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ZOOM: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future
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$14.99
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Manufacturer: Twelve
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 650
EAN: 9780446698665
ISBN: 0446698660
Label: Twelve
Manufacturer: Twelve
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2008-10-20
Publisher: Twelve
Studio: Twelve
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Editorial Reviews:
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"Zoom goes zero to sixty in nothing flat. It's an exciting ride into the future of the world's favorite physical object, the automobile."
-Gregg Easterbrook, author of THE PROGRESS PARADOX
"Zoom offers a new way to think about cars and energy that's key to understanding the forces shaping business today. It's smart, well-informed and insightful--exactly what one would expect from two of The Economist's best journalists."
-Chris Anderson, author of THE LONG TAIL
"Zoom puts oil in its sights and squeezes off one telling round after another. Car lovers will see a sunny future with other fuels; OPEC a steadily darkening twilight."
-R. James Woolsey, VP, Booz Allen Hamilton; former Director of Central Intelligence
"An incisive analysis of the end of the petroleum age, including all its repercussions and opportunities."
-Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
"Oil is the problem. Cars are the solution."
Those two simple sentences by the authors of Zoom define the scope of their illuminating and important book, an examination of a transformation in business and culture that is occurring before our eyes.
We are living in the midst of a Great Awakening. People are seeking environmentally-sound alternatives to gas guzzlers. Detroit's reign is over. Oil companies, despite their billion-dollar profits, could be on the brink of extinction if they don't adapt. And citizens, all too aware that these industries have lobbied politicians into gridlock over energy policy, are mobilizing to support leaders who advocate new policies.
In Zoom, Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, award-winning correspondents for The Economist, show why and how geopolitical and economic forces are compelling the linked industries of oil and autos to change as never before.
Drawing on years of industry research-including dozens of interviews with motor and energy executives, top policymakers, and latter-day Fords and Edisons-Carson and Vaitheeswaran explain:
-How Toyota became the world's largest automaker through innovation and superior performance.
-Why American politicians have, for decades failed to address our energy issues and global warming-and how grassroots movements, along with individual entrepreneurs, innovators, and outsiders, are making real reform possible.
-How these Green revolutionaries are creating new products powered by hydrogen, electricity, bio-fuels, and digital technology.
As political leaders debate our energy, environmental and economic future, Zoom offers a lucid and visionary portrait of what that future could be. Anyone planning to vote will find compelling truth in its assertions and conclusions.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A call for arms in the environmental and clean car race!
Comment: Reviewed by Andrey Bilko for RebeccasReads (12/08)
For those who expect this book to solely focus on cars, and most importantly cars of the future, I have some bad news; this book does not exactly cover future cars. The main idea and purpose of the book is to make readers aware of the situation that America and the rest of the world is in due to our dependence on foreign oil, how we all got to this point, and what steps can be taken in the near future to try solve our current problems, like greenhouse gases and climate change.
The book covers a brief history of the automobile industry, which was very interesting (at least to me!). It talks about the oil companies, OPEC, and also our continuous "blood for oil" policies, which were originally started by FDR. "Zoom" spends time discussing the situation with China and India's arrival at the global stage with hungry desires for cars. It is just hard to imagine how much damage countries the size of India and China, with populations of over a billion each can do, as more and more people in these countries are able to afford and buy a car. However, both nations have shown major interest in alternative fuels, realizing the upcoming environmental damage. The book uncovers artificial governmental policies that actually ended up hurting the American goal of "going green" and exposes big oil companies' and Detroit's lobbyists in D.C. It is just amazing to see how counterproductive the government has been in some cases. Alternative fuels, like ethanol, hydrogen, and natural gas are also discussed, showing how non-efficient American corn-based production of ethanol is.
The authors want to make the reader beware of the current situation that we, Americans, and the whole world is in, having to alter our current habits of spitting out carbon dioxide left and right. Everyone needs to realize and take a stand for the environment and oil-independence. And the last chapter of the book gives clear insights into what every person has to do in order to stand up for the environment and change current governmental policies addressing the automotive impact on the environment.
