People have this incredibly odd habit of taking things that are rare and deeming them better for one reason or another. Occasionally, this works out, in the case of gold or diamonds, for example.
Gold does not corrode and is one of the best heat reflectors on Earth, so it has some legitimate functional properties. Diamonds are one of the hardest substances known to man, so we can use them to cut nearly anything.
Not to mention both of those substances are gorgeous to look at.
However, sometimes, this makes absolutely no sense at all. Look at products made by brands like Gucci. They are weird, unpractical, expensive, and borderline offensive, yet people buy them in droves, simply because it has the Gucci name and the clout that comes with that.
The odd thing is that when there is a rare product or resource that is ridiculous, it is nearly always man-made. None of the natural ones are stupid, like gold and diamonds, because it was not people that said, “oh yeah, we can do better than that.”
They are naturally amazing.
However, what if there were something natural, yet not desirable. If only there were something that we viewed as a filthy nuisance that is natural, yet rare.
Coal and oil fit that description, don’t they?
Here is where I am going with this; what if we began treating coal and oil like we do gold and diamonds?
Why not make fossil fuels a luxury item?
Distributors charge a premium because there is only a finite amount of it on the planet; it is getting rarer and rarer, like gold and diamonds.
If we treat fossil fuels like precious metals, they would be reserved for the rich and famous, which gold and diamonds already are, as well as the most charismatic cars that run on fossil fuels.
If we keep the Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and that stuff solely powered by fossil fuels, they will be an exclusive product, which would mean barely anybody would use them. However, some more affordable cars should be powered by gasoline as well. Stuff like Mazda Miata’s, Ford Fiesta ST’s, Fiat 500 Abarth’s, for one very good reason.
All these cars are only bought by a small number of people. Therefore, the vast majority of the auto industry's carbon footprint would be gone anyway. It saves gasoline for the people who prefer it to electricity.
Most people do not buy cars because they are passionate about them, or want to have fun while driving, or simply because they can be cool. No, most people buy them for the same reason they buy a washing machine; they need an appliance to make their lives easier.
Therefore, I think 90-95% of cars should be powered by electricity or hydrogen.
First, electric cars do not operate on the same emotional level as internal combustion engines.
Most people do not care about or notice the emotional aspect of a car in the first place. Any car that is used as an appliance should just be made like an appliance and should have no attention given to the emotional aspect of it at all.
One reason is the lack of noise. Traditional engines, mainly the expensive ones, seem more like a beating heart than a collection of metal bits flying around. If you have not already, look up an audio clip of the V8 engine in the Ferrari 458, or the V10 in the Audi R8, or the V12 in the Pagani Zonda.
The sound is mind-blowing. Each of those engines produces what is easily a collection of the most glorious man-made noises ever.
Also, there is the power delivery. Internal combustion engines seem to react and grow as the revs climb because the more they rev, the more power they produce. This gives an effect of the engine working with you, almost as a teammate.
Electricity also the potential to be cleanly produced by wind farms and dams. Coal and oil, however, are not getting any cleaner.
Hydrogen is more of a utopian version of car propulsion. It is currently so expensive and hard to work with only a select handful of cars are offered with hydrogen drivetrains. Even then, they are drab economy cars that cost as much as a conventional mid-range Mercedes.
Just think of how many environmental problems that would fix. People would not buy much of it because it is so expensive. This is likely the only approach that will work since telling people that utilizing these resources gives us lung cancer and rapes the planet does not.
However, the other side of that coin is that it would also create a lot of issues, especially if it happens overnight.
If the price of gasoline and much of the world’s electricity were to multiply several times over in the next twenty-four hours, there would likely be worldwide anarchy. Many people would not have any power and would not have a way to transport themselves.
Therefore, we need to do it incrementally. Change a bit there, raise a price over here, increase the investment in clean energy right there. And in the coming years, we may be able to abolish the widespread usage of coal and oil.
At least in the auto industry.
Besides, the infrastructure needs to be sorted out as well if we are going to go this deep in alternative energy sources.
There are talks and theories of cars capable of wireless charging and using the roads as the wireless charger itself.
Unfortunately, though, this will likely not happen as that would require tearing up the entire road network, installing wireless charging technology (which currently does not exist), and then re-paving the entire road network.
Imagine how many trillions of dollars that would cost.
Until we can replace this filthy, dangerous, fuel with something cleaner that we can get our hands on anyway, gasoline will just have to remain the poor man's electricity.
Photo taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gold-gold_spinel-twinned3.jpg