It’s been interesting to watch the press releases from motor manufacturers dropping into my inbox of late. Almost every week, another car company tells me how its latest technology is a little more eco-friendly or green than their previous efforts – or those of the competition. This has, on the face of it, got to be good news for the eco-conscious among us. If the manufacturers are now trying to get a green edge on each other rather than trying to eke out more gas-guzzling power from their motors, then competition should dictate that the industry as a whole gets greener.

Of course, as long as most of the world’s cars continue to run on fossil-fuel powered internal combustion engines, then the car companies still have plenty of work to do. A technological revolution is needed, and the firm that can come up with a viable, mass-produced, affordable car that runs on an entirely new and eco-friendly power source could be in for a lot of money.

It may be risky to go down an entirely new technological path, but the car companies are beginning to accept that they’ll have to do it at some point. Hence the shift in focus from their marketing and technical people. Toyota’s Prius, now over a decade old, was among the first real ground-breakers. This electric hybrid keeps the petrol engine running time to a minimum, and the 2009 generation even features solar panels to help power the ventilation system. The Prius concept is also found on various Lexus models.

On a far smaller production scale, the Ronn Motor Company in Texas claims its Scorpion, with its Hydrogen Fuel Injection fuel delivery system, improves fuel mileage by up to 40% and reduces CO2 emissions to nearly zero. Mercedes-Benz, meanwhile, is also looking at ways of upping its efficiency, for example its BlueEFFICIENCY special packages that can reduce fuel consumption by up to 12% through aerodynamics, tyres and automatic stop-start functions. In South Africa, this can be seen on the C180 KOMPRESSOR model from this year.

Fiats like the ‘new’ 500 also boast stop-start technology, which cuts down on unnecessary idling at red robots. The Italian firm also offers a ‘Blue & Me’ system, which analyses a driver’s own influence on fuel consumption and emissions – driving style can make a big difference!

Moving further from fuel technology is a car like Volvo’s ReCharge Concept (left), which is more efficient than the Prius in that it can – through individual electric wheel motors – run for 100km on electric power alone. There’s also the electric Mini E, which is a promising concept from the BMW group, and South Africa’s very own Joule (see pg 4). But while it’s these last cars that are most promising, it’s not a lot of good until they hit the mass market. The challenge for every company now is to turn their concepts into affordable reality.