SOME inventions, like some classes, seem to make intermittent bounds in development. The car is one of them. Twenty-five years forgotten between Karl Benz opening small-scale manufacture of his original Motorwagen and the revolution, by Henry Ford and his engineers in 1913 that bowed the car into the pervasive, mass-market entry that has well-defined the current urban landscape. On the other hand by putting construction of the Typical T on moving gathering positions set into the floor of his workshop in Detroit, Ford considerably cut the time looked-for to physique it, and henceforward its charge. Practically a billion carriages now roll along the world’s highways.
Today the car seems poised for another burst of evolution. One way in which it is changing relates to its emissions. As emerging markets grow richer, legions of new consumers are clamoring for their first set of wheels. For the whole world to catch up with American levels of car ownership, the global fleet would have to quadruple. Even a fraction of that growth would present fearsome challenges, from congestion and the price of fuel to pollution and global warming.
Yet, as our special report this week argues, stricter regulations and smarter technology are making cars cleaner, more fuel-efficient and safer than ever before. China, its cities choked in smog, is following Europe in imposing curbs on emissions of noxious nitrogen oxides and fine soot particles. Regulators in most big car markets are demanding deep cuts in the carbon dioxide emitted from car exhausts. And carmakers are being remarkably inventive in finding ways to comply
Granted, battery-powered cars have disappointed. They remain expensive, lack range and are sometimes dirtier than they look—for example, if they run on electricity from coal-fired power stations. But car companies are investing heavily in other clean technologies. Future motorists will have a widening choice of super-efficient petrol and diesel cars, hybrids (which switch between batteries and an internal-combustion engine) and models that run on natural gas or hydrogen. As for the purely electric car, its time will doubtless come.
