EXPENSES.. Help please?

Question

Which is the least expensive to the most expensive out of these alternative vehicles:

Electric

Gas

Solar

and Hydrogen

Im not too good with this kind of stuff :S

Thanx a heap xx :]

Answer 1

I suspect you might mean which is the least expensive to build, fuel or overall cost - so I will try and give you all three:

Least to Most Expensive to Build / Buy

Gas - $10K / 15K

Electric - $25K / $35K

Hydrogen - $75K / ???

Solar - $150K / ???

Despite the fact that the price to make a Solar powered car can double an Electric car, to build one that would be like what the modern consumer thinks of as a car (size, range, safety), would be much more expensive. If you combined any of the two or three - the cost goes down a significantly - thus a Hybrid or Dual Mode car.

Cost to Power / Fuel

Solar - Free

Gas - $.10/mile

Electric - $.15/mile

Hydrogen - ???

Solar is easy - it is free. Gas at 50mpg and $5/gallon is a known price right now. Electric is more estimating but that price/mile is possible. Hydrogen is more expensive simply put because no one is providing it yet. BUT - if you used Solar to make Hydrogen then besides the cost of the equipment to make/store hydrogen it is free. Same thing with Electric, if got it from Solar it would be free. Either of the two would require a LOT of solar panels/space/sunny location so it wouldn't be free until, you or the company providing it paid it off.

Overall Cost

(This tries figures in just about everything - the infrastructure, storage, economics, supply, ect, ect)

Gas

Electric

Hydrogen

Solar

If we had a number that excluded politics/war (which is not really needed to make the fuel) or trying extract/refine it yourself then Gas would win for a few decades. As supply / demand changed so would the price but even at $5-6/gallon it is still cheaper than Electric. A switch to Electric would require some changes to how we power our cars ($$$), Hydrogen more and Solar the most.

If you try and factor in environmental impact, technology, future demand and politics it becomes very complex very quickly due mostly to the lack of reliable information.

Depending on who is selling what, there are lots of conflicting data as to how much any of these actually / would cost. To try and cut through that I used the "What if I made one for myself" cost and scaled it up to the USA demand. Not the best way, I know, but it is a rough estimate.

Hope that helps a bit.

Answer 2

least expensuve is the electric car, taking the initial cost yes gas will be the cheapes but in the long run electric cars plug ins from solar powered plants are still the most cleanes ever. and cheapest too! it would not take te lives of the innocent people with asthma rates or lung diseases or the the morbidity of plants and animals

Answer 3

Not so much the straight-out cost of operation, but you have to take into account the maintenance, repair and parts replacement needs of all of these vehicles...especially if you are a "regular" non-wealthy non-celebrity citizen! Hybrid technology in the U.S. is the most widespread and readily available, as electric cars do not have a lot of recharge stations yet, depending where you are.

Tree Hugger.com is a good site for comparisons, as well as The Sierra Club and even Consumer Reports.

It's a learning process balanced against your needs and preferences, but you'll get there! Good luck!

Answer 4

let me start off by saying Hydrogen is a great option for the concept of free energy.     I built my first hydrogen cell about 5 years ago. Have converted over 50 vehicles in the last 10 years (gydrogen and EV) and now currently run 2 trucks (and another EV), my home hot water heater, home stove and home generator on hydrogen for free with caught rain water and the help of a $10 solar panel.  I offer a step by step DIY guide to walk anyone interested threw the process. You can find it at www agua-luna com or you can email me.

There are basically 3 safe ways to make and use it... chemically, electrically and molecularly, the first 2 being easier so I'll only discuss them here. The fallowing steps were taking directly out of a DIY guide I offer to those who would like to run their vehicles or home on hydrogen safely. The entire guide is available at www agua-luna com

    On demand h2 generators are a bit different from the Hollywood versions like seen Chain Reaction with Keanu Reeves, that tend to explode violently every time a film is being made. However when used in an on-demand system there is no storage of hydrogen and oxygen in its gas form, only liquid (water) and is only transformed into gas “on-demand” in small cylinder size amounts. It’s actually safer then gasoline as it doesn’t evaporate, creating explosive fumes in the tank like gas. the following were actually taken out of my $5 guide available at www agua-luna com

    Chemically

    1. You’ll need a 6inch x 1ft schedule 40 pvc pipe. With pvc cement glue a cap on the bottom and use a s***w on cap for the top. Drill a small hole (1/4inch or so) in the side close to the top, s******g in a small copper shut off valve. Place a few feet of stranded (food grade is good) flex hose to the valve and into the air intake of your engine (carburetor or fuel injections).

    2. Now crunch up a couple aluminum cans (beer cans, soda cans etc) and drop them into the pvc pipe, along with a couple cups of lye (Red Devil drain opener has lye in it, some Clorox and Drano’s do to).

    3. Then simply add water, s***w on the top and wait a few minutes.

    What happens in simplicity is that aluminum and lye don’t really get along so they battle, and as always the innocent civilians (water H2O) that the most casualties, by giving up its hydrogen and oxygen. This then builds up in the void of the pipe and is ready to be vented into your engine, by opening the valve. You may need to start your engine on gas then switch it off after the hydrogen starts burning.

    Electrical is a bit easier then Chemically.

    1. Simply take a small solar panel 1.5 amps is what I use ($9 at harborfreight.com), connect the 2 wires from the panel +- to 2 conductors (carbon cores of batteries work well, just be careful removing it from the jacket), but any conductive material will work ie. Copper, aluminum, steel, etc.

    2. Drop the wires into a water tank (I use 55gal drums), make sure they don’t touch each other.

    3. Drill a small hole (1/4inch or so) in the side close to the top, s******g in a small copper shut off valve. Place a few feet of stranded (food grade is good) flex hose to the valve and into the air intake of your engine (carburetor or fuel injections).

    4. Then simply add water, s***w on the top cap and wait.

    After a few hours tiny bubbles will form and rise off one conductor (that’s hydrogen) and even smaller bubbles that just looks like foam will rise off the other (oxygen). I don’t remember which likes the positive and which likes the neg hydrogen or the oxygen.

    The third method is more complicated and is what I use for my vehicles. It’s just a modified Joe’s Cell, there’s a step by step DIY guide available to walk you threw the process here www agua-luna com

It also covers the other 2 methods described in more detail.

www agua-luna com

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at  www agua-luna com on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.

Dan Martin

Alterative Energy / Sustainable Consultant, Living 100% on Alternative & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World... Instantly Elevating Their Income & Lowering Their Debt, While Saving The Environment by Using FREE ENERGY... All With Just One Click of A Mouse...For more info Visit:  

www AGUA-LUNA com

Stop Global Warming!!!