A Brief History Of Sustainable Car Development

When the first cars were driven through the streets of Germany, a vanguard with a red flag had to run ahead. In a relatively short time people got used to the new vehicles, and the cars became so fast that no one could possibly have run in front of them anymore. Engineers and designers were never satisfied with the car, so soon after development of the first motors they were preoccupied with improving automotive efficiency and performance. In most cases they tried to replace the internal combustion engine with another type of motor. The electric motor alternative came into play early on.

The Lohner-Porsche
In 1899 Ferdinand Porsche, employee of the Lohner automobile company, developed the first vehicle with an electric motor, the Lohner Porsche. He developed a drive system based on fitting an electric motor to each front wheel without transmissions. His vehicle was entered in the 1900 “Semmering Race” and was driven by Dr. Porsche himself. In 1900 the Lohner Porsche with hub-mounted motors and no transmission was celebrated at the Paris World Fair as an epoch-making innovation. Lohner also produced a number of hybrid gasoline-electric cars. Because of the success of the Lohner Porsche, it has been characterized as the pioneer of sustainable car developments.In 1936 the Diesel motor was introduced for passenger cars, built into the Mercedes-Benz 260 D. Its four-cylinder power unit had an output of 45 HP (33 kW) and accelerated the vehicle to a speed of 90 km/h.

Mercedes 260d
In the 1970’s a revolution in automotive thinking took place. The oil crisis demonstrated plainly to producers and consumers alike that fossil fuels used to drive automobiles is finite. The oil crisis tightened pressure on the automotive industry to develop new sustainable fuel and drive concepts that would end the dependence of mobility on crude oil. As a result, groundbreaking concepts for reducing oil consumption came into being, such as the Golf diesel and the turbo diesel. In 1994 Daimler-Benz introduced the NECAR 1, Europe’s first fuel cell automobile, a Mercedes-Benz MB 100 mini-van with an output of 41 HP. The fuel cell occupied the entire storage space. Honda announced in October 2006 that they would introduce a passenger car with a fuel cell drive system into the Japanese and the US markets in 2008.Another milestone of efficient, greener auto design is the Toyota Prius that was produced and marketed in series in 1997 in Japan. The Toyota Prius is the world’s first large-scale production vehicle with a gasoline-electric hybrid engine. Through the combination of gasoline engine with an electric motor, up to 30 % less gasoline is needed in comparison to other cars of the same class.

Toyota PriusIn 2002 VW introduced the one-liter car (a vehicle with a fuel consumption of no more than one liter per 100 kilometers). The car weighs only 290 kg and has two seats - driver and passenger sit in tandem. The question whether or not such a car is suitable for everyday use takes a backseat to the fact that a vehicle can be developed that uses a minimum of resources.

Tesla Roadster
Tesla Motors introduced the Tesla Roadster as a two-seat sports car in 2007. Power is generated from 6.831 standard commercial lithium-ion storage batteries, normally used for laptops. The problem with these batteries is that they don’t last very long, especially when exposed to the constant heat of a motor. In order to slow down this process, the battery block of the Tesla roadster is continually washed by a liquid that ensures a consistently mild temperature. However the battery seems not to be the solution yet: The fabrication and the disposal are very costly.BMW launched the Hydrogen 7 during the LA Motor Show in 2006. This limousine is running on water, producing zero emissions. The hydrogen is gained by a chemical hydrolysis process that consumes a lot of energy. Once the hydrogen is going to be gained with renewable energies this concept of zero emissions will work out completely. The other point is building a hydrogen gas station infrastructure. At the moment the Hydrogen 7 has a bi-valent engine due to the fact that enough filings stations are missing. The sustainable car development has made huge progresses in the last years. Each concept though needs further developments until it is fully ready to the market and able to replace conventional gas and engines. Sustainable engineering therefore is one of the most exciting fields of research in the next years.

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