Fuel to be phased out by year 2035?

But many motoring manufacturers say that deadline is impossible because of the cost of developing electric cars

THIS Saturday 14 solar-powered race cars will set off on a nearly silent eight day journey from Pretoria to Cape Town, with batteries recharged from sun rays only.

The 2016 edition of the Sasol Solar Challenge – a biennial eco race, which is rated as one of the top events of its kind in the world – will get under way from Gate 3 at the CSIR in Pretoria and then make its way through Kroonstad, Bloemfontein, Gariep Dam, Graaff-Reinet, Port Elizabeth, Sedgefield and Swellendam before finishing at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town on October 1. The main route, which is one of the longest in solar racing, is around 2000km long, but teams will score bonuses for completing extra loops along the way.

Top teams could cover 700km in one day at speeds near 130km/h if the sun cooperates, with total distances approaching 6000km. The winning team will score the best in terms of average distance, time, lowest consumption and strategic use of battery power.

Of the 14 teams, eight are South African and six are from overseas. Most teams are entered by high schools and universities, but one unusual South African entry will see an all-electric VW Beetle take on the fleet of super-aerodynamic creations in its own special Sustainability Class. The Zingbug has a 48-volt electric motor, but due to the draw on battery reserves in stop-start conditions also has an hydraulic motor for assistance. The hydraulic motor stores energy, from both engine and regenerative braking, as compressed gas in an accumulator. The computerised Miser management system then decides which power source to use.

The Japanese Tokai University team, which won in 2008, 2010 and 2012 uses special solar modules and lithium-ion batteries supplied by Panasonic. The electronics giant is also giving away R100 000 in prizes to members of the public who share pictures under the #MoreSunshine hashtag on the Panasonic South Africa Facebook page.

For more information and to get behind your favourite team, follow the Sasol Solar Challenge on Twitter @Solar_Challenge, or visit www.solarchallenge.org.za

THE LAST petrol and diesel powered cars will have to be sold by about 2035 to put the world on track to limit global warming to the most stringent goal set by world leaders last year, a study said last week.

The report, by a Climate Action Tracker (CAT) backed by three European research groups, said a drastic shift was needed towards clean electric cars and fuel efficiency since transport emits about 14 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions.

Last December, world leaders at a Paris summit set a goal of limiting a rise in temperatures to “well below” 2-degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times while “pursuing efforts” for a much tougher 1.5-C ceiling.

“We calculate that the last petrol/diesel car will have to be sold by roughly 2035,” the CAT report said, to make the car fleet consistent with staying below 1.5-C. It assumes that the last fossil-fuel vehicles would be on the roads until 2050.

The CAT is one of the main groups that monitors government actions to restrict global warming and includes researchers who are authors on UN climate reports.

“It’s striking that it’s so early – it means a huge change in the whole automobile industry,” Niklas Höhne, of the New Climate Institute, told Reuters. The other think-tanks behind the report were Ecofys and Climate Analytics.

The phase-out is earlier than set by most carmakers. Toyota, for instance, has a “zero carbon dioxide emissions challenge” for new vehicles under which it aims to cut emissions from its vehicles by 90 percent by 2050, from 2010 levels.

Many scientists reckon that the 1.5-C goal, seen by many developing nations as a dangerous threshold for droughts, floods and rising sea levels, has already slipped out of reach and that the 2-C limit is growing close.

They believe temperatures will almost inevitably overshoot 1.5-C, and that new technologies will be needed to turn down the global thermostat later this century. This year is set to be the warmest on record, with temperatures around 1-C above pre-industrial times.

The CAT report focused most on the promise of electric vehicles, developed by manufacturers from General Motors to Tesla. Other options are cars run on biofuels or hydrogen.

The study said a greener transport sector would require a parallel shift to clean power generation, to avoid charging electric cars on power based on fossil fuels.

“Electric vehicles are still more expensive to purchase than other cars, and policy projections still only see a share of around five percent of electric vehicles in the total European Union, China and US fleets by 2030,” the report said.

- Reuters