2007-08-08 01:00:30 · 3 answers · asked by dinesh k 1 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Other - Cars & Transportation
A compressed air-electric "hybrid" car is in the works... the compressed air is stored and used as a pneumatic power source.
2007-08-08 01:30:11 · answer #1 · answered by jenh42002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In terms of alternate fuels? There are a number here and on the horizon:
Hybrid: Has both gasoline and electric motors. Gas mileage is improved by about 20-30%, but the vehicles cost much more to buy. Toyota, Honda, GM, and Nissan have Hybrids for sale now.
Electric: Fully runs on electric power. Usually needs to be plugged in to recharge. Has very limited range, with todays battery technology. Tesla Motors makes an electric sports car.
Hydrogen Fuel Cell: Uses Hydrogen to create electric power to run the car. The big advantage of Fuel Cells is that the only emission from the vehicle is water. The big problem is the energy used to make the hydrogen might actually be worse for the environment than cars today. There are no vehicles that I know of for sale yet.
E85: Runs on a mix of 85% Ethanol and 15% Gasoline. It's advantage is that it lessens our dependance on fossil fuel oil. However, E85 is 20-30% less efficient than gasoline. Also, Ethanol is mostly made from corn. We're already seeing that as more of our country's corn crop is used for ethanol, the price of all our groceries is rising. GM, Ford, and Chrysler have FlexFuel E85 vehicles available.
Biodiesel: Just like normal diesel, except made from renewable sources instead of fossil fuels. The biggest advantage of Biodiesel is that it will run in current diesel engines, so no new technology development is needed. Also, biodiesel can be made from waste oil, like the grease from McDonalds, so we're not diverting our food crop. Diesel is also more efficient than gasoline, so MPG will go up. The biggest drawback of Biodiesel is that, like any diesel, the emissions are worse than normal engines. But new US diesel emission standards went into effect this year that should bring them in line with standard engines. That is why the only non-truck diesel you can buy for 2007MY is a Mercedes-Benz. Volkswagen is promising to bring back their diesels for the 08 model year
2007-08-08 08:47:59 · answer #2 · answered by PoliPino 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The ones that work are OK. The ones that don't , suck.
2007-08-08 08:55:16 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