The World in 2030

194 The World in 2030
there will be more than two billion computers in the world 367
by 2010 the potential energy savings will be immense).
There is also scope for enormous improvement in goods
and passenger vehicle economy. The success of the hybrid
electric-petrol Toyota Prius car in both the USA and parts
of Europe indicates where vehicle design is heading. XII In
standard form the Prius returns about 50 miles to the US
gallon (3.92 litres per 100 kilometres), but it can easily be
tweaked to double its fuel efficiency:
A car that doesn’t need gas, or at least not much, is
getting slightly more realistic all the time.
A few small companies will start to offer services and
products for converting hybrid cars like the Toyota
Prius that currently get around 50 miles per gallon
into plug-in hybrids that rely more heavily on electrical
power and can get about 100 miles per gallon. 368
And there is even talk at the Sustainability Institute of using
plastics to design cars of the future that will be able to do 1,000
miles to the US gallon (0.23 litres per 100 kilometres):
In today’s most efficient cars, only 15-20 per cent of
the energy in the gas gets to the wheels. Only about
2 per cent actually moves the driver; the rest hauls
the ton of metal around the driver. Because of that
XII
The Prius design also makes extensive use of Toyota’s re-cycled ‘Eco-Plastic’. Toyota’s results show
that when recycled materials are used, CO 2
emissions are reduced by approximately 52% compared
with new materials.