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Ford's vehicles are already 99 percent more efficient than
they were in the 1970s, said Manning, so the potential for
squeezing even more miles per gallon for every vehicle is not
nearly as great as it used to be.
Ford's focus now is on carbon emissions, she said, targeting
climate change and global warming at the tailpipe.
"You hear a lot about exciting new fuels that can do a lot
about greenhouse gases," she said.
Ford currently offers three hybrid vehicles in its lineup with
two more on the drawing board, and offers four "Flexible Fuel"
vehicles that can run on E85 ethanol. In addition, Ford's manufacturing
plants are pushing to be more green.
Manning's job also includes convincing Ford's customers
and existing owners that the potential to reduce emissions is a
lot greater than just the new technologies.
"We want our customers to think, "How can I be part of
the solution?'" said Manning. "We figure, let's work on all the
new technologies coming around the bend, explore the potential
not only for climate impact and market reception, but
at the same time, right now, let's focus on helping drivers understand
what they can do. One thing is Eco-Driving."
Here's what Eco-Driving is: gentle accelerating, staying at
the speed limit, constant speeds, smooth decelerations and
turning off a vehicle rather than letting it idle for long periods
of time.
And Manning has an even simpler solution: drive less.
"It's all about creative thinking," she said. "We learned at
Wharton to take different approaches to the same problem.
At Ford, our focus isn't just on what different things we can
do to our vehicles, although no doubt about it our biggest
focus is on that. But there are other ways, and I'm able to
look at those as well."
High Performance, Cleaner Technology
While hybrid cars like those from
Ford—powered with electricity
and petroleum—are working
their way onto U.S. freeways, Elon Musk,
W'97, hopes to take low-emission cars to a
whole new level with Tesla, a high-performance,
highly efficient electric sports car
that doesn't burn any oil at all.
"I guess electric cars always seemed to me
to be the obvious mode of transportation
for the future," said Musk. "Fifty years from
now people will look upon gasoline-powered
cars the way we look at steam-powered vehicles
today: outdated and outmoded."
Tesla is one of several eco-business ventures
Musk is involved in, and he is extremely
optimistic about the entire genre.
Take this comment: "The solar industry
is going to be gigantic, way bigger than the
Internet," he said.
Coming from Musk you'd be foolish
to do anything but take this prediction seriously. Musk has
launched and sold a series of successful businesses including
PayPal, which was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock
in 2002. So what's he doing now?
Musk spends most of his time and energy working at
SpaceX, a company developing and launching the world's
most advanced rockets for satellite and later human transportation.
But he is also chairman and the lead investor in two
cutting-edge alternative energy companies: Tesla Motors and
Solar City, which aims to "bring solar power to everyone."
Tesla Motor's first production model is slated to roll out
in December 2007, and Musk plans to own and drive the
very first one. The first model, the Tesla Roadster sports car,
is capable of going from zero to 60 mph in around four seconds,
has a top speed of better than 130 mph, and can travel
up to 250 miles on a single charge, which at today's energy
prices would cost about $3. It beats a tank of gas. The car's
power comes from its Lithium-ion Energy Storage System, or
battery pack, which can be recharged in about 3.5 hours.
Musk's second clean energy venture, Solar City, has the
bold yet simple goal of becoming "the Dell computer of the
solar space," said Musk. "You have a lot of companies working
on the photovoltaic cell itself, but not a lot of people are working
on delivering the solar power solution to the customers."
To achieve this, Solar City conducts assessments of homes
or businesses that are considering going solar. The company
will then install power systems that produce electricity during
the day. Any excess electricity is sold back to the utility
grid at retail process. Solar City is also acquiring existing
small solar energy suppliers around the U.S. which are already
providing power to some businesses and homes.
Musk said there's a public misconception that converting
to solar energy takes 20 or 30 years to pay off.
"People don't yet realize that the return
you get by installing solar panels on your
roof today goes from a low of 10 percent annual
return to a high of a 15 percent annual
return. It's actually already a very smart economical
decision for a large number of households
today," he said. "I don't know too many
places where you can guarantee that kind of
pay off."
Musk said his company is not lobbying for
government subsidies like those that existed in
the 1970s and early 1980s.
"We think we have to make solar cost efficient
enough that government subsidies are
not necessary," he said.
Bringing the price of solar down involves a lot of "fairly
mundane" work, said Musk—process improvement, technology
installations, monitoring panels, better assembly
systems, better combinations of technology.
And although the largest solar energy users are outside
the United States, Musk said Solar City's focus so far is entirely
domestic.
"The U.S. market is the biggest in the world, and I think
that if the U.S. uses 25 percent of the world's energy, that's a
big market," he said.
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