Make Cars Green: Too Little Too Late?
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan 
on 11.20.08
The global Make Cars Green campaign is an ambitious 10-point plan to steer drivers towards more environmentally-friendly habits, including checking tyre pressure regularly and reduce loads. The campaign builds on the principles by the FIA Make Cars Green declaration, together with Bridgestone, and outlines how policy makers, industry and consumers can all play a constructive role in the future. But with the current economic downturn, isn't it too little too late? Many of the concepts are obvious to anyone reading Treehugger, but hopefully, they will use clever PR strategies to quickly get everyone else onboard as well. In that case, it would echo the call in Iian Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran's book Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future, that drives home the point that "oil is the problem, cars are the solution."
ZOOM is about the global race to build the car of the future, with pioneers in Japan, India, China, Europe and America all trying to tackle global warming, peak oil fears and the major transformation from carbon-based energy sources to new fuels and technologies. Are cars the solution? Well, Carson and Vaitheeswaran make a strong case for how that could be possible, with an all-out push for fuel cells and hydrogen from renewable sources.
Toyota gets rave reviews throughout ZOOM - but I'm sure not everyone agrees that they are the greenest company in the world, in spite of their sucess with the introduction of Prius, and the innovative technology that they have licensed to other hybrid car makers, including Ford. With insights into the car business, including the stupid stunts (such as Chrysler's president driving a Jeep through a plate-glass window) aimed at grabbing headlines at the Detroit Car Shows, the book is a great read.
Meanwhile, if you still drive, do take a look at FIA’s Make Cars Green campaign. It aims to help reduce the impact of cars on the environment. The campaign’s 10 points for greener motoring encourage motorists to "think green before they drive":
Buy Green
Plan your journey
Check tyre pressures frequently
Reduce loads and avoid the need for roof racks
Don’t warm up your engine before starting off
Use air conditioning only when necessary
Accelerate gently and keep your speed constant
Use engine braking
Don’t idle your engine
Offset your CO 2 emissions
Brought to you by Martin Frid at greenz.jp
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Is the Cash for Clunkers Program Right for You?
- Take it from a Beatle: Cut Your Carbon Footprint by Making Mondays Meat-Free
- Why Do Some States Have Significantly Lower Carbon Emissions Than Others?
- Top 10 Things to Bring On Your Cross-Country Bus Trip
- Green Glossary: Intellectual Property
- Reduce Your Carbon Footprint by Half in Three Steps
The United States government needs to create an ultralight/ultra fuel efficient class that allows for available technology to reach the consumers without all the regulations. I think if a car can make 50mpg, it shouldn't have to have all the crash testing and safety equipment needed by automobiles today, which adds a lot of weight and cost to cars.
The immediate response is something along the lines of: No one will drive an unsafe vehicle like that! And my retort is: motorcycles.
Make sure the future generations of light cars get more safety features (and higher mileage). But to get the ball rolling, the government should allow for some leeway in regards to safety in the hope that it will lead to some serious consumer change, technological innovation, and less unnecessary weight getting hauled around on our roads everyday.
Thanks for the post...
Another twist to consider
The problem is how we build cars, not how we fuel them. Oil isn't the problem, its the combustion engine.
The auto industry has a manufacturing platform problem that cannot be fixed with incremental tweaks to fuel efficiency.
We need to move towards modular wheel based electric motors and energy storage systems based on batteries, H2 fuel cells and capacitors. Build multiple platforms on the same factory floor.
So green should be lean - from manufacturing standpoint. That's how you return the industry to profitability. Help them reduce costs of building cars.
Thanks
Garry G
Editor
TheEnergyRoadmap.com
http://www.theenergyroadmap.com
I'm a bit confused about "Use engine braking" as a fuel economy tip. I could see if it were intended too reduce wear on the brakes but the it shouldn't have any fuel saving effect yet tip 8 reads:"Using the natural braking power of engines saves on fuel economy."
Once you've accelerated, the fuel is already spent. Shouldn't reducing the need to decelerate at all should be the only way to save fuel in this case? Am I misunderstanding something?