Mexico City to ban more cars

Smog in Mexico City. Can X-1R come to the rescue?

Yet another global city is struggling with the scourge of air pollution and putting the blame squarely on the shoulders of the private car, after a surge in air pollution has nudged the city to issue an air quality alert, the first in 14 years. The legislatures in the nation’s capital, Mexico City, have ordered more cars off the streets after the country’s president, Enrique Pena Nieto, declared an “environmental contingency” during an anti-pollution commission meeting, due to the high levels of ozone present in the air.

The objective of the nation’s anti-pollution commission is to reduce the capital's air pollution and protect the health of the residences. This could be a tall order in a city that is more than 2 kilometres above sea level and has some 20 million residents who get around on an under-developed public transport system, which famously includes the old VW Beetle as the favoured taxi cab.

Our old friend, the chuggy VW Beetle, as a taxi.

On Monday, older cars were banned from the streets but Wednesday saw the ban extended to include private cars with number plates ending with a three or four. The commission, which was formed in 2013, said the ban was needed due to the nitrogen oxide and other volatile organic compounds produced by older, less fuel-efficient cars; both gases are of course ozone precursors.

The fumes that are belched out of the backside of a car anywhere in the world should be a concern to all of us as pollution does not stay where it is made, but will gradually circulate the globe, creating a toxic environment for us and our children. There are many companies wrestling with the need to reduce emission and at the forefront of the pack is X-1R, our sponsor, who has created a range of products that are incidentally available in Mexico, and that will and do significantly reduce the amount of fuel used by any vehicle and reduce the amount of exhaust gases a car emits.

A spokesperson for the X-1R Global told Automology that with the addition of X-1R products, the fuel consumption can be reduced by 7% or more, and a recent Chinese government study showed a 9.4% reduction is possible, even in a new car, although there was no mention of the reductions in emission in the study. There have been a number of other studies that show a reduction in emissions when using X-1R products; a study currently being conducted by Utah University is thus far indicating that a massive 65% reduction of particulate emissions during idling can be achieved by X-1R products, a fact that we're sure that the X-1R management in Mexico will be telling the Mexican Anti-Pollution Commission.