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The Battle of the Green cars
May 13, 2008
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| Click to listen to interview |
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Welcome to Frontiers with me, Loretta Foo.
After producing one of the most essential commodities around the world for years, the automobile industry is facing an uncertain future. While the demand for automobiles continues, many doubts hang over the continued use of the petrol-based engine that is present in most vehicles.
The industry cannot afford to ignore crises that are happening all over the world. From the price of oil continuing to reach unbelievable heights to the threat of global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions by one of the biggest culprits, cars, the industry has had no choice but to reinvent the automobile engine, its most fundamental feature.
Yoso Hasegawa is the author of the book, “Clear Car Wars: How Honda and Toyota are winning the Battle of the Eco-friendly Autos”. He says that while car makers from different parts of the world are dealing with this problem in very different ways, he expects Japanese car manufacturers to gain the upper hand over their Western counterparts.
YH: There are two reasons I believe. First of all, Toyota and Honda (Japanese car makers) know that if they can succeed in developing green technology, they can increase their share of the American market. They know that if they cannot pass the USA strict eco-control, they cannot survive. So I believe that Toyota and Honda have a sense of urgency about their global strategy. That’s why they’ve gained in the global market. The second reason is that Toyota and Honda have also an advantage in green technology because in Japan they have a strong accumulation of manufacturing and electric suppliers. That’s why Toyota and Honda are rather eager to develop green technology through good cooperation with these suppliers.
What direction and technology are the Japanese car—makers using to create Green cars?
YH: First of all, Toyota is confident of their hybrid car technology. So Toyota is setting up their main direction of green technology as the hybrid car. Toyota is deepening the hybrid technology to the plug-in hybrid and is preparing to commericalise the plug-in hybrid by installing it in all of Toyota’s cars by 2020. Honda will also launch its own hybrid passenger car next year.
In contrast, why are the Western car-makers using bio-diesel technology?
YH: .The reason comes from the priorities of Western technology. Europe has the technology base of diesel. Western government regulations are not so strict for diesel cars and the price of fuel for a diesel-car is rather cheap compared to Japan. That’s why Daimler (western carmaker) is pursuing the [BlueTec] technology which reduces all of components of diesel emissions including NOx (nitrogen oxide) to pass through the new USA regulations. So European car-makers are very confident of penetrating the American market with the diesel car.
Which will prove to be more successful in the long run?
YH: I think the age is coming to the mixed stage. It means biotechnology and hybrid cars and diesel cars will be combined with each other. For example, they are developing diesel hybrid cars in Europe and Japan is developing gasoline hybrid cars with electronics. They will develop hybrid technology more deeply to commercialize plug-in hybrid to inject electricity easily at the home.
How has the need for green cars changed the automobile trends in the world?
YH: This is a very big problem because the auto industry is a gasoline oriented industry. However, the gasoline orientated system is now changing to a no-carbon industry and as they pursue smaller and lighter cars, it will accelerate cross alliances between auto industry and electricity and even blue chip companies. In this context, Japan has an advantage as it has a large number of manufacturing and electric companies while Japan could be the world center for supplying special components.
The book, “Clear Car Wars: How Honda and Toyota are winning the Battle of the Eco-friendly Autos” is available in bookshops here.
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