Your Ride & Green Mis-Marketing

The media is filled with all kinds of environmental buzz words like “alternative fuels“, “carbon footprint” and of course “global warming“. As well in the last few years or so we’ve seen many companies going “green“.

What does this really mean for the environment? Not much! When you really look it’s just fancy marketing and feigned political correctness. On the one hand you have the companies who only care about the bottom line, they aren’t going to take a serious financial hit for the planet. Then on the other hand you have the average American who may want to care about the environment but not so much to alter their lifestyle to effect any real change.

Take the automobile industry, it’s a perfect example of what’s marketed and what’s real. You’re probably familiar with Hybrid Vehicles like the Toyota Prius. As well, if you watch TV at all, you’ve seen the “pre-mercials” for Chevy’s pure electric car, not even on the market yet, as well as some future hydrogen powered offerings from BMW and Toyota.

From a marketing standpoint the car industry seems to be pushing new technologies. Right? Not really! These ads are more to create an environmentally conscientious image for the companies rather than actually promote viable products.

Point in case; the ads for Chevy’s electric car; you have the new slick looking Chevy Volt sitting in a green field under blue sky’s with children standing around all excited about the clean air future. However if you listen closely tossed in with the zen like optimistic sales pitch is “40 miles on a single charge”.

Seriously!? Chevy is more than aware that most people drive more than 40 miles everyday not even considering time sitting in rush hour traffic. According to the ad this amazing commuting ability is due to the miracle of the lithium ion battery. GM is either sadly behind the technology curve or the commercial is a clever ruse to create dis-confidence in the practicality of the electric car.

Other companies like Tesla Motors are producing high-end, high performance pure electric cars. The Tesla Roadster is not a concept car, it’s been on the road since 2009. It has a 220 mile range per charge running on the same lithium ion batteries technology as the volt, and to boot the Telsa has a 0-60 time of 4 seconds (compared to a Ferrari F430 Spider at 3.9 seconds). Granted not being in mass production the Tesla comes with a hefty $98,000 base price, but it is an example that the technology is there and being used. So you have to wonder, why can a little company like Telsa do it and a massive world-wide automotive superpower cannot?

Another great example is the hybrid. The hybrid gas/electric car has been around since 1999 with the little known Honda Insight. Then came the Toyota Prius, the hybrid that put hybrids on the map. The Prius actually came out in 2001 and if any real marketing effort had been put forth then, half of the U.S. would be driving hybrids today. However real commercial marketing of the cars didn’t start until 2003 after the car had already gained a yuppy tree hugger cult following. By 2004 the Prius couldn’t be rolled off the assembly line fast enough and hybrid sales over all took off, and as soon as they did the manufacturing and marketing shifted to reap the most sales with the least environmental benefit.

As soon as it was clear that Americans wanted hybrids the car companies came out with Hybrid SUV’s, trucks and full size cars. So instead of buying a Prius for $20,000 at 50 mpg, they get people to buy a hybrid SUV for $35,000 at 35 mpg. It’s the consumers ego over their wallet. If you wanted 35 mpg you could buy a regular ol’ gas powered economy car 12 grand. But you really want an SUV because it look good, so you pay a higher price for the same gas mileage you would have gotten on a less expensive car for the sake of fashion. Car manufacturers make more money and gas sales don’t take a serious hit.

Lets not forget atomic miracle! You can’t talk about the fake green marketing without mentioning the biggest eco-fantasy out there; Hydrogen. While it may be an option for developing Countries with no entrenched gas infrastructure, for places like the U.S. its not likely to ever be a viable alternative. For one gas stations would have to be retrofit, or hydrogen only stations would have to be built, both are costly propositions. And until there’s plenty of places to refuel the cars aren’t practical and therefore cannot go into mass production making them to pricey for the common man. In reality the new infrastructure needed to accommodate Hydrogen cars would make the cost of running one of these wonderfully conceived green machines prohibitively expensive.

Why would the companies promote the technology in the first place if they weren’t really trying to sell them? The answer is image. They could just openly discredit alternative fuels but that wouldn’t be very popular in today’s environmentally self righteous media frenzy. No they need you to believe that by buying from them you are doing your part for the environment. Even if you’re buying a big ass gas guzzling, size 16 carbon foot print SUV, you can at least twitter that you’re supporting a “green” company. So they wave their conveniently in adequate concept cars in front of you and talk about do their part to win your heart while at the same time undermining your confidence in the technology.

Meanwhile in other parts of the World there is another completely, viable, affordable and accessible green alternative propulsion technology that you’ve probably never heard of. A car that has zero pollution, costs about $2 to go 200 miles and starts at a sticker price of around $7,000. The MDI MiniCAT uses no gas, no electric, no hydrogen, because the “fuel” tanks are two steel cylinders that contain nothing but plain everyday air. The compressed air car is safe, cheap and efficient and the technology can be used in small commuter cars, trucks and even buses. It’s not fast, it’s not big, it’s not gonna make the valets fight over who gets to park it and as you can imagine an affordable car that runs on air is a major threat to the gas industry in the U.S., so chances are the US consumer will never see this option on the market.

In order for alternative fuel to be anything other than a fad, it must replace fossil fuels. This is never going to happen because neither industry or individuals really care. If there was a real concern for the environment and a demand for greener, cheaper cars everyone would have them. Electric and hydrogen are titillating fantasies for true earth lovers but they’re simply PR ploys for the car industry, and environmental concern is nothing more than a tag line to drive sales to an image consumed population who want to feel like they are doing good without making any real sacrifices.