What about the best alternative for a fuel efficient vehicle?

Question

WHAT ABOUT THE CHANCES OF A MORE INEXPENSIVE VEHICLE FUEL OR POWER SOURCE THAN WE HAVE TODAY. THE HYBRIDS ARE AWFULLY EXPENSIVE EVEN FOR THE USED ONES.

Answer 1

Hydrogen is a poor way to store energy in a car because it takes up so much room.  Liquid fuels are far better.  The keys to low fuel consumption are light weight and low aerodynamic drag (streamlined design).  Unfortunately new cars keep getting heavier and less streamlined.  The Dyna Panhard, a French car of 60 years ago, was a 5-passenger 4-door sedan that could cruise at 80 MPH and 45 MPG because it was light and had low drag.  Its engine was less than one liter in displacement -- That's all it needed.

Answer 2

HYdrogen but,

It will be availbe to us in about 50 - 100 years.

There's alot of car's, gas stations, military vehciels, planes, boats, trains, factories, .....the list goes on

to convert to hydrogen yeah the fuel will be there but have fun getting some.

Answer 3

Electricity is the best alternative fuel.  It's far cheaper than gasoline - EVs cost 2 cents per mile to refuel, while a gas car that gets 30 mpg with gas at $3/gallon costs 10 cents per mile - 5 times more.

Hybrids also cost less than pure gas cars to refuel (a Prius is about 6 cents per mile).  It's the initial cost that you're talking about, not the fuel cost.

Hybrids and EVs currently have high costs because they're new technologies.  As the technology advances and becomes more mass-produced, the price will come down.  The Tesla Roadster costs $98,000, but in a year or two we'll already be seeing long-range high-speed EVs available for around $30,000.

Available in California in October 2008, the Aptera typ-1e will cost about $27,000 with a top speed of 95 mph and range of 120 miles per charge.

http://www.aptera.com/details.php

Soon thereafter Aptera will introduce the typ-1h, a plug-in hybrid version of the typ-1e with a 40-60 mile range on purely electrical energy, and a range of over 600 miles total when in electric/gas hybrid mode, for around $30,000.  On a 120 mile trip, the typ-1h will get 300 miles per gallon.  The shorter the trip, the higher the efficiency.

http://www.aptera.com/details.php

Available in late 2008 or early 2009, the ZAP Alias will cost $30,000, have a top speed of 100 mph, and a range of 100 miles per charge.

http://zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/el...

Soon thereafter the ZAP-X will be available at a cost of $60,000 with a top speed of 155 mph and a range of 350 miles per charge.

http://zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/el...

Available in late 2008 or early 2009, the Miles Javlon will cost $30,000 with a top speed of 80 mph and a range of 120 miles per charge.

http://www.milesev.com/

Phoenix Motorcars will start selling their SUT to individuals in late 2008 or early 2009.  It will cost $45,000 and have a top speed of 100 mph with a range of 100+ miles per charge.

http://phoenixmotorcars.com/

Answer 4

Best alternative for a fuel efficient vehicle is the compressed air car. Tata Motors will develop the MDI air car which will be only $10,000 to buy. http://www.theaircar.com/

Answer 5

the answer: EV "electric vehicles"

EV's are curently on the market but some are rather expensive, and some are not.  Curently tesla is working on a sports car that can go 0-60 in 3.8 seconds, and go's around 300 miles per charge.  the charging only takes 10 mins and can be done right at your home.  there are MANY electric vehicles coming out, and some time in the mid summer/ early winter we will start to see them a LOT more.  

Here are some links to some cars that are already out, or soon to be.

the tesla roadster:

$100,000 0-60 3.8 seconds 220-300 miles per charge less then 2cents per mile.

http://www.teslamotors.com/

The ZAP x:

$50,000-$65,000 0-60 4.8 seconds 350 miles per charge less then 1 cent per mile

http://www.zapworld.com/electric-vehicle...

those are my 2 favorite cars that are coming out/already out.  as for a cheaper car the Chinese are importing a lot of smaller cars that are WAY less try around 10-$15000

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/12/...

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/08/25/...

electric cars are the way of the future. They can be charged at your home, go for miles, and are becoming better and better every month.  Electricity is BY FAR cheaper then gas.

as for the hybrids, there not worth investing to much in.  Sure they save you a small bit, but if you can wait a little longer electric vehicles are going to push hybrids off the market.  Hybrids still use gas, and there batery life isint that good.  They still cost ALMOST the same as a normal car, and get just a little beter miles, where as the elctric  cars get WAY more miles, and MUCH less cost to run them.  

as for those hydrogen cars.  They are not very promising.  The fule to run them is EXTREAMLY expensive and hard to come by.  There is a way to get hydrogen from watter but it requires MUCH MUCH more electricity, and in the end costs more then EV cars.  Also, there are around 18 BILION gas stations in the world.  To make hydrogen cars useful they would need to set up at lest HALF that many stations to make it so you dont run outa gas looking for a station.  

In the end, electric cars are whats most likely going to be on top.  They cost LESS to run, go further, out accelerate a ferrari, and can be re charged right at your house.

Answer 6

Everyone with a hybrid will be upset when it cost over $7000 for batteries. Diesel is best,bio diesel,or plan wvo.

Answer 7

The best HYbrid gets 45MPG. h**l, we had cars that got over 50MPG in the 80's (VW Rabbit Diesel and Honda MRX?) The Honda got 57MPG.

Why waste the resources and money on something that is worse? We can build small gasoline and diesel cars that get 60MPG NOW! If only the public (US) would buy them.

Answer 8

The best would be hydrogen.  It's not currently viable, but when the technology is more advanced it will be the best alternative fuel that we can use.  Hydrogen produces no emissions except for warm water and can be very efficient.  Everything is expensive right now because of the technology used to make it.  Just like everything else, the prices will drop as they get more common.  Within the next 20-30 years this will become the normal.

Answer 9

dude, take the bus, i don't see how ppl keep saying hybrids are expensive, they're much cheaper than hummers, plus in the long run, u save more cause of the amount of money u save on gas.