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Air Bags Inflate In Sales, Popularity
Filed under: Miscellaneous
With the introduction of airbags in vehicles about 20 or so years ago, the concept of safety was introduced into our collective consciousness. We've seen these blow-up "ballons" placed on steering wheels, on the dashboard, under the dashboard, into back seats, under seat cushions and on and on and on.
Now car companies are struggling to see how many air bags they can get into their cars.
The Detroit News reports that by 2012 the U.S. auto fleet will be using more than 100 million airbags. Why so many? Well, because they work. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 22,000 lives have been saved by airbags since 1987. It's obvious that we should all expect to see more. Toyota announced that its 2008 Lexus LX570 SUV will come with 10 airbags as standard equipment. That's two more than is being offered on many models from Audi, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, and Mercedes-Benz. The market leader in the sale of air bags, Swedish company Autoliv, has forecasted that it expects the North American airbag market to reach 100.4 million units by 2012. That is almost twice as many air bags than were sold in 2006.
Our take? In 2003, automakers agreed to equip at least 50 percent of their fleets with side airbags by the beginning of September this year, with the eventual goal of all vehicles will have side airbags by 2009. Man, we would sure like to have a stake in the air bag OEMs who are supplying the car trade.
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