Indego, automotive consultancy, automotive consulting, steve young

A recent article by Jeremy Clarkson, columnist on the Sunday Times and one of the hosts of the BBC Top Gear TV programme, talked about how ridiculous it was that we are now over 100 years into the life of the automobile, yet we are still propelled by a series of controlled explosions contained within an internal combustion engine.  He asked why we had not seen some technological revolution that had moved us on, perhaps to an energy source that was not fossil fuel dependent.

It is a reasonable question to ask.  Within the same period, we have seen the discovery of penicillin and subsequent development of a huge range of live-saving drugs and other medical treatments.  We have learned how to fly, and to do so, not only with the aid of an internal combustion engine, but also the jet engine and the rocket.  We have moved on from the telegraph through copper-wire based phones to cellular phones and the internet.  The cash register (patented in 1883, just two years before Carl Benz went for his first drive) has been replaced by electronic calculators and now computers of rapidly increasing power, at ever decreasing cost.
 

Yet, here we are, faced with environmental and natural resources challenges which have been talked about and legislated on extensively for the last 40 years, and we are still holding onto the internal combustion engine, or perhaps electric motors, or a combination of the two as the way forward.  The first World Land Speed Record over 100kph was set in an electric car in 1899 - so this is not exactly a brave new world!

The auto industry has invested so much time and money into refining the internal combustion engine and building the very expensive facilities with high degrees of automation where they can be produced cost effectively, that an extremely high barrier to entry has been set.  The jet turbine is a much simpler machine than a gasoline or diesel engine - how much cheaper could it be if there was appropriate research into new materials and production volumes of millions rather than thousands?  If fuel cells were moved out of the research labs and had the same level of development resource allocated that goes into internal combustuon engines every day, would we have a viable commercial solution?  I think we might.

We need a breakthrough which is decades overdue, but due to vested interests, it is not going to come from the auto industry at a time when they are focussed on surviving the latest sales downturn.