Expert speaks at technology forum on future of hypercars

The effect of technology on the environment is a matter of intense debate.

"Many view it as an evil; some believe it is the savior," said SNRE Prof. Steve Brechin. "Most ask, 'How far can technology take us?'"

Amory Lovins, one of the United States' leading energy experts, believes technology can take us quite far.

In a forum held yesterday as part of the Environmental Theme Semester, titled "How Far Can Technology Take Us: A Look at the Automobile," Lovins detailed the future of the hypercar - a new concept of car design and manufacture that would produce radically different, highly efficient automobiles.

NATHAN RUFFER/Daily Amory Lovins, one of the United States' leading experts on energy efficiency, speaks yesterday at the environmental technology forum at Angell Hall.

The emergence of the hypercar would be the automotive equivalent of the industrial revolution, Lovins said.

While automotive design has remained roughly the same for the past 100 years, Lovins said the means are available to move the industry forward by leaps and bounds, and that progress is merely a matter of changing cultural perceptions.

"We're used to thinking the only way to have efficient cars is to have high oil prices," Lovins said. "We're also told that the other way to have efficient cars is to have strict government mandates."

The hypercar breaks through the boundaries made by these conventional modes of thinking. Its design is based not only on the most fuel-efficient car design but also on the most efficient way to manufacture the car.

Lovins likened traditional car design to abstract art, forcing companies to use inefficient methods of manufacture when they actually build the cars.

The hypercar is designed from the beginning to "achieve multiple benefits from single expenditures," Lovins said. The same technology that makes it easy to manufacture makes it a more fuel-efficient car. Each component of a hypercar is optimized to serve several different purposes.

"You end up saving a lot more fuel by saving on car cost," Lovins said.

This design makes the hypercar better in every way - hypercars will be safer, more reliable, quieter and sportier than their conventional counterparts.

"People want cars to be superior - not get more miles per gallon," Lovins said.

What makes these benefits possible are three main design changes: light weight, low-drag aerodynamics and an efficient power source.

A hypercar's extremely low weight is a result of the traditional, heavy steel chassis and body being replaced with a single monocoque polymer unit. This process also dramatically reduces the number of parts, simplifying production of the car.

The hypercar's ultra low-drag body shape is combined with low-friction tires to further reduce energy losses.

A highly efficient powertrain completes the hypercar formula. Possibilities for its energy source include hybrid gasoline-electric engines, fuel cells and the Sterling heat-exchange engine.

The results of these combined technologies and efficient design are nothing short of spectacular. While a conventional four-person sedan might cruise at 30 miles per gallon, a hypercar in the same class could easily attain 100 miles per gallon, and in the near future, 200 miles per gallon. Hypercars are also far more environmentally friendly.

The technology to manufacture hypercars exists, Lovins said. It will, however, require a large shift in industrial structure, similar to that of the explosion of the silicon microchip market.

Lovins, a MacArthur Fellow, is the vice president, CFO and director of research at the Rocky Mountain Institute.

He has served on the U.S. Department of Energy's senior advisory board, has published 24 books and hundreds of papers and was named in The Wall Street Journal Centennial Issue as one of the 28 people in the world most likely to change business in the 1990s.

This shift in the numerous industries involved in automotive manufacture will allow smaller companies to compete against major automotive manufactures. In the past, this has left Detroit's Big Three hesitant to make any moves in this direction, Lovins said.

"Most of us think about 7 percent improvements, or if we're daring, 20 or 30 percent," said Physics prof. Mark Ross. Lovins is working on a much grander scale, Ross said.

03-13-98