Fuel-efficient and low-carbon cars hold one key to dramatically reducing our reliance on petroleum, but can we make the transition quickly enough? With plug-in vehicles like the Nissan LEAF and the Chevy Volt just now becoming available to consumers, what’s the best way to speed up adoption of these newer, smaller-footprint models?
Countries like the UK, the US and China have offered incentives like “Cash for Clunkers” to encourage drivers to replace their old gas-guzzlers with more efficient cars. But these have tended to be one-time-only and limited-time offers, and often didn’t apply to the motorists who need greener vehicles the most: people without a lot of money who continue to drive aged, inefficient cars and trucks because they can’t afford to replace them … period.
In recent years, in fact, the average age of cars on US roads has been trending nowhere but up, most recently reaching a high of 10.2 years, according to R.L. Polk & Co. So if individual car-owners are hanging onto their jalopies longer than ever, what’s the answer to getting more hybrids and plug-ins on the road as quickly as possible?
Look to big business fleets to lead the way.
FedEx, for example, began adding hybrid vehicles to its fleet way back in the early Noughties. And earlier this year, it began using its first all-electric parcel delivery trucks in the US.
The US Postal Service also began testing three-wheeled electric delivery vehicles this year, and has more than 43,000 alternate fuel-capable vehicles in its fleet of nearly 220,000.
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