Climate Change and Changing Cars

Change is definitely in the air in more ways than one as automotive manufacturers increasingly develop zero emission car options and the cost of getting from A to B, is no longer just being calculated in terms of petrol or diesel consumption, but also in terms of cost to the environment.

Innovations such as ‘Hybrid’ cars that use both electricity and petrol, with the latter often used only to recharge the electric batteries, have been joined by pure-electric vehicle options that have no combustion engine.

Powered by a battery that can be plugged into the mains, their milage range when fully charged is likely to increase substantially in the future with new battery technology.

The other interesting innovative option are hydrogen fuel cell cars that are refuelled using compressed hydrogen. The car converts the hydrogen into electricity and the only emission is water which is so clean that it’s safe to drink.

California USA Leads The Way

The California Air Resources Board’s Zero Emission Vehicle program, requiring that automakers invest in clean technology, has been adopted by nine other states. Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

The ZEV program is considered one of the nation’s most forward-looking climate policies, and a driving force behind an expanding car market with a current offer of over 30 zero emission models available to the public.

However, it seems that Donald Trump is not a big fan of the program.

The Reuters Detroit/Washington news bureau announced in August this year that California and 18 other states have pledged to fight a Trump administration proposal to lower fuel efficiency and emission standards for all vehicles.

The 19 defiant states are unanimous in their argument that they have an obligation and moral duty to protect the environment for future generations.

European Motorist Attitude Survey

A survey was undertaken this year by Ipsos Mori for The European Federation for Transport and Environment to examine attitudes of motorists towards zero emission cars in nine European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Sweden.

A third of those polled said it was highly likely that the next car they buy or lease will be electric or hydrogen-powered. The automotive industry is also reporting a growing interest in electric powered vehicles and forecasts a 20-25% sales increase by the end of 2025.

However, the three biggest European new car markets surveyed, revealed that in France 72% of the vehicle owning population think that carmakers are not doing enough to sell electric vehicles by attractive marketing, pricing, and offering enough choice. In Germany the figure was 68% and in Britain 67%.

The Renault–Nissan Alliance

In 1999 Renault and Nissan became strategic cross-sharing partners and in 2017, Mitsubishi became the third and equal partner of the Alliance agreement.

As of January 2018, the Tri-party Alliance is the world’s leading plug-in electric automotive manufacturing body. The Nissan Leaf is the top selling vehicle of the Alliance line-up and is also the world’s best-selling plug-in electric car in automotive history. By January this year more than 300,000 units had been sold worldwide.

In 2011 Renault and Nissan, through their respective agencies, Publicis in Paris and TBWA in Los Angeles, produced two almost identical commercials for their plug-in electric cars that became a popular industry talking point.

The central theme of the commercial is Nissan’s appeal to viewers to acknowledge that human activities have had detrimental effect on the environment, and to embrace the moral responsibility of thinking ‘globally and acting locally’.

The pathos of the polar bear’s rhetorical journey was heartfelt by many viewers and received wide coverage across all news broadcast, social and online media.

The commercial was lauded by environmentalists and millions of viewers globally, but some global warming denialists and climate change skeptics, perhaps predictably, thought the commercial was emotively manipulative, facile and naively alarmist.

The soundtrack features a song by James Saunders specially written and composed for the commercial.

The Future Is Electric

All the major car brands have zero-emission models that are either already on sale, in production for 2019, or prototypes being tested for a market launch in 2020.

The big challenges for zero- emission automotive manufacturers are the two key viability factors of battery capacity allowing range, and length of charging times.

As far as travelling distance is concerned, Elon Musk’s Tesla S back in 2012 offered US motorists a 500km-plus range on his fully charged four-seater sports car that 6 years later, no car brand has yet managed to equal.

The new Audi E-Tron may be the first car to come close with a projected 450 to 480km battery capacity range.

The aim of Porsche’s E-Mission Concept is the development of a progressive program to have one third of the performance thoroughbreds in its stable, to be 100% electrically and optimally horse-powered by 2022.