Innovations in Personal Vehicles

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Innovations in personal vehicles come from two directions: (1) vehicle designs that increase fuel efficiency—the distance a vehicle can travel per volume of fuel—and (2) fuels that replace gasoline and diesel and so reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. The trick in achieving success in both innovations resides in the automobile industry’s ability
to remain profitable while it reinvents the car. Global warming has already reached deadly levels for some ecosystems, so automakers must understand that beginning the process of redesigning personal vehicles cannot be delayed.

Why are personal vehicles so critical to the health of the environment? Cars, sport utility vehicles, and small trucks produce about 50 percent of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Cars and pickup trucks in the United States contribute to half that amount even though these vehicles make up 30 percent of all the world’s cars and pickup trucks. These vehicles produce the greenhouse gases nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and  carbon dioxide, which all trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. This global warming has caused, and continues to cause, plant and animal species to disappear because they cannot adjust to habitats that have changed due to warmer temperatures. Warming alters the plant life and prey-predator relationships in ecosystems; food sources disappear; invasive species
enter ecosystems and destroy them. Vehicles, industries, and residential buildings all contribute to this warming effect.