Green Cars vs. Greed Cars

by Barry Thomson

     The fuel-efficient Prodigy, the Precept and the Dodge ESX3 were recently revealed to the world by the big three US auto-manufacturers at a Washington DC function graced by Al Gore. The prototypes are the culmination of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles, a seven-year research collaboration between the automakers, federal agencies and research labs (financed with $250 million in federal funds and $980 million from the carmakers). The concept cars all rely on hybrid diesel-electric drives, combining a low-emission diesel engine, electric motor and a battery that stores the energy generated by the cars' braking system. The ESX3 and Prodigy both achieve 80 miles per gallon (mpg) of diesel (equal to 72 mpg of gasoline) while the Precept gets 90-mpg diesel (80 mpg of gasoline).

The Th!nk Car

     While fuel-efficient cars represent the future, the Big Three are keen to perpetrate the image of an out-of-reach distant future. In February Ford unveiled the Excursion, the world's largest Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), a 19-foot, 3.5-ton behemoth that averages 12 mpg. The US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) has been campaigning to close the loophole in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards that require SUVs and light trucks to average only 20.7 mpg (compared to 27.5 mpg for cars).

     Between 1975 and 1989 CAFE rules helped double the nation's fuel economy but for the last five years, Congress has prohibited the Department of Transport from tightening fuel-economy standards. This has resulted in a decline in the US average gas mileage to 23.8 mpg in 1999 -- the lowest since 1980. The decline is due to the popularity of the fuel-inefficient SUVs "Greed Cars." Sales of SUVs have risen steadily from a market share of 20 percent in 1975 (when they were classified as farm vehicles) to 46 percent of new vehicles sold in 1999, almost 3 million vehicles.

Detroit's Secret: Fuel-smart Cars -- in Europe
     While US drivers complain about high gas prices, drivers in Germany pay $3.70 for one gallon of premium unleaded and the Dutch, famous for their love of bicycles, fork out $4.27. In Europe, higher gas prices have generated a consumer led demand for fuel-efficient vehicles. As a result, both diesel and manual transmission vehicles are now commonplace in Europe and average fuel economy is 25 mpg (28 mpg for the UK).

     The European Car Industry Association and the Japanese and Korean Manufacturers have signed agreements with the European Commission aiming to reach 31.4 mpg by 2008 or 2009.

     US automakers already make Green Cars -- in Europe. These fuel-sipping vehicles, which are unheard of in the US, include the new Ford Focus, the 1999 European Car of the Year. The Ford Focus, equipped with an Endura DI engine, achieves 47.9 mpg. European's are also driving the Ford Ka (35 mpg combined city and highway driving), the Ford Fiesta (37 mpg), and the Ford Puma (31.4 mpg). The Toyota Yaris and the VW Lupo both average 40.3 mpg and are ranked among the top ten fuel-efficient petrol cars available.

     The 1.4-litre VW Polo diesel coasts to a cool 51.2 mpg. The real issue, of course, is not measured in dollars or gallons saved but in the extra tons of carbon dioxide kept out of the atmosphere. The British DoT calculates that a car driven 6000 miles will produce roughly its own weight in CO2.

     Approximately 20 percent of US carbon emissions come from cars and light trucks. According to PIRG, the US could have reduced global warming pollution by 187 million tons per year by requiring SUVs, minivans and light trucks to match the fuel economy of passenger cars. That represents about 3 percent of our total annual CO2 emissions.

     Last December, Honda launched its high-tech hybrid, the $19,295 Insight (80 mpg on the highway and more than 70 mpg combined). Consumer interest has been rampant: The cars are being bought unseen as they roll off the production line. Toyota's Prius, a five-seat, 60-mpg hybrid that has been sold in Japan since 1998, debuted in the US this summer. Honda and Toyota are believed to be losing money on these low-emission cars, because the production costs exceed their retail price.

     In the US auto market, size has become a status symbol -- the latest incarnation of auto-machismo -- but it also is equated with safety. Smaller, fuel-efficient Euro-models may comply with stringent European safety standards, but there is a different scale of reference on US roads. While fuel economy is an increasingly important consideration, driving in the shadow of a thundering three-ton SUV can put things in a different perspective.

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Fuel Cell Cars and Solar-Hydrogen Fuel Won't Solve Gridlock

     Fuel cells offer the tantalizing possibility of ushering in an entirely new energy economy. They may soon power our cars, our watches, our laptop computers, and our homes. Hydrogen is the most available element in the universe, constituting 80 percent of all matter. But this lightest element is found in pure form almost nowhere on earth. It has to be separated from other substances, such as natural gas or methanol.

     If hydrogen is produced by renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaics or geothermal power, it can be a perfect zero-emission loop, with drinkable water the only by-product. The fuel-cell car can be an electric vehicle with none of the drawbacks of batteries.

     The promise of fuel cells can realistically be compared in importance to Thomas Edison's development of a workable incandescent light. Fuel cell cars are on the road right now and they could be in mass production as early as 2004. A lightweight fuel-cell car could travel 1,000 miles or more between pit stops.

     Clean cars won't solve all the problems of the car-culture. Even in a zero-emission vehicle, we'll still sit in traffic. In the not-too-distant future, will we have replaced the idling rows of fossil-fuel burners with a new plastic bumper-to-bumper lockup of "clean cars"?

     Getting cars off the road is a Herculean effort, made even harder by population increases. If transportation is to move efficiently in the new millennium, we'll have to promote moratoriums on suburban sprawl, construction of new in-town housing and development of interconnected rapid-transit networks.

Excerpted from Forward Drive: The Race to Build "Clean" Cars for the Future by Jim Motavalli (Sierra Club Books, 2000).