So I've been talking to some friends for quite some time now about what is going to come to the world of cars when we run out of gas, or at least to the point where gas will become so ludicrously expensive that no one will buy it. So when that time comes, I have decided that there is absolutely NO way I'm going to go to electric vehicles. "Why?" you may ask, well I'll tell you, first let me tell you what they sound like..




..case closed. I say biodiesel forever because no gearhead wants to run a transport device that doesn't even make sound. While you may say "Well hey, look at the Tesla Roadster, that is a cool looking electric car." Well, my response would be yes, but I'd prefer they sell me the chassis and shell of that car and leave out the batteries saving myself $90,000, and also save myself that same amount the next year because BATTERIES DIE. Everyone knows that batteries are not the way to go, we all know they die in a year or two, and they have many problems that we already know about, and we aren't even in sight of the next generation battery which will have an unlimited life time, and is 100% trustworthy for a lifetime.

So you guys tell me, am I right? or am I right?

I put up a poll to see what you will be using in the future: Biodiesel, Electric, or Hybrid.

By the time I get around to buying a new car or one of these 'green' cars, some new technology should be out by then.

So no choice for me in this poll. It's TEH FUTURE!!!! :hippy:

Well, XC, I'm in the states with you... and I'd like to question... how far away is this future you're asking about? Cause, I'm not waiting 50 years till I can pick Electric or BioDiesel

I still pick Diesel though for everyday use, considering electric still relies on (in the states) the bulk of it's supply from coal burning stations.

I'm not that up-to-date with all this technology but isn't there a big problem with biodiesel (I may be wrong). Farming. Imagine if the majority of the world turned to using biodiesel how the hell are we going to farm all the vegetation (plus other things) that is needed? I'm pretty sure that I read an article a while back that even now some farms are struggling with the demand.

I have to agree on you with the noise though, even though it would be much nicer in the cities during rush hour. Part of going fast (or at least reving high) is the noise, it would just be plain boring in an electric car....

Andy.

Diesel for now, but when fossil fuel runs out, who knows, we could be royally screwed big time.

How about alcohol fuel? Ethanol is what they call it I think. Cheap, no pollution, you'll never run out of it, does it even have disadvantages?

You guys did see that episode of... Fifth Gear was it? Maybe it was Top Gear... where they took an old Merc diesel and filled it with used cooking oil (filtered of course). The thing ran.

There's many many choices on what we can put in a diesel car, just not many of them have been considered yet.

Quote from hrtburnout :

Cheap, no pollution, you'll never run out of it, does it even have disadvantages?

It does produce carbon dioxide but it balances itself out. (it just absorbs it whilst it's growing and produces it when it gets burnt). Also, we haven't got enough farmland to produce it.

Why not try running cars on biogas? Yes, fermenting your sh*t for fuel

Ancient cultures used to store urine for the ammonia content just to dye their clothes. I got no problem saving up cat crap if it'll run my car

Quote from duke_toaster :

Why not try running cars on biogas? Yes, fermenting your sh*t for fuel

Hahahahahhahaahhha

@Slopi, well scientists are guessing it should be sometime around 2030.
Then again they also said there is global warming. And it was damn freezing this winter, when is global warming when you need it.

I was reading this article in Popular Science just recently (newest one if you get it) about the next generation farms (don't know when this will happen, probably not for another 100 years or so), which will be skyscrapers and they will grow food in giant green houses, I don't recall where the soil or anything comes from, but apparently it will be able to feed somewhere in the range of 50,000 people, and they only take up the size of a building.

Which brings me to this. While scientists say that global warming is being caused by cars and cows. How untrue this is, somewhere in the range of 90% of global warming is being caused by farms. Who would have figured? What we live on is trying to kill us (lol that sounded like a revolution on food right there). Cows I say because one cow produces what is it? 50 liters of methane a day? I was watching dirty jobs the other day of a guy who runs a cow farm, and he uses their poo and chemically combine it with something, to enhance the methane, which he captures in a massive tarp, and uses it to power his home, and then dries the poo in a processor which separates the liquid from the solid, and then turns it into plant holders which are natural of course, and you don't even have to take the plant out of the pot, but instead plant the whole thing in the ground and it acts like manure. And as Mike Rowe said it, he even has a "shit creek"

Maybe we should all just buy some cows and run our cars off of methane?

