Detroit Slow to Add Eco-Features, Study Says

Still reeling from the sharp increase in gas prices, American automakers have fallen behind in the creation of eco-friendly electronic features, a new study says.

iSuppli Corp., a market intelligence firm, says the ability for a vehicle to generate an eco-friendly driving route or provide real-time feedback about driving patterns has been mostly limited to Audi or Germany, Fiat of Italy and Kia of South Korea, as well as Honda and Nissan of Japan. Meanwhile, the study says, such features have been nearly non-existent in the U.S.

"Europeans and Asians have definitely brought the features to the market more quickly," says Phil Magney, vice president for automotive research for iSuppli. "But it's certainly not due to any lack of technology on the part of the Big Three. They have the same technologies, they're talking to the same people and they're working with the same supply chain as the Asians and Europeans."

iSuppli analysts say eco-friendly features could be important for automakers in the near future, particularly if gasoline prices continue to rise. The ability to create an eco-friendly route, for example, could matter to car buyers who are trying to reduce the amount of gasoline they burn as they travel to and from work every day.

Ironically, the incorporation of such features isn't costly for automakers. Calculating a high mpg route, for example, requires modifications to some of the routing algorithms in the navigation system. No extra hardware is necessary, Magney says. Yet by adding such algorithms, a navigation system could calculate the route based on such variables as traffic, road slope and overall distance.

Similarly, real-time driver feedback could use software algorithms to alert drivers to the fact that they may be accelerating too fast or braking too hard, thus enabling them to burn less gasoline in the long run.

Magney says American companies fell behind in this area largely because the U.S. felt the pinch of high gas prices after Japan and Europe.

"It has to do with the rapid run-up in the price of fuel," Magney says. "The domestic OEMs weren't able to anticipate the potential demand for these types of applications."

In contrast, European and Asian countries have always had higher fuel prices, often running twice those of U.S. prices. "European and Asian brands have always been a bit more sensitive to the economy," Magney says. "Detroit has just been caught off guard by this."