I am an automotive technician, and personaly with all of the hybrids and electric cars that are out there right now, i would not buy one. maybe in the future when they advance with the technology. but right now the best way to go is with a small four cylinder internal combustion engine.
Personally no I would not. I am a car afficianado and prefer good ol’ fashioned powerful cars whether they’re environmentally friendly or not. All hybrids do not have the sufficent power to be “fun” for me. Do hybrids help with the environment? I’m sure they do somewhat and of course you’ll always find those pro-environment friendly people who will buy hybrids. I for one will do my part to help the environment in other ways by recycling, not by buying a hybrid
There won’t be a real competitive market for fuel efficient/ alternative methods of energy until one of the fuel scenarios. One) Fuel prices would have to jump sky high, while based on the current economic status, is unlikely. Two) The prices for these hybrids, solar, hydro, cars would have to be competitive and everything they have released so far has been quite the opposite. While the benefits of buying an eco friendly car are certainly great, until it becomes financially possible for the average person, it is unlikely.
For electric cars, the price will have to come down and there will need to be more recharging stations available. I think many improvements will need to be made in “green” technology before it becomes cost efficient. So I guss my answer is yes when it becomes affordable and practical.
No, too expensive and it’s immature technology. I’d rather have a Kei car/city car. They’re generally less than nine feet long, weigh less than fifteen hundred pounds, and often have less than fifty horsepower. Some early Japanese cars like the Honda Z600 and the Subaru 360 were exported to the US, but before fuel prices made them logical. Now, safety standards mean they’ll never come here; there’s a conflict between safety and fuel economy, and cars keep bulking up with more steel beams and longer bodies. But, if it’s mainly for the city, crash safety isn’t so vital; you only need so much metal to crunch at 30MPH!
I think you should look at consumerism, the drive for large cars, and the reality that tin can cars could sell for about $7,000 US (with no features) and deliver over seventy-five miles to a gallon.
Hydrogen as fuel-yes.Not electric, and not fuel cell either.Since climate change is a naturally occurring event what we drive has little bearing on it.Having said that though, we should be as environmentally conscious as possible for other reasons.The main problem with most of the new tech vehicles is that they just don’t get the job done. Example: I live in Reno. It snows here. We have a 4X4 for that reason and the fact that we plan to buy a trailer and go out in the desert camping.Electric is just not capable of handling our situation.Hydrogen, LNG or propane is.Fuel cell tech is just too complicated to bother with at this point. We already have piston engines well developed, all we have to do is change the fuel.
Hydro cars have a real future I think though I think Methane is the fuel of the future. We have many sources of methane, it’s a renewable energy source, acts quite a bit like gas when liquified and takes almost no energy to harvest.
Solar power leaves several problems. Thousands of cars every year are lost in lakes, wilderness, etc. Few are intentionally abandoned except as the result of crimes. As such all the laws in the world won’t stop it. Solar powered cars would mean bigger batteries which means huge pollution problems down the road. Already the lead and other heavy metals in car batteries is a major source of pollution. Increase the batteries and you increase the problem. It also weighs own cars requiring more energy to push them. Solar cells would do the same thing.
Hyrogen is a good fuel source though I have a hard time seeing the oil companies not sueing any car manufactuer who allowed you to put tap water into your fuel tank out of existence. The big problem with Hydro is the energy to extract the hyrdrogen. Storing hydrogen is even more hazardous than gas. So realistically you’ll want to just add water to the tank and convert to hydrogen as it’s being used. That means finding an efficeint and cheap way of doing it. Right now hydrogen creation is expensive. Methane by comparision is cheap. You can suppliment your car tank by composting and gathering up that that methane. Commericial methane collection will be easy to do at garbage dumps, stockyards, rice paddies, swamps, etc. The process to liquify it for easy use and transporation well understood and already in use.
Theoretically if we would have reliable hydro, electric or solar powered cars and fully developed nationwide infrastructure gas station like to charge let say hydrogen or electric cars. I sure would buy that kind of car. But in current situation and condition of the infrastructure and hybrid and solar cars they are now, no I wouldn’t buy it.
“If there were solar powered cars, hydro cars, ect. being manufactured, would I buy one?”
sure, depending on the price, and how well it worked.
$1,000,000? no.
competitive price? yes.
however, neither of your options (solar or hydro) are going to work.
water is not a power source, other than a hydroelectric generation.
you can’t burn water — it’s already been burned.
it makes just as much sense to say you’d run a car on CO2.
solar powered cars are not viable in the near future.
every year, there are solar car races.
the sun generates something like 2-3 hp on the panels.
that’s not enough to power anything like a street legal car, at any reasonable speed.
the problem is that solar energy is not sufficiently concentrated to make it viable today.
hell yes, I wouldn’t care if it meant I have to refinance my house or get a second job to pay for it! Arent cars one of the leading causes of global warming?
Dear J,
The short answer is “YES”. I would like to
build an electric, at a cost of about six grand,
it is not so much. I also like Alcohol as a fuel
When I was young, all of the racing jocks used
alcohol fuel in their racing cars. Mother Earth News
Magazine has a book “Alcohol can be a Gas” that
tells most all about it. At about sixty dollars it tells
just about everything (even how to build the STILL)!
