Is there any reason only car engineers should have all the fun?As I examine each element of the car we build, I'm going to use a mental model that is very useful when designing something new. I'll start by describing the model then I'll apply it to the first component so you get a sense of how to use it.The model uses the distinction between change and reinvention (sometimes called transformation).Change is inherently past-based. When one changes something, one takes what already is and modifies it. Because one has to start with something before one can change it, the result has to be based on the past.Reinvention, however, is future-based. It is future-based because with reinvention one creates from a blank canvas, from nothing, which is exactly what makes up the future.If we are going to solve our environmental mess, we're going to have to use a lot more reinvention than change. That's because change often retains the worst elements of the previous system.Let's use change and reinvention as we design our new car to get a sense of how they differ. Right now cars use an internal combustion engine. Engines are defined as devices that produce their own power, in this case through a chemical process (combustion), to produce the kinetic energy that performs work.A motor is a device that converts power from an external source into kinetic energy. It's because the electricity is generated elsewhere that one always hears of an "electric motor" but never an "electric engine."If we want to use change with respect to the motive device of a car, that's easy: keep using an engine and simply change the fuel. Change will give us engines that combust natural gas, or diesel, or biodiesel, or ethanol or even hydrogen. If the result is an engine – no matter what chemical reaction is used to create the kinetic energy – we've still used change.It's possible to examine a different element of the system and see that we're using change. All the energy sources listed above require a chemical process, combustion, to create kinetic energy. Because of that, even radically new engine designs like those from companies like www.regtech.com are still using change. Because it is still an engine based on combustion, no reinvention is occuring.But when we use reinvention, what can we create? To explore that, we have to dump the engine and look for other ways to provide kinetic energy.The obvious first reinvention is to use an electric motor. We don't care so much where the electricity comes from at this point so long the work is not provided by an engine.Another possible motive device uses electromagnetism, which is what gives maglev trains their name.I'll keep exploring change vs. reinvention as we move around the car. But I'll leave you with a piece of homework.If we switch to a horse pulling a carriage, have we used change or reinvention?