Alternate Routes on the Road to Zero Emissions, Part 2
Achieving sustainable mobility will require multiple solutions, according to two experts in automotive engineering who talk to Tucker in the second of a two-part episode of Path to Zero.
Dr. Felix Leach and Dr. Kelly Senecal, co-authors of the book Racing Toward Zero, The Untold Story of Driving Green, hit on a number of key issues when it comes to climate change and internal combustion engines.
Leach is an Associate Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, a post held jointly with that of Fellow and Tutor in Engineering Science at Keble College. His research interests are in emissions and efficiency of thermal propulsion systems and air quality.
Kelly Senecal is a co-founder and owner of Convergent Science. He is a visiting professor at the University of Oxford, an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a co-founder and director of the Computational Chemistry Consortium (C3).
Leach and Senecal discuss how there is no silver bullet – all technologies have an impact on the environment, from internal combustion engine vehicles to battery electric vehicles, fuel cell electric vehicles, and hybrids.
The battery electric vehicle may seem the obvious path to a sustainable, carbon-free transportation future, but it’s not the only, nor necessarily the best, path forward.
Tucker’s discussion with Leach and Senecal delves deeper into how the market can decarbonize most effectively, leveraging electric vehicles when they make sense while ensuring other options are deployed effectively to contribute to attaining the decarbonization objective.
Leach (left) and Senecal at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) 2022 World Congress. Photo courtesy Matt Wolfe/SAE