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Page added on August 6, 2013
What did Henry Ford say about history?
The short answer is “history is bunk.”
The more accurate answer is what he told the Chicago Tribune in 1916: “History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present, and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history that we make today.”
Which is why Ford would be far more interested in celebrating Ford Motor Co.’s announcement that it was–at last–entering the lightweight natural gas vehicle market.
The company has plastered its website with all kinds of notices about various celebrations of the old man’s birthday, but only the barest of mention is made of the company’s intention to make available in the 2014 model year some F 150 pickup trucks powered by compressed natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas. That policy seems to be very different from what Henry Ford would do. The man who virtually invented the mass market for automobiles probably would be asking: “What can we do to grow this market?”
Most of the US auto producers, including Ford, have entered the heavy- and medium-duty vehicle alternative fuel markets, but right now Ford and Honda are the only US original equipment manufacturers offering consumers CNG powered light-duty vehicles.
The argument can be made that in and of itself, Ford’s involvement is no big deal. The US market for natural gas vehicles is not and never has been exactly booming. There are far many more CNG vehicles on the roads in Pakistan now than there are in the US.
But that might be changing. Week by week, across the US, service station companies, waste haulers and others announce plans to buy small fleets of CNG vehicles. Here and there, medium-sized gasoline and diesel service station owners announce their intentions to bet the farm and add CNG and maybe LNG refueling islands to their operations.
Their commitments are no small deal, as advent of a refueling network is seen as key to jump-starting a full-scale NGV market in North America.
The development of the CNG/LNG transportation market bears a strong resemblance to a small snowball rolling down a gentle grade. As it moves, it gets bigger. As the slope becomes steeper, it moves faster and before you know it, you are experiencing an avalanche.
So will the day come when NGVs outnumber vehicles powered by other fuels? Who knows? A million things could happen. But not that long ago, some folks were telling a fellow named George Mitchell he was wasting time and money trying to squeeze oil and gas out of shale.
And the day may come when shale gas becomes the primary source of US transportation fuel.
11 Comments on "What did Henry Ford say about history?"
BillT on Tue, 6th Aug 2013 1:38 am
“the day may come when shale gas becomes the primary source of US transportation fuel.”
Right after pigs fly…
GregT on Tue, 6th Aug 2013 3:17 am
Henry Ford would be rolling over in his grave, if he could see the nightmare that his dream has become.
Arthur on Tue, 6th Aug 2013 4:13 am
In Holland the average occupation rate of a standard five seater car is a staggering low 1.25. I am sure it is similar elsewhere. This statistic shows how completely outdated the concept of a car really is.
Henry Ford was smart enough to understand this and no doubt would have acted in similar ways his collegue Piech of VW has acted:
http://youtu.be/U4tMIvou-Ds
260 mpg
0.9 liter / 100 km
Arthur on Tue, 6th Aug 2013 4:15 am
But in the end the concept of four wheels should be abandoned and replaced by two wheels:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/10/lit-motors-will-shake-up-the-electric-vehicle-market-with-its-two-wheeled-untippable-c-1/
Expected end price 12.5 k$
GregT on Tue, 6th Aug 2013 4:29 am
The concept of four wheels will be replaced by two legs and hard manual labor, for those that start planning now.
Those that are expecting someone else to create some yet to be implemented technology to save them, are in for a very unpleasant surprise.
Luke on Tue, 6th Aug 2013 9:29 am
The invention of private transportation on four wheels is from a current point of view terribly inefficient. Modern gasoline fueled cars do have an efficiency of max. 25%. So I step in my 1.5 ton steel truck with 100 l gasoline in my tank. First it will evaporate 75 l in heat and exhaust CO2 and then I’ll drive anywhere on the remaining 25 l left. Just keep the pistons go up and down on that stuff.
As a mechanical engineer I was taught to design equipment with high efficiency like tramways and trains. Most car drivers refrain from car pooling and rather prefer to drive on their own. Car=individual freedom. Okay we could respect that. But the toll we pay in future is relentless: climate change and exhaustion of commodities.
Public transportation based on renewable energy is the only answer on this terrible inefficient car technology. And for the rest: more cycling, more walking and more tele working.
Arthur on Tue, 6th Aug 2013 3:56 pm
“Those that are expecting someone else to create some yet to be implemented technology to save them, are in for a very unpleasant surprise.”
Nah Greg, do you really think the future holds surprises for everyone, except you?
Arthur on Tue, 6th Aug 2013 4:04 pm
“Public transportation based on renewable energy is the only answer on this terrible inefficient car technology. And for the rest: more cycling, more walking and more tele working”
Teleworking is good. Almost all work done by city dwellers can be done online.
Regarding cycling, you can drive 50 km/h (33 m/h) on ‘bicycle’ with a battery delivering 250 watt, for 400 km on end.
http://deepresource.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/e-bike-enorm-v2-custom-cruiser/
The vision as expressed in Kunstlers ‘world made by hand’, is too pessimistic in my view.
Arthur on Tue, 6th Aug 2013 4:09 pm
Sorry, range 100, not 400 km.
GregT on Wed, 7th Aug 2013 3:21 am
Arthur,
My plan is well underway, and it doesn’t rely on someone else to come up with some high tech solution that doesn’t even exist yet. You can believe differently, but you better hope that those people that you probably don’t even know, or more than likely, don’t even exist, hurry up and figure out how to save you. Your life may very well depend on them. Wherever they are.
Arthur on Wed, 7th Aug 2013 4:44 am
Greg, everything we need is by and large already invented. I have confidence that at least the EU will achieve the planned 20% renewable by 2020 (overall, not just electricity) and maybe 30-40% by 2030. That’s fine. The car and plane will vanish, all communication, work and transactions will occur online, economic growth will have halted or maybe redefined away from barrels, kwh, tons, miles travelled into ordered megabyte of code and data. Life will be much more static, people stay were they are, travelling will be virtual, work groups will be virtual. People will spend several hours per week in community gardens to provide for their own food (socialism lite). Human activity will focus on the local environment, maybe we will even experience a renaissance in architecture, away from the ugly functionality of the 20th century. Life expectancy will probably drop as attempts will be dropped to postpone life as long as possible.