Transportation Costs - Decreasing Fuel Consumption and Exhaust Gas Emissions in Transportation - page 254

16.8.1 Costs in Road Transport
The cost of car travel is rapidly increasing worldwide because of the rising cost of
fuels. To increase private mobility for all social classes, manufacturers have built
more and more fuel-efficient cars in the last decade.
The cheapest new cars in the world cost about €2,000, i.e., US $2,859. They are
mainly accepted in developing countries.
The future belongs to new technologies and new models, but only large
financial investments can support the introduction of new technology, such as
electric cars and new energy storage systems. Combustion engines will dominate
development and will have cost advantages for the next few decades. Electric
transport will remain at a relatively high cost level, including development,
production, and daily operation.
16.8.2 Costs in Aviation
The Total Operation Cost (TOC) in air transportation is the sum of the Direct
Operating Cost (DOC) and the Indirect Operating Cost (IOC), which are usually in
a 100:80 ratio.
The direct operating cost can be reduced up to 4% by using high bypass ratios
in turbofan jet engines. Using propfan engines saves up to 5%: The construction of
a new type airplane with traditional ''heavy'' materials saves up to 1%, a new type
with ''light'' alloys up to 2%, and with plastic materials up to 4%. The best costs
saving, up to 12% of DOC would be from using ''super light'' composite materials
with nano tubes as filling in the construction and propfan jet engines in the
propulsion system. Rebuilding older jet engines in relatively new airplanes with
propfan technology can save up to 10%.
IOC is reservation, sales and advertising (34% of IOC), administration and
training (14%), fuel (35%), and dispatching (17%).
New technologies in aviation are expensive. High wing ratio and smooth, light
fuselage construction need new innovations, inventions, and high investment over
a long time. These measures have been effectively increased lift and decreased
drag of new airplanes, lower fuel consumption, and TOC in the last decades.
However, for economic reasons, relatively simple optimizations are in the most
cases more practical, that the total reconstruction of the aeroplane.
Relatively simple measures are
• Improvement of the aerodynamics of older airplanes;
• Use of winglets;
• Application of new aerodynamically optimized painting on the surface;
• Realize of weight reduction; and
• Introduction of new interiors.