Sustainable Mobility Strategy- Outlook for Advanced Vehicles and Fuels. Bill Reinert, National Manger, Advanced Technology Vehicles – Toyota Motor Sales, USA said that the company, responding to global development, accelerated consumption of fossil fuels and dramatic population increases, is using a four-part systems approach to achieve sustainable mobility. The components are vehicles, energy (to power the vehicles), environment (in which the product lives) and partnerships (which are required to bring the products to market). Toyota has adopted hybrid drivetrains as their core technology. Included in this group are: gasoline/electric hybrids, plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and fuel cell hybrid vehicles (FCHVs). The goal is to align transportation, energy and climate change policy realizing that the greatest near-to-mid term opportunity lies in efficiency.
Intelligent Transportation System- Toyota’s Approach Toward the Realization of Sustainable Mobility. Chris Tinto, Vice President, Vehicle Safety - Toyota Motor America presented the company’s efforts with Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). ITS has two objectives: Through vehicle and roadway mounted sensors and transponders, ITS incorporates not only advanced safety and crash prevention technologies, but it also has an environmental component. With the ability to manage traffic flow, the system can regulate vehicle density and crowd dispersion effectively improving vehicle fuel efficiency as well as tailpipe emissions.
Operation Efforts- Toyota’s Approach to Sustainable Manufacturing. Kevin Butt, Chief Environmental Officer, Toyota Engineering and Manufacturing America. Kevin summed up Toyota’s Sustainable Manufacturing story thusly: “To become the most admired and respected automobile manufacturer by demonstrating continuous environmental performance improvements resulting in environmental leadership and sustainability.” Utilizing Enhanced Environmental Management System (EEMS), Toyota is progressing nicely towards that goal. Some hallmarks of the company’s efforts with EEMS to date are: reduced energy consumption, reduced CO2 emissions, improved recycling and resource use and reduced landfill contributions based on year-over-year, per-vehicle-produced accounting.
CAFE / Regulatory Environment- Vehicle Fuel Economy and Greenhouse Gas Regulations. Tom Stricker, Corporate Manager, Regulatory Affairs – Toyota Motor America. Tom’s presentation spotlighted the enormous complexity and fragmentation of current CAFE regulations and how these multifaceted configurations make it difficult for auto manufacturers to deploy new technologies. Toyota has made it standard practice to be over-compliant in most current regulations in order to afford the company more flexibility in reacting to ever-changing and ever more strict rules. Following is a sampling of the various standards included in CAFE regulations:
- Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) rate
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) combined standard
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) combined standard
- Pavley 1 & 2 (greenhouse gas emissions limits) .
- Import Car Fleet
- Domestic Car Fleet
- Truck Fleet
Tom drew this final conclusion: “Planning for multiple programs, with multiple structures, with various compliance levels, with different flexibility provisions, and administered by various federal and state agencies with different statutory obligations, is an unmanageable situation.”
As evidenced by current environmental conditions of the planet, the human experience here on earth has become somewhat of a-house-of-cards. Reasonable governmental regulations imposed on manufacturers, and the processes and initiatives undertaken by Toyota to compete globally in an environmentally sustainable way are really the only way to go. If we are to survive and thrive as a species, it looks like everyone (every manufacturer of goods, every consumer of those goods and every regulatory body) is going to have to get onboard and follow suit.