What is your opinion on future car technology? (E85/Flex Fuel, Hybrids, Fuel Efficient Cars)?

Question

I drive a 2002 Chevy Tracker 4x4 and so the gas mileage isn't very good. I'm 22 and thinking about what car to buy roughly 5-6 years from now. I know technology could be really different then, but after watching shows like Last Days on Earth or Inconvenient Truth, I am wondering if it's best to buy the cheaper baseline edition of a car with higher fuel efficiency instead of the nicer loaded car with lower fuel efficiency. E85 seems to be better than hybrids because hybrid batteries can die out.

What is your opinion? Has your view of cars changed over the last couple years because of carbon emissions and climate change?

Answer 1

I drive a 1998 Honda and it gets better mileage than most hybrid's.

Answer 2

A Hybrid is the best for the environment.

Answer 3

Buy a Rols Canhardly! It rolls downhill and can hardly get back up the other side!  Did you include the tires on the drill rig that went to the North Slope of Alaska to get the oil to be sent to the refinery and of course the fuel used in the super tanker that shipped the crude to the refinery,and then the tires on the tanker truck that delivered the finished gasoline to the service station to be sold and deposited in your gas tank  What about the tires on Air Force One does that come into the equation? Where does it end and how many hairs can you split and how many times can you do it? Why aren't the hybrids made with bio diesel using engines instead of just gasoline engines?

Answer 4

The technology needed to build very efficient and clean running cars is not new.  The reason we have not converted is that oil companies and auto manufactures do not have the profit driven motive to change anything.  

As soon as the oil prices get to the point where people insist that auto manufactures build economic cars oil companies will drop the price of fuel. Then the market for clean/fuel efficient cars disappears.  

Further, as soon as a party takes office that has the will to change policy the price of fuel will drop.  At the same time it will become cheap and cool (through millions of $$$ in advertising) for everyone to buy bigger high powered cars.  

Global warming is not new either, it was taught in the 70s to high school students... again policy makers have to want to change it then stand up to oil companies...

The best technologies I have seen are used the Tesla http://www.teslamotors.com/ all the technology is based on patents that are over 20 years old.

Do a patent search on the Geet Reactor and on Stanley Myer.

Answer 5

Here's a shorter answer:

Hybrids can be compatiable with biofuels or petroleum fuels and are more efficient, especially if you drive short distances.  Pay very close attention to when models come out, since there are significant tax benefits for buying new model hybrids, but these disappear once they've sold some number of a given model.

If you can't get a tax break, it'll take a while for you to recoup the extra cost of a hybrid.  Consider a diesel. I drive a 2006 Jetta TDI, can use biodiesel as much as I want and get an average of 45MPG in primairly city driving, 55 on longer trips and have several times gotten 65 on my old commute.

Any which way, get a light car with a small engine.

Answer 6

Below is a link from Fueleconomy.gov that will show you the most, and least, efficient vehicles. As you can see, the Prius came out on top. Not a diesel, the Prius. There is also a misrepresentation of the Prius batteries. They are fully recyclable and Toyota expects them to last the lifetime of the car.

Regarding the nickel plant in Canada...That mine supplies nickel for many industrial purposes and not just hybrid batteries, and has cut pollution 90 percent since the 1970s.

Answer 7

No Hydrid batteries have given out yet. They have a 10 year guarantee, but you will not need it.

As far as E85 reasonable engineers disagree about whether burning alcohol burns less fossil fuel than just burning gasoline to begin with.

IN the only head to head calculate off that I have seen between two engineers that disagree, it came down to one saying that you should include the fuel used to make the tires that the farmer uses on his tractor or not.

That is if you include the energy used to make the tires on the farmer's tractor then making ethanol required more fossil fuel to make it than what was in the ethanol you produce. If you do not include it there was a gain in making ethanol that was less than the amount of energy required to make a set of tractor tires. THEY AGREED on this assessment, they only disagreed on whether you should include the tires.

Add to that the fact that most new ethanol plants coming online are burning COAL to make the ethanol, and you can see what a scam ethanol is.

