No green Auris for South Africa
Having had the opportunity to drive Toyota’s new Auris Hybrid in Scotland recently, I was again faced with the massive questions confronted by the motor industry in terms of emissions.
The Auris Hybrid provides for a far more spirited drive than the Prius with which it shares a drivetrain. In terms of ownership I would rather jump into an Auris each day than into a Prius. However, the Prius is bigger and consequently a tad more luxurious.
I would expect to pay a lot less for an Auris than a Prius because it is less car. However, as they must share the same drive train, which is the really expensive bit, it ends up being too close to the Prius in price.
Which is probably why it is not coming to South Africa.
In cost of ownership terms, Auris hybrid’s total economy is underpinned by its excellent carbon emissions figure of 89g/km and consequently its good fuel economy. In the UK this delivers tax breaks and congestion charge exemption. However, even there the car is not selling like hot cakes.
All manufacturers face this dilemma. New technology is massively expensive to develop and the cost benefits are not really there.
Manufacturers are easy targets for environmental activists and the cynical governments they lobby. We need look no further than our own elected officials to see how this works. Government is introducing a carbon tax to supposedly encourage the use of cars that produce less CO.
At the same time we have some of the lowest quality fuel available in the world. Technology already exists that would reduce emissions, but motor manufacturers cannot bring these products to SA because of the poor fuel.
These are vehicles that would provide some environmental relief instantly and, as the development costs have already been absorbed, would not cost more that the existing “old technology” cars being sold here as new.
Where is the pressure by government on the fuel companies, where is their dirty fuel tax?
While we are on the subject, if government officials care so much about carbon emissions why do they pick cars with the greatest CO2 emissions – and then drive them around in groups of five or six vehicles just to get one person somewhere?
The point is that manufacturers cannot possibly be expected to solve the pollution problems by themselves. They rely on other players.
You do not buy a car from a manufacturer, and never interact with any other players in its lifetime. There are fuel stations, tyre suppliers, road builders, traffic coordinators, town planners and many others that directly affect how you use your vehicle. I believe hybrid technology itself is a result of this insular approach.
Toyota, who intend to introduce a range of hybrids over and above the Prius and Auris in the next few years, are being forced to produce complete transport solutions within an unchanged paradigm. The broader transport infrastructure remains the same, so our requirements for transport remain the same, particularly in South Africa.
The car has to be essentially self sufficient, but ever cleaner. The Auris Hybrid is a great attempt, but I believe the concept is doomed in the longer term.
Fossil fuels will run out or, more accurately, become so expensive to extract that the idea of burning them for energy will be regarded as economic insanity sooner or later.
The cost of failure by BP in the gulf is just one early sign of this.
This will happen long before the CO2 emissions from those fuels destroy the environment. In this case even a hybrid will not be accessible to the average Joe.
However, if car manufacturers are to be able to keep Joe happy, they need to be part of a paradigm shift they can trust. They need to know that an electrical or hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, for example, will exist and to what extent and by when. Only then can they commit massive resources to new technology.
Hybrid technology is not wasted, the progress made will be used in future applications. But if we knew what forms that would take it could happen so much more efficiently.
Toyota’s Auris Hybrid is a dandy little car, but the fact that it is too expensive to bring to markets like South Africa’s means its immediate contribution to the planet will remain limited.
