Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future

Reviewed by Robert Pritchett

Authors: Iain Carson and Vijay Vaitheeswaran http://www.vijaytothepeople.com Twelve Books http://twelvebooks.com/books/zoom.asp Released: October 2007 Pages: 352 $28 USD, $32.50 CND ISBN 10: 0-446-58004-X ISBN 13: 978-0-446-58004-5   Strengths: Provides excellent history of the car and oil industries.   Weaknesses: A few typos, Hardcover book-binding was over-glued. Info in various chapters is duplicated. No weblinks in the bibliography.

Introduction

 

Oil is the problem. Cars are the solution.

 





Zoom identifies and gives voice to a Great Awakening sweeping the industrialized world - a growing realization that in order to protect the environment and lessen our dependence on oil from volatile Middle East countries, we must rethink and recreate the automobile. This is happening, now, all over the world, in Japan, Silicon Valley, India, and China, as entrepreneurs, environmentalists, and inventors collaborate on a new generation of cars powered by hydrogen, electricity, bio-fuels, and digital technology.

 





You may think the solutions are decades away, but Economist correspondents Iain Carson and Vijay Vaitheeswaran prove that the revolution is underway now by introducing readers to an inspiring group of visionaries who are trying to remake the automobile and energy industries. We also meet the petroleum and automobile executives in Michigan and Texas who are fighting for survival, and the savvy leaders at Toyota who have transformed their company into the world's top automobile manufacturer. 



 

Every political candidate running for national office advocates energy reform. Zoom offers a lucid and compelling way forward. 


 

What I Learned

 

The authors did a great job compiling the twin industries that feed off each other – vehicles and oil.

 

The book is full of wonderful play on words and touches of humor in the provocative titles and subtitles.

 

Once again, these authors have also fallen prey to the hydrogen technology as the saviour of worldwide transportation with fuel cell technology as the “next big thing”. They also offer facts and figures for Red China and India and do a lot of name-dropping on various up-and-coming folks who offer alternatives. And I see that the book is a snap-shot in time and provides a rich look at current events.

The premise is that there will be plenty of oil for at least another 30 years, but the alternative technologies need to ramp up quickly to avoid a global meltdown.

 

For the car industry, apparently Toyota is the poster child for alternative transportation technologies as they numbly thrust and parry with other car manufacturers for world domination.

 

More could have been said about all-electrics, but we will have to wait patiently for the highway legal units that can go the distance at a price we can all afford.

 

Now if we can really get the hydrogen-producing electrolysis equipment in place to generate hydrogen from dam site, nuclear facilities and as windpower storage systems, we may be going places.

 

I was most intrigued by the study of nations that are and have been oil-rich, but dirt poor due to the “Oil Curse” and those who are working on diversification as the black gold gets used up.

 

I found it also interesting that Osama bin Ladin targeted oil to $144 per barrel. He just might get his wish.

 

I was rather dismayed at the desire of certain movers and shakers to prop up oil prices with tax floors to keep oil above $30 per barrel (currently touching closer to $100 per barrel) as a strategy to provide incentives for alternative energy innovations to flower, fruit and mature.

 

The book is in 3 parts and 9 chapters and discusses highway robbery by Detroit and Big Oil, whether or not the industry dinosaurs can dance, geopolitical complications and oil addiction, how Asia could save the planet or perhaps the Silicon Valley whiz kids can jump in and swim against the tide as they develop clean fuels and smart cars as they explore biofuels, cellulosic ethanol and “hydricity”.

 

In places, the same themes and verbage keep popping up over and over again almost as a mantra about dancing dinosaurs and middle-east oil control.

 

Conclusion

 

This is another thought-provoking book that trips down memory lane and attempts to predict the future, but this one is from the view of economists.

 

Recommendation

 

These authors do have the ears of powers-that-be. Hopefully they are being listened to and can make a positive difference in the world as they tweak political ears and help pull money-strings to make things happen. This book is a good spring-board to get up to speed quickly on the current state of affairs regarding the oil and vehicle industries and energy alternatives.