Hey folks, Brian Cooley here from Roadshow.
Got another one of your emails about hi=tech cars and modern driving.
Doug L this time, wants to know, are emission standards throughout the world similar to those we have in the US?
And how much do they impede performance and mileage?
Okay Doug, you got two great questions, in two very short sentences there.
I'm glad you asked these, cuz we get variations on these quite a bit.
What's the balance between clean cars and the fun that I'm having?
The first part of your question about who has clean emission standards includes these nations, US, Japan, Europe, Canada, China, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, and India, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation.
Yes, there is such a thing.
Know that those countries combined are basically the lion's share, almost the entire new car market for the world.
So let's just that the developed world is all on the same page, in terms of doing this.
Now, another interesting thing is, look at a chart by the ICCT, which shows a number of years ago, the standards among those countries were quite divergent.
Notice as they go forward in history, they start to combine in a pretty tight grouping of emissions goals.
So we're getting on the same page across these regions.
Now in terms of what's happening in your particular car and the fun you get, versus the cleanliness you have and have to have No one really knows what it cost to make a car a certain amount cleaner.
You get a lot of estimates and arguments.
A carmaker will say, wow, it's gonna cost a fortune to hit that MPG gold or to hit that low emissions gold.
Then, you got regulators who say, well, our scientists say it's not gonna cost that much more at all.
And then, you got different lobbying groups in the middle.
So, I honestly can't tell you it cost this much Money per amount of CO2 or per MPG added in a given car.
No one has a number on that.
The other thing to know is we're in the golden era of horsepower now.
It wasn't back in the day, when we didn't have emission controls.
Everyone thinks, the 60s and right up until the early 70s, it was the greatest era of horsepower We have cars today that will trounce cars from that era, and they're super clean, and they're far safer.
You just can't argue anymore that horsepower got trampled under emission.
That happened.
The 80s were an ugly time.
We had Corvettes with under 200 horsepower, but those days are over.
And another key thing to that is that it came with all the same technology.
The horse-power increased, the MPG increased, and the emissions being lowered all for the same basket of technologies.
Reducing weight to get better performance, also helps emissions.
Going after things like forced induction triggers super charges.
That improves everything.
Direct injection versus sloppier port injection, that makes everything better.
And more precise monitoring and adjustment of engine parameters in real time, improves power, improves MPG, improves emissions.
It's no longer us against them.
That's really been the story of the 2000s.
The automotive world has really changed and there's no battle anymore.
And I hate to hear people try and pull it apart as they often do when you get car guys together over beers.
And you get a big beef over smog equipment.
That's just old school thinking.
Keep those emails coming.
I'm here to answer your questions about high tech cars and modern driving.
It's Cooley at the road show dot com.
