Lotus Rental Cars Executive Summary Introduction Lotus Rental Car’s Chief Financial Officer is looking for ways to increase profits and the consumer base by adding alternative fuel vehicles to the Lotus fleet. With fuel costs continuously rising, the need for alternative fuel vehicles is more attractive to consumers as a source of lower fuel prices. This appeal is not only to the regular rental car user but for the ecological minded occasional driver as well. Ecology and fuel efficiency are the cause for more people to start shopping for hybrid vehicles. Vehicle manufacturers are able to increase revenue with the sales of hybrids while increasing production to keep up with the demand.
The problem some people face though when looking for new vehicles is the fact that they don’t know much about the hybrid or electric vehicle, and they will pass by them without any knowledge of what they are. Well there are four types of hybrid vehicle, each with a few different details. These vehicles include your main hybrid, which either use their electric motors As an assist for the gas engine, or allow bursts of electric-only driving. These vehicles would include the Toyota Prius, and the Ford Fusion Hybrid (Motavalli 6). Another hybrid vehicle would be the plug in hybrid, which acts like an electric car for the first 15-20 miles, but then switches to an onboard internal-combustion engine that acts like a generator by charging the car (Motavalli).
This group of consumer not only bought the cars, but also exploited more utilities of the car unexpectedly. Thus the Prius benefited from the first group of consumer and gained the reputation. Then Toyota made countless improvements in the second-generation Prius including better looking, more fuel efficiency, more room and luxury equipments. Apparently, the second-generation Prius successfully made all types of consumers to be interested like people who pay attention to the environmental protection. Therefore the Prius had been consolidating its status as the dominant green car in the world, even the other green car with the different brand nameplates as BMW could not exceed it.
The retrieval set is really important to car companies because it determines whether their newly produced cars will sell well or not. Usually, most car ads only show the car being driven with a landscape in the background. It is hard to achieve the purpose of putting the image into consumers’ minds since they do not stand out. However, 2014 Kia Soul commercial is so successful that it has
| Student’s Signature (type your full name): | | Midterm Cases: Eastman Kodak & Harley-Davidson Midterm Cases: Eastman Kodak & Harley-Davidson Technological advancements impact on industries has reshaped the business strategies of industry leaders such as Harley-Davidson and Kodak. The motorcycles and digital imaging industries are impacted by technology, competition, economic times, and changing consumer demographics. A solid foundation and adaptable strategy is the foundation for success in technological advanced industries. Synopsis of the Cases Kodak & Harley-Davidson are industry leaders and have survived the turmoil many of its competitors failed (site 1, site 2). The companies are customer centric and focus on the users experience (site 1, site 2).
Since mid-90s, the trend shifted towards greener vehicles and new research and innovative vehicles became the mantra of the industry. Many prototypes of electric powered vehicles were introduced and almost all manufactures introduced their own hybrid vehicles that run on gasoline as well as electric power. Currently the car market is evolving into a more consumer and environmental friendly with new advanced inbuilt facilities like GPRS, Use of Expert Systems, Fuzzy logic etc. The R&D involved has translated to greater sunk costs for all the companies and competition is intense between the companies to stand out in the crowded car market. Through the introduction of newer cars with newer technologies, companies are focusing on higher marginal revenue and lower marginal cost of production.
The principles of monozukuri along with kaizen, meaning a change for the better, have driven Toyota to become one of the leading automobile manufacturers in the industry. Toyota uses these philosophies to operate in its home country of Japan as well as North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Oceania, and Africa. Toyota has globalized intensely over the years and continues to create a global business opportunity which means that their corporate responsibility programs must keep up with and exceed the spread of business across the globe. In a recent address the company CEO, Akio Toyoda, made the assertion that he believed that Toyota “should be a company people choose” and that people should be happy to have chosen. Toyota’s global vision is “Rewarded with a smile by exceeding your expectations”.
Henry Ford was very famous for promoting this wonderful commodity that represented a new kind of freedom. It was a symbol of the American Dream, and everyone was striving to have the new product. “The automobile was the backbone of economic growth.” The first real automobile appeared in Middletown in 1900; however, it wasn’t until Henry Ford came around and created a mass production of automobiles that the machine that would provide easy travel would become popular. Although the automobile created such a wonderful freedom, many adults thought that it was tearing families apart. Teenagers were spending more time with their friends driving around instead of staying at home with their family.
Chrysler and BMW Joint Venture Synopsis: This joint venture between two of the most popular car companies came about due to competition and a risky decision to increase sales while decreasing cost. BMW had the name brand but wanted to get into the market of cheaper and more effective engines. Chrysler was hurting due to poor decisions and leadership breakdown from the past years and were seeing large negative results due to it. The two companies both came up with plans for their new team “Tritec”, however Chrysler ideas and presentations were advance and therefore used. The company picked a young ambitions man named Jack Smith the head the team designing the new engine block.
Context for research: In the current generation, car plays a big role in day to day life for transportation basis. The increase in demand for cars has been rising throughout the whole world for a time now. The owners will always like to do some minor changes in their car in order to make them look better. This might involve changing the color which can be done by a paint job or a car wrap which basically car chrome coating. There has been an increase of customers for chrome coating over car painting as it has many advantages such as the cost, resale value of the vehicle, maintenance, protection etc.