ahmadjee

I think the future belongs to alternate fuel cars. You take your pick but it is a given that in the next decade, you will see cars that are lighter, maybe smaller, and will not run on gas (petrol).

So the technologies are:
1) Hybrid - the most popular these days
2) Natural Gas - Popular in places like Pakistan
3) Flex Fuel - ethanol based
4) Electric - which I want to being dominant going forward
5) Fuel Cell - which GM is banking on but it will need a lot of work.

Any others?

I like electric because it gives me freedom from any kind of fill up station. Be it gas, natural gas, ethanol etc. I come home, I charge it up, I go the next day. There is little infrastructure changes that will need to be made for this to work, as appose to say fuel cells which will require an almost over haul of the way energy for transportation is distributed. Though electric cars have a long way to go, mainly cos currently they can go up to 150 miles before charging, which is not good enough for most drive loving Americans and then there is the cost issue ... but I have hope!

I know European car makers are banking on Diesel by marketing it cleaner than ethanol and more efficient than hybrid but I doubt they will go very far with it.

Which one of these technologies do you think will finally take over as the the evolution of this century cars?

TLK

How about the compressed air cars
http://www.theaircar.com/acf/

I am very fascinated by this technology. Amazing concept

ahmadjee

Its great but I would rather buy a Vespa and I would urge you not to use it on the Autobahn!

ravage

short term - hybrid. long term - electric or fuel cell.

ethanol is evil.

ahmadjee

I wouldn't call it evil but it's definitely not as green as some people make it out to be. Not to mention the current method of mass producing it, primarily from corn has destructive effects on world wide food prices.

Though according to one report on NPR, it only costs $100 more to make a car flex fuel. The Ford's first car, the Model-T was flex fuel. So, why not make all cars flex fuel as a standard? If people can pay $700 for a spoiler in the back, I am sure a $100 more for flex would be an easy sell.

There is some research going on in making ethanol from things like fungi or harvesting certain kind of non-food based crop. Who knows, maybe they will have a break through.

From carbon emissions stand point, it's marginally better than gas.

ravage

until there is production of that fungii, which if we are talking about the same technology is a decade away, ethanol would have a disastrous impact on food prices. already there have been food riots in several countries, directly impacted by the rise of subsidy driven corn production.

jaadugar

I would vouch for electric cars and would further enhance the technology by adding solar cells on them. Doing that you can go on longer drives provided there is sunlight.

alihamza

nice info

SindSagar

.....ALGAE is the holy grail of Bio Fuels.....check it out!



This scientist says Algae can produce all the gas/desiel/kerosene needed for all USA needs on 1/10th the area in the State of New Mexico.

Algae is the fastest growing plant on Earth......

and it is 50% lipids = Oil

If it is true........never thought I would be running my car on Pond Scum....

Just Imagine............the filthy smelling River in Karachi near Mauripur wil be converted to an Oil Factory............

Orpheus

i read an article recently that lotus modified one of their cars to run completely on Co2.

Abdali

I thing any vehicle that runs on farts would be the best. I will buy all the daal there is to keep my fleet going

mAd_ScIeNtIsT

Electric isn't that green. It would require a huuuuge investment in power production which could either pump or carbon waste or pump out nuclear waste.

I think diesel will win in the short term. Horses in the long term :-p

Actually electric in the long term. Once people accept that nuclear energy and lots of it is the future.

stylobabe

I recently saw a news abt car running on water although that is not sustainable but it would be cheaper ....who knows one day water is as expensive as petrol!!

Spock

I am counting on electric, not just because thats the way to go, but because I specialize in "High speed Motor Drive Systems" as an engineer, so better future prospects for me if this technology goes mainstream! hehe

PrinceMS

Car pollution is a v.small part. Bigger problem is the industries in the countries - those based on fossil fuel burning ...

Algae etc are not practical for many reasons.

ehtasab

For example?

PrinceMS

For now its not FAST enough to produce enough oil. Plus, it gets contianaminated really fast. It is v.sensitive, needs just right enviroment (over a LARGE area of land).
Hence people are exploring ... down the road when the barrel is $200ish then everyone will be growing this in their house and it will be more practical

ahmadjee

Ford with a focus

BBC NEWS | Business | New Ford targets fuel efficiency

76 miles per gallon!! Woohoo.

ehtasab

Diesel


Will be better in Pakistan where diesel is cheaper !

PrinceMS

^ Diesel technically is not that cheaper, it burns slower which gives you more mileage at cost of less power.

Best thing for Pak is to harness SOLAR ENERGY!

ehtasab

I agree, what I meant to say is that in US diesel is little more expensive then "petrol" while in Pakistan "petrol" is little cheaper than diesel. Solar energy can't drive our cars (in short term), however, I agree that is long-term help in cutting down dependency over fossil fuels. There should be more than one kind of fuels available, no dependency on one fuel.

ravage

Hit & Run > Now Playing at Reason.tv: Ethanol - Silly Senator, Corn Is For Food! - Reason Magazine

not new information, just convincingly packaged.

ehtasab

I meant "in Pakistan diesel is cheaper than petrol".

ehtasab

Do you have info on ethanol's "efficiency"? How is it evaluated to be "good" or "bad" for fuel consumption?

ravage

seems to be quite good, i mean if octane value is the measure then its coming in at 116... for comparison regular (non premium) gas clocks in around 95 or so

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating

Even so, the amount of energy you get out is less than the amount of energy consumed in its creation. therefore it isnt very 'efficient'.

ehtasab

But that is determined by the pricing, if it is cheaper to "produce" than fossil fuel than it will be used more. Now the problem its causing is farmers replacing wheat/rice or other "edible-item" fields with "corn for ethanol" which probably resulting in "food shortage" globally.

ravage

by efficient I mean the energy that goes into producing ethanol is more than the energy released by ethanol upon combustion. this is factoring in the energy utilized in fertilizers, production etc. not just an issue of pricing but how it is produced.