Sunday, March 23, 2008
Car Companies: On the race for the greenest car
I went the auto show the other day with my good friend Mathias Rabinovitch. One of the major things we could not help but notice was how every single car company was trying to prove how green they were and most of all how they were the greenest. It was almost like a competition, each car vendor trying to sell their "green"car, even Hummer tried to have a green car. When I saw this I was very happy, for this was showing that the public was interested in greener cars. I just think that this is interesting because it really shows us how car companies are now drastically improving their mileage, and engines, and even not using oil at all, I saw a car with written "plug in" in huge so i imagined that it was an electric car and there was a huge crowd around it. I think that this is showing us that in fact the oil companies might not have that much power over car companies anymore because i think demand is now overpowering the "bribes" oil companies have going towards car companies. So lets just hope that things continue this way and that car companies in the end might not be as bad as we thought.
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I was there indeed and what i saw was not such an increase in milage for most cars, but an increase in "greener" technologies. Of course, there were still the big milage consumers such as the pick-ups, van, and show cars, but there was also these new "innovative" cars (I wont even mention how ALL of the companies said "innovating" at least twenty times in each of their presentations).
To respond to these innovating technologies i must say, what now? How can we apply all of these on the highway and in the cities. Few Companies had cars that ran both, so that if you were to be in a place where they only take gas, then you would not be out of fuel. However, there must be a universal standard that must be set. If so many technological machines have universal standards, why can't vehicles? Should we have a sudden change (for example the change in currency for 12 european nations in 2000, this sort of sudden change worked well) or should it be a slower transition to cleaner fuel?
What i also noticed was that there was not an ideal car presented. There was cars that might run in the future and cars that are minimally better that can run now. I watched the show Future Car and in combination with the auto show i can say that each company will not succeed in a successful change to cleaner efficiency without a societal change or a group chance (the group being car companies) i can see this heading to a new ordeal such as the HDVD/Blu-Ray or DVD-R/DVD+R except that there will me half a dozen more models for the perfect car on the road and this will disorganize the raod system in the United States of America.
I think it is a good approach, but I want to say (but not really) that it is a waste of effort. First of all, it is a good method to manipulate popular culture and mass distribute the idea of environmentally safe stuff through something so popular. But it also has its setbacks. For example, the cost? Everybody, when buying a product, would consider its cost. In addition, the change that it is going to induce on the public to transition would take a great amount of time. Take the numbers of people who use environmentally harmful cars to those who don't. ALso, not everybody would change their cars because they last for such a long time.
dThe United States still gets 42% of its oil from domestic sources. But over time, the amount of oil we produce will inevitably decrease, because only 2-3% of the world’s oil reserves lie in US territory. The vast majority are in the Mideast. Even if we were to drill for oil in environmentally sensitive areas, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, it would not change the basic fact that our country owns only a small share of the world’s remaining oil.
In order to face this tough challenge, we need more and more green cars in order to reduce the huge amount of the fuel. No wonder all the auto companies are distrubted themselves in making more green cars. Not just to make more profit, but the most part of the purpose is to use less fuel and make our environmrnt green and clean. If these auto companies don't take actions, imagine what's the world going to be if milions and millions cars on the road and the price per barrel is going to increase quickly. people in the future probably couldn't afford the huge expanse if there's few green energy cars. However the investment on green energy car is in the beginning and the motivity of the car must be much lower than the cars that use fuel. I think these auto car companies should make more green cars with both high effiency and high motivity. Also the green cars must be cheap and more people could afford them.
Julien's exprience's been amazing and I think i should go to auto shows too. The more green energy cars, , the less fuel,the better world!!!!!
A "green Hummer". That sounds interesting. I wonder- if a company says it's car is green even if it gets 10 mpg, does that make it green?
It is true that many companies have new 'innovations' that make their cars green. Perhaps those that went to the car show could pick one or two of the better innovations and describe them.
Matt- I do not believe that the switch for Europe to go to the Euro can be compared to the switch for gas powered cars to run on something else. The Euro, like all money, is simply a faith based system of exchange. A car cannot run on a fuel simply because we say it has value. The dollar or Euro only has value as long as everyone believes it does. Oil has energy regardless of what people believe.
May makes a very good point that this switchover for cars will take many years as cars are built to last for a long time and the cleaner, greener cars are still more expensive.
I think you have all touched on the main issue- for green cars to explode into the market, they must be cheaper- not just in the long run but right from the beginning.
The Auto show goes until the end of the week- check it out if interested.
http://www.autoshowny.com/show
While I think it is really pathetic that the "green scene" is only picking up speed now because it is fashionable and cool, I still can't help but feel a little grateful that we can be so easily persuaded. While in many situations this attribute would be less than desirable, I feel that in this case it actually works to our advantage. As long as being green remains cool, companies will be inclined to compensate for the increase in demand for green products. This, though not for entirely pure reasons, will help ease the world away from oil consumption, and has a lot of potential to reduce our polluting rates.
However, the alternative to that is that companies are saying products are green when they really aren't. This is where the issue of doing things for the right reasons comes into play: because many of the major car companies are going green not to conserve energy per se but to please the public and make a profit, they are sometimes willing to sacrifice the alleged purpose altogether for that profit. This results in an oblivious public who think they are making a great change but really aren't. This scenario isn't too good for our future, since it completely overshadows the wake-up call we so desperately need.
I agree with Jensen in that the fact that this is happening because it's "cool" is pathetic. But honestly, the reason for "being green" doesn't matter. As long as people and industries try to make a switch - whether or not their motivation is increasing sales or helping the environment.
It's interesting to think about how the companies classify "green" (pretty much what Jensen brings up in the 2nd paragraph). I feel like there needs to be a set standard made - either for all car companies or by each individual company. Maybe this is already somewhat in affect, I don't know. Regardless, the public needs to know what kind of a product their buying, especially if it's supposed to be so innovative.
To be completely honest, I feel as though this is just car companies trying to sell extra cars. This doesn't mean that these companies are "going green" as a whole. This is simply a tactic to appeal to people who are into the whole "Go-green" trend. Car companies won't stop producing their high-mileage gas gusslers just because of the increase in demand regarding these types of cars. People want cars and they want them at the best possible prices. "Green" cars may be a cool concept and people may feel they have a desire for them, but they are simply a product that's not worth the extra money for most people. It may sosund pessemistic, but I feel that car companies are going to stay the same route they've had for years.
There are two things I would like to add,
On the issue of Cars and their Green efforts, I believe that many had a plan to go from gas to hybrid/diesel, etc. GM, on their website, actually, has information of their new pan. Keep in mind this is GM, and they have been doing horribly both economically and with ratings. (http://www.gm.com/explore/fuel_economy/)
I was thinking as well about the idea that people could be doing this fo’ show and to be trendy. Ay, ‘tis true that this will better our world and contribute to what we need the people to contribute to. Ay, ‘tis true that their intentions might not matter. However, do we love tight leather clothing, tie dye shirts or those formal clothing that we now call grandpa clothes? We don’t—we may wear them, but everyday something is so last year. If we all this “go green” movement a trend, it will die as have the colonial high socks and white wigs.
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