Your Next Car
The long reign of the internal combustion engine is coming to an end. That’s not a prediction by Alvin Toffler or Ralph Nader, but by the chairman of one of the world’s largest automakers. General Motors Chairman Jack Smith has put it bluntly: no car company will be able to thrive in the 21st century if it relies solely on internal combustion engines.
Prodded by environmentalists and regulators, the world’s auto companies are acknowledging publicly that the technology is at hand or emerging to make truly clean vehicles. A consensus is developing that the car of the future will be an electric vehicle (EV) – a vehicle that uses electric motors to drive the wheels. The automakers are experimenting with designs, fuels and energy storage technologies that could make today’s piston engine obsolete.
EV technology is not new. The first EV, a battery-powered tricycle, was built in 1890. A six-passenger EV was the talk of the 1893 World’s Fair. And the Electrobat, an EV designed to traverse the unpaved streets of Philadelphia, was introduced in 1894. EVs caught on with private owners in the early 20th century. Even Henry Ford drove one.
Battery-powered EVs and hybrid-electric vehicles, which use both engines and batteries, are cruising streets and highways around the world. Toyota and Honda can’t keep up with orders for their hybrid vehicles here in the U.S. Other automakers have promised hybrid vehicles in 2003. EVs powered by fuel cells – an electrochemical engine – are being tested on streets around the world. Developers have announced plans to commercialize the technology by 2004 or 2005.
The revolution extends not just to passenger cars, but also to boats, forklifts, buses, scooters and heavy-duty vehicles.
No one has a crystal ball to tell which EV technology will win out. But consumers have a choice of environmentally friendly technologies that is growing everyday. One thing is certain: the piston engine could wind up in a museum. The future of transportation is electrifying.
EVs & the Environment
Throughout the world, over one billion people, including over 113 million Americans, living in urban areas are suffering from severe air pollution. Scientists estimate that the number of U.S. deaths associated with air pollution range from 50,000 to 100,000 per year. For comparison: The total number of U.S. combat dead and missing in the Vietnam war is estimated at 55,000.
Smoke from diesel engines is considered a likely cause of cancer. Diesel trucks emit three times more soot and smog forming pollutants than a coal-fired power plant, for every unit of energy they burn.
More than 94 percent of the vehicles available in the 2002 model year get less than 30 miles to a gallon of gas. Electric and other advanced vehicle technologies could play a critical role in reducing this menace. Even the cleanest of gasoline-powered vehicles can’t match the clean-air performance of EVs.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, today’s motor vehicles in the U.S. account for: 65% of U.S. oil consumption, 78% of all carbon monoxide emissions, 45% of nitrogen oxide emissions and 37% of volatile organic compounds. In addition, for every gallon of gasoline manufactured, distributed, and then consumed in a vehicle, roughly 25 pounds of carbon dioxide are released.
EVs are superior for clean air over other vehicles because they have no tailpipe exhaust, no evaporative emissions from fuel systems, and no emissions from the refining of fuel and distribution of fuel to service stations. Additionally, EVs have no emission control systems that can degrade or fail over time. Because they are several times more efficient and can utilize renewable energy, electric and hybrid-electric vehicles can dramatically slash our greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the Toyota Prius hybrid-electric vehicle cuts carbon emissions by 50 percent compared to a conventional Toyota. A fuel cell vehicle utilizing renewable fuels can eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions.