Thursday, January 8, 2009

T25 City Car Concept

Are Our Views on a Green Car All Wrong?

Currently all our efforts are being put into alternative fuels. But does this really make sense? Long term, yes we will need an alternative to oil based fuels. However, at the current rate a real alternative is at least 15 + years away probably another 10 after that point before the flow through of old vehicles start going off the road. Can we wait that long? Hydrogen sounds like a good option, but it will take years before we can build a distribution network across the continent (even a province) so you can take a trip. Plus safety is still a question mark. Bio Fuels sounded like the savior till we remembered a world food shortage is looming. There is some sort of Algea alternative but can we really power the 500 million cars on the road with it, oh don't forgot they estimate that number of cars on hte road will double in the next 20 years. Electric Cars, now there's the answer, right! I new it was simple. Wait a minute, how we going to create enough electricity to recharge these. Coal? Nope, no good. Nuclear is clean! Damn it all the nuclear waste we can't do anything with is an issue. A true solution seems like a tought find.

So this brings me to the T25 City Car designed by Gordon Murray for which he was awarded idea of the year by Autocar magazine. Who's Gordon Murray? Well the designer of the Mclarren F1, the worlds fastest naturally aspired car and now he has re-thought the process of a green car and it just seems to make so much sense.

First the environmental impact of automobiles involves so much more then CO2 Emissions at the exhaust. What about production, raw materials, transportation to dealers, noise pollution, congestion, etc. This is where Mr. Murray steps in looking at the vehicles impact on society throughout it's entire life cycle and came out with the T25 City Car concept he is about to release later this year. See the 14 pictures below touching on his concepts in comparison to a small hatchback like the mini and read through the following links if you are interested
http://jalopnik.com/5063312/gordon-murrays-t25-city-car-revealed-sort-of
http://www.gordonmurraydesign.com/T25.html.

Now I'm sure I'll here someone tell me you drive a truck (required for work) and work in the motorsports industry, suond a little hypocritical of you. However, these concepts could also be applied to larger vehicles and we would end up with a much more efficient Automotive Industry. Plus aknowledging what lies ahead, ultimately we will soon have to start rethinking our method's of transportation and infrastructures.


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