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Drive Green: Navigating Tomorrow’s Cars Through Fuel Economies

Divita Narula
3 Dec 2023

CO2 emissions from vehicles and transportation related activities such as international shipping, aviation, and land transportation have only risen, despite the Zero Net Emissions Scenario and numerous nations’ endeavors to reach that goal. Transportation, specifically, contributes to 21% of the global CO2 emissions (Ritchie). The global CO2 emissions from transportation are measured by fuel consumption, and many nations have fuel economy regulations, such as the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations in the US. However, despite these regulations, achieving the objective isn’t nearly as simple. There are numerous barriers existent in this issue, some of which include technological barriers, consumer preferences, and infrastructure challenges. 

Firstly, it’s important to discuss the technological barriers. The automotive industry has come a long way in the engineering of their products, going from the very first internal combustion engine as a hydrogen powered engine in 1806 to the V6 and V8 engines used by the majority of cars today. However, there is still a long way to go if the world is to transition to alternative fuels. Electric vehicles “convert over 77% of the electrical energy from the grid to power at the wheels,” while traditional gasoline vehicles “only convert about 12%–30% of the energy stored” (“All-Electric Vehicles”). The problem, however, is the investment of time, money, and manpower into the research and development of these alternatively fuelled vehicles. In 2022, more than $106 billion were invested into EV-related projects, with the majority of it going into production facilities (Irwin). That is an incredibly huge investment, more than 4 times the budget allocated to NASA. This investment, although derived from numerous countries and institutions, is a huge commitment that could rather be used in the solutions for other important matters. 

Secondly, the consumer preferences of vehicles is also a major factor at play. With consideration of the general public, trends have shown that large cars are and will continue to grow in demand. The graph on the right shows a median of 1463 kg weight, and should this go higher, it may pose a threat. A larger weight may suggest a lower fuel efficiency. For instance, compact cars and two seaters tend to be quite fuel efficient, while many larger cars may be shown as some of the least fuel efficient cars (“2024 Best and Worst”). Because of this, achieving fuel economies with current consumer preferences may be rather difficult. 

Lastly, the infrastructure challenges of fuel economies. As was stated earlier, consumer preferences suggest a trend in larger cars, which may be disadvantageous when considering infrastructure. Multi level car parks are built with a carrying capacity, and particularly old car parks may not be well suited to carrying such large, heavy vehicles without lowering the number of cars it carries. An alternative would be to rebuild some of the older car parks, but that would require a huge investment, which some nations may not be ready to spend on. Beyond this, governments would be required to fund more electric vehicle charging stations, and even further, well built public transport. For instance, the subway stations in NYC cost $837 million (Woods) and electric charging stations cost anywhere between $1000-$20000 (Maitino). The costs are substantially high, and if any nation has a hesitancy to build these facilities, consumers may hesitate to buy the vehicles that allow a progression to the goal for fuel efficiency. 

With transportation contributing a colossal amount to the global CO2 emissions, the goal of fuel economies is an extremely important mission for the world to work towards. However, with consideration of technological barriers, consumer preferences, and infrastructure challenges, goals may need to be reconsidered. In the end, this is all to provide a more sustainable future, and to change wherever possible for the better is something that must always be worked towards.

Works Cited

“2024 Best and Worst Fuel Economy Vehicles.” Fuel Economy, https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/best-worst.shtml.

“All-Electric Vehicles.” Fuel Economy, https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/evtech.shtml.

Irwin, Alex. “The world’s top EV investors.” fDi Intelligence, 26 April 2023, https://www.fdiintelligence.com/content/data-trends/the-worlds-top-ev-
investors-82407.

Maitino, Miranda. “EV Charging Station Infrastructure Costs & Breakdown.” SparkCharge, 30 March 2023,
https://www.sparkcharge.io/blogs/leadthecharge/ev-charging-station-infrastructure-costs.

Ritchie, Hannah. “Cars, planes, trains: where do CO2 emissions from transport come from?” Our World in Data, 6 October 2020,
https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-transport.

Woods, Darian. “Why public transportation is especially expensive to build in the U.S.” NPR, 21 July 2023,
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/21/1189450206/why-public-transportation-is-especially-expensive to-build-in-the-u-s.