Eight of the world’s top 25 corporate investors in research and development are automakers. The industry ranks third overall, ahead of software, aerospace and electronics manufacturers.

In fact, Ford and GM each invested more in R&D last year than Boeing, Amgen and Google.  And 80 cents of every dollar AAPC’s members invest in R&D is spent here in the U.S.  That’s one reason why a recent study by the National Science Foundation found that nearly one in 10 engineers and scientists employed in the private sector works for an automaker or an auto supplier.

All this investment in R&D has translated into unprecedented improvements in passenger safety, air quality, fuel efficiency and new products and features.  Last year was the safest year on our highways ever recorded, despite the fact that Americans drove nearly 3 trillion miles.  Auto emissions are 99 percent cleaner than they were in the 1970s, and our members’ vehicles will be 30 percent more fuel efficient in 2016 than they were just last year. 

Today, American car buyers can choose from more than 150 hybrid, all-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and Chrysler, Ford and GM alone are putting millions of flex fuel vehicles on the road each year.