The green status

It is hard to indoctrinate people to the clean and safe concept of gas-free cars, hard as quitting smoking or do charity. We grew too comfortable in pulling up at the gas station and fill the tank with oil coming from another country in the world, we never though of the real impact the our life had done outside our boundaries.

We were lured by the oil companies that no other energy source could power our cars, odd enough the electric car has an old history that was hidden in favor of fossil fuels. In 1914 in the US one of th first electric car prototype spawned in Detroit right after other electric-powered veichles like trains and streetcars that were widely used for the public interest, and for commercial purposes. Unfortunately the pollution-free concept died in early 20th century by the hands of oil companies and major car manufacturer like General Motors. The huge deal that those companies made in that period pushed the construction of major highway across the US, like the famous Route 66 that in 1926 was built, stretching from the state of Illinois to the state of California.

Along that other business like restaurants, service stations and gas stations saw their fortunes soaring. Corporation like McDonald's, Exxon and GM were spread along this major highway creating a status of business familiarity-status for the American people who were traveling from one coast to another, so they could recognize their neighbor fast-food restaurant with the ones across Route 66.

Now we are slowly understanding that we contributed to a major disaster on this planet by continuously using our cars in the wrong ways, and we ignored new technologies that could have helped us clearing the environment from pollution. Pollution-free cars are not a reliable option since the planet felt for the second time in history the possibility of a ending supply of oil.

As Asian automakers like Honda, Toyota and Nissan made the first step towards the commercialization of hybrid and electric veichle, they set the bar for the next generation of cars, vans and trucks; while the American car industry lags behind bleeding millions of dollars each day due to the lack of innovation that they present. North America is struggling to find a solution to improve the fuel efficiency of their vehicles.

Ford has the worst fuel efficiency in the wester hemisphere, GM is not far behind, but the problem is lies in the roots of understanding what impact has a car and who makes it. US car producer still implemented old technology in car engines all the way throughout the 90's, like the old camshaft system that many cars dropped when the carburettor disappeared form can engines.

Car making in the the US is behind the rest of the world by at least five years, but trucks, SUVs and pick-up trucks are still driven by people who do not really need them. How is necessary that a V-10 two-tons truck is driven on a daily basis to work or for groceries when only one person is on board, and now picture that my the millions! The western car market is already in trouble, it is imploding under it's own weight of having more than one brand of car under one single manufacturer, poor reliability, and high costs upon the environment and their owners.

We will see after 2010 how Asian cars will be undisputed leaders in the international markets, with less and less dependency from from oil, and more on electricity and hydrogen.

At the 2008 Detroit Auto Show we saw how the dilemma of hi-performance car and fuel-efficiency is affecting the purchases, as new buyers wants now both since they are now more aware of the ecological situation. Even Ferrari updated their fleet by developing a sport car, the F430 convertible (left pic), capable of running on up to 85% on ethanol. It is another step towards the global acceptance of a green status, that will defeat the ugly image of 'size-brand-matter' that we carry on us like a dead weight.