Quote from XCNuse :

Hahahahahhahaahhha
?

It's not really that new, we've used shit and piss from cows and pigs etc ... human waste is plentiful, why can't that be used to generate biogas?

I'll be driving gasoline cars as long as possible, or until there are better ways of generating power for electric cars. In Iceland, they use geo-thermic energy to generate electricity.

Doesn't this sound silly: Screw those starving kids in Africa, my car needs bio-fuel!

Biodiesel isn't good for the environment or the economy.

Large areas of rainforest and current arable land (which may have been rainforest or such like before) are being cleared to grow plants which we intend to burn. Not good.

The area that were used to grow normal cereals are now being used to grow biodiesel plants, meaning that the cost of bread, cereals, etc (even beer) will go up drastically.

It's not a sustainable fuel source, and I don't think it ever can be at all...

My little brother regularly dilutes his diesel with cooking oil, so I know it works. I guess it was Top Gear that inspired him to do that

I want to vote Hydrogen. Created from air, turns to water when it's burned. Lovely.

That is like on another Dirty Jobs show, some guy had a diesel truck and took used cooking oil and cleaned all of the particles out of it and ran only it in this truck of his.

If you look at it this way, there will be no more landfills or whatever it is they do with used cooking oil. Then again I have no clue where that stuff goes, except those nasty containers out back.

@Tristan, maybe by the time there is no more fossil fuels we will have some way of cloning plants or some weird thing and not destroy the environment and be able to keep our forrests. Which that is what I couldn't remember, Tristan just explained why farming is what is causing "global warming."
(I still disagree with global warming, I think it is just another normal process the world goes through, just like the ice age.)

It matters not to me anymore. By the time I have to purchase an alternative fueled car, everything will be automatic and/or fly-by-wire. Driving will no longer be enjoyable. There won't be any feel to them from the lack of a mechanical connection between the driver and the road. Steering will be electronic (I believe some cars are already there). Throttle responce will be non-existant since in thoughts of cost reduction, the manufacturers will slack on designing this fly-by-wire crap. I already was not able to purchase the vehicle I wanted without an automatic transmission, automatic 4wd, automatic freaking rear-view mirror! Folks are raving on my car forum about reverse alarms. They don't even look behind while in reverse anymore. The beeping tells them if there is something in the way or not.

The future of the automobile is poor for the automotive enthusiast.

TBH, I think we wont run out in my lifetime, so it is not at the top of my agenda, but it is on it.

Last estimate I heard was something like 15 years, what with the increase in fossil fuel consumption in China and the developing world............

*does maths*

I will be 32. I would put money on it happening after my life time.

"This forum requires that you wait 60 seconds between posts. Please try again in 16 seconds."

6 now...

I vote for Fool Cell technology. You find a really stupid person, the lower the IQ the more efficient the system, and trick them into lying down in the floor of your car, where you imprison them. Then there's a lot of techno mumbo jumbo which happens et voila, power. My friend told me all about it, he says I should go and have a much closer look at the system in the next few days, I can't wait. He says it's top secret, but I'll get right in there and have good look round, and tell you all about it.

The stuff that they make out of corn. Bio-ethanol is it? It's got a higher octane rating than gasoline and we're probably not gonna run out of it

Quote from XCNuse :

maybe by the time there is no more fossil fuels

That will never happen. Matter cannot be created nor destroyed.

Quote from wheel4hummer :

That will never happen. Matter cannot be created nor destroyed.

But that's not what you're doing when you burn a "fossil fuel", I don't understand what you are saying. You saying it would be impossible to use fossil fuels more quickly than they are formed?

Short term, probably diesel, then biodiesel.

Once we get proper industrial fusion plants, electricity.

EDIT: Bah, I can't spell.. :P

Biowhat?

I'm not giving up my fusion reactor-powered hovercar any time soon, thank you. Although I will concede that the particle accelerator was a silly design decision. The particle brake isn't much better either.