The book is well written, very easy to read and follow. In some cases, repetitive material is present, which I thought was unnecessary. Overall, a great read to get more understanding about how oil and cars work in our society and what impact they have on our lives. "Zoom" is a great opportunity for all young adults and adults to further educate themselves on the current energy situation and make their voices heard by pressuring the government into changing current environmental protection rules, especially the ones concerning cars.
Again, the main purpose of "Zoom" is to discuss various alternative fuels, which will help America and the world to rid themselves of foreign oil dependency, stimulating local economies by making alternative fuels locally, reducing the environmental impact, and simply starting a new automotive revolution, thinking outside of the internal-injection engine.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The future of auto energy
Comment: A good book indicating the future of auto energy and its presence amongst the gasoline lovers/profiteers.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The scope of the oil problem - and its likely solution
Comment: Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran's ZOOM: THE GLOBAL RACE TO FUEL THE CAR OF THE FUTURE comes from an engineer and economy magazine editor who together consider the scope of the oil problem - and its likely solution, which lies directly in common transportation choices.
Customer Rating:
Summary: More On Auto Industry History than Alternative Fueled Cars
Comment: I expected to see more on the technologies competing to replace gasoline as the power source for cars in this book. it is really more about how the world auto industry reached its current state than the merits of the alternative technologies and forecasting which will prevail. Still, if you read it, you will gain good background for understanding what's in the media stories about the auto industry, particularly why the US big three have been losing out to Toyota and Honda.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Zooms at the end
Comment: Vijay's "Power to the people" was a pioneering work in highlighting the various issues including geo-political tensions, pollution, and the immediate need to find an alternate substitute for oil (My 5 star rating for this book on [...]). Since then, in direct correlation with and also perhaps in anger against the rise in oil prices, particularly the world's dependence on Middle East oil, several books have been published in the last 5 years. America and the Automobile that were once described as " The Siamese Twins" and Automobiles that was once hailed as "the Industry of Industries" suddenly became the sinner of them all. Emotions and rhetoric apart, facts need to be analyzed with a view to the future. This book scores well on this count.
The fact that the US Automobile companies have almost lost their race to "imports" particularly from Japan is no longer a secret. The path breaking MIT research that led to the excellent tome "The Machine that Changed the World" by Womack et al, gave a surgical 3 D view of the Japanese strengths that Uncle Sam could not emulate till date. Thanks of course for the money well spent on the project.
I do not understand why the authors have to take us back in history to narrate the old story again and again when we have well written books and reports on this topic.
Coming to the point, I expected the book to straight get into the topic (as I had expected from the title) "The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future". More than anything else, most of the book is about the past, without concrete conclusions or inferences about the future.
Many of the technologies, names of Companies doing research on Hydrogen Fuel Cells and other concepts are repeated from "Power to the people". In fact I got a little impatient till about two thirds of the book till which I came across nothing original except quotes from many well known publications and books published in the last 5 years.
At his point in time I could reflect on some of the best books that have done original work on the topic of Oil and the US Auto Industry.
- The End of Detroit by Michelin Maynard
- The End of Oil by Paul Roberts
- Twilight in the Desert - Matt Simmons
- Addicted to Oil - Ian Rutledge (A classic completely missed out in this book. I strongly recommend this book for your intellectual stimulation.)
Throughout the book, I remembered King Hubert, who had rightly forecast that oil will soon reach its peak output, at least on this planet. As I was reading the book, Oil had touched $[...], a new record.
Criticisms apart, the book has its own merits.
- Excellent read for those who want an overview of the Automobile Industry- Past, present and future.
- Non technical and easy to comprehend
- You are alone on a long train journey in a desert, and have nothing else to do.
- The last few chapters try discussing new technologies and you know nothing about technology.
Amidst this confusion Toyota leads the way in Hybrids. But if we are to apply the core concept of "The Innovators Dilemma" by Prof. Clayton Christen of Harvard Business School, incumbents may not be the winners in launching the car of the future. Keep "Googling" to find out who can give us the solution for a clean and green future!!
Good luck to those who have bought the book.
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