why cant we just STOP using gas or petrol or whatever on our cars?

Question

i cant see why not. safer, dosent explode when you crash, quieter, and all that mombo. sure, they look dorky now. but this experimental phase will pass right?

Answer 1

the experimental phase for electric cars was over 100 years ago when it provided the motive force to first exceed 100kph http://www.speedace.info

As for looks any car body can have an electric motor eg the RAV4 ev

Electric cars will outperform comparable infernal combustion http://www.teslamotors.com; would be cheaper to mass produce; have lower maintenance costs; be much more pleasent to drive - max torque from 0rpm from cold, smooth, quiet & smell free; refuel at home or work; ...

The fossil fuel industry receives considerable subsidies and tax rebates; and it is not charged for the costs of pollution, eg thousands of deaths caused by diesel particulates. see Stern report

Answer 2

Sure people gripe about what might happen to oil companies. The poor, poor, oil companies. The same ones with the greatest rate of profit since the Gilded Age. Many years ago people lit the streets with oil lamp. Oil. Not out of the ground oil, but oil from whales. When this petroleum thing was discovered, pundits of the day urged everyone not to use it because it would destroy the whaling industry. Oil, you're still on top of the stack, but the day is rapidly approaching when you join the whaling industry as a museum piece.

Answer 3

Look around you. The entire United States economy is built around the (excessive) use of petroleum. If we did not have a steady, huge supply of petroleum, we would descend into an economic depression (and world war) rather quickly. If you only knew just how much petroleum it takes to keep the American machine running, you would realize that there is no other alternative that can produce enough energy at this time. I worked in a small steel mill. When we looked at solar energy to run the machinery, we realized that our one plant used as much electicity as an entire city. This is a company with only 70 people working in it.

Answer 4

Its chemistry, something you clearly never took, since you appear to have never escaped the 4th grade. Nothing currently available stores as much energy per mass as petroleum products. The GE Volt electric car runs 40 miles on a charge. My VW Diesel runs 700 miles on a tank - thats 90 lbs. of diesel fuel. Its simple math.

Answer 5

Well buddy, the reason is plain and simple economics, do you know what it can do to Exxon, Amoco, BP, shell and all the giant gas companies if people would start using water to power their cars, or ethanol, or any natural non harmful compound....?

It would cause a major economic blow to these egocentric, power hungry nincompoops. But they can't force you to use gas it just takes a couple of people to get the ball rolling.

Even though water powered cars will be equally if not more expensive to maintain, because water it's precious and it's limited. The Ethanol however is more abundant, therefore cheaper that's why it has only cought on in places like Brazil.....

Answer 6

aside from the answers that others gave, what if that experimental phase doesnt pass? but if it does, is the economy still stable enough?
just wondering also

Answer 7

It cost's more! The internal combustion engine has survived and prospered because it is a relatively cheap way to generate mechanical energy.

Answer 8

Go ahead. No one is forcing you to use fossil fuels.

Safer?? Not in a collision with a heavier vehicle.

Answer 9

No gas no go. If you can make a car go without gas then you will be rich. Don't complain that nobody has done it, go do it! If you think that "they" should know how to do it, then YOU go out and learn what is needed and YOU become one of "them" and then YOU make the cars that go without gas. Do it! Just do it!

Answer 10

It is a matter of economics...what would happen to our world economy if we suddenly switched from on energy source to another...what would all those poor rich guy do?