Letter from the Editor: The Sweetest Crude
April 1, 2008
Last year, The Robb Report Collection (April 2007) scoured the globe to create a catalog of "Lean, Mean, Green Machines"—fast, but environmentally friendly, vehicles that promised to substitute gasoline power with alternative fuels. Power came from almost every imaginable source, running the gamut from biodiesel, turbo-diesel, and plain-old diesel engines; electric motors; ethanol; hybrid engines; hydrogen fuel cells and even solar panels. Compiling this list was no easy task—salable options were mostly in the conceptual stages of development—and readily attainable, alternative fuel-powered cars proved scarce.
This year, however, the ecological landscape is littered with viable green vehicles sprouting like weeds. There are still more prototypes than drivable products (see page 14 for a slate of eco-conscious concept and production cars that recently debuted at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit), but several options are readily available, for a price. See page 34 for our first drive of the $100,000 Tesla Roadster, or page 46 for where to send your deposit on the upcoming Fisker Karma. Both of these cars are parked in the upper end of the market. New technology is expensive, after all, so to cover research and development costs in uncharted territory, it makes sense that the first truly green vehicles would have a higher price tag.
In last year’s editor’s letter, I proposed hydrogen as the answer to annually removing a billion pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions from the atmosphere, and suggested that Sir Richard Branson send me the check for his $25 million prize. When I posed the solution to him in person a few months ago, Branson politely nodded, pretending to actually consider my suggestion, then responded: "The problem with hydrogen is that you need to get rid of all of today’s cars and start with new cars."
In addition to pledging that still unclaimed prize, Branson plans to spend $3 billion developing clean fuels. "I think that’s the best chance," he says. The billionaire entrepreneur has promised to run at least one of the engines from his Virgin 747 fleet on clean fuels this year. "We’re working with Virgin Fuels, GE, and Boeing on that, so if in the next five years we can replace all the dirty fuels we use on our planes with clean fuels, that would be a fantastic step forward," Branson says, ever hopeful. "We’re trying to develop similar fuels for cars, buses, and trains as well."
But Branson’s bigger plans rely on biofuel production, specifically sugar-based ethanol or butanol. "The advantage is that if you change the rubber lead in your car to a metal lead—it costs about $100 or so—you can have 85 percent of your fuel from sugar-based ethanol," he explains. Unlike corn-based ethanol produced in America (see "Spirits of Performance", page 28), sugar-based ethanol is seven times more efficient.
According to Branson, if America removed the tariff on sugar, 100 percent of our cars could be using 85 percent sugar-based ethanol within five years. "There is no shortage of sugar in the world—sugar is at an all-time low in price," he says. "Brazil alone—without any damage to the rainforests—could create enough sugar plantations to supply the whole of America. But because the Bush administration still doesn’t seem to believe in global warming, there isn’t that sense of urgency to force petrol companies to have ethanol pumps in their stations, or to lift the importation duty on sugar. But it can be done, and it can be done rather quickly."
If the answer, as Branson suggests, is sugar, then ending our dependence on oil could soon be more than sweet dreams.
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