The Energy Efficient Car of the Future
I am not writing solely about hybrid cars: this seems to be the best title under which to get a few things off my chest. Some of the other articles provide supplementary information.
The car of the present:
I can only cry and moan about the derisory cars that manufacturers have been selling us and continue to sell us to this very day. While fuel prices were expected to rocket, they have been selling nothing but a sizzle, not a burger - on such fripperies like MP3 players, sun roofs, pollen filters, air conditioners and car brand.
I am extremely glad I purchased a Volkswagon TDI polo, a lean burn diesel car that gives me up to 80 miles per gallon, saves me a great deal of road tax and fuel costs given I drive it largely on biodiesel which is cheaper than mineral diesel. Unfortunately for me, even biodiesel is becoming more expensive and I need to seek a new direction. I have not trusted or applauded the conventional petrol hybrid by say Toyota for the following reasons:
It's a heavier engine that still burns petrol and turns part of it into electricity and stores it. This is used for urban running and the batteries are charged up in long distance extra urban driving. The car is inevitably a bit slow and clunky and is best deployed in a city environment where it is less polluting and more efficient. No to this sort of hybrid.
Given that I gave up on the hybrid options the next best thing seemed to be a VW Blue motion polo which has introduced some innovations to make the car even more energy efficient. In hindsight, these seem to be too little too late given the soaring costs of fuel. We need a car that is radically more innovative and I just hope the manufacturers are working on such models now. I pray that they do. One would assume that there was some sort of conspiracy that they had with the oil companies to keep their engines as oil guzzling as possible (an engineering friend of mine confirmed the conspiracy - one of his friends sent a super engine idea to Ford - Ford replied that they were simply not interested in alternative engines no matter how good they were - car companies lose money on restructuring).
The car of today is at best 30% efficient and more like 15-25%. 75% Of the fuel you burn is totally wasted as heat. As the ideal car has not appeared I advise you, if you are about to buy a car that is efficient to stop and wait. Wait for two years. Rather like galloping IT technology, the car of the future will have to be a better beast. The engine will need to be at least twice as efficient as current.
The car of the future:
Drive your car on water? Yes if you believe the claims of the water hybrid pioneers. These people have come up with an electrolyzing battery that breaks down water to form Brown's gas or oxy-hydrogen, a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen that burns exceptionally hot. The water hybrid system ties in with the conventional internal combustion engine to make it more efficient. It uses the residual waste energy of the normal engine to create the gas that is combusted in the chambers as an additional fuel. The byproduct is water. By using this method, the pioneers say that the mileage per gallon is increased at least two fold. Ideally the car of the future will incorporate some sort of hybrid system to best utilize the petroleum energy.
Electric cars: Ford will release a commercial plug in car in about two years. It could take you at least 40 miles on a single charge of the battery and this car will not use hydrocarbons. It should be cheaper but the range of the vehicle may not be as long as an average American would like. Perhaps some sort of hybrid vehicle which is good at storing residual energy and uses less or very little hydrocarbon would be a good compromise.
Hydraulics: I have been impressed by one of the top articles on this list about the utility of hydraulics in making breaks more efficient. If you break for a number of minutes from high speed, the energy you waste could boil a pint of water. By mitigating energy losses in breaking - the car could really be more efficient.
Stop start technology: BMW already have released a car that automatically stops the engine when you pause for the red light and starts up the engine when you move on without you having to switch on or off. This should become standard for cars in the future. Idling wastes too much energy and idling should be eliminated by putting the engine to sleep.
Regenerative breaking: Breaking the modern car or slowing down effectively throws energy away that is not recovered. We need cars that recycle the lost energy - i.e., each time you break, you will take some of the wasted energy back into the engine. Many current and upcoming hybrid vehicles have some sort of regenerative breaking - each time the car breaks, the battery stores away some power. This conserves energy.
Weight loss: The VW blue motion cars have been made lighter so that they use less energy. Lightness can be gained but you can lose on strength. Strong and light materials like Aluminum are more expensive. The cars of the future will incorporate more plastic or carbon fiber or even wood to make them lighter - this may theoretically increase costs due to complications in manufacture and sourcing materials.
Alternative fuels: For petrol, the alternative is alcohol. For diesel it is either biodiesel or straight vegetable oil. The car of the future should use as little petroleum as possible. Already they are developing cheap methods of sourcing ethanol or methanol from waste cellulose. Even if they can generate a great deal more ethanol, they could not compete with the availability of hydrocarbons - unless the engine is far more efficient. For diesel, well, in the UK individuals will be free to produce up to 2400 liters of their own biodiesel without worrying about paying tax. All we need is waste vegetable oil from restaurants like used up oils from frying. I hope that the diesel vehicles of tomorrow will be able to run on three fuels - diesel, biodiesel and neat vegetable oil - it would certainly make life easier.
Hydrogen: There is much talk about the fuel cell; I am not optimistic. I think the use of hydrogen can only be justified if it is produced in a way that is carbon neutral. Hydrogen is an energy carrier, not an energy