The way cars will look and how they’ll be powered ten or twenty years from now is by no means certain. The future is up for grabs – and it belongs o whichever of the world’s major car makers is the most innovative.
The most important consideration of these two variables is power. Currently, cars are shaped more to reflect the cost of fuel and, therefore, to be as fuel-efficient as possible, rather than for their out and out performance.
In other words, in today’s world of high petrol prices, consumers are far more worried about miles per gallon than they are about maximizing performance on things like speed and acceleration – for the main part anyway.
So, as a hypothesis, if fuel was free, the shape of cars wouldn’t necessarily need to be quite so aerodynamically dart-like as all cars tend to be these days.
Now such a hypothesis may sound ridiculous. But it could be a little closer than we think. All-electric cars are nothing new. A few million commuters all over the developed use them daily without problem. But they have to be recharged each night, so a hybrid car remains the most realistic and practical option for eco car seekers at the moment.
But it may not always be the way. Honda is at the absolute forefront of technology in developing alternative means of car power – including hybrids, electrical, alternative fuel like hydrogen – and yes, even solar.
And it’s perhaps solar power – combined with the electrical vehicles of today - that hold the combination key to the future of automotive power. It remains a long way off as yet, but it isn’t beyond the bounds of possibility that cars a decade or two from now will be electrically powered with the sun’s rays doing some, most, or even all of the necessary recharging work.
