FEATURE ARTICLE
A
recent issue of the Economist newspaper ran a feature article called “The death of the Internal Combustion Engine”. And let’s be frank - since news of the German diesel scandal (which really is a worldwide diesel scandal) broke, there is ever more momentum towards a world full of Electric Vehicles. Or so it would seem. Multiple cities have already declared to ban diesel altogether at some point in the not too distant future. France has announced a ban from 2040 onwards and other countries explore the option of following suit. Even in the US, the country that was taken out of the Paris accords by President Trump, there is a coalition of city and local politicians that are willing and able to press ahead with abolishing the combustion of hydrocarbons. Germany just had its meeting of auto-industry managers and officials called the Diesel summit and the world watched in disgust how auto companies got off lightly for cheating everyone. At the same time, not a day goes by with triumphant news on how much cheaper solar and wind are compared to anything else and some venerable institutions already see a Demand Peak for oil in the near future. Volvo has announced that they will go all electric by 2019 and even Ford has announced that their monster F-150 pickup and the iconic Mustang will be available in a hybrid version. And to top it all, Elon Musks wonder car, the model
NGV Transportation Vol.31 Jul - Sep 2017
THE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE is not dead, but it morphs 22