Innovation: What Is Innovation In The Automotive Industry

What is innovation in the automotive industry? Innovation is an ever-continuing question in many industries and its players. In order remain competitive; players have to constantly figure out new innovative capabilities. The automobile industry is one where there is many innovation occurring. Innovation can be spotted at different levels of price level, different geographic regions, and different type of vehicles. As automotive industry relies heavily on technology, many of the source and cause of innovation come from technological development. However, this is also much innovation that arises from the administrative portion of an automotive company. This could relate to how cars are sold to the end consumer. First of all, there is a lot

This is where most of the innovations occur for this industry as the end products are fused with countless technology. Automotive companies claim every year countless patents. These patents represent some real hard work from the designers and engineers. There are many technological contributions from different eras that could be considered as innovation to the automotive industry. The earliest innovation is the creation of the first steam powered auto-mobile built by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot. He was able to successfully convert reciprocating motion of a steam piston into rotational motions by means of ratchet arrangement. In 1807, Francois Issac de Rivaz designed a car that uses an internal combustion engine powered by hydrogen.. In 1886, Karl Benz produced the first petrol powered automobile. In the 18th century, many great inventions like hand brakes, better steering were developed. In 1873, a French man called Amedee Bollee built the first steam road vehicle that could transfer a group of passengers. However, steam powered vehicles ceased to be produced in the 20th century as petrol engines became what was mainstream. There were several focus of automobile innovation in the 20th and 21st century. The first one is electric vehicle. The first electric motor was developed by a Hungarian called Anyos Jedlik. A Vermont blacksmith called Thomas Davenport later invented the first electrical DC

This includes production, sale of new car and sale of used cars. The way cars are manufactured has changed quite significantly since their first inception. Porsche for example, had much of their production done by hand. Back in the days, it took three engineers to fit the engine, into the engine chamber. Now a day, much of the production is automated. What used to take days to complete now requires hours. Another interesting phenomenon with automotive is the way its sold. Traditionally, it has been common practice for manufacturers to sell vehicles to a dealership [4]. The dealership then sells the cars to consumers. This incorporates many levels of hierarchy and creates inefficiency and extra cost for the end consumer [5]. Tesla comes along and invents a brand new way of selling to customers. First of all, none of the Tesla sales people are paid a commission, this is different from traditional dealership sales where salesman are paid on a commission schedule [6]. Tesla also has no dealership; consumers have to order their own customized car built online. This revolution has created much havoc in the automotive industry as well as the government. Subsequently, several states in America has banned the sale of Tesla as it is harmful to the traditional