|
Sustainable mobility is certainly
one of the most topical and vital matters facing a wide range of
global constituencies: governments, business and industry, communities
and consumers. The issues involved are no less broad, ripe with
opportunity yet mired with daunting problems and complexities. Vehicle
manufacturers, energy suppliers, policy makers and government bodies
are all working on solutions more or less independently of each
other and often in disagreement about the directions in which their
efforts should go.
Certain facts are clear, however. Vehicles are the people’s
preferred mode of transportation and are leading the way into our
future. It is estimated that by 2020 a billion vehicles will be
traveling the world’s roads, too many of them dependent on
a single energy source. Other compelling issues include air quality,
global warming, homeland security (not just in the U.S., but worldwide)
and foreign policy.
While tremendous innovation is going on within the automotive industry
with eventual outcomes impossible to predict, one thing is obvious—vehicles
will continue to run on tires in the future, and the world’s
largest producer of tires has an understandably vested interest
in participating in the evolution of sustainable mobility. Five
times since 1998, Michelin has organized and produced the Challenge
Bibendum, considered a premier global event that brings together
the world’s most advanced technology vehicles and compares
them in head-to-head competition. The event is open to all energy
sources—gasoline, electric, diesel, bio-fuel, hydrogen, natural
gas and liquid petroleum gas. Participation this year included such
manufacturers as Audi, Honda, BMW, Daimler-Chrysler, Ford Motor
Co., General Motors, Hyundai, Isuzu, Nissan, Toyota and Volvo.
Named after Bibendum, the roly-poly corporate Michelin symbol, the
Challenge provides a platform for debate, facilitates the procedures
and creates an event for the industry with no political or commercial
agenda, according to the company’s CEO, Edouard Michelin. Difficult
decisions within the transportation industry will have to be made,
he said, that are complex and trans-national in scope. As an example,
solutions do not lie simply in raising automobile efficiency standards
or drilling new oil fields in Alaska. The Department of Energy’s
Thomas Gross believes that even a 60 percent increase in the CAFE
standards and draining ANWAR of all its reserves will not close
the gap between demand and supply. A totally new approach is needed.
The vision of the Challenge Bibendum is that mobility must be developed
with a respect for the environment while realizing that people must
be enabled to move themselves and their goods freely. The issues
are more complicated in developing countries where the demand for
individual mobility is rapidly increasing. According to Dan Sperling,
a transportation specialist at the University of California-Davis,
personal transport is now available at low cost and, therefore,
at very low incomes. The result is rapidly increasing energy use,
greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion, traffic deaths and
pollution.
Worldwide, one of the key concerns is the need to reduce carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions, believed to be a major cause of global
warming. The average car on the road today uses about 600 gallons
of gasoline annually resulting in the release of six tons of CO2
into the environment. The solutions to atmospheric pollution will
be based on reducing fuel consumption and improving engine performance
as well as diversifying energy sources. In addition, halting the
depletion of fossil fuel resources will depend on developing new
alternative energy sources and inventing new types of engines to
use them. Accomplishing these goals requires a commitment to a radically
different automotive future, one most in the industry seem ready,
if not eager, to make.
Measuring and reporting progress toward sustainable mobility goals
is essential and why, at the core of the Challenge Bibendum, is
a friendly competition in which more than 100 participating vehicles
go head to head in a series of tests that rate vehicles on emissions,
acceleration, braking, handling, noise and energy efficiency. The
purpose of the tests, according to Michelin, is to demonstrate that
the vehicles of the future can be clean, safe, reliable and fun
to drive. A wide range of energy and propulsion systems were tested;
but this year the distribution of technologies was markedly different.
Hydrogen powered cars (fuel cells and ICEs), diesels and several
hybrid technologies dominated the field compared with 2002 when
compressed natural gas (CNG), liquid natural gas (LNG) and electric
vehicles predominated. Also new to this year’s event were commercial
vehicles, such as heavy-duty trucks and buses, which made their
first showing at the Challenge Bibendum and did quite well, especially
in emissions testing with some achieving zero-emissions numbers—the
ultimate goal for all vehicles.
All the different technologies represented in the competition received
recognition. “Overall, the progress toward sustainable mobility
by all of the participating technologies and energy sources is very
impressive,” said Patrick Oliva, director of the Challenge
Bibendum. “There is no single choice, no one path alone to
achieving our ultimate goal of environmentally-positive road transportation
that is enjoyable to drive and safe for drivers and passengers.
Each year, the variety of technologies and creative innovations
displayed offers proof that sustainable mobility is within our grasp.”
The prevailing sentiment at the Challenge Bibendum was that the
hydrogen fuel cell is the automotive technology of the future. One
of the most popular vehicles at the show was GM’s Hy-Wire,
said to be the first road-ready automobile that uses a combination
of fuel cell with drive-by-wire technology. Although a prototype
vehicle at this time, by 2010 many predict that it and other fuel
cell technology automobiles will be widely commercially available.
As admirable as that goal is, it has come under criticism from some
environmentalists who claim that the focus on these emerging technologies
draws attention away from the fact that the automakers are ignoring
improvements they could make immediately, such as getting more gas/electric
hybrid vehicles out on the road.
Elizabeth Lowery, director for environmental affairs for General
Motors, counters by saying that GM’s vision of the clean car
is multi-faceted. “We are working on the fuel cell, but also
on conventional internal combustion engines and hybrids. We are
getting ready to introduce a dozen models between now and 2007.
GM is very proud of this offering.”
Selling these clean vehicles presents other challenges. J.D. Powers
& Associates surveyed consumers about whether they really care
about fuel economy; the conclusion—not much. It is the eighth
of measured influences cited by buyers when choosing a new car or
truck with drive, handling and performance rating much higher. Moreover,
asserts Walter McManus, J.D. Powers’ executive director of
Global Forecasting, fuel prices in the U.S. are low and buyers are
looking for room, power and amenities. However, consumer interest
may be growing. Over 60 percent said they would consider clean diesel
or hybrid vehicles.
The market for the Toyota Prius, the most successful commercially
available hybrid, is still small because many still think of it
as an experimental, stylistically unexciting and inferior performing
car. However, the all-new 2004 model was awarded both the Style
Advancement Award and the Technical Integration Award for production
vehicles at the Challenge Bibendum. Larger, cleaner and more powerful,
the 2004 Prius gets twice the fuel mileage of the best 2003 mid-sized
sedan in the U.S. It will be available to consumers in the fall
and Toyota reports a heavy pre-release order backlog. Perhaps this
is the car that will spur the risk-adverse buying public into taking
a chance on a new technology.
The Challenge Bibendum is moving for the first time to Asia in 2004
when Shanghai, China will host the world’s auto industry as
it continues its quest for sustainable mobility. The venue will
present both unique opportunities and hurdles as China is the world’s
fastest-growing car market, with a rapid expansion of production
and with sales up 73 percent this year. It remains to be seen whether
China can sustain its eight percent annual economic growth while
promoting respect for the environment. The hundreds of journalists
who cover the Challenge Bibendum will surely keep a watchful eye.
|
