The other day I passed by a “smart” car with a surfboard on top, and I thought to myself “Only in Southern California.”
Sign of the times? Or is it a reflection of the wave of trendy “eco” conscious inhabitants who have flooded the coast in the last few years? Perhaps it’s both.
Outrageous gas prices, combined with a deteriorating environment, have us all in a quandary of how we are going to breathe better. Alternative fuel vehicles may be one of the many solutions. The “smart” car may not be the best way to curb our insidious appetite for Middle East oil, but it’s a start. Originally the brainchild of Lebanese-born entrepreneur/inventor Nicolas Hayek of Swatch watch fame, smart cars are designed to be small, fuel-efficient, environmentally responsible and easy to park.
For example, the Smart ForTwo is the most fuel-efficient gasoline-engined car for sale in the United States. The car – which is a little over eight feet long and less than five feet wide – gets about 33 miles per gallon (mpg) for city driving and 41 mpg on the highway.
Every time my 9-year-old son sees a smart car he says, “I don’t think they are very smart. They look dangerous.” Good point. As for safety, the ForTwo did well enough in crash tests by the independent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) to earn five stars – the group’s highest rating. The mini car has a steel racecar-style frame and high-tech front and side airbags. Despite such good safety performance for a small car, IIHS testers caution that larger, heavier cars are inherently safer than smaller ones. Duh!
Is the smart car a smart choice for drivers who are concerned about the environment as well as their wallet? Judge for yourself: The price tag can range from about $12,000 to $17,000 (minus the surf racks).
Then there’s Nissan’s new 100-percent electric vehicle the Leaf (I actually saw one today in front of me as I was getting on the freeway). San Diego, my hometown, is among a handful of cities chosen for the roll-out of the Leaf. Other regions include Seattle, Portland, Phoenix/Tucson, and Chattanooga/Knoxville, Tennessee. Late last year, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) announced it will work with Electric Transportation Engineering Corp. (eTec) and others on the roll-out of 1,500 public and commercial and 1,000 home base electric charging stations across the county to help support the Leaf and other electric vehicles.
The Leaf is far cry the early electric vehicles, such as the 1902 Wood's Phaeton, which was basically an electrified horseless carriage and surrey. The Phaeton had a range of 18 miles, a top speed of 14 mph and cost $2,000.
Today, as the industry and we as a society define new alternatives in transportation and make a true passionate statement on conservation and environmental awareness, I hope that the same mistakes won’t be made as in the 1990s. If you haven’t seen it already, check out the 2006 documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car?, which explores the creation, limited commercialization, and subsequent destruction of the battery electric vehicle in the United States, specifically the General Motors EV1 in the mid 1990s. The film brilliantly depicts the roles of automobile manufacturers, the oil industry, the U.S. government, California government, batteries, and consumers in limiting the development and adoption of this technology. Check out the web site here. Below is a You Tube trailer of the film.
As I zip around town in my Honda Element (which, until gas prices soared above $4 a gallon, I thought had decent gas mileage), I think about what my vehicle of choice would be if I could only have one. And, of course, it would be one of the most eco sound of them all, one that requires no fuel, and that’s a surfboard.
