Warit Kasitanon 5810640101

The Past, Present, and Future of Automobiles

The automobile industry began with Henry Ford’s assembly line and the
production of the Ford Model T in 1913, however it was not the first automobile that
was invented but the first model to be massively produced for the public. Prior to the
Model T, there were prototypes of steam powered or gas-powered carriages. Up to then,
automobiles ran mostly on petrol or gasoline engines which was a development of
Nikolaus Otto’s four-stroke engine in 1876.

Shortly after, the Diesel engine was invented by Rudolf Diesel in 1895, however
the technology was reserved for factory machinery rather than automobiles. Diesel was
a German inventor who had an ideal vision in mind for his invention. The Diesel engine
was approximately thirty to forty percent more efficient than the petrol engines when
it was first introduced and was intended to run on biofuel such as peanut oil rather
than fossil fuels. However, because of the first World War, his invention was taken to
be developed for use in warfare, namely in the German U-boat submarines. While it was
not the path Diesel wished for his invention, it did help the technology in its
development to commercial use. After the war, Diesel engines saw use in commercial
vehicles such as cargo ships and boats in the 1920s, mainly because of the advantage
of the fuel being less flammable than petrol. This movement into the commercial field
would lead to the engine’s development in the 1930s for passenger vehicles such as
automobiles.

In the present, automobiles are mostly the same as when they were invented, a
vehicle powered by internal combustion vehicles that drives its wheels, however they
have gone through developments that help them perform much better than they did. They
are faster, stronger, and much more efficient.

Petrol engines are still the majority, although, in recent years, Diesel has
moved from industrial vehicles, like tractors, to passenger vehicles and have gained
popularity. Due to the environmental situation the world is in, fuel efficiency and
environmental consciousness has gained popularity and have turned the public towards
the Diesel engine. In 2017, 45 percent of the cars bought in western Europe were ones
than ran on Diesel.

Other than automobiles than run on petrol or Diesel, the electric vehicle (EV)
have also gained popularity, though with some difficulty. The EV was introduced by
General Motors in 1999 in the USA but did not grab the market’s interest; some say it
is because of the fossil fuel industries and oil companies lobbying against it. It was
not until 2003, when Tesla Motors was founded by South African entrepreneur Elon Musk,
when the EV made an impressive mark on the market. Currently, the most popular EV on
the market is Tesla’s Model S, which has turned the EV’s image to one of luxury and
status. However, EV’s are still worth a small percentage of the vehicles on the road.
In Europe, only 2.1 percent of new passenger cars bought in 2016 run on electricity.
It is predicted that the EV’s popularity will continue to rise, considering the rise
of fuel price and increasing environmental pressure.

In the near future, many experts say there will be change in the automotive
industry. One obvious change is the amount of hybrid and electric vehicles that will
be on the road. Some estimates predict that up to 20 – 25 percent of vehicles in the
year 2020 will be hybrids. However, internal combustion engines will still be the
majority. Other than the continued growth in popularity of hybrids and EVs, smaller
vehicles and economic cars will also gain popularity due to an emerging market led by
China to tackle over population and traffic congestion.

Concerning technology, autonomous vehicles will soon be on the road after the
technology has been perfected. Already, there are many projects led by many car
companies (Tesla) and even information companies (Google) that have seen constant
progress. Soon, the technology will be ready to support the lifestyles of people of
the future.