Most of us believe that making ethanol is the same process that makes the ethanol you drink. In fact fermentation may make alcohol, but you cannot distill alcohol to a pure enough level to use as fuel. It must go through a series of centrifuges very similar to the way that fissionable material is made. It just takes a lot of power.

The NICAD batteries have thier own issues, being made of nickle that is mined in Canada at mine that has already degraded the environment in the area so badly that it is used by nasa to simulate trips to mars. But the damage is done there. But so much energy is spent transporting the materials to manufacturers in the orient and back to the United States, they may not save any fossil fuels either, but that is not as clear as in the case of ethanol.

In short, there is a lot of good green marketing ideas out there, but no great products yet except for distateful public transportation and bicycles.

The only sure thing is the smallest most fuel efficient US made vehicle that meets your needs. That includes hybrids made primarily on the North American Continent. I only say US made because when you add the fuel needed to transport the materials to the orient and back to the US even a less fuel efficient vehicle made in the US save more energy than a highly efficient vehicle made in the Orient.

As far as plug-in vehicles in the US the biggest polluters in the United States are Electric power companys. They have produced almost all of the mercury that has put the warning labels on fish saying that you should not eat it more than twice a week, and produce between 60 and 75% of all greenhouse gas in the world.  Only an electric company would say that is a good option. http://www.nrdc.org/air/pollution/benchm...

Sorry to ruin everybody's fun with the facts.

I hope this changes, and it is sad but true.

Answer 8

I'd keep a close eye on Honda, when I used to live in Detroit back in the 80's-90's Honda tried implementing hybrid cars to the market without success (consumer wanted no part of it). Since then the market, technology and human factor has changed allowing them to go back to old blueprints. In the last few years Honda alone has introduces some half dozen hybrids to the market and now this Honda Hydrogen car (FCX Clarity).

http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity...

"The FCX Clarity is a next-generation, zero-emissions, hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle based on the entirely-new Honda V Flow fuel cell platform, and powered by the highly compact, efficient and powerful Honda V Flow fuel cell stack."

http://world.honda.com/news/2007/4071114...

It definitely has potential for "future car technology". In fact Honda just gave the first First Individual Customer from Las Angeles a 2 year lease on the FCX. http://world.honda.com/news/2005/4050629...

I built my first hydrogen cell about 5 years ago and now currently run 2 trucks, my home hot water heater, home stove and home generator on hydrogen. If you'd like to run your current car safely on hydrogen now i have a step by step DIY guide to walk you threw the process. You can find it at http://www.agua-luna.com/hydrogen.html or you can email me.

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions,

Dan Martin

Retired Boeing Engineer now living 100% Off-the-Grid with my family, using Alternative Energy & loving every minute.

for more info visit www.agua-luna.com

Answer 9

The Tesla Roadster is the model for the future:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cE2Yd-pTS-s

Answer 10

My opinion is that they won't really make a difference in any environmental arena until they run on something other than fossil fuel including gasoline. And the most desirable fuel is hydrogen which is really just on the drawing board.

In your situation, I would go with the simple high mileage car which can run on gasoline or E-85 if that's what they are sneaking in the gasoline where you live (like they do in Missouri), and let somebody else pay the premium for the privilege of field testing new technologies like hybrids and even electric cars. The former would be easier to sell for something else when you reach your late 20s and maybe need something with a little more cargo and passenger space, if I might be so presumptuous. ;-) Good luck.

Answer 11

Plug-in electric/gas hybrids and fully electric cars will be starting to become fairly popular within the next 5 years.  A few examples just within the next 2 years:

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 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 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/

Then of course there's the Chevy Volt which will probably become available in 2011.  They were shooting for $30,000, but it looks like it will initially cost closer to $40,000, unfortunately.

Answer 12

Maybe Hybrids will be best someday. Right now, the best hybrid gets 45MPG. In Europe, there are many diesels getting better mileage, and also have the advantage that they can burn Bio Diesel where available.  They are also much cheaper and simpler.

Seems silly to me to buy a hybrid that pollutes more and pay more for it.