ABSTRACT
The automotive industry has from its early inception been inseparably tied to carbon modernity. Ever since Carl Benz a German engine designer began the first commercial production of motor vehicles with internal combustion engines in the late 1880s, motor cars were predominantly gasoline powered. Even though it took several more years for the internal combustion engine to sweep the American market, gasoline-powered combustion there also became the dominant industrial design, taking over from the coal-based steam engines. Starting with the reality of the automotive industry today, the big picture in the two mature economies the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) is one of gradual stabilization of massive automobile use with extensive CO2 emissions. Both the EU and the US took a clear policy initiative early on to direct the auto-industry towards lower CO2 emissions, indicating that climate concerns are eventually trickling down into operative regulation.
