Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

246National Energy Securitysixty-mpg city rating from the Environmental Protection Agency, meets allemission standards, accelerates from zero to sixty (mph) in thirteen and a halfseconds, and is safe in a forty-mph head-on crash. 42 Even more impressive isan advanced VW diesel with a Rabbit body and a three-cylinder enginewhich turns off on idle or coast, then immediately restarts on acceleration. 43A prototype of this model was tested by the Environmental Protection Agencyin 1981 at eighty mpg city, one hundred mpg highway. Even that does notexhaust the possibilities offered by series hybrid drives (in which a smallengine or fuel cell in the car charges a few batteries which run electric drivemotors), infinitely variable transmissions (being introduced in 1981–82 byBorg-Warner/Fiat), or the possible use of lightweight but crashproof bodymaterials such as crushable metal foams and plastic foams.These achievements in the eighty-plus mpg range do not even consideranother option—using cars more specialized for their tasks, notably two-seatercommuter cars for the vast majority of personal driving. Such cars are sellingwell in many other countries. 44 Japanese “mini-cars,” measuring no bigger thanfour and a half by ten and a half feet and displacing no more than five hundredfifty cubic centimeters (thirty-four cubic inches), are currently capturingover a fifth of the domestic market in highly urbanized Japan. Some modelsget on-road efficiencies of fifty-three mpg city, seventy-five highway. (In contrast,the diesel Chevette announced in 1981 by General Motors gets onlyforty and fifty-five respectively.) Such “minis” offer a good match to the urbandriving needs of many Americans, and with modern materials and designthey could be safer than conventional cars. Mixing more sophisticated commuter“minis” into the fleet could send fleet averages over one hundred mpg.General Motors has already announced that it is cooperating with twoJapanese firms to make and sell mini-cars in the United States. 45Government and industry experts have carefully assessed how a largenumber of individually modest efficiency improvements can add up throughoutthe engine, drive train, bearings, lubricants, tires, and streamlining.Systematically used in a four-passenger car of about the same size and performanceas the average car made in the U.S. in 1981, well-known andpresently cost-effective technical improvements would boost efficiency tobetween eighty and one hundred ten mpg. 46 (Very lightweight body materialsand other advanced innovations could improve even on the higher figure.)Improving present U.S. production models only partway—say to sixty mpg—would increase their cost by an estimated eight hundred to nearly twentythreehundred dollars. 47 At the 1981 gasoline price, that extra cost would payback in one to four years. For the nation—which derives social benefits fromreduced oil dependence—the payback would be far faster.