The Future of the Automobile

The future of the Automobile

The automobile has been around for over a century and it has always been known that if a car goes fast, it will burn more fuel. This is an irrefutable fact. The faster and more aggressively you drive the more fuel you will use and conversely, the slower and less aggressively you drive, the less fuel you will use. What part of that reasoning do you not understand? Sure; over the years there have been improvements in fuel economy and performance, but there comes a point in the economy vs. performance curve where the two lines intersect. There is only so much energy you can squeeze from a gallon of gasoline or diesel. After that, there cannot be any further meaningful improvement. Aerodynamics and weight savings can improve both performance and economy, but that comes with a high cost penalty. Automobile manufacturers certainly know this right from the beginning. They will cater to what the public wants, knowing that there are only two directions to follow. In the past few years, the public has been clamoring for more efficient vehicles due to the high cost of oil. After it has reached a point where the public says, enough is enough, the car companies "introduce" fuel efficient vehicles. To the misinformed, it appears to them like Detroit (or Dearborn) has pulled a rabbit out of the hat. The truth is, the car companies have already solved the problems of fuel economy and performance many years ago. When they want an economical car to suit public demand, they have a bag of tricks to call on. Some of these tricks are larger tires, air fuel ratio changes, higher final gear ratios, even larger fuel tanks. All of these tricks will result in a car getting better fuel economy. On the other hand, when they want to emphasize performance, where economy is secondary, bigger engines and more aggressive computer chips are brought out. All of these technologies exist and it is just a matter of combining them in a final form to suit a particular need. You might say today's automobile is modular. Combine various components and you have a car that varies all the way from very high fuel economy to very high performance, all on the pretty much basic platform.

In an effort to make vehicles more fuel efficient, hybrids and electric vehicles are now on the market. Overall, after taking into account the high cost of batteries and their inevitable replacement, the overall cost of driving may actually go up instead of down. As far as performance is concerned, they are not designed for performance, because as we all know, performance comes about at the sacrifice of fuel efficiency. Hybrids and electrics also pay a weight penalty.

It then appears the automobile as we know it has reached a plateau in its design. Very few improvements in either efficiency or performance will come about that I can see, but what do I know? I'm just smarter than the average bear. Maybe the age of "the Jetsons" is still in the making.