Hydrogen will be the biggest alternative fuel IMO.

Honda already has a hydrogen civic model on the roads in california, with hydrogen stations to fill up at. Its the most abundant element in the universe, completely re-newable, and emits nothing but water as its by-product.

I watched a Top Gear test with the Tesla, and while it was amazing to see how well it performed, I was supremely disappointed by how short the charge lasted, and how long it took to charge back up.. 30hrs from a normal home outlet!! I've got to believe that there are better technoogies out there that we can utilize now, and bio-diesel / hydrogen seem like the best ones.


-Congrats on doing something different though, Its nice to have a hobby that you enjoy! I know I wouldnt be able to change a protege into an EV, so props! I dont know of any electric racing clubs or anything though, so sorry about that....

 

As quoted by a Dr. doing hydrogen engine research at UCF and gettings tens of thousands in grants from domestic manufacturers, "hydrogen is the fuel of the future and always will be."

He got free H2 gas from NASA because it would leak out so quickly after 2 weeks that they couldnt use it.

Until they find a better storage method, its not happening. I was really amped about it a year or two ago..octane rating of 130 (!), its clean so all the hippies can sit on it and spin about high performance use, etc. You still get less energy out of the manufacturing process than it yields.

I always have to post it whenever someone brings up H2 as a mainstream fuel

 

After seeing it on Top Gear i have to conclude the Tesla is a POS. It broke down on them several times If i remember correct, they sited numerous other more minor problems with it.I was really disapointed. Seems like its still very much a work in progress.

 

Like the majority of us, they dont want to see the death of the ICE..which still wont be for a long time anyways.

One of the failures was just a fuse IIRC. I think one problem they had with it was recharge time, and apparently there's a faster way to recharge it now that Tesla said you could use.

I dont remember all of the specifics, but its been mentioned since that episode.

 

They sure as hell wouldn't spend $30k to go mid 11's. OK, maybe the import guys

 

I'm not a racer, so I wouldn't know what the records are, but watching those videos sure seems like White Zombie was beating everyone.

Here is a better video that covers more details and shows the car inside.

YouTube - Worlds fastest street legal ELECTRIC CAR

Thanks everyone for nice words and feedback. ICE is definitely not going anywhere and has plenty of room to improve efficiency. Liquid fuel still has best energy density in both weight and volume, so no doubt ICE will be around for a long time for long hauls, using renewable fuels like diesel and ethanol. But you gotta admit that dense populated cities filled with millions of ICEs commuting less than 50 miles a day while creating so much smog that people can't breathe are perfect places for EVs. You ever seen skyline of NY or LA from few miles away? Its insane, its a death trap... despite all emissions standards.

As for hydrogen, its great once you have it in H2 form ready to burn, but it doesn't exist in this form on Earth, so its not an energy source, but a carrier, which means you have to apply much more energy to extract H2 from water, then burn it in ICE at 25% efficiency, bottom line becomes very very expensive and unsustainable. Sure, Terminator can afford to buy H2 Hummer and build H2 stations using our tax dollars, but it won't scale to majority of population, its a dead end.

 

What will happen is what has been coming inevitably for a long time now. Urban populations should (I cant say they all WILL, because people are fuckin retarded) switch to hybrids for short commutes, while anywhere in the country that isnt a dense city should use diesels and gassers.

I must say that I'm thrilled that turbochargers are ramping up in popularity, and only now are they getting the attention they deserve. I'm sure one day it'll be almost as popular on a gas engine as on a diesel.

 

It doesn't cost 30k to go 11's with an import LOL, more like 5ish.

 

Can you give me some links showing how much "more energy" it takes to get the hydrogen seperated from the oxygen?

Ive looked into building a small hydrogen kit for my vehicle, and it didnt seem overly difficult, nor did it seem to use an exorbenant amount of electricity to do so. From what my limited brain capacity can understand, all you need to do is run a wire from your alternator to the hydrogen cell, then run a line from the cell to your IM or intake tube. You can buy these kits for 200 bucks, or just build your own for about 100. People have been seeing increases of 10mpg on small home-built kits...

 

there are still structure issues for all methods mentioned

I use to be a hydrogen fan but it has so many leaps and bounds needed to become efficient, containable, shippable and SAFE (not to mention the volume needed for a container); that it is a very distant dream.

Issues with metropolitan area's and electrics is they would all need a place to plug in and charge...think of all the retrofitting for the metro lots, parking garages etc...its not like these people park in their garage at their homes...and the power company sure isn't going to give away energy for free...so now each spot has to be metered.

Plug in Hybrids (charge overnight) are by far the most efficient and fuel sipping/best solution for metropolitan areas, however the listed issues about still need to be met...the product of Nickel metal hydride batteries is a VERY VERY dirty one (see Prius)...lithium ion however, I don't know that much about.

See why my vote still goes to algae based oil...oil goes to diesels, the other 50% of the algae carcass goes to cellulosic ethonal...all it takes to produce the algae is sunlight, a little bit of water (literally) and some pumps for water flow. Essentially, we still use the sun's energy to grow our fuel.