Why are we still only able to drive petrol powered cars?

Question

It s the 21th century, we should evolve, we have been using petrol for our cars for more than 100 years, why car manufacturers do not focus on electric cars. Is it another disgusting lobby pb or technical reasons?

Electric car are not weak in cities. Most of the world lives in cities. In Paris they brought electric cars but the government didn t pushed for it, so there s nowhere you can charge! France has one of the top petroleum company. In USA you can t get an electric car and there you can find the worst cars in terms of "gas / petrol" pollution, you also find the biggest petroleum companies. On the other hand in switzerland you can find electric cars more commonly, no petroleum companies there. Unfortunatly the coutries who manufacture our cars are USA, Japan, Germany and France...

Answer 1

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There is an economically viable alternative fuel which is available right now - and it does confer an economic advantage. You just can't see it, because we are all being misdirected.
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It is electricty.
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Notice most of the anti-electric car arguments you see here are based on the EVs of 30 years ago. The entrenched interests would have us believe that EV technology never advances. Sorry, technology doesn't stand still.
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Take a look at this car, which is on the market today:
http://phoenixmotorcars.com/models/fleet.html
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The Phoenix electric pickup truck - using new, advanced Altairnano batteries (based on research from MIT) - can:

-Travel up to 250 miles per charge
-Carry 5 passengers plus cargo at 95mph.
-Charges batteries in as little as TEN MINUTES.
-Has batteries that last 250,000 miles (never need replacement.)
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Yes, it is a real car - being manufactured right now for fleet customers like PG&E. This car did not come out of any govenment program. It was not financed or subsidized by taxpayers. For that matter, our government, automakers, and oil interests are doing their best to pretend this technology is still impossible.
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Driving on electricity is very cheap. I drive an EV (a very old one.) My cost for electricity is only about a penny per mile, much cheaper than gasoline (thanks to the extremely high efficiency of electric motors.) And contrary to oil-industry propaganda, electric cars need very little maintenance. Electric motors have only one moving part, and can run for decades with no service. My 25-year-old EV still has all the original motor parts.
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Don't buy into the 'EV pollution' nonsense. Even if powerplants burn dirty fuel, electric cars cause very little pollution, thanks to their extremely high efficiency.
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My next project is to install a solar panel on my garage, and drive for ZERO cents per mile, and ZERO emissions. No other alt-fuel option can beat ZERO.
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Answer 2

Erm you gotta consider that electric cars are really very inefficient at the moment, they do exist but it would probably be more costly for society to all adopt them. Also theres the the transition, what you gonna do with the millions of cars already on the roads? It would cost people too much to buy brand new ones, with fancy electric motors that would cost them more in the long run.

Its indeed the 21st century, but life isn't as high-tech as it may seem, people have been using guns for centuries and they still use basically the same method of propelling the bullet, unless you consider air powered ones which are inferior.
Things just don't move on that fast, inventions take time, there will be a switching onto a different type of vehicle in the future. As believe it or not, we're running out of oil... Hydrogen cars are being considered as the new type of transport, but of course if you crash these you go boom ^_^

Another reason, petrol cars are reaching their maximum possible milage efficiencies, new technology isn't going to be as efficient, until several years have gone into the project..

Answer 3

As BYRULE said it, other sources for powering cars have been found but the big Gas and Oil companies are still making big bucks and have actually bought out the Rights to other types of Engines for Cars.
Oil is non renewable and will run out faster than expected.
It is used in more than just cars: plastics, chemicals...
The problem is that as long as the govt keep the prices to a level where the Ppl can still afford it, then govts will still use oil to their advantages.
Thats without thinking of all the problems using oil has...what would happen if all of a sudden all countries said: STOP, no more oil!
WOW...what would be happening in the Middle East then??

Answer 4

A lot of reasons.
1: Electric cars, being weaker, requires the car to be super-light just for it to move. Thus, it uses much more expensive materials to construct than ordinary cars.
2: The batteries which the cars run on get depleted very quickly. A average fuel car can travel at least fifty times further than an electric car. (I think)
3: Electric cars are not reliable. Slopes, rain, cold temperatures all severely sap the battery power.
4: It is not really Eco-friendly. All electric cars do are to send all the co2 emissions to the generators that make the electricity.

Answer 5

well petroleum (or as americans call it gas) is a non-renewable energy source. The reason why we use it is because there is so much of it that it can last us at least 70 years more. But soon, there will be no more supply of it, and we will be forced to use a different type of energy. The three top contenders for power are nuclear, geothermal (heat from the earths core), and of course, solar. Solar is the cheapest and safest form of energy and i wouldnt be suprised if there would be a solar car for as cheap as a regular car.

Answer 6

because the elites who own petroleum are still making money with petrol
and we have electricity by burning oil or coal

when that runs out
the focus will shift to alternative energgies ,and there are many ,solar power (electric or heat)wind power (for dynamos or pumps or mills)the movement of the tides pendulums for electricity
the water flows ,rivers cannals waterfalls etc for water wheells (mills)or turbines (electricity)

there has been a hydrogen engine arround for almost a hundred years ,invented by Rudloph Steiner ,he was assasinated for his genius ,because nobody wanted a car that could run on water when Petrol was just taking off
but this engine is readty and waiting for the right time

when is the right time ????
,when oil runs out,and when these powerfull illuminati have figured out a way they can charge for the Sun,water and air.

Answer 7

The limits to electric cars are well known, but just to summarize:

Cost - The cars cost more to purchase than equivelent gasoline powered cars. They also have a higher overall cost of operation.

Range - Even the best electric cars can only go short distances before requiring a recharge.

Total environmental impact - The electicity must come from somewhere, most likely from power plants burning fossil fuels. Because there are more energy transforms in going from chemcial (fuel) to heat to mechanical to electrical to chemical (battery) to electrical to mechanical than in going from chemical to heat to mechanical the overall energy efficiency of the electrical car is less and this leads to increased fuel consumption and pollution.

Electric cars basically fail in the market place because they cannot compete against internal combustion powered cars.

Answer 8

It sounds like You have a big job to fix this problem.

Answer 9

What the heck is petrol?

Answer 10

because Bush and his friends can make money