REVIEW 3: Who killed the electric car?

Did you know that electric cars existing over 100 years ago and where used over petrol running cars? Who knew? Well, when I viewed this film it was interesting to hear how the electric car was popular once then faded in and out, whilst the petrol car came to be more popular and frequently purchased. This video explores the reasons why the electric car wasn’t and still isn’t a great success to consumers and addresses the continuous debate.

Initially, electric cars where quiet and smooth to run and could be charged from home compared to the gasoline run cars. Thus it was the fast changing world whereby gasoline cars were preferred due to their momentum, cheaper gas, and automatic starters. It had the edge. However, there was one fault to the car, it created smog. This issue was the beginning of poor air quality especially in America, influencing diseases and respiratory illnesses effecting adults and children.

In retrospect the film focused on the idea of why the electric car which was a great alternative and solution to the health issues being faced with a gasoline car was being dismissed by the public. It questioned who was to blame and what where the reasons to do away with it.

It mentioned that electric cars were gaining their momentum in their use by Americans but it was the sceptics that stopped the change. This was insightful, as some consumers felt that they couldn’t trust the cars enough to switch, in terms of strength, size, function and ability to understand this new technology. It had inconsistent utility providence.

An interesting point raised was that depending on how much information the consumers were being provided with, influenced the purchasing behaviour of the consumer. This said was rebutted with the fact that oil companies have a great influence in the automotive industry, which discouraged the alternative electric car, due to it affecting their finance standing (profits).

The line of reasoning continues throughout the video, battling the reasons of who did and didn’t want it? and why it was eliminated?. There seems to be an ongoing blame game between consumers, technology, companies, politics and governments that have influenced the discontinuing of the electric car. Furthermore this said, the argument has influenced other developments, such as the Hybrid, trying to address a greener automotive industry, but there is still a challenge in acceptance and adaptation of greener cars.

 Overall, with the arguments unfolded on electric cars and a greener environment displayed by various parties Industrial Designers can take these views and try to encourage greener products. It creates an opportunity for greener design and encourages eco friendly designs as trustworthy and similar to existing products.

So key messages of this video where:

(a)    Consumers base their decisions on the knowledge and experience of the product. So some consumers felt that they couldn’t trust the electric cars enough to switch. Whilst others where willing to help the environment thus society in the future with their health.

(b)   Electric Cars were environmentally friendly. Although it was the reason of poor utility providence in comparison to gasoline cars that it didn’t succeed.

(c)    This decision was heavily influenced by the opinions of the consumers, politics, government, automotive industries, technology as well hidden agendas of oil companies and their financial standing.

(d)   Through decades of argument, it has led many to think of creating products for a greener environment but the challenge today is for consumers to move away from that mindset that eco products aren’t an equalised function to existing products. Acceptance is the key to the future of greener products.

 

Project 1: Pure Care & Rationale

Problem

The redesign of the petroleum jelly container was a necessary problem to address, where the current design of the petroleum jelly container have an easy clip on & off cap which makes it easy for children at the ages of 5 and below to access  thus using the product inappropriately. 

This was evident through research of children using the petroleum jelly as a toy, for their hair or face. It seemed that the oily, smooth texture of the jelly is liked by young children, besides the fact that they don’t fully understand the usage of the product. Further research was conducted into the safety and healthiness of the product to see if this product is appropriate for new packaging, it resulted that ‘petroleum is [also] not considered safe for ingestion or internal use in large amounts.’  From this it was concluded thus identified that parents should have the control in using and applying
 the substance onto their child.

Besides looking at the problems faced with the easy accessibility of the packaging causing higher risks of children being unsafe, it was mentioned by many parents that they try to carry a minimal amount of items in their bag when outdoors with their children. Thus, the large structure of the container is not practical for parents that travel outdoors where they will require the need to carry the container for the comfort of their child. Likewise the content of the container is relatively not used in one go when the parent is outdoors.

