Cars! Cars! Cars!

crobato said:

Did you read the thread properly? There are alternative energy research going on in China for both power generation and for cars. In fact, China has among the most extensive level of research and development, no less considered strategic.

Consider for example, the BYD automobile startup, whose founders are claiming that they can revolutionize the hybrid/electric car industry. Might be some fan boy's dream but they are indeed starting to produce cars and have many investors abroad. Warren Buffet himself owns 10% of this venture.

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Yes I did , , Im fully aware that China has allocated, quite a considerable amount of money for alternatively powered cars but not withstanding that fact in the absence of any significant acceptance of Chinese made cars in the major Western countries, selling them domestically would be a problem because of the price premium. I noticed in the local press that The electric VW has had little acceptance by the locals because of the price.

Im in full agreement with your list of suggestions on alternatively powered cars, however isnt their a question mark on the coal to oil process, because the process is heavily energy dependent, or have I got it wrong

The BYD E6 could possibly do with some remodelling in the looks dept. I came across a clip in a British newspaper of the car being test driven. It was praised for its acceleration like a lot of electric cars, but little else, so its hard to get a handle on its plus and minus.

crobato said:

For green cars we are looking at these alternatives:

1. Hybrid, no need to explain that. This may evolve with both plug in and solar power support. Japan leading here.

2. Pure electric, with plug in support, auxiliary gas engine for charging only, and solar power. Example, the upcoming Chevy Volt.

3. Biofuel diesel. Germany appears leading here.

4. LPG. Like all the taxis in Hong Kong.

5. Alcohol/Methanol. Brazil leads in this department.

6. Coal liquification. Being heavily researched in the US and China. Naturally both have the biggest coal reserves.

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I've just learned that BYD is China's most ambitious firm to produce hybrid/electric cars. BYD is found in Cambodia, mainly for Taxi only. But I've never notice if they are hybrid or pure fuel cars.

For the above six kinds of alternative energy, I think people need to find one unified energy to fulfill the future needs. We need a kind of energy that can last forever or at least last longer. Coal is largely reserved in the US and China. But what happens if coal will be provided for energy for cars in the whole world? They'll run out before oil.

I still like electricity which is the cleanest energy for urban use. But electric cars have their weaknesses that they are short range and take too long time to recharge. (According to wiki, the battery of a BYD can be recharge up to 70% within 10 minutes. But another sentence said it takes 9 hours to fully recharge. I don't understand why, can somebody explain?). Even if it can be fully recharged in 10 minutes, that's still too long. To overcome this weakness, shall I make my imagination like this. Each electric car (here on we refer as car) has a built-in battery and one or more external (removable) batteries. The external battery will be the same in size and specification. So, smaller cars will have less external batteries and larger one will have more. When the car runs, it use energy from the built-in battery and the external battery will recharge the built-in. When your external battery is discharged, you can go to the recharge station and exchange with a fully charged one.

Electric cars don't really solve the problem where the electricity is coming from. You simply shift the burden from the car engine to the turbines of your local power plant.

If everyone drives electric cars, the burden on the power plants would be so immense that we would be building more power plants. The burden of environmental emissions would shift from the cars to the power plants. It won't solve anyone's environmental issues if the result is having more coal fired plants spewing smoke into the atmosphere.

Hybrids and electric cars open the question of used up batteries piling up everywhere. How can these be recycled?

The problem of biofuel, biodiesel and alcohol or methanol powered cars is similar. They both take up vast agricultural resources and therefore may have an impact on food supply.

LPG or natural gas opens the possibility of using another fossil fuel to the mix, although like all fossil fuels, gets depleted eventually. And still throwing carbons into the atmosphere.

The ultimate question comes down to one thing: where is our society going to get its energy in the first place? Should we go for a combination of nuclear power, solar power, wind power and hydroelectric power, while gradually phasing and minimizing the reliance on carbon fuels?

How about Hydrogen powered cars.Its clean and readily avaliableThe only question is its inflammability.

Crobato has mentioned what the scientists have been headache for. My point of view is that electricity can be produced from variety of source, such nuclear power, solar power, wind power, hydroelectric and even geothermal power. And if the air pollution of power station equal to the air pollution of cars, then at least we move the pollution away from our cities.

I think hydrogen energy is also another option, though it is flammable. But any energy is flammable, right? The fact is that you must produce some kind of container to keep it safe.

crobato said:

Electric cars don't really solve the problem where the electricity is coming from. You simply shift the burden from the car engine to the turbines of your local power plant.

If everyone drives electric cars, the burden on the power plants would be so immense that we would be building more power plants. The burden of environmental emissions would shift from the cars to the power plants. It won't solve anyone's environmental issues if the result is having more coal fired plants spewing smoke into the atmosphere.

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WE could go with your suggestion of a combination eg battery power recharged by solar energy........ that could possibly go someways in preventing possible brown outs and the need for more power stations.

Looking at whats on offer I still think the BYD E6 could do with a design upgrade

Problem of hydrogen it takes more energy breaking down water to make hydrogen than to take the hydrogen and burn it to release energy, and creates water at the same time. Hydrogen therefore, creates a net energy loss.

However, methods are being investigated for hydrogen breakdown, among them, like in China, the usage of HTGR pebble bed reactors.

Has anyone watched the Transporter 3 movie? I thought it felt like a darn Audi commercial from beginning to end.