Rhetorical analysis on the confusing future of automobiles

The article on different transportation options in a carbon constrained world consists mainly of information regarding where the future is headed in terms of transportation. The audience to the article about how the future looks for gasoline alternative vehicles consists mainly of those that take interest in automobiles, and less the normal automobile consumer. This is why it is important to give verified data on the past and present to determine the future of automobiles to give the audience insight. The audience is less entertained by knowledge on the different types of vehicles if they are somewhat educated on modern day vehicles. They are more concerned on which one will take over the future and be the predominant purchase of consumers. 

The study itself mainly regards the future of automobiles, with plenty of graphs and previous knowledge on automobiles. The beginning of the study mainly goes on an overview of how current forms of transportation are bad for the environment and how over the years it needs to be fixed. The author gives background knowledge on how vehicles have grown to what they are today, and how they are going to continue to grow and become more efficient. He includes many different types of vehicles in this claim as well; being, gasoline, diesel, natural gas, ethanol, hydrogen, electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid. This is basically every different type of vehicle that is currently produced or being designed currently. But then it goes into how much carbon each different type of vehicle emits. This makes for great factual information for the audience considering most people don’t know exactly how much carbon their vehicle is producing. There is also information regarding past and current sales of these different types of vehicles. Sales play a big factor in which vehicles will continue to be produced and which will diminish off the market. So it is important to give the audience information on the sales of these vehicles along with estimates for sales in the future. This source is loaded with different graphs and data for the audience to visualize the current vehicle industry and the future of it. 

Considering this source is based around data mining, it is important to offer visual aids in the form of graphs and charts for the audience to see. There are so many different graphs in this source that it allows for the audience to see nearly every aspect of vehicles today. For example there are graphs and tables on vehicle/fuel combinations, percentage of new car sales, potential market share of new car sales, average vehicle miles traveled, fuel economies, vehicle range, energy production sources, vehicle charging rates, air pollution costs, greenhouse gas pollution, total societal costs, and future pollution rates. The amount of visual aids in this source really are endless and show everything the reader would need to know concerning the topic of the future of automobiles. The reader could most likely not read a word on the study and understand it perfectly. Some of the graphs that could pertain to the general reader though would be the current vehicle sales, fuel economies, and future pollution rates. Fuel economies is of course one of the most sought after considering that is one of the most important things when purchasing a vehicle. Many people would rather spend more money on a car to make it back through saving money on fuel. So showing what the current fuel economies are could predict what the future could look like and persuade the audience on what vehicle is the most efficient to purchase. The future pollution rates graph is also one of the most important graphs in this study. This is because it shows basically which types of vehicles are going to be the most efficient in the future. This gives the audience all the encite needed to visualize which type of vehicle is going to dominate the future of automobiles. The graph shows that the hydrogen fuel cell car will be the most efficient vehicle by or before 2100. This knowledge would easily persuade the reader to come to the conclusion that the hydrogen fuel cell car is the up-and-coming most efficient vehicle. 

The author was most likely targeting a specific audience that has some knowledge on vehicles. It is simple to tell that the author was making it more informative to those who have some to little previous knowledge on the matter. The audience would be the curious readers or the people who are devoted to learning about the future. This creates a broader writing style for the author, considering the study should be eased a little bit for those who aren’t knowledgeable on the matter. But the author also implements information that generally only people who have interest in automobiles would understand. For example, in this statement, ‘‘the plug-in hybrid running on ethanol provides the greatest reduction in oil import and GHG footprint, so we do not show dynamic details of either the ethanol ICV or the ethanol HEV.’’ (Thomas, 4). Most people wouldn’t really know that vehicles run on part ethanol in their premixed pump gas. But it is also used in hybrids to make them more efficient. Although the author does eventually go into detail on ethanol, the audience will have forgotten their questions on ethanol. So the author should contain more information on what type of fuel the different vehicles are running. This is important so the less knowledgeable can read more about the background knowledge of these vehicles. For example, the author could give a quick description on using ethanol in fuel. This example could simply be that different pump gasoline uses different percentages of ethanol to make their gasoline more efficient. Considering ethanol is in the carbon cycle, not adding any new carbon to the atmosphere when burned. This could change the audiences views on gasoline knowing there is a renewable resource added into it. 

The author does an amazing job of portraying the information in a credible way. The author organizes the study perfectly with all data being shown in order to maintain flow. The graphs and tables go from talking about the automobile side to talking about the environment and the effect of automobiles on the environment. Also, every graph and table is explained thoroughly to maintain the reader’s attention and not go off topic in inappropriate places. Also, not using words outside of intellectual knowledge and giving descriptions of abbreviations used in the text make it so the reader does not get confused. All of this plays a big role in whether the audience can interpret the information efficiently.

Overall the author made this study very persuasive through his writing technique, organization, and visual aids. This article even persuaded myself as I hadn’t thought of some of the different aspects of automobiles the author proposed. Although our claims were the same and our final conclusions were similar, the author still persuaded me to analyze other aspects of automobiles instead of simply emissions. There are also some quite controversial claims in this study. These claims have to do with pollution and exporting resources. A few of the graphs have to do with the pollution that fossil fuel powered vehicles are causing. But some people have views about global warming not even being a thing and how pollution just goes away. This could create a problem when the audience disagrees with the study and quits reading it. Although these claims need to be made to show the future of automobiles, some members of the audience may find it against their views. Another thing said in the study that could strike someone’s personal views would be, ‘’A second more stringent goal might be to limit our imports to the American hemisphere.’’ (Thomas, 16). This could create someone in the audience to disagree because of their personal views on how imports should be handled. But, these examples could also mean the opposite. These slightly controversial topics could strike the interest of members of the audience whether they disagree or not, making them more engaged. 

This article could be interpreted in many different ways by different types of people. For example, an electric car enthusiast could argue more on why electric vehicles will be predominant in the future. But it is the same for gasoline powered vehicles enthusiasts. They could argue that new developments could make the gasoline powered cars more efficient, thus not diminishing in the future. But this article is mainly trying to get to those who are just automobile enthusiasts looking to get encite on the future of automobiles. Which is why it is important to give good knowledgeable information on the different types of vehicles and descriptions on vehicle efficiencies. But also not to make the whole study about that and more on data on these vehicles and the future of them. This is why this study is so effective in displaying the information to the audience. 

 

Work Cited

Thomas, CE Sandy, “transportation options in a carbon-constrained world: Hybrids, plug-in hybrids, biofuels, fuel cell electric vehicles, and battery electric vehicles.’’ International Journal of hydrogen energy

HR: Source listed, Hunter Maul