What Will Your Next Car Look Like?

What will the future look like? The future of the automobile has been a favorite topic of Movies and television for many years. What did you believe cars would be like in the year 2010? The self-driven taxi from Total Recall? Hovering craft like in Star Wars? We imagined better, faster, cooler cars than ever. Technology has taken a completely different direction. Our needs are already met by the cars that we’ve had for years. Hovering would be cool, but wouldn’t really serve any other purpose. Cars already have sufficient speed that the highway patrol has to try to slow people down. In fact, in many places there’s so much traffic that cars can’t use the speed they already have. Aesthetics are still important, but rather than buying the flashiest possible car, people are choosing streamlined, attractive cars. After market upgrades are made to blend in with the original – boring – look of the car. Auto makers tout the vehicles’ reliability and safety records, which has improved exponentially in recent years. What do cars still leave to be desired? Fuel efficiency – even more practicality. The price of gasoline has soared in recent years, and it’s expensive just to drive around town. The most recent innovation that’s catching everyone’s attention is cars that run on less gasoline, or even better, no gasoline at all. There are a lot of options for accomplishing this goal, from propane to hydrogen to biofuels. None of these technologies is perfect yet, especially economically. One technology has taken the lead in the last few years and reached the consumer via the car dealership showroom: electricity. Hybrids were the first to hit the market and fully electric vehicles aren’t far behind. The Toyota Prius was the first to be offered at a price that large numbers of consumers could afford. The other automakers weren’t far behind. The Honda Civic, Ford Escape, Nissan Altima, and the Infiniti M35 are just a few of the options. Hybrids don’t have to be small anymore, either, as evidenced by GMC’s Sierra and Cadillac’s Escalade. The government has helped by offering incentives to those involved in manufacturing or buying cars that use less gasoline and are less damaging to the environment. You can go buy one of these cars today at your local Inland Empire Nissan Dealership or Des Moines Buick with no problem. The fully electric car is the next development we’ll see. They’ve been out in very small numbers until now, seen at car shows or as part of a fleet of cars driven by the local electric company. The Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf are finally hitting showrooms. New cars are clearly headed in this direction despite unresolved issues like price of batteries and limited range. One innovation that gets a lot less attention is just good old fashioned fuel efficiency. A car can run on gasoline, but use a lot less of it. This is a technology that’s been slowly but steadily improving for many years. Look at the non-hybrid version of the Honda Civic, which gets 34 MPG or the Ford Focus with its 35 MPG highway. This was unimaginable back in the 80′s when gas was only $1.35 a gallon and we loved our V8s. So while we’re unlikely to see cars like the DeLorean from Back to the Future or Kitt from the Knight Rider, cars will continue to evolve to meet our ever-changing needs. America’s love affair with the automobile is far from over.

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