Building a Market for "Green" Vehicles

America is on the cusp of an automotive revolution, as significant as any since the beginning of the automotive age a century ago. But this revolution is not what you might think, because its focus is not new or exotic fuels and propulsion systems. It involves new technologies that are available right now that promise to have far more immediate impact on our lives.

The wave is driven by need and opportunity. Today’s fleet of 225 million family cars and trucks consumes 8 million barrels of oil every day – much of it imported, often from some of the world’s most unstable places. They’re also a big source of global warming pollution, and millions of tons of other dangerous emissions.

Mobility is important to our daily lives, but we must also realize that continuing on the same old road is no solution. We have the technology to beat these challenges today, without compromising safety, performance, or vehicle choice. All that’s needed is the will to make it happen. Reducing our oil dependence should be a top national priority; it’s time to break the chain of oil addiction.

We need a combination of well-crafted incentives and sensible standards that unleash the technical prowess and marketing energies of the automakers. Solutions range from the simplest design improvements to the dramatic savings achievable with the new generation of gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles.

But even the simple solutions make a difference. Advances like better tires and more efficient electrical systems can bring immediate improvements to mass production vehicles. Consider this: If lower rolling resistance tires became the standard replacement tire, gasoline consumption would decrease by about 3%, and the country could save three billion gallons of gasoline a year by 2010.

Improved aerodynamics, better lubricants, improved transmissions, and advanced engine electronics can all improve the fuel economy of any car without compromising performance. Most of these solutions are already on the road, but they’re not being used widely enough. The reason is that automakers lack the incentive or the requirement to deliver the fuel savings we need to make our country more secure, and less dependent on oil imports.

Every car on the road today – whether it’s a pickup or a Prius – should have the best, most efficient technology. Right now, they don’t. The right mix of standards and incentives can change all that, making these technologies commonplace in the mass market. Then we will truly make a difference.

In the longer term, we can expect those exotic technologies that promise so much – such as fuel cells, perhaps fueled with hydrogen created through renewable means – to bring us vehicles emitting only water vapor as exhaust. Those will and must come. But Americans buy 17 million new cars and trucks each year. Every one of them should be as safe, clean, and efficient as possible.

It is far too easy to be swayed by the bright promise of future technology being promised some eight, 10, 15 years down the road. We need to stay focused on the path that takes us there, while at the same time encouraging automakers to build new cars that also offer significant environmental improvements now.

The last part of this equation, of course, is that we buy these cars to help create this market. It is our job to make the "green car" market real. As we create that market, and automakers profit from it, then they will be encouraged to produce ever cleaner, ever greener vehicles and we all will benefit from the process.

John Adams is president of the Natural Resources Defense Council (www.nrdc.org).