What is the Future of fuel saving technology.

[Matt]

Gas prices are rising, no doubt, so the automotive industry has to come up with a technology thats going to utilize fuel as best as possible. What technology will arrive.
This is the big question thats circulating the automotive industry. Where are we going in terms of fuel saving? Are we going to use fuel cells or hydrogen powered automobiles? Are we going to see more and more hybrids or deisel hybrids? Will turbo charged diesel engines take over the market? Or how about steam powered forced induction (which BMW is developiong)? Or camless engines which will use less power and create more hp...Or maybe simply improving the petrol engines we see today....

What is ahead? Please enlighten us and lets have a very intelligent conversation on this upcoming issue that is soon going to be a problem.

[Zonda]

Ethanol?

[notic]

near future, hybrid. distant future? maybe hydrogen...from pebble bed reactors, or maybe natural gas

i don't understand this hype with enthanol in america. the corn that is currently being processed into ethanol is reportedly taking up more net energy than it is producing. its also quite expensive...unless they improve farming and processing methods, i don't see ethanol as a viable alternative.

also, i don't think there is enough arable soil in the united states to farm the amount of corn necessary to provide a decent alternative to oil. they better have a good trading partner ready if the government is serioius about ethanol.

[MikeJ]

It seems the overall economy of alternative fuels is, at the moment, much worse than that of the traditional ones (diesel being a traditional one). There was an overview of alternative fuels in a magazine, and they came to the conclusion that the alternative fuels we have now make more sense if used in electricity/heat production which can be done in less refined form than would be required in order for them to be used to power cars. Of course, one day oil will probably run out and we will be forced to use the alternatives.

I suppose Matt's question is about the American market - in Europe diesel cars will make up for more than 50% of overall sales in 2006.

[Michael]

Many manufacturers like Toyota have pushed to over a variety of hybrid vehicles which puts them on the map in distinguishing themselves from others. I think we will head towards a hybrid/diesel type of function for a while before we look at alternatives like hydrogen.

[The Artist]

diesel hybrids.. the new Bluetchs from MB seem to be gr8

[Zonda]

Originally Posted by notic

near future, hybrid. distant future? maybe hydrogen...from pebble bed reactors, or maybe natural gas

i don't understand this hype with enthanol in america. the corn that is currently being processed into ethanol is reportedly taking up more net energy than it is producing. its also quite expensive...unless they improve farming and processing methods, i don't see ethanol as a viable alternative.

also, i don't think there is enough arable soil in the united states to farm the amount of corn necessary to provide a decent alternative to oil. they better have a good trading partner ready if the government is serioius about ethanol.

Ethanol is cheap as candy in Sweden. Last time I checked.

[Mr. M]

Originally Posted by MikeJ

It seems the overall economy of alternative fuels is, at the moment, much worse than that of the traditional ones (diesel being a traditional one). There was an overview of alternative fuels in a magazine, and they came to the conclusion that the alternative fuels we have now make more sense if used in electricity/heat production which can be done in less refined form than would be required in order for them to be used to power cars. Of course, one day oil will probably run out and we will be forced to use the alternatives.

I suppose Matt's question is about the American market - in Europe diesel cars will make up for more than 50% of overall sales in 2006.

One thing I'm not too sure about diesel cars - they say it releases less CO2 to the environment, but does it release more of other harmful gases?

[MikeJ]

Originally Posted by Mirage77

One thing I'm not too sure about diesel cars - they say it releases less CO2 to the environment, but does it release more of other harmful gases?

A few years ago there was a lot of talk about the particles in diesel emissions, but I suppose new particle filters have put an end to that. Other than that there are nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons to consider, but the levels of those in the emissions of modern diesels are much lower than before, but still higher than gasoline-powered cars.

[Michael]

Isn't Ethenol used by formula 1?