How will cars of the future look?
An event starting today and taking place until Sunday will provide a little preview of what that future might have in store – the Shell Eco-marathon.
It began 78 years ago as a friendly competition among the company’s American employees over who could travel further on the least amount of fuel. The annual event has since expanded from the Americas to Asia and Europe. And with it, the opportunity to drive innovation.
Konstantinos Laskaris competed in the event five years ago. Now he is the chief motor engineer at Tesla, a company that is pushing boundaries for the vehicle industry. That is what the Eco-marathon is all about – fostering innovation for tomorrow.
The competition will take place in Singapore with students, including three teams from the UAE, competing to drive the farthest distance on the least amount of energy. Some will drive ultra-efficient petrol and diesel cars. Others will drive cars powered by hydrogen, liquefied natural gas, ethanol and lithium batteries.
While it is fun, the event represents much more.
Climate change poses a challenge and opportunity to each of us. The UAE is working to address this by implementing its Energy Plan 2050, aiming to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 70 per cent.
The world is transitioning to lower-carbon forms of energy, and transport must be at the heart of this transition.
The development of lower-carbon fuels for our cars, lorries, ships and planes is critical to global efforts to tackle climate change. Transport accounts for 28 per cent of the world’s energy consumption.
Today there are about 1 billion passenger vehicles on the roads globally. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects this number to reach about 2 billion by 2040.
It is crucial to cut emissions by boosting the efficiency of vehicles. Yet there is no simple, single answer when more than 90 per cent of transport runs on liquid fuels as it does today.
The world will need mass-produced and affordable battery-electric cars; it will need hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles too, with their greater range and quicker refuelling. The infrastructure to support these vehicles must be put in place. And most importantly, consumers must be willing to make the change.
Electric vehicles have made much progress but there is a long way to go. According to the IEA there are now more than 1.26 million electric cars, a global market share of about 0.1 per cent.
Tesla says it plans to sell 500,000 electric cars a year. Using current technology, it would require about two-thirds of the world’s annual lithium production for its batteries. Supplies of other minerals such as cobalt could also come under pressure. And with more than a billion cars on the roads, 500,000 is, in any case, less than one two-thousandth of the world’s fleet.
An electric car is only as clean as the source of its electricity. That means lower-carbon natural gas power generation or renewable energy, or a combination of both.
A global move towards lower-emission transport will be helped by cleaner and more economical fuels, more efficient lubricants and better engines. Low-carbon biofuels will be important too. The next generation of this technology will be able to convert waste directly to fuel.
Such innovations, among many others, will help the world make the transition to a low-carbon and more energy-efficient future.
Ultimately, if the huge transport sector is going to be transformed successfully, we will need all the creativity we can muster among the designers and engineers of the future.
This week’s Eco-marathon will have 134 student teams taking part from 20 Asia-Pacific countries, including 16 Mena teams. For years university students from across the UAE have placed among the top teams.
Perhaps among them are people who will go on to help revolutionise transport for a low-carbon future.
John Abbott is downstream director for Royal Dutch Shell.
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The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE tour of the Netherlands
UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures:
Monday, 1st 50-over match
Wednesday, 2nd 50-over match
Thursday, 3rd 50-over match
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Iraq negotiating over Iran sanctions impact
- US sanctions on Iran’s energy industry and exports took effect on Monday, November 5.
- Washington issued formal waivers to eight buyers of Iranian oil, allowing them to continue limited imports. Iraq did not receive a waiver.
- Iraq’s government is cooperating with the US to contain Iranian influence in the country, and increased Iraqi oil production is helping to make up for Iranian crude that sanctions are blocking from markets, US officials say.
- Iraq, the second-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumped last month at a record 4.78 million barrels a day, former Oil Minister Jabbar Al-Luaibi said on Oct. 20. Iraq exported 3.83 million barrels a day last month, according to tanker tracking and data from port agents.
- Iraq has been working to restore production at its northern Kirkuk oil field. Kirkuk could add 200,000 barrels a day of oil to Iraq’s total output, Hook said.
- The country stopped trucking Kirkuk oil to Iran about three weeks ago, in line with U.S. sanctions, according to four people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because they aren’t allowed to speak to media.
- Oil exports from Iran, OPEC’s third-largest supplier, have slumped since President Donald Trump announced in May that he’d reimpose sanctions. Iran shipped about 1.76 million barrels a day in October out of 3.42 million in total production, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
- Benchmark Brent crude fell 47 cents to $72.70 a barrel in London trading at 7:26 a.m. local time. U.S. West Texas Intermediate was 25 cents lower at $62.85 a barrel in New York. WTI held near the lowest level in seven months as concerns of a tightening market eased after the U.S. granted its waivers to buyers of Iranian crude.
Three ways to limit your social media use
Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.
1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.
2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information.
3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.
