Cute Toys Are Not Enough

Eco-friendly cars grabbing the limelight
Gas guzzlers make way for green machines at Tokyo Motor Show

CHIBA, Japan - The usually futuristic "concept cars" at the Tokyo auto show are taking on an all-too-real immediacy this year amid soaring oil prices, with ecologically-friendly autos grabbing the limelight.

The overriding message at the Tokyo Motor Show, opening Saturday to the public, is that gas-guzzlers must make way for green cars that pollute less and rely less on shrinking supplies of fossil fuels.

Reporters got a preview Wednesday of the show’s offerings of experimental ecological cars galore, including a vehicle that switches back and forth between an electric motor and a hydrogen-powered engine from Mazda Motor Corp. and a fuel cell small car from Suzuki Motor Corp.

Auto officials say it’s urgent to develop cars that run on fuels other than gasoline. Crude oil prices have doubled over the last five years as the global oil supply struggles to keep up with ballooning demand.

“We could be facing a crisis in which the oil supply dries up,” says Mitsuru Honma of Sanyo Electric Co., which supplies batteries for Ford Motor Co.’s hybrid vehicles.

Hybrid vehicles deliver a cleaner ride and reduce greenhouse emissions by switching back and forth between different powertrains, such as an electric motor and gasoline engine.

Sanyo, which has a booth at the show, estimates annual production of hybrid vehicles may increase to 3 million worldwide by 2010, or 7 percent of the 44 million passenger-car market. Annual hybrid production now totals less than half a million.

These figures may sound positive, but they are just silliness. There are currently 600 million motor vehicles based on fossil fuels, a third (200 million) based in the USA). 3 million worldwide is will hardly cause a blip in demand.

In his book, Powerdown, Heinberg points out that Fossil Fuels are just the mask. The real problem lies much deeper. And the face of that problem, is us. We will need an about face if we wish to avoid a natural re-balance, a natural re-ordering of the planet's resources. He correctly points out that a few conscientious individuals, even a few conscientious countries will not mitigate the 'hard landing' we face. It will require unprecedented co-operation, principally between the USA, China and Europe. It will require sharing and self-limiting behaviour.

Unfortunately, a tiny minority even realise that this behaviour is urgent and necessary. The rest are encouraged to consume by the rapacious onslaught, the bombardments made by advertising agencies with their inane chatter and jingles. We're in a plug and play madness, and our hurry-up lifestyles keep us from facing some difficult choices. The stop button, I regret to say, will likley to be pushed for us, and not by us.

Toyota Motor Corp., the first automaker to sell a commercially mass-produced hybrid with its Prius in 1997, is showing an even more advanced hybrid called Fine-X, which is powered by an electric battery and a pollution-free hydrogen fuel cell.

The hydrogen, stored in a fuel tank, combines with oxygen in the air to form water clean enough to drink.

Also, the Fine-X has wheels that can swivel at a sharp angle to the side to allow for tight U-turns and easy parallel parking.

Ford plans "significant plant closings"
Thu Oct 20, 2005 3:36 PM BST

By Poornima Gupta
DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday said it swung to a loss in the third quarter as sales of sport utility vehicles declined, and Chief Executive Bill Ford Jr. warned of "significant plant closings" to help slash costs in North America.

The quarterly loss, the first for Ford since the fourth quarter of 2003, follows a protracted decline in the company's U.S. market share and deepening financial woes. U.S. sales of Ford vehicles are down 1.3 percent so far this year despite a massive discount program that helped clear inventory of unsold vehicles.

Planes, ships and cars will become too expensive to operate.
But not trains, or bicycles. People with obesity problems will have plenty of opportunity to walk it off...