The government estimated that about a million cars had been taken off the road by their owners, to reserve for their own use after the war. The government contemplated rationing used car sales as well, but that was finally deemed unnecessary. The Office of Price Administration set the price. Almost all were 1942 models and customers required a permit to make the purchase. The government’s Office of Price Administration imposed rationing of gasoline and tires and set a national speed limit of 35 mph.īy April 1944, only 30,000 new cars out of the initial stockpile were left. Conveyors were stripped away and rebuilt, electrical wires were bundled together and stored in the vast factory ceilings, half-finished parts were sent to steel mills to be re-melted, and even many of the dies that had been used in the fabrication of auto parts were sent to salvage. Huge manufacturing machines were jack hammered out of their foundations and new ones brought in to replace them. Beginning immediately after the production of automobiles ceased, entire factories were upended almost overnight. The auto industry retooled to manufacture tanks, trucks, jeeps, airplanes, bombs, torpedoes, steel helmets, and ammunition under massive contracts issued by the government. Representatives from the auto industry formed the Automotive Council for War Production in April 1942, to facilitate the sharing of resources, expertise, and manpower in defense production contracting. These would be available during the duration of the war for rationed sales by auto dealers to purchasers deemed “essential drivers.”
The units manufactured at the beginning of February would bring up the total number of vehicles in a newly established car stockpile to 520,000. The January 1942 production quota had been a little over 100,000 automobiles and light trucks. It also established wage and price controls.Īll manufacturers ended their production of automobiles on February 22, 1942. That included coordinating heavy manufacturing, and the rationing of vital materials, such as metals, rubber, and oil.
The WPB regulated the industrial production and allocation of war materiel and fuel. It superseded the Office of Production Management. President Roosevelt established the War Production Board on January 16, 1942. As a temporary measure, local rationing boards could issue permits allowing persons who had contracted for cars before January 1st to secure delivery. On January 1, 1942, all sales of cars, as well as the delivery of cars to customers who had previously contracted for them, were frozen by the government’s Office of Production Management. No cars, commercial trucks, or auto parts were made from February 1942 to October 1945.
manufacture of automobiles come to a halt during World War II? Answer
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