On my desk, coverpage waiting to be lifted, is a book, entitled CLEAN CAR WARS: How Honda and Toyota are Winning the Battle of the Eco-Friendly Autos, written by Yozo Hasegawa and translated into English by Tony Kimm. It's been there, sitting, since three months ago.
I guess it's true; I'm not a "car person." I drive. I love the fact that cars can take me from point A to B in relative comfort (discounting traffic, irate other drivers, uneven roads, bully buses and trucks, zigzagging motorcycles, and other road undesirables); but that's about it for me. I know the book can educate me, elucidate me on many hazy car matters; but all these time, I find other green living topics, more interesting to read about and post about. That is until I saw this spread on the newspaper today:
GO TEAM PHILIPPINES!
Shell Eco-marathon Asia welcomes its first Philippine delegation to compete at the inaugural Shell Eco-marathon (SEM) Asia, in July 2010 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
It got me interested, really curious and excited. The prospects for innovations or creative designs, and the competition itself did it for me.
The book and this eco-marathon, both, tackle the race or the battle for designing and making the most energy-efficient vehicles. As the competition byline says, “A competition that is about distance, not speed.” There’ll be none of the F1-type flurry and thrill in this event, but everyone who’ll follow this race, surely, will have the delight of victory, as we’ll all eventually be the winners. Having cleaner cars soon running our roads is the result everyone is rooting for.
For the shell competition, the competitors can use any of the following fuels to power their vehicles: conventional fuels such as diesel, gasoline and LPG or alternative fuels such as fuel cells/hydrogen, bio-fuel, solar and gas-to-liquid.
Meanwhile, in the industry front, Honda and Toyota are waging war to determine who shall come up with the most successful green vehicle product. They believe that leading the auto-industry, being ahead of all competition, depend on coming up with the best eco-friendly technology. Auto manufacturers, who remain doggedly stubborn, producing gas-guzzlers, big truck-type SUVs, and other non-fuel-economic cars will be left behind, some to be museum-bound, to corporate bankruptcy and extinction.
Hopefully, all these races and battles, will make eco-friendly cars more market-friendly, that is more affordably-priced. Perhaps, the government can help by giving incentives (tax breaks, financial assistance, ordinances on free parking, etc.) to spur faster adaptation into the green cars. Can majority of cars be clean cars even before 2020?
Now, it’s time for me to open the book.
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Other green book posts:
Are You Ecologically Intelligent
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WORD FROM THE SPONSOR
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Ecclesiastes 9:11
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