What future fuel economy cars are going to be most practical?

Question

Which ones will catch on the most. Ethanol or Hybrid cars or something else. What type of car would a smart person buy today?

Answer 1

What I think is going to happen is that in about 8 or so years, hybrids will be all people have and the amount of hybrid cars there are now, will be the amount of electric cars there are then. Electric cars will be the most energy efficient and I think it will help a lot for our environment.

Answer 2

none ..public transport ,cycle..and if he or she cannot ..use as little as possible ...what he she should not buy..are suvs..

Answer 3

Any alternative fuel must have nutrients to feed whatever organic source of oil is being used.

However, on a large scale, I'll guarantee that the preferred nutrition for biodiesel will be sewage in the future and with that biodiesel will be the only fuel used.

The effluent, after solids are removed from the wastewater, is full of nutrition and by pulling it off the treatment process the need for purifying the stream is reduced, the oil from the algae or bacteria removes the nutrients and also binds the heavy metals and pollutants.

The oil will be sold at a profit and the effluent from the biofuel farm can be treated cheaply to become drinking water again, also worth a lot of money yet more than that it will conserve billions of gallons of daily water demand from fresh water sources.

Keep in mind that North Lake Tahoe has been using a completely recycled water system since the 1970's. Their system uses expensive processes to remove suspended solids and chemicals from the wastewater, flocculates are used to precipitate out the heavy metals and pollutants.

If every wasterwater treatment plant in the world did this, the volume of production can handle the demand. The resource grows with population, is considered useless and for sure isn't a food at your grocery store.

No fertilizer, no pesticides, no petroleum required, just people and animals producing tons of waste daily being put to use instead of "treated" and released back into the world.

Right now every major power resource wastes twice as much energy to heat loss as is delivered as power, so a 1,000 megawatt nuclear power plant puts 2,000 megawatts into heating up the world when it has to cool the water from 800-deg steam back to a fluid.

Cars and trucks are slightly better ....

Answer 4

Actually, i looked at Craig's list a couple days ago, and saw a nice little honda civic, <$5k, that claimed to get 36 mpg.

if i was to get a car today, that'd be a good choice.

i think that it won't be long (2-3-5 years) before there's a much wider choice of alternative fuel cars.

eventually i think that a plug-in hydrogen hybrid will become the car of choice.

it will run on battery for the first 100 miles or more, and only use the hydrogen hybrid function on long trips.

i think that's a number of years off yet, however.

btw, get a white car.  next sunny day you're walking next to a line of parked cars, put your hand on top of each one.  the white car is definitely cooler than all the rest.  even cars that are almost white.  so save some $ on your AC.

Answer 5

Electric cars will be the transportation technology of the future.  They're the most efficient at using energy to propel the vehicle, the technology is advancing rapidly, and the infrastructure (power grid) is already in place.

http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/electr...

Biofuel from algae oil is very promising as well.

http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/algae-...

Hydrogen is another option, but it has too many problems associated with it.

http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/hydrog...

Answer 6

Ethanol production actually has higher CO2 emission than oil from the ground as well as s******g up food prices so it should be avoided.

I suspect that the replacement for petrol and diesel will be synthetic hydrocarbons manufactured using CO2 from the atmosphere and water (along with some clean nuclear energy) which when burned will merely return the CO2 used in synthesis to the atmosphere (which will mean nothing gets added).  That would also have the advantage of having all the desirable properties of hydrocarbon fuels (and there are many, otherwise the market would have chosen oil) without the environmental effects as well as allowing for minimal change to what is already out there on the road and the distribution system.

For efficiency reasons we'll end up having hybrids in the future, either like the current ones or fuel cell hybrids (the response time of fuel cells may require that they be hybrids).

Answer 7

What difference does it make, there will be no oil for us.

Now for the polosi team, there will be plenty. And we will be paying for it.

Answer 8

There are many choices.

Ethanol is a joke.  Its generally more expensive to make and less efficient than gas, and takes more energy to make than you get out of it.

Hybrids are just to fill in the gap until better ideas become practical.

Hydrogen is nice but there is no way to distribute it.  Gas companies want car companies to pay for station upgrades.  Car companies say that's not their business and want gas companies to do it.  End the end nobody will do it.

Electric is also nice.  We can use our current electrical system with some major upgrades to prevent overloading the already stressed system.  As battery technology improves these will become a realistic choice.

brainguy222 - good point with those Honda's.  All the manufactures made cars like those Civics.  None of those cars would come close to passing modern crash or emissions standards though.

Answer 9

Ethanol and hydrogen(via ammonia).

I say hydrogen via ammonia because

- ammonia can refuel a practical hydrogen station.

- ammonia from WIND can be really cheap...

Answer 10

They are all wrong for the environmentalist nuts, as they all produce  the same CO2 .. The energy comes from burning C and it will produce the same energy regardless of what U burn...

Answer 11

Surely ethanol and biodiesel

Answer 12

That is a question of who you ask. We've had cars far more efficent and practicly than the cars of today and we've put them aside instead to buy other cars. I know you asked about today but i'll first give you a look into yesterday to understand more. Look up a 1993 honda civic Vx a car that 15 years ago got better fuel economey than the smart car, had more power and room than the smart car and it was a honda. Go in the future a couple more years and look at another super mpg honda car the 2001 insight hybrid. Again Many more mpg than the fuel effcient smart car or the prius. These are both great cars and i'm not a honda support i just like my money. Today car buyers want more power!!! this is the only thing stopping automakers giving us good cars. But in this day and age i think diesels are by far our best choice into the future because it is the easiest method of great mpgs and despite what people think there are diesel-hybrid cars schedueled for development to get upwards of 120mpg. Diesel cars also do not sacrifice power like hybrids do so you can still do everything you want. Diesels have come a long way and they have a long path ahead of them

Answer 13

Diesel always.More power per gal.,and more miles.

Answer 14

If I was you, I'd just buy a Brown's gas generator and the cheapest car you can stand for now.

That way you'll be getting semi-okay (depending on your car) mileage until the real stuff comes out...

Answer 15

Well, I drive cars that run on natural gas (methane) right now - I couldn't wait for other technologies to catch on or be developed. Ford made mine back in 1999 and 2000, so they've been around for a while, but most people don't know about them. It costs me $10 to fill up, and they run way cleaner than any other vehicle out there that actually exists. Plus, the USA has lots of its own supply of natural gas, so the money stays in our own economy. Lots of upside to this. Check out my sources to learn more about these cars, and find out if there are filling stations near you. Good luck!

Answer 16

Right now one might wish one could get a TDI rabbit or one of the other turbo diesels from Europe or China for current use. But Volkswagen has a new 2 seater (one before the other) that can deliver 235 mpg on diesel fuel, due for introduction in 2010, likely just in Europe.

I think that electric with EESU power storage and solar charging may be our next step.

EESU will allow us to have recharges in minutes  and range as much as 100 km being economical, with very low weight.

Carbon fibre body is also a likely direction.