Car Fuels of Tomorrow
Today we call ourselves ‘Petrolheads’, but what about in a decade from now? Or two decades from now? Manufacturers are investing millions nowadays in developing the next reliable and eco-friendly source of fuel for our cars. They’re not quite there yet, but progress is definitely being made.
Hybrid cars, like the Hollywood sweetheart Toyota Prius, carry two sources of power – a traditional internal combustion engine running off unleaded petrol, and an electric motor. The combustion engine powers the car until the electric battery is sufficiently charged, at which point the electric motor takes over. It’s intuitive too, because if your Hybrid is struggling to get up a steep incline on battery power alone, the regular engine will wake up and re-assert itself. This change over is virtually unnoticeable from within the cabin, so Hybrids often come with TFT displays on the dash which tell you exactly which motor is doing the work, how much charge is left and even your current MPG. Sound too good to be true? It is - power suffers painfully. For example, the aforementioned Prius packs an underwhelming 77 bhp! Worse still, serious questions are being raised about the technology’s overall impact on the environment (see our previous article, Gas guzzling SUV’s are green!)
So how about Hydrogen cars? These run off ‘fuel cells’, which replace the typical battery. The fuel cells convert Hydrogen into water, and in doing so produce electricity that powers the car. The only bi-products of a Hydrogen
powered car are water and heat. In addition, the cells are almost comparable to internal combustion engines in terms of mileage per tank.
A common concern about these vehicles is the highly explosive nature of Hydrogen. However, while the gas is indeed volatile it is also very light. This means that in an accident, flames from the Hydrogen tank would go upward, away from the car, as opposed to engulfing the car and it’s passengers. The real problem with this technology is infrastructure. Installing Hydrogen pumps across the whole country will cost staggering amounts of money, with no guarantee of demand. In order for these vehicles to be considered a feasible replacement for mainstream cars, Government assistance may well be required.
Not so with Electric Vehicles (EV’s), which have already been around since the early 1900’s but have not been taken seriously until fairly recently. Running on electric batteries alone, EV’s create zero emissions and can now pack some serious power. Take a look at the ‘X1’, which is based on the British Arial Atom and has recently left both Ferrari and Porsche blushing after trouncing them on a test track in Sacramento. Its designer confidently predicts that a mass production version will soon be a reality. The down side? The battery will only last for 100 miles at best. However, with further investment and the continued enthusiasm of such designers, it can only be a matter of time until we are all giving some serious thought to trading in our gas guzzlers for electric powderkegs!