Forward Drive: The Race to Build "Clean" Cars for the Future - Hardcover

Motavalli, Jim

3.2

15 ratings by Goodreads

9781578050352: Forward Drive: The Race to Build "Clean" Cars for the Future

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1578050359 ISBN 13: 9781578050352

Publisher: Sierra Club Books, 2000

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Documents the race to build the cars of the future, tracing the history of automobile development and exploring new technologies, including the hybrid car that drives on both gas and electricity.

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Review:

Few consumers have been attracted to "clean" cars--those powered by something other than traditional internal combustion engines--because they aren't satisfied yet with critical factors such as appearance (too odd), cost (too high), dependability (too uncertain), and performance (too limited). The times they are a-changing, however. A host of catalysts, including new legal requirements and shifting public opinion, is finally driving automakers toward relevant alternative technologies that actually date back 160 years. And Jim Motavalli, who travels an unusual professional route as both syndicated auto columnist and environmental reporter, chronicles the buildup and potential payoff in his intriguing book Forward Drive. "The information I came across ... described a personal transportation revolution that was becoming tantalizingly close," he writes. "Here, at last, were vehicles that promised to not only greatly reduce pollution but also to perform better, be more reliable, cruise farther, and last much longer than anything the public had ever seen." Written for those "who'd somehow failed to get their engineering Ph.D.s," it absorbingly examines the history of such vehicles, the impact of gasoline automobiles, the pioneers who already utilize alternative power, the large and small R&D operations, the political and financial forces under which everything operates, and the broader picture of sustainable transportation. --Howard Rothman

From the Back Cover:

"Bravo! Forward Drive is the most comprehensive and comprehensible account yet of the coming fuel-cell revolution. Jim Motavalli shows us that peaceful coexistence between cars and the environment is no longer a matter of faith or wishful thinking, but solid science. If you are the least bit concerned about what comes out of your tailpipe, this book is an essential guide to the personalities, politics, and technology of a clean future."
-- Lesley Hazleton, author of Driving to Detroit

"Motavalli's Forward Drive takes us on a thrilling ride through the advanced-vehicle-technology landscape -- a literal Who's Who of the industry insiders and external change agents trying to bring us a cleaner and
greener car."
-- Charles Griffith, Ecology Center of Ann Arbor

"Jim Motavalli's Forward Drive does a masterful job of transforming what has been an all-too-technical debate into a high-stakes drama about how the automobiles of the future will affect our environment and our health."
-- Deborah Gordon, director, Yale Transportation and Environment Progam

"I learned more about the past, present, and future of the automobile from this book than I have from all my voracious reading on the subject."
-- Ed Begley Jr.

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