On my way home I was stuck in a traffic jam and inhaled bad air from other cars. I commute by bus and usually take a non air-con bus, because it cheaper than air-con bus and inside the air-con bus is too clod, too much air conditioned to me. However as you know, a bad thing to take a non air-con bus is that black exhaust gas comes through the window in. Some people prefer to take an air-con bus probably because it is shut bad air out.According to the article “Electric cars not accessible 'in next five years'”, it seems to take time to free from polluted air. Carmakers are investing in electric vehicle or hybrid cars which have both electric and petrol engines to reduce carbon emissions and planning to launch them. However they are still not affordable. In the survey, 91% of consumers consider about fuel efficiency when choosing a new car. Fuel efficient cars reduce carbon emissions.
In Japan, the top sales car brand in 2010 was Toyota’s petrol-electric hybrid car Prius. It became the most popular car because of its fuel efficiency, but actually incentives for eco-cars from government boosted its sales, not only the eco-friendly reason. Without the incentive the price of hybrid cars is more expensive than other ordinary same class cars. However the price gap between hybrid cars and ordinary cars are becoming smaller than before, because their popularity, increasing number of hybrid cars cut down their production costs. Now a lot of automaker are selling or planning to launch new hybrid cars so that they would be more affordable.
On the other hand, Zero-emission car; electronic car model was launched by just one of many carmakers this year, but its price is still very expensive without government subsidies. Moreover in case for electronic cars, there are a lot of hurdles to become popular. The hurdles are about not only their prices but also infrastructures such as battery charge facilities. Probably it takes in next five years or more to be popular. However, surely people tend to choose eco-cars. If more and more people choose and replace their cars to eco-friendly cars, the day that we can enjoy fresh air in a non air-con bus might be not very far. I hope it will come soon.
_________
References
Electric cars not accessible 'in next five years'. (6, January 2011). BBC News. Retrieved January 14, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12124895
I like Shu's post because it raises so many issues.
ReplyDeleteI think electric cars would be great, and I also hate the clouds of filthy black smoke that are sometimes belched out by ageing vehicles on Bangkok's streets. But I also think that it's a very bad idea for governments to subsidize moves to create cleaner cars. In fact, I think all government subsidies do more harm than good - governments should not subsidize farm products, fuel, or anything else because doing so hinders economic growth and is unfair to most people in a country who are forced to pay higher prices as a result.
I think a better solution to the pollution problem is to require that polluters pay for the actual harm they inflict on others by their pollution.
What do others think about the issues Shu's post raises? What is the best way to promote cleaner cars? Should governments play any role in that? What may governments justly do? What is unjust for governments to do? (I think that much of what current governments do is very unjust.)