Our future rides not cut and dry yet

If there is one thing that the ongoing Paris Car Show taught us, is that the automotive future is fairly unclear at the moment. While brands like MercedesBenz and Audi finally joined the ever-expanding all-electric brigade by displaying their first contributions to the green fleet, autonomous concept cars have also taken their place in the futuristic limelight. But through all the glitz and glamour on display is a clear case of uncertainty.

While the rush for developing electric vehicles is mainly due to the strict EU limits on CO2 emissions which will come into effect by 2021, car manufacturers are still unsure when the billions they are investing in research will start paying off. Electric cars have the potential to be profitable sometime in the future because they have fewer moving parts than combustion engines and is said to require fewer workers to install and maintain.

But before then researchers will have to up their game in terms of batteries. Although the lithium-ion batteries have become lighter than the ones used in the first prototypes of hybrids and can rival conventional cars in terms of power, they are not quite capable of delivering the same kind of range yet.

Car manufacturers admitted in Paris that the serious lack of charging stations and the long charging times are still significant drawbacks. They are attempting to halve the current charging time of around 15 minutes in order to match the time it takes to fill a petrol-vehicle at the fuel station.

But such power transfers generate extreme heat, something developers haven’t been able to contain yet.

Uncertain traffic conditions, such as we are constantly exposed to in South Africa, is also hampering motorists’ faith in going all-electric. With the current estimated range of well below 300kms, you will run a real risk of your batteries going flat during rush hour.

But returning back home and back to good ol’ fossil fuel-driven vehicles, Ntsako Mthethwa took the limited edition Toyota Yaris GRMN for a proper road test (pages 4 & 5) and is very impressed with the car’s handling. Although only 400 of them were built and none of them will be available for the local market, they do tend to create some hope Toyota might send some fun racers this way in future.

This week’s cover story on pages 6 & 7 focuses on Lexus’ bold move to make their ES sedans more appealing through its attractive new styling. And with a very competitive price tag to boot, the ES is bound to ruffle some feathers in SUV-dominated market.