Your Car in Five Years
What will it look like?Dan Tynan
The year 2006 may be remembered as the year that hybrid cars finally hit the mainstream. Besides longtime hybrid makers Honda and Toyota, companies like Ford, Mitsubishi, Subaru, and even stodgy old General Motors are coming out with cars powered by a combination of gasoline engines and electric motors. And with some hybrids getting more than 60 miles per gallon, it's no wonder the wait for a new Toyota Prius can be weeks or even months.
But what will a new car look like in five years? It will probably be a hybrid with lots of other brand-new technology.
New engines: Diesel-powered hybrids are on the way, and by 2011 you might be driving a "tri-brid." At the recent North American International Auto Show, Mazda showed off the Mazda5 Hybrid, a concept car that can use hydrogen or gasoline in its rotary engine and also has an electric motor.
New batteries: Subaru is testing lithium-ion batteries that take up half the space of the nickel-metal-hydride units used in today's hybrids while recharging in a fraction of the time. The Ford R3Flex concept car uses solar panels to recharge its batteries. Meanwhile, Hyundai is hoping to produce an SUV powered by hydrogen fuel cells by 2010. Problems? Quite a few, in fact, including the cost (more than $100,000 per vehicle), limited range, and a lack of hydrogen fueling stations.
New features: By 2011 cars will be much more self-aware, with sensors that can help drivers avoid collisions, or detect when it's raining and automatically turn on the windshield wipers. Unfortunately, passenger cars that drive themselves are still many years away, though the U.S. military aims to make a third of its vehicles self-propelled by 2015.
New problems: As cars transform into computers with steering wheels and cup holders, their problems will become equally complex. For example, in 2004 Toyota identified a firmware bug that could cause some Prius models to inexplicably shut down while en route. So your next auto mechanic might have to be equal parts grease monkey and geek.