shameless plug ZENN car

[Vyndara]

Hydro-electric power plants use a renewable source.....and clean. I'm not really interested in maintaining the current infrastructure for teh sake of it.

[BadTouch]

Very nice, saw it as a proto type years ago. By the way: Hybrids are OK not great, using E85 ethanol is a terrible idea because 1) causes food shortages in foreign countries ie. Mexico and 2) it takes more energy to produce burnable ethanol than the energy it gives the car.

Hydrogen is definitely the way of the future, even electricity. And for all those worried, they will be just as fast, even faster than current cars.
Several hydrogen and electric concept cars can go 80+ there is even a F1 hydrogen car so i can't wait.

on a different note: are we really running out of oil? my father must be paranoid/ ignorant and says its all a lie and conspiracy.

[Ayasha]

Originally Posted by Skozat

Hydrogen power is where I think it's at. Cars whose only emission is a small amount of water and sometimes trace amounts of benign materials like Aluminum.

http://www.hydrogenpowerinc.com/
This is a neat way of powering things (including cars) that uses recyclable aluminum cartridges as fuel. The recycling process no doubt takes some power generated by other methods, but overall the emission savings is ridiculous.

Wow, nice link there. I never knew that they were putting the fuel into cans like that. And it looks like it is used in the military a lot.

[Lethos]

Originally Posted by Skozat

Personally I'm against electric cars.They say that it reduces carbon footprint by 6 tons but the electricity that the cars run on has to be produced by power plants and the additional demand on the power plants really doesn't fix anything (most of the US is powered by petroleum. I'd have trouble believing that any country is mostly powered by green sources). Hybrids are great because they keep the gasoline economy mostly intact and manage a synergy that actually reduces the overall energy that it takes to operate a car (whereas electric cars just get it from a different source). They also require no change in infrastructure to operate and function exactly like a current car to the user (albeit with much lower gasoline usage).

In B.C. most of our power is produced hydro electric (small percentage co-gen on top of that) and our electric rates are extremely low compared to the rest of the world. However you are very right about the amount of electric energy produced elsewhere being produced via coal fire etc. I've looked at hydrogen cars before but they don't escape the same problems as electric cars. The source for hydrogen is... the petroleum industry as near none of the general supply for hydrogen is produced through electrolysis. If it was produced through electrolysis it would require hydroelectric or equivalent generation to remain "green" and in the US that would mean more coal fire for lack of hydroelectric facilities. Another problem with hydrogen is it is dangerous, requiring dangerous pressures to liquefy and is extremely easy to produce explosive mixtures though leakage.
An item that is extremely popular in rural areas in China and other countries are solar powered hot water heaters. I've always thought that electric cars should be marketed WITH systems that would supplement low cost usage and environmental impact. Imagine buying the same car above with a $5000 etc option of solar regeneration of batteries (photo cell charging station at the house) to supplement charging. Here in B.C. it wouldn't work for part of the year (rains 95% of the time) but in a lot of areas in the states I've always thought this this would work famously.
Check out these guys - if what they claim is true it will make electric and hybrid cars a lot easier to justify. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006...capacito_1.php - lots of ppl saying these ultra capacitors won't work though.
UPDATE Seems 1 month ago Lockheed-Martin signed onto rights for the ultracapacitor for military and homeland security applications. Seems to lend a lot of credibility to the fact they may have succeeded in creating a working model. They are saying the ultracapacitor will function like a battery but will charge in 4-5 minutes with enough energy to drive an average sedan 500 miles (52Kwh storage in 300 pound unit) - unreal! I love new technology hehe.
Great post Vy - very interesting car I have to look into it further

[Hunglo]

Originally Posted by Vyndara

This is hilarious. Made in Canada.....no gas tank, no muffler, silent.....think of the chinese or UK markets. Presented by the fabulous Rick Mercer on his show.

That may be how they do electric cars in Canada, but this is how we do it in the good ol' USA http://www.teslamotors.com/

[Vyndara]

Hey that looks sweet!! But I'd rather pay 12k for the canadian one than the price tag on this one.

[SpazzySF]

Originally Posted by Hunglo

That may be how they do electric cars in Canada, but this is how we do it in the good ol' USA http://www.teslamotors.com/

That is a sexy car right thur, id buy it in a minute.

Edit: WTF!!!!!!! 98 thousand dollars for a freakin car fuck that!!!

[Skozat]

Originally Posted by BadTouch

on a different note: are we really running out of oil? my father must be paranoid/ ignorant and says its all a lie and conspiracy.

Unless there is a lot more oil in Alaska than we think there is, and if oil usage keeps increasing at current rates, we'll probably run out of easily accessible oil in our lifetimes (~50 yrs.). However, there will still be oil in untapped reserves in hard-to-reach places like the deep ocean, the problem is that it takes more energy to retrieve this hard-to-get oil than the oil produces. Technology could help that, but with our planet still growing drastically in population petroleum usage will only increase unless good alternatives are found. Even if we tap those reserves effectively, the timeline I heard would still put us dry in 150 years or so.

It takes millions of years to make oil, and maybe 1,000 for humans as a species to suck it dry. Unless we find a different energy source, we'll probably be out of oil in a short time, historically speaking.

[Acolytian]

How long would this thing take to charge too?

[Lethos]

Originally Posted by Skozat

Unless there is a lot more oil in Alaska than we think there is, and if oil usage keeps increasing at current rates, we'll probably run out of easily accessible oil in our lifetimes (~50 yrs.). However, there will still be oil in untapped reserves in hard-to-reach places like the deep ocean, the problem is that it takes more energy to retrieve this hard-to-get oil than the oil produces. Technology could help that, but with our planet still growing drastically in population petroleum usage will only increase unless good alternatives are found. Even if we tap those reserves effectively, the timeline I heard would still put us dry in 150 years or so.

It takes millions of years to make oil, and maybe 1,000 for humans as a species to suck it dry. Unless we find a different energy source, we'll probably be out of oil in a short time, historically speaking.

And the scary thing is that recent studies say we can't live without oil. In 75 years we all may be riding bikes - and I don't mean Harleys Hopefully technology will solve the problem by then.