The car industry, along with many other sectors in the modern world, is developing at a very fast pace. Predictions are constantly being made for the future and there has recently been one more, coming from the head of the industry-government Automotive Council and chairman-designate of Network Rail, Richard Parry-Jones. Jones is a former Ford engineer and it is his opinion that by 2020, the least polluting cars will equal the cleanliness of today’s high-speed electric trains.

It was Jones’ prediction that by the end of this decade, the car industry will have been able to reduce tailpipe carbon to a mere 40g/km. This is roughly 25g/km per passenger when the car has an average of 1.6 occupants. This is good news for car owners, who drive a lot and insure their vehicles with someone like RAC Car Insurance. In the year 2000, the average was around 140g/km, and the expected future development means that the car industry is becoming more sustainable and that by 2020, a lot of progress is likely to have been made.

Considering how fast the car industry is developing these days, these figures do not seem so unattainable and it would certainly be good news for our environment. Jones also made the prediction that the future of the car industry lies in networked vehicles that are under digital control. This means intelligent cars with the ability to communicate with each other, as well as traffic management systems that that help to efficiently control traffic. If the car industry continues to boom in the way that it is at the moment, then such improvements will indeed be necessary, especially for those who are conscious of the effect that vehicles have on the environment.

Hopefully these targets can be reached by 2020, and the green car industry will continue to improve.