The auto industry is rethinking the car from the ground up, all in the name of ecology.

By: Joshua Chiet

" The future of the industry depends on its ability to produce a new breed of car that significantly reduces, if not entirely eradicates, carbon dioxide and smog-forming pollutants. The technological key to delivering these benefits simultaneously is the electric-drive vehicle, and the most promising of these rely on fuel cells. "

It used to be my greatest joy to tag along with my father to his work on Saturdays. My Dad owned an auto repair garage, and I loved sitting among the new tires, smelling the vulcanized rubber and grease as I drifted contentedly off to sleep. Sometimes, my older sister would join me-we'd talk about the soporific power that new tire smell had over us. And we'd talk about the future of the automobile industry: One of our biggest fears was that the skies would soon be littered with the flying cars that movies and novels promised endlessly. How, we wondered, would our father keep up with the astounding technological advances that this new breed of vehicle would doubtlessly bring? The Family Business...eradicated in the blink of an eye by the onward march of progress.

While the flying car is no closer today than it was in Jules Verne's time, the automobile is currently in the throes of a revolutionary metamorphosis. The major players in the auto industry are rethinking the car from the ground up, challenging our basic assumptions about America's true favorite pastime-all in the name of ecology.

The automobile is in need of a major overhaul. Cities across the globe are feeling the impact of the internal combustion engine in smog-filled skies and waning petroleum reserves. While experts disagree on just how much petrol is left to be sucked out of the reticent Earth, we probably can't expect it to last through the next half-century at the current rate, and demand is rising every day. Further, Detroit is still feeling the pinch of Clinton-era environmental regulations concerning stringent new air standards for ground-level ozone (smog) and fine particulates (soot). The future of the industry depends on its ability to produce a new breed of car that significantly reduces, if not entirely eradicates, carbon dioxide and smog-forming pollutants. The technological key to delivering these benefits simultaneously is the electric-drive vehicle, and the most promising of these rely on fuel cells.

When it comes to the environment, fuel cell cars show far more potential than the current breed of eco-friendly automobile: the gas-electric hybrid. While hybrid autos are essentially battery-powered electric vehicles with small combustion engines, their negative impact on the environment is not necessarily lessened. Toyota's current hybrid, the Prius, was developed to provide increased fuel economy, but it emits the same amount of smog-forming pollutants as today's gasoline cars.

Fuel cell vehicles are a much more radical rethinking of the automobile's power plant. They generate their own electricity through the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen, a reaction that produces ordinary water as its only by-product. The oxygen is taken directly from the air. When the hydrogen used is produced from a renewable source, fuel cells generate zero or near-zero smog-forming pollutants. Not only does this negate the automobile itself as being a cause of environmental damage, it also largely eliminates a need for oil, whose procurement and refinement is responsible for a huge amount of trauma to the Earth and its atmosphere.

While fuel cell technology is still not yet perfected for consumer use, its proponents claim we'll soon see hydrogen reaction powered vehicles sharing road space with their cruder cousins. While manufacturers's previous promises to develop green autos have seemed like so much sound and fury, the promise of the fuel cell has caused many in the industry to proclaim the death of the internal combustion engine. Daimler-Benz has announced its intention to sell 100,000 fuel cell vehicles by 2004, and both Ford and GM have promised production models by the end of the decade. GM's CEO Rick Wagoner is so enamored of the fuel cell concept that his company has produced a proof-of-concept model that is fully drivable and uses fuel cell technology as the basis for a complete redesign of the automobile itself.

GM's new concept car is called the Hy-Wire. Replacing the standard engine with a fuel cell, GM's engineers have realized that automobile design conventions, stemming from outmoded mechanical necessity, are no longer applicable. In fact, the Hy-Wire combines so many advances beyond the current crop of available vehicles that it is almost impossible to imagine the future of driving not revolving around its innovations. To begin with, the Hy-Wire's chassis is a mere 11 inches thick. This slab contains all of the car's internal components, from the fuel cell, or "stack," to the vehicle's suspension. Of course, a few unnecessary items have been omitted, including a gas tank, engine, transmission, and steering wheel. While the first part of its name derives from the hydrogen that fuels it, the "wire" in the Hy-Wire's moniker refers to its drive-by-wire system. This car has absolutely no mechanical connection between its spacious passenger compartment and its platform. Its steering, brake, and throttle are controlled instead by a wired remote unit resembling a Nintendo game controller. While no street date has been set for GM's new concepts to roll into production, company sources hint at a 2008 introduction.

Fuel cell technology still has some ways to go before we find it powering our cars and homes. Currently, it costs up to 100 times as much to wring the same amount of power from a fuel cell stack as from an internal combustion engine. Then, there's the concern for an efficient and safe infrastructure for fuel delivery: America has thus far made no preparation for a hydrogen delivery network, which must replace the petroleum distribution network that has been in place for decades. And what of the mechanics? Even as a child, I understood that a paradigm shift in an industry so ingrained into the fabric of American life would render a large number of specialized workers unqualified and jobless. Still, the future of a fuel cell driven economy, free from dependence on oil and environmental assault, is worth every growing pain we may feel. The new automotive revolution will see human beings finally integrating more harmoniously with the Earth upon which they drive.