Mercedes: No more gas-powered cars by 2015

Link.

In less than 7 years, Mercedes-Benz plans to ditch petroleum-powered vehicles from its lineup. Focusing on electric, fuel cell, and biofuels, the company is revving up research in alternative fuel sources and efficiency.

The blogger goes on to note that while this is a step in the right direction, these types of alternately fueled cars are generally offsetting the fossil fuel consumption in various ways. Renewable energy sources (solar, wind, hydro) have yet to be really tapped and developed fully.

Focusing on electric, fuel cell, and biofuels, the company is revving up research in alternative fuel sources and efficiency.

Biofuels worry me. The only one catching on now is E85 Ethanol, and we know how good that one is for the environment...



Something does need to be done though, and it' s good to see a company on a corporate level taking strides to cut back on oil dependency.

My dad runs a garage, and he and my cousin(who he partnered with) are going to start making Hydrogen add ons for oil powered engines which can double or even triple a cars gas mileage. I believe he said it was called an HHO generator or something like that. You still have to buy gas, but with one gallon of gas and four ounces of water, the car they tested it on(Honda Daihatsu) got 130 miles to the gallon.

In the long run it makes sense for car manufacturers to do this. Its a large initial outlay, which at the right time will reap rewards. As soon as oil becomes too expensive/risky, the bigger companies will move on to tech that they' ve undoubtedly already been researching for years. The oil companies will also have to adapt somehow.

I was eyeing up a performance car that I would use mostly for track driving, and my mind was almost set until certain manufacturers started touting alternative fuels which actually improve performance as well as lower cost and emissions. Of course its going to be years until the infrastructure is even in place to benefit from all these alternatives, but its getting interesting.

I liked the sound of Lotus' recent prototype ' trifuel' Exige, which uses Ethanol and Methanol based fuels as well as your standard unleaded fuel, within the same engine, so you can use whatever you want.

I suppose the most interesting is hydrogen fuel cells which only emit water as a byproduct, but the amount of space it currently takes up in the car and the cost of the tech is too high at the moment. Otherwise this would' ve been ideal.

I liked the sound of Lotus' recent prototype ' trifuel' Exige, which uses Ethanol and Methanol based fuels as well as your standard unleaded fuel, within the same engine, so you can use whatever you want.

Huh... do you sacrifice performance or mileage because it' s compatible with all of those?

Daily tech talks about fuel consumption all the time. I don' t post there but I find funny when members write off alternative energy because it isn' t as cost effectve as current gas prices.

Firstly, gas prices are only going to rise. Secondly, we' re going to hit peak oil in a few decades. Thirdly, if we develop alternative fuel sources they' ll eventually be less costly than oil. It' s inevitable. We NEED efficient means to replace oil, there' s no choice.

I need a Transporter already!

F*ck it, while I' m asking, I' ll take a Holodeck too!

Hell, if I had a Holodeck I wouldn' t leave my house anyway, so I' ll just take that!

Man, I was excited because I found a company that sells conversion kits to convert Ford Rangers to electric engines which have a range of 200 miles. But they are only for model years 2001-2008, and mine' s a ' 97. My Mom has a newer one, though, so I' ll pass it along to her. The company estimates a full charge costs about $2.50 on your electric bill.

Of course the electricity has to eventually be converted to renewable sources... California currently has about 14% of their electricity sourced from solar. It' s only a matter of building the powerline infrastructure from desert sites to increase that percentage.

quote:

I liked the sound of Lotus' recent prototype ' trifuel' Exige, which uses Ethanol and Methanol based fuels as well as your standard unleaded fuel, within the same engine, so you can use whatever you want.

Huh... do you sacrifice performance or mileage because it' s compatible with all of those?

It was just an MSN article I was reading, but with alcohol based fuels apparently you get 0.2secs off the 0-60mph and an extra 10mph on the top speed, over standard unleaded petrol.

There are no figures for fuel consumption, but thats where the compromise is, burning quicker and hence doing fewer miles per gallon. But alcohol based fuel creates less CO2 overall from the exhaust AND can use atmospheric CO2 to create the fuel renewably.

The standard Exige S is quoted to do 31mpg (probably a lot less on a track!) and emit 216g/km of CO2 - putting it into the ' significantly tarry footprint/ feel guilty about killing the planet' catagory.

But every little helps right? Its still ' gas-powered' I guess, but I can' t imagine driving an electric/hydrogen/solar powered/cow-fart powered performance car anytime soon.

Did anyone see the first episode of the new series of Top Gear? Its never scientific, but Jeremy was saying the process of making batteries for the hybrid Toyota Prius is so complicated, they cause more damage to the environment overall than a Land Rover. Then they raced a Prius against a BMW M3 and the M3 managed a better mileage going round the track, heh.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b00cbmbl.shtml?src=ip_mp