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Getting the green technology on the roads

— PHOTO: PRISCILLA JEBARAJ

CLEAN AND GREEN: Visitors have a look at the Citroen C-Metisse, a concept car, from Peugeot at Shanghai Automotive Exhibition Centre recently.

SHANGHAI: The cleaner, greener future of the automotive industry was on display in Shanghai recently, but auto majors at Michelin’s Challenge Bibendum conference say it will take sustained pull-push policy initiatives to actually get the technology on the roads.

At the Shanghai Automotive Exhibition Centre, auto fans vied to test drive the futuristic black and grey fuel cell-powered F600 Hygenius, a prototype vehicle from Daimler. Across the parking lot, cameras flashed constantly as people vied to pose with the snazzy red Citroen C-Metisse from the Peugeot stable, a concept car featuring a spectacular car door system and a diesel hybrid power train. Electric plug-in cars whizzed silently past the queue of fuel cell powered vehicles waiting to fill up at the liquid hydrogen pumping station. A quirky electro-solar powered three-seater, also equipped with its own personal wind turbine, darted through the gaps, flaunting the future of environmentally friendly road transport.

Indoors, auto and component manufacturers debated with governmental and non-governmental agencies about just what it would take to put these exciting concepts into production.

“I am confident the technology is ready. Now governments need to be ready to take action,” says Michel Rollier, chief executive of Michelin, the tyre giant that hosted this annual conference on the challenges of sustainable road mobility. While World Health Organisation Director Etienne Krug made the point that media and educators played an important role in creating a culture of environmental responsibility among producers and consumers, Bjorn Stigson, President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, echoed most stakeholders when he insisted, “Education is simply not enough. We need regulation. We need that push...from governments, and industry. It needs to be a public-private partnership.”

Industry players put several caveats on what this regulation should look like. There is no one-size fits all formula, says Audi board member, Axel Strotbek. Daimler’s research and development director, Herbert Kohler agrees, pointing out that it is ridiculous to expect small and large car manufacturers to meet the same carbon dioxide emissions target. “If you really want to solve the problem, you need to put pressure on the mass market,” he says, insisting that luxury cars are a smaller culprit in the climate change crisis.

He also wants regulation to follow a global code, rather than offering different codes for different regions.

Shell’s Executive Vice-President, David Pirret, pointed out that governmental incentives were as important as governmental regulation. “A helpful pricing policy is needed. If alternative fuels are costlier than oil at $100 a barrel, then you need taxation benefits or incentives to convince people to use them,” he says.

Beyond national regulations and incentives, most industry players are looking for cues from global policy initiatives, with several of them referring to the importance of next month’s UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia.

“There is no clear visibility on what happens post-Kyoto, and visibility is very important for the industry. If the industry is to invest in energy-efficient technology, we must know what will happen in the future. We need clear directions from Bali,” says Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, chief executive of Rhodia, a key supplier to the automotive emissions control market.

The global community needs to snap out of the deadlock caused by a ‘you first’ mentality during the Bali negotiations, says Mr. Stigson. “We do not know what is going to happen in three to four years. As industry, we invest for 30-40 years in the future. It is an impossible situation,” he says.

Those policy cues will determine when the futuristic vehicles whizzing around the test tracks hit the real world of Shanghai’s crowded highways.

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