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Actually, for many applications, adhesives are much better than welding. It's very difficult to weld thin sheet w/o distortion, which has to be corrected later. Welding heats the base material enough to alter its chemical properties requiring re-heat-treating. Stresses are built-in to assembled parts from the heating and distortions, requiring stress-relieving.
The Lotus Elise is bonded together, as are the majority of the airliners you're likely to fly on these days. I expect you're going to see adhesive bonding become the "normal" way to build a number of structures within a decade or so.
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