It It has come to a point where the perception about ?green automobiles? rises in exponential proportion to the price of crude oil, and vanishes as soon as the prices tumble, with no relevance to the real situation on the ground and in the air. One reason for that is the common misconception that it is only the fuel which determines how ?green? a motor vehicle is or will be.
So one chooses to ignore the various new and not so new evolutions in the automobile industry ? after all, electric buses and vehicles were running on European streets over a century ago and all other modern fuels as well fuel cells will still generate some pollution at some point or place or the other. The internal combustion engine ? spark or pressure ? will continue to reign supreme for some time, and will probably become less polluting, in the interests also of economy and reducing wastage. And that will really make things green?
Nothing can be further from the truth. To be truly green, the automobile industry as well as the other stakeholders ? governance, users and perception builders including those in the media – need to consider that to begin with transport engineering is probably the most neglected part of ensuring that a motor vehicle remains green. No fun having the latest in emission control or reduction technology, if everybody and their wheels are stuck in traffic jams, or if trains and trams run empty for any of a variety of reasons. Like they do in Kolkata, where a monorail built to the airport lies unused for years while the roads around remain clogged.
What is also cardinal is regulatory adherence at the manufacturing end. Quantified in simple numbers, a typical car will generate more pollution when it is being manufactured than in the course of its natural life. This improves as the vehicle gets older, provided maintenance is ensured, which obviously the manufacturers do not really concentrate on, as they want to sell more new motor vehicles. Reconditoning older vehicles and bringing them up to modern specs would be so much more green ? but it just won?t happen.
Further, public transport, that oh-so-neglected sector especially in developing countries, will need to be by deed poll as well as governance, at the fore-front of new technologies in locomotion. Which can not happen as long as road transport is considered to be a generator of funds for local governance as well as dasturis, in India, instead of evolving into a social benefit. Which incidentally is also why the railways in India are leapfrogging ahead in technologies, Garib Raths being the latest, while our humble buses are based on WW-1 ladder chassis and wooden bodies designs.
And finally, if we really want to go green on road transport, then our leaders and opinion makes shall have to lead from in front. I recall fitting my Zen with CNG way back in 1996, but as on date, have you or I seen any of those SUVs and monster luxury buses used by our candidates for elections running on anything other than diesel? Time, maybe, for the CEC to also define that all election campaigning needs to be on green basis vehicles. What better way of really pushing green, then?
The writer is a auto expert
As Green as it gets
Check the 2009 finalists of World Green Car of the Year. It is an interesting competition as eligible vehicles need not be vehicles sold on a wide scale!
Honda FCX Clarity is available in the US, where it is currently being leased to a select group of owners. The FCX Clarity is a hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle. There are only a few on the road, in the hands of celebrities and early testers. You can drive up to 280 miles on a single tank of hydrogen ? if you can find hydrogen!
The Toyota iQ is a small city car, with room for three adults and one child. It runs on a 1-litre gas engine. Right now it is sold in Japan, where it recently won the country?s Car of the Year award, and in Europe. Fuel mileage is around 55 miles a gallon, though in January, Toyota did a hypermile stunt in Britain and got 60 mpg.
The Mitsubishi i-MiEV is a small electric vehicle with a range of 80 to 100 miles. Its top speed is 130 kmph. An electric motor and on-board recharger replace the conventional engine in the rear.
This snazzy car occupies roughly the same space as an internal combustion engine and fuel tank of a mid-size car!
Small wonders
These cars changed the way we drive. They were practical yet fun, spacious yet easy to park, safe yet zippy. And small.
Morris Minor
•Launch: The Earls Court Motor Show, London, in 1948
•Country: UK
•Target: Family car
•Desgined by: Alec Issigonis
It was the work of a team led by Alec Issigonis.
•For the record: Its prototype had been known as the Morris Mosquito, and some later models were called Morris Minor 1000. At the launch there were several variants, including the standard saloon, a wood-framed estate called the Traveller, and a convertible, plus a panel van.
Morris Minor
•Launch: 1959
•Country: UK
•Target: Family car
•Desgined by: Alec Issigonis, UK
•Innovation:The car used a conventional four-cylinder water-cooled engine but it was mounted transversely and drove the front wheels. This allowed much increased passenger space in a small body. The result was nimble, economical and inexpensive. Almost all small cars built since the 1970s have followed this mechanical layout.
•For the record: The Mini was a revolutionary small car designed for the nationalised British Motor Corporation (BMC). he original is considered an icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout (that allowed 80% of the area of the car?s floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage) influenced a generation of car-makers. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th Century, behind the Ford Model T.
• Launch: 1938. Production began in 1946
•Country: Germany
•Target: Family car
•Innovation:The great advantage of the wartime Beetle was its weight of only 1,100 pounds and two men could stand it on its wheels if it overturned.
•For the record: The car was originally known as K?fer, the German word for ?beetle?, from which the English nickname originates.It was in August 1967 that the Volkswagen began using the name Beetle in marketing materials in the US. In Britain, VW never used the name Beetle officially. It had only been known as either the ?Type I? or as the 1100, 1200, 1300, 1500, or 1600 which had been the names under which the vehicle was marketed in Europe; the numbers denoted the vehicle?s approximate engine size in cubic centimeters.In 1998, many years after the original model had been dropped from the lineup in most of the world (production continued in Mexico until 2003), VW introduced the ?New Beetle? (built on a Volkswagen Golf Mk4 platform) which bore a cosmetic resemblance to the original.