New tech
‘ Is the real solution to keeping ICE cars on the road, fuelling them differently?’
SUSTAINABLE GOAL
New tech
Does Coryton have a viable solution to powering the ICE vehicles of the future?
Reduce, reuse, recycle. A mantra that is familiar and welcome in this day and age. I suspect many of you reading a magazine about engine rebuilding would like to add another R to that list too, repair. But these three Rs – and our extra one – aren’ t gospel in the automotive industry like they are in clothes or packaging. What we’ re told – that building an entirely new car with low or no emissions is better for the environment overall – goes against conventional sustainable wisdom. I am not saying the research that justifies this outcome is wrong. Even in my most cynical of moods, knowing that it’ s new car makers telling us that new cars are the solution, I can’ t argue with it. I’ ve not seen anything to truly contradict it. But reduce, reuse, recycle has been so successfully ingrained within me that I can’ t help but think that rapidly replacing old cars with new ones is an unwise decision.
Whatever you think, no matter how sceptical or passionate you are about the new car research, what you cannot ignore is the sheer number of internal combustion-engine cars that are currently in use. And if the big move to electric vehicles continues at its current pace – even if we’ ve already seen a scaling back on the ambition around replacing ICE vehicles – many of the current fleet of vehicles will still be driving around on our roads, burning up petrol and diesel for a good few years.
Or will they? Is there a real solution to keeping the same cars on the road, but fuelling them differently? Could we instead start to use alternative fuels to mitigate the environmental impact of current ICE cars?
‘ Is the real solution to keeping ICE cars on the road, fuelling them differently?’
36 The Engine Rebuilder Issue 01