tank, the venerable Kalashnikov AK-47 and their to-space launch vehicles. They are manufactured for fitness to do a job, not for sale to obese American consumers.
China is still stuck between the concept of making millions of cheap copies and learning that less of something, built more robustly, is more efficient. That's a hard lesson for China. They have a disposable population. But if they expect to compete in the air and under the oceans, they will have to produce better than we have and train their people as well as ours are. That is happening.
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