The increasing awareness of negative facts, as concluded in the previous chapter, gradually forms the concept of ‘sustainable development’ in the automotive sector. This concept was first coined in the Brundtland Report (WCED, 1987), which stated that sustainable development is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". This sustainable development should include economic development, social development, and environmental protection. The same is true in the automotive industry.

 

 

Considering the nature of the automotive industry in terms of its manufacturing and usage, it seems that the most direct and effective path to achieve the sustainable development for automotive industry is to change the model of vehicles’ production. Put it another way, the change goes through from a technological perspective as to make fuel-efficient models and new car-body materials. 

 

According to Nieuwenhuis et al (2006), when using conventional fossil carbon-based fuels, the achievement for CO2 emission reduction can be realized via fuel consumption improvement. In this sense, economical cars might be one choice to meet the need. Since engine size has a close relation to fuel consumption, bigger engine cars will result in more CO2 productions. Due to the encouragement of using small engine cars, fuel consumption of petrol autos has fallen over the past two decades. A switch from petrol engines to diesel ones can save CO2 emissions. As Waters (1990. cited in Whitelegg 1993, p. 28) states in his research, a diesel VW Golf car saved at least 24% of fuel by volume than a petrol one under the same condition. Further improvements can also be reached on alternative fuels. During the late 1980s, United States has taken lead on pure methanol in the hope to replace about 30% of petrol consumption to improve air quality (Renner, 1988, cited in Whitelegg, 1993, p. 29). 

 

与消耗常规化石碳基燃料的传统汽车不同，新能源汽车采用清洁能源和电池电源的技术。这些车辆通常会减少二氧化碳排放量，构成低碳经济.

 

Electric vehicles, in the same contents, might be assessed as a more revolutionary change in terms of transport improvement. The launch of hybrid cars on the markets marked a new chapter in automotive industry as the technology has been turned from diesel to battery sources. Toyota Prius is a paralleled hybrid which can either run conventionally on the internal combustion engine or run in electric mode as an electronic vehicle (Nieuwenhuis, et al. 2003). In another term, this vehicle can run on batteries in urban areas with zero emission would greatly reduce the threat of air pollution. 

 

Gallagher (2006) mentioned the failure of foreign firms to transfer cleaner technologies to China count to one of the reasons of urban air pollution. As a matter of fact, china automotive industry is about 2 decades legging behind compare with advanced countries in terms of conventional fuel improvement technology. Therefore this might explain the great ambition of Chinese government in developing its New Energy Vehicle (NEV) to tackle the pollution problem. Here the author would be focused on the fuel-efficient models, namely the NEV (New Energy Vehicle), which ultimately would replace the petrol-consuming vehicles.

 

 

DEFINITION OF NEV

 

Different with conventional vehicle which consume conventional fossil carbon-based fuels, NEV adopt technological revolution via clean energy and battery sources. These vehicles are generally produce far less CO2 emissions and constitute low carbon economy.    

 

According to Chen (2009), New energy automobiles include Hybrid vehicle (HV), Battery electric vehicle (BEV) (solar powered auto is included), Fuel cell vehicle (FCV) and other new energies such as efficient energy storage and dimethoxy-ethane. HV most commonly refers to hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) that uses two or more distinct power sources to move the vehicle. BEV is a type of electric vehicle that purely driven by battery packs. FCV utilize the high efficiency of electrochemical fuel cells to creat power from hydrogen (Yao et al, 2011). 

 

In another work for low-carbon vehicles, Yao et al (2011) categorize NEVs in a more delicate concept that electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, hybrid vehicles, biofuels vehicles and other alternative fuel vehicles are all included.

 

In a word, NEVs are those vehicles that adopt cleaner method to contribute to a sustainable development in the automotive industry.

 

DEVELOPMENT OF NEV AROUND THE GLOBE

The dramatic drop of fuel consumption and emissions can be expected since the trend of NEV technology has been generally intergraded in recent years (Table 3). Currently, the commercialized products are dominantly HVs (Russell et al, 2011). Leading auto groups such as Honda, Audi, Mercedes-benz, Hyundai and BYD have all launched or will generate several styles of HV.

According to Georgakellos(2008), from a short-term perspective, attention has been drawn on petrol-electric hybrid. From a long-term perspective, focus has been switched to FCV. In addition, battery-powered cars such as nickel/metal hydride battery and lead-acid battery are increasingly step on to a mature stage in the technological term, while plug-in hybrids also see a big business in the next decade (Lewin, 2008) . Currently, parallel hybrid is the main focus in Europe. Without changing traditional mode and by adding motor between gearbox and transmission system, parallel hybrid realize the combination of internal combustion engine and electric drive. The pro of it is the low cost of industrialization while the con is the unideal of fuel consumption.

 

 Technical stages for NEV

 

Source: Synchronization of various sources by the author

Among several technology roadmaps of NEV, battery has won the technological breakthrough which can be justified through the technology of EC in recent years (Russell et al, 2011; Ella et al, 2012). At the same time, the serious situation of global financial crisis pushes the revolution of automotive power technology to serve as a breach for the economic revival. An unprecedented competition has been developed among the entire car producers and automobile manufacturers around the world. The three major auto giants in North America and the enterprises from Europe, Japan and South Korea have all generated their own new energy strategy for competition to create a new chapter in the history of automotive industry (Table 4).

 

With the unavoidable climb of oil prices and new problems such as the high usage cost of autos, consumption of NEV will become the trend for the global development of auto industry. Predicts have been made that in the following years, the cost of hybrid system will have a significant drop (Zhang et al, 2011). According to one JP Morgan Chase’s report (2009), the cost for car manufacturer will drop down to more than 67 percentages. The report also points out that the sale of NEV in global market will up to 9.6 million in the coming decade. The share in global auto market will reach 10.2 percentages. It is generally accepted that the development and promotion of NEV is a major strategic issue which will change the strategy of automotive Industry.