√The automotive predictions from 1997 that were eerily accurate | Drive Flashback

In 1997, Ford’s then global boss, Australian Jac Nasser, saw a future of hologram showrooms, hybrid engines and booming Asian markets. But, he said, “driving will still be fun”.

Story originally published in Drive 14 March, 1997

Stand by for bulletproof glass on the new car options list. The man who runs Ford’s global automotive operations, Jac Nasser predicts a rapid rise in safety features on new cars – of the bulletproof variety – along with the demise of that American automotive icon, the cup-holder, all within 20 years.

“Personal security will be a big selling feature,” Nasser told an audience at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, where he received an honorary doctorate. “Items like bulletproof glass, global tracking and emergency call systems will emerge [on new cars].”

The president of Ford’s worldwide car-making web also forecast that Korea would outstrip Japan as an exporter of cars and that China, by 2030, would be the world’s largest automotive market.

By that time, he said, Western cities would begin banning private motoring.

“Cities, especially in Europe, Japan and California, will restrict private transportation vehicles in metropolitan areas unless they’re powered by electricity or hybrid fuel,” the Australian executive said

The good news? Ford’s crystal ball says cars will remain the world’s primary mass transit and “driving will still be fun”.

Ordering these new, clean, green mobile fortress models will be a far cry from today’s showroom shuffle. Most vehicles will be built to order, with a personalised combination of features. Customers will shop in on-line malls. “You’ll experience [the cars] as 3D holograms in virtual showrooms,” Nasser said.

Sound a bit for-fetched? “Would we have thought just 10 years ago that Korean manufacturers would have 30 per cent of the Australian car market?” he countered.

He said no car company anticipated the rapid rise in demand for light trucks and 4WDs, which outsell conventional cars in the US.

“Nowhere do the winds of change blow as hard as they do in the automotive industry,” he said. “If we’re not facing a Force 3 gale, we’re worried …”

And those cup-holders? Replaced by refillable on-board flasks and “personalised straws”.

So, what happened next?

While the idea standard-fit bullet-proof glass has yet to catch on, despite Tesla’s best efforts when at the Cybertruck’s launch, much of what Nasser predicted was remarkably close to what has since transpired.

Global tracking and automated emergency call systems are increasingly common in today’s cars while the global push towards electrification has already seen – or will soon see – bans on combustion cars in city centres, particularly in European jurisdictions.

On-line new car purchases are becoming more prevalent as more and more brands eschew the traditional dealership model in favour of the internet with customers able to personalise and configure their new car before completing the transaction with a single click.

China’s insatiable appetite for new cars has seen that market expand beyond Chairman Mao’s wildest imaginations with almost every mainstream car manufacturer now building cars in China for the Chinese domestic market.

And China’s booming car industry has pushed beyond its borders, with Chinese-made cars increasingly gaining a foothold in export markets. In Australia, only Thailand and Japan builds more cars for our market than China.

But, unlike its Asian counterparts, sales of Chinese cars are booming in 2023, enjoying growth of 106 per cent over the same period last year while Japanese-made cars went backwards, sales down 17.6 per cent year on year. Thai-built vehicles remain steady when compared to 2022.

Nasser’s predictions remain eerily prescient today. As for refillable containers with personalised drinking straws? We reckon the cupholder has some life left in it still.

The post The automotive predictions from 1997 that were eerily accurate | Drive Flashback appeared first on Drive.

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