Natural Capitalism—Chapter 2: Reinventing the Wheels

This report chapter outlines the 'Hypercar' concept—an ultralight, hybrid-electric vehicle designed to drastically reduce resource consumption and environmental impact. It argues that by combining carbon-fiber composites, aerodynamic streamlining, and hydrogen fuel cells, the automotive industry can move beyond the 'Iron Age' of steel-based manufacturing. The text further asserts that technological efficiency must be paired with urban planning and land-use reforms to reduce overall dependence on driving and mitigate social costs like congestion and sprawl.

• The Hypercar design aims to reduce fuel use by 70 to 80 percent through three primary changes: making vehicles ultralight (two to three times lighter than steel cars), reducing aerodynamic drag, and utilizing hybrid-electric propulsion.
• Replacing steel with molded carbon-fiber composites can reduce vehicle weight by two- to threefold and cut manufacturing tooling costs by up to 90 percent, as composite bodies require far fewer parts (5 to 20) compared to steel unibodies (200 to 400).
• Hydrogen fuel cells are presented as the most efficient propulsion method for Hypercars, potentially reducing the cost of power stations to less than $50 per kilowatt when mass-produced.
• Hypercars could function as decentralized power plants; since cars are parked approximately 96 percent of the time, they could feed electricity back into the grid, potentially providing five to ten times the generating capacity of the national grid.
• The report argues that technological efficiency alone cannot solve traffic congestion; it advocates for 'parking cash-out' programs and the removal of minimum parking requirements to reduce the necessity of driving.
• Urban sprawl in the United States is attributed to zoning rules and mortgage/tax subsidies that favor dispersed suburbs, which have received roughly 86 percent of the nation's growth since 1970.
• The document suggests that 'locationally efficient mortgages' could make urban housing more affordable by allowing buyers to capitalize on the avoided costs of owning a car.

APA

RMI (n.d.). Natural Capitalism—Chapter 2: Reinventing the Wheels. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_NCchapter2.pdf

Chicago

RMI. Natural Capitalism—Chapter 2: Reinventing the Wheels. n.d. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_NCchapter2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Natural Capitalism—Chapter 2: Reinventing the Wheels |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_NCchapter2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmindnatural, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Natural Capitalism—Chapter 2: Reinventing the Wheels}}, institution = {RMI}, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_NCchapter2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }