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DuPont chief calls on Detroit to make 'Car of the Future'... that uses his fuel
It's debatable whether or not now is the right time to make changes in the way our cars are made, with some believing that Detroit should follow the path it's already on and others claiming there couldn't be a better time to make major sweeping changes. Count DuPont head Chad Holliday among the latter. Holliday's so-called "Detroit Project" would challenge American automakers to introduce a new "Car of the Future" that would achieve 75 miles per gallon and run on butanol – an alcohol fuel that DuPont just so happens to market itself.
Regardless of whether DuPont stands to benefit from this project, there are a few major hurdles to overcome, not the least of which is an initial $5 billion investment at a time when the Detroit 3 are asking for many times that from the government just to stay in business. We also see problems getting proposed collaborators such as Intel, Microsoft, Dell, Boeing and Google all working on the same page. Schools such as MIT, the Georgia Tech, and the University of Michigan could also be involved, according to Holliday. No problem, right?
Getting an automobile to run on butanol isn't a problem, it's been done over and over again. Yes, it is a cleaner fuel that may be a better choice overall than ethanol, but coming from the head of a company with a vested interest comes off as a bit disingenuous. It also reminds us of something we heard the other day...
[Source: Detroit News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
pmalloy4391 4:49PM (12/03/2008)
great...du pont trying to get everything their way again... Du pont is the single biggest reason marijuana was outlawed (they didnt want competition with their synthetic fibres from hemp)
Dupont, why cant we let you go extinct?
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Ausralis 11:27PM (12/03/2008)
DuPont and fuel. Hmm... Tetra Ethyl Lead ring any bells???
ronnie schreiber 12:50AM (12/04/2008)
The development of tetraethyl lead was shared by GM & DuPont. Standard Oil developed a process for commercial production, which was made safer by DuPont. They were just trying to make cars work better, not poison people.
As for nylon and hemp, DuPont didn't need to create a market for its new fiber. There were near riots when nylon stockings were introduced. Also, nylon was used extensively by the US and Allied Forces during World War II. Hemp has its limitations.
I worked for DuPont for a long time, including on environmental stuff. The company has introduced so many products that make modern life better that it's not far from the truth that without the products DuPont has developed, life as we know it would be far different and most likely worse. The company acts pretty responsibly for a big chemical company and as far as environmental matters are concerned, the policy of the company since the early 1990s is that their ultimate goal is to produce no waste or waste streams.
DuPont has a lot of very smart and talented people. It has issues like all big corporations, but the people who work there try very hard to make a lot of very cool stuff.
mythicalprogrammer 2:45AM (12/04/2008)
Yeah, hemp is much better at filtering. The material is pretty good at resisting bacteria too.
DuPont just want to be the next OPEC. Greedy...
@ronnie schreiber
Like teflon with their hallmark feature of giving cancer eh? I don't remember any more skeletons up in their closet there. But I'm sure there are quite a few nasty ones. Please don't reply with more DuPont is god's gift for mankind to make the world a safer place. I'm not into one sided happy facts post.
Garibaldi 8:34AM (12/04/2008)
Mr. Schreiber:
When the inventor of Tetralethyl Lead takes a Florida vacation to recover from lead poisoning and the workers at the manufacturing start hallucinating large butterflies attacking them, the conceit that DuPont was innocent and ignorant of significant, fatal side effects is ludicrous. The whole debacle surrounding "Agent Orange" only reinforces Dupont's lack of ethical behavior. Dupont has a long history of making money off of lethal products.
Sea Urchin 4:50PM (12/03/2008)
This is what you do, open up plants in 15 Republican states (if there are any). Hire unionized workforce.
Unions will lobby Democrats, execs will lobby Republicans. That way Congress will mandate your fuel to be fuel of the future.
Hey, the strategy works, look at D3, they got 59 Billion dollars (34bil+25bil)
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TJ 5:08PM (12/03/2008)
Highly delusional take.
Here is what you do: pay more money and hire more lobbyists than the Farm industry and get the Ethanol subsidies and other farm-pork diverted your way.
Pay to play, regardless of red or blue.
Nick 5:30PM (12/03/2008)
Ummm, AB, it's called capitalism....
BTW AB, 2 months ago in MT or C&D (can't remember) it seems they took a shot your blog for your advice.. They didn't mention you by name, but it came off as a shot against AB..