November 29th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I am an automotive technician, and personaly with all of the hybrids and electric cars that are out there right now, i would not buy one. maybe in the future when they advance with the technology. but right now the best way to go is with a small four cylinder internal combustion engine.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Personally no I would not. I am a car afficianado and prefer good ol’ fashioned powerful cars whether they’re environmentally friendly or not. All hybrids do not have the sufficent power to be “fun” for me. Do hybrids help with the environment? I’m sure they do somewhat and of course you’ll always find those pro-environment friendly people who will buy hybrids. I for one will do my part to help the environment in other ways by recycling, not by buying a hybrid
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
There won’t be a real competitive market for fuel efficient/ alternative methods of energy until one of the fuel scenarios. One) Fuel prices would have to jump sky high, while based on the current economic status, is unlikely. Two) The prices for these hybrids, solar, hydro, cars would have to be competitive and everything they have released so far has been quite the opposite. While the benefits of buying an eco friendly car are certainly great, until it becomes financially possible for the average person, it is unlikely.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:28 am
For electric cars, the price will have to come down and there will need to be more recharging stations available. I think many improvements will need to be made in “green” technology before it becomes cost efficient. So I guss my answer is yes when it becomes affordable and practical.
December 9th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
No, too expensive and it’s immature technology. I’d rather have a Kei car/city car. They’re generally less than nine feet long, weigh less than fifteen hundred pounds, and often have less than fifty horsepower. Some early Japanese cars like the Honda Z600 and the Subaru 360 were exported to the US, but before fuel prices made them logical. Now, safety standards mean they’ll never come here; there’s a conflict between safety and fuel economy, and cars keep bulking up with more steel beams and longer bodies. But, if it’s mainly for the city, crash safety isn’t so vital; you only need so much metal to crunch at 30MPH!
I think you should look at consumerism, the drive for large cars, and the reality that tin can cars could sell for about $7,000 US (with no features) and deliver over seventy-five miles to a gallon.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Hydrogen as fuel-yes.Not electric, and not fuel cell either.Since climate change is a naturally occurring event what we drive has little bearing on it.Having said that though, we should be as environmentally conscious as possible for other reasons.The main problem with most of the new tech vehicles is that they just don’t get the job done. Example: I live in Reno. It snows here. We have a 4X4 for that reason and the fact that we plan to buy a trailer and go out in the desert camping.Electric is just not capable of handling our situation.Hydrogen, LNG or propane is.Fuel cell tech is just too complicated to bother with at this point. We already have piston engines well developed, all we have to do is change the fuel.
December 13th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Hydro cars have a real future I think though I think Methane is the fuel of the future. We have many sources of methane, it’s a renewable energy source, acts quite a bit like gas when liquified and takes almost no energy to harvest.
Solar power leaves several problems. Thousands of cars every year are lost in lakes, wilderness, etc. Few are intentionally abandoned except as the result of crimes. As such all the laws in the world won’t stop it. Solar powered cars would mean bigger batteries which means huge pollution problems down the road. Already the lead and other heavy metals in car batteries is a major source of pollution. Increase the batteries and you increase the problem. It also weighs own cars requiring more energy to push them. Solar cells would do the same thing.
Hyrogen is a good fuel source though I have a hard time seeing the oil companies not sueing any car manufactuer who allowed you to put tap water into your fuel tank out of existence. The big problem with Hydro is the energy to extract the hyrdrogen. Storing hydrogen is even more hazardous than gas. So realistically you’ll want to just add water to the tank and convert to hydrogen as it’s being used. That means finding an efficeint and cheap way of doing it. Right now hydrogen creation is expensive. Methane by comparision is cheap. You can suppliment your car tank by composting and gathering up that that methane. Commericial methane collection will be easy to do at garbage dumps, stockyards, rice paddies, swamps, etc. The process to liquify it for easy use and transporation well understood and already in use.
December 15th, 2008 at 6:54 am
Theoretically if we would have reliable hydro, electric or solar powered cars and fully developed nationwide infrastructure gas station like to charge let say hydrogen or electric cars. I sure would buy that kind of car. But in current situation and condition of the infrastructure and hybrid and solar cars they are now, no I wouldn’t buy it.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:25 am
“If there were solar powered cars, hydro cars, ect. being manufactured, would I buy one?”
sure, depending on the price, and how well it worked.
$1,000,000? no.
competitive price? yes.
however, neither of your options (solar or hydro) are going to work.
water is not a power source, other than a hydroelectric generation.
you can’t burn water — it’s already been burned.
it makes just as much sense to say you’d run a car on CO2.
solar powered cars are not viable in the near future.
every year, there are solar car races.
the sun generates something like 2-3 hp on the panels.
that’s not enough to power anything like a street legal car, at any reasonable speed.
the problem is that solar energy is not sufficiently concentrated to make it viable today.
December 21st, 2008 at 9:21 am
Absolutely!
December 24th, 2008 at 4:43 am
hell yes, I wouldn’t care if it meant I have to refinance my house or get a second job to pay for it! Arent cars one of the leading causes of global warming?
December 27th, 2008 at 3:46 am
In a heartbeat. I’d LOVE to have a solar charged car. I don’t need a 500 HP beast. those are for showoffs with tiny “motors”
December 30th, 2008 at 7:20 am
Dear J,
The short answer is “YES”. I would like to
build an electric, at a cost of about six grand,
it is not so much. I also like Alcohol as a fuel
When I was young, all of the racing jocks used
alcohol fuel in their racing cars. Mother Earth News
Magazine has a book “Alcohol can be a Gas” that
tells most all about it. At about sixty dollars it tells
just about everything (even how to build the STILL)!
December 5th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
This is solid. Hope I could study more of your posts.