Racing “goes green” around the world
Racing and motorsports rallies are very popular around the world but the recent trend has been to ditch heavy carbon-emitting vehicles in favour of less polluting ones. Recently a few green or zero emission races have been taking place around the world. One of the biggest is going to be the Zero Race, which will feature four teams all trying to race around the world in about 80 days. With the world’s focus on cutting greenhouse gases and reducing carbon emissions; races and rallies of this sort are a great way to highlight the fact that green cars can go just as fast and are just as fun to drive and watch as regular gas guzzlers.
The Zero Race is currently underway. It started in Geneva and will try to get the four teams of races around the entire world in 80 days, crossing some 16 countries, 150 cities and the cars will travel 30,000 kilometres in distance. The route is to race across Switzerland to Moscow, and then to Shanghai before being shipped to Vancouver. From there the teams will travel down the west coast of America and end up in Cancun, Mexico. Then the journey will continue by ship again to Portugal and then go across Europe to end up in Switzerland again. The entire rally will be completed in January of 2011. The idea of this race probably stemmed from Jules Verne’s book ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, but he would never have thought it would be done like this.
The organiser of this interesting race is Louis Palmer, who was the first person to circumnavigate the globe using a solar powered vehicle. He dreamt up the idea as a way to show that green vehicles can be used in a race, and we do not have to pollute the environment while doing it. This innovative race is showing everyone how the world can be in the future; it will be a world full of electric vehicles and solar vehicles and many other types of cars powered by renewable energy. Although this is not a regular race with everyone out to destroy the competition; it is a competition that will utilise the spirit of sportsmanship by using green technology. The organisers hope to encourage all the teams, so that they help and support each other to ensure a fair contest. As part of the rules of the race, each team must produce green electricity in their home countries and put that back into the national electricity grid. This will be done to compensate for the electricity that each car will use in the different countries they will be racing in. Also each car will not only have to be fast and gain points at each stage, they will have to be reliable, resilient, be extremely energy-efficient and must have real world practical applications.
In 2007, a green car rally called Revolve was organised in the UK. It showcased numerous green vehicles that raced from Brighton to London, and were welcomed at the finish line in Trafalgar Square by the Mayor of London. Some of the vehicles that were raced used hydrogen fuel cell technology, some used solar power and some were electric. They were all utilised during the race to show the public that these types of green cars can have practical applications, and can be used in a rally across cities. The durability and reliability of the cars was also on display and was used to further strengthen the image that green vehicles are the way of the future. With the introduction of the world’s first electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, the world got its first taste of an extremely fast, very reliable clean supercar. Racing events and rallies are planned for the future using Tesla’s cars.
In the future we will see gas-guzzling and polluting racing cars being replaced by super fast cars powered by renewable energy like electricity or solar or even hydrogen. The world will see that racing can be just as exciting and spectacular with cars that do not run on petrol. With green technology becoming more efficient and more cost-effective day by day, we will soon see a host of new racing events that feature these types of green cars.
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