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mikhalian 5:32PM (12/03/2008)
Wanna know why we in the states have been ingesting poisonous chemicals from food and beverage containers for years? Ask this guy. He and the other Dupont bobbleheads have known for years, and have successfully blocked the release of the information through bribes, post fda/epa job placements, and lobbyists. While that was going on, the rest of the civilized world was outlawing the plastics involved. God I love Amerika.
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ronnie schreiber 12:54AM (12/04/2008)
Please explain why you spell America with a K.
Do you believe every urban legend and conspiracy that comes your way?
mikhalian 1:58AM (12/04/2008)
The "K" is a reference to a song, and is more of an inside joke that I think you may be taking a little personally. And as for urban legends and conspiracy theories, I'm talking about fluorinated telomer based products, pvc (still in many products), so on and so forth. The fact that Dupont has been under investigation for both very recently by the U.S. government ought to tell you that they aren't urban legends or conspiracies.
010111 4:53AM (12/04/2008)
In many products indeed... salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk, ice cream...? Ice cream, Mandrake? Childrens ice cream!
arturo 6:59PM (12/03/2008)
companies should spend on investment. to create new technologies that would take us away completely from crude oil.
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CarbonBlack 7:48PM (12/03/2008)
If they can get the fuel/car to be a serious competitor, I would consider it!
Another fuel option would be a plus.
It might reduce demand for gas/diesel.
It might burn cleaner (not the I would give a damn)
This could be great, and if it isn't, the free market will beat their ass with a stick-
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mark 7:55PM (12/03/2008)
wtf, butanol? correct me if i am wrong, but butanol cannot be made as easily as ethanol, so its less overall fuel efficient, not that ethanol was efficient to make. alcohols are not the answer! they are NOT environmentally friendly!
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letstakeawalk 8:07PM (12/03/2008)
I vow to you all, I will rid the world of as much alcohol as I can; one bottle, can, or frosty mug at a time!
Anybody with me?
RockStoneSteel 10:04PM (12/03/2008)
Are Autoblog authors getting paid per each lame caption on the photographs lately? Enough already!
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RedOut 11:20PM (12/03/2008)
This is the kind of challenge the government should be giving academia and detroit with big funding, not private industry. You would be amazed at what our american scientists and engineers can push to market quickly when the government picks up the tab. I.E. the space program.
Also...
I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech, and a hell of an Engineer
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ronnie schreiber 1:19AM (12/04/2008)
Jeremy,
While Holliday clearly has a vested interest in butanol as a fuel, he's hardly an armchair quarterback. DuPont is one of the largest tier 1 suppliers to the global auto industry as well as a major supplier to tier 2 suppliers. DuPont had controlling ownership of GM from about 1918 to 1961 and the two companies are still very close. When Ford sold off its steel, glass and paint divisions, DuPont bought the paint plant (and some very good paint engineers) and started selling Ford a lot of Ford's paint. I don't know what market share is today but DuPont may sell a majority of topcoats used in US assembly plant paint shops, as well as a lot of primer, some electrodip, and a whole lot of plastics to the automotive supply chain. Sure, GE Plastics, Dow, and Monsanto have their own proprietary polymers that are used in cars, but one way or another, almost every major component of most cars, foreign or domestic, uses some kind of DuPont product. Virtually ever automaker in the world buys both directly and indirectly from DuPont.
DuPont's involvement with both suppliers and the automakers is pretty close in terms of technology, and DuPont personnel are often involved at the design level of components, and in the case of paint exterior design and color selections.
Few companies have a more intimate relationship with the auto companies, particularly the domestics, and know more about their strengths and weaknesses than DuPont. For the past 90 years, any time a CEO of DuPont has spoken about the auto industry, financially interested party and well informed on the subject.
If the Detroit automakers go bankrupt, DuPont will take a huge hit, both in lost sales and as a creditor. At any one time, DuPont is owed many millions of dollars by the OEMs and many millions more by the supply chain.
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peter jackson 8:52AM (12/05/2008)
The technology should be evaluated on its merits, and be allowed to succeed or fail in an undistorted marketplace. Our biggest enemy is the idea that there has to be ONE answer that is all things to all people. Here in the real world, that has almost never been the case. There is zero reason we can't have vehicles that run on compressed air, various alcohols, electricity, gasoline, and various fuel oils such as diesel all at the same time.
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