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Green Economics

June 30th, 2011

“Green” – what does that mean?

Does it mean squeezing the last MPG out of existing technology, or lowering emissions as far as possible, or even developing a recyclable vehicle with minimal environmental impact to produce or dispose of?

Well it is all those things and more yet to come as environmental concerns increasingly push through to the forefront of responsible peoples’ thinking and we all start doing our bit to help save our planet by reducing, reusing and recycling more.

The car and transport is at the frontline of the environmental battle.

Motor manufacturers are busy developing more eco friendly vehicles, not least because of government incentives to do so, but also because to lag behind in the race to be green would be a business disaster.

Forget the environmental side of things for a moment; if you have a choice of two cars with similar space and performance yet one does twice as many miles to the gallon, which would you choose?

With gas prices back at a more realistic sub-$2 level perhaps you don’t care right now but this time last year gas prices were threatening $5 and you probably cared then!

Now if the emissions of that car were considerably lower too, you can give yourself a pat on the back as well as dollars in your pocket for making a sensible choice.

This is the green economic argument – lower costs and lower environmental impact and customers will buy the product.

Honda are at the forefront of the green race and will soon have a complete range of hybrid cars on the market, these use energy wasted in other cars, such as during braking, to top up batteries which are used when additional power is required. This allows a small engine to be used. Emissions are lower than on an equivalent non hybrid car. Additionally the FX fuel cell car is now in production which uses hydrogen to produce electricity and only water as output, the problem with this technology being the requirement to top up with hydrogen so a complete infrastructure would need to be in place to make use of this type of technology viable.

In addition the fully electric car is becoming more available but, apart from the fact that its carbon footprint includes the generation of the electricity used to power it, battery limitations are such that it is only relevant at the moment to short journeys.

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Posted in Eco-Friendly Cars, Gas Friendly Cars, Green Cars

Tags: fuel efficient cars Green Cars green economics green technology hybrid cars

Green Cars Guzzling Carmakers Money?

April 21st, 2011

With the economic situation producing some news headlines last month and the sight of the Big 3 automaker’s CEOs sitting in Congress with caps in hand asking for a bailout that Congress appears to have shot down initially, many senior politicians and industry commentators are pointing a finger at the huge amount of money that has been invested in developing green automobiles.

Main Street America is suffering, that much is obvious and certain, but the idea that R&D expenditures on developing the auto industry of the future is the root cause behind the economic woes hitting Motor Town is far off the mark.

To be fair to the CEO’s of the Big 3; they are not guilty of mismanagement of their companies but certainly are of handling their PR.

Take a look at the performance of major car makers outside of the US and the story is universal doom and gloom; every major car manufacturer in the world is delivering equally poor profit and sales performance from the high end, luxury market to the bottom end, budget compact sector.

Congress has an opportunity to help guide the development of the car industry as America seeks to reduce its reliance on oil and especially foreign imports. The cost per mile of running an average car is one cent per mile on electric and even with gas prices coming down to more reasonable levels, a gas beased business model simply cannot compete on economic terms with a green alternative; what is missing for rapid adoption of green car alternatives is the infrastructure for refueling and servicing green cars and this is again something Congress can assist in developing as and when (not if) America’s car makers get a helping handout from the US taxpayer.

With the rest of the world’s car makers developing green car alternatives, America cannot afford to stand still and simply cut back R&D on creating green cars for the home and overseas markets unless we are prepared to acquiesce and see the end of the American car industry and turn to importing foreign cars made overseas and with the loss of tens of thousands of American jobs.

The doomsayers blaming green car R&D for the current financial crisis facing America’s carmakers should think again.