[Solution]: My Design

The ‘Pure Care’ container manages the dispensing of petroleum jelly to a minimal amount and stopping children at that young age to access the inner content of the container. The main operation of the packaging is the parent presses the lid to open and squeeze the pouch to release the petroleum jelly into their hands. Having the petroleum jelly being squeezed into the parent’s hands reduces further contamination or gems being placed in the petroleum jelly container.   

The Pure Care packaging comes in two parts, the outer shell and pouch. The outer shell is shaped in an egg like form, for reason of comfort in one’s hand, but to reflect safety and gentleness, thus no rough edges with smooth contour lines. This is enhanced by the use of blue shades of colour to reinforce the clean and safety of the product being contained in the packaging. The outer shell has two living hinges within the design to allow for the lid to be attached to the form and avoid parents losing the lid as well as a living hinge to support the two main casings that is holding the pouch in place.

Pure Care has allowed for parents to be able to carry a minimal amount of petroleum jelly, when travelling from place to place. The outer shell has a wedge detail around the rim of the main body, which allows for the two parts to clip in and be squeezed together with the assistance of force and friction to wedge the parts together encasing the pouch. However the way it is put together, isn’t permanent, but able to be released, by pulling the two halves apart, whereby there are scallop details on the side of the form to indicate to the parents where they can place their hand to pull from.

Furthermore, with the ability for the shell of the packaging to come apart from the pouch that sits within the packaging it has allowed for the Pure Care product to be refillable, which is an approach in minimising the amount of  jelly being carried outdoors by parents. Hence the outer shell has five bosses that the pouch is slotted into for perfect alignment and instalment of a new pouch. These pouches can be bought within the supermarket by parents when needed. These refillable pouches are seal with an aluminium foil before used to avoid any tampering with.

Pure Care also addresses the transportation problem by the size of the packaging. It NET’s 65g, whereby it is small enough for transport purposes, thus able to be placed in either a baby bag or the mothers hand bag. The reasons of why the content of the petroleum jelly was reduced was to allow for the parent to not have to care around a large amount of petroleum jelly at the one time, knowing that they wouldn’t need to use it all on their day out. I also considered that the parent wouldn’t run out of the petroleum jelly in one go, but last a week so it could be refilled for the next two weeks or so.

Pure Care minimises the chances of children below the age of 5 to access the packaging as the lid must be pressed and rotated to prevent children in opening the lid but it also stops the mess created by children. However parents are able to still access the packaging, whereby there is a scallop detail on the lid to identify where to place the hand to press. This action is reinforced by embossed instructions near the lid.

The lid also has a cylindrical detail whereby when the packaging is closed it wedges into the pouch to stop any petroleum jelly being squeezed out of the packaging accidently if squashed in bag, thus it reduces over spillage of jelly to fill the recess of the outer shell.  This has been allowed as the pouch has a very thin wall section so it can be squeezed, but with the assistance of the cross section detail at the nozzle, allows for the plug to wedge down the detail and fasten in their tightly.

Likewise, Pure Care packaging is addressing the issue of sustainability, whereby the packaging is both recyclable and reusable. Pure Care Packaging is fully recyclable, whereby the entire packing is made out of Polypropylene so when the product goes to the recycling plant, the product won’t need to be separated thus reducing costs with the recycling of the product, but also there with be some saving with the manufacturing stage, as the packaging is made out of two parts only. The outer shell is injection moulded and the pouch is blow moulded. Having the pouch at a very flexible wall thickness with a large opening and cross section detail at the top of pouch allows for an injection pin to be inserted into the pouch and filled with the petroleum jelly.

Pure Care is reusable, as mentioned earlier as it can be refilled. However sustainability was also considered in the shelving of the product, whereby adding an additional feature, that is a hole at the top end of the organic form, allows the product to hang on hooks in the aisled of the store, eliminating the extra supporting material that would have been needed if shelved on the shelf. This goes the same with the refillable pouches.

In conclusion, Pure Care prevents children of 5 years and below from accessing the petroleum jelly product and creating a mess when not supervised by the parents. It keeps them from harm’s way if ingesting the product, also it allows for the parent to carry a minimal amount of the product around with them for the comfort of their child. Plus the packaging is designed with sustainability in mind, by reusing and recycling and increasing the life span of the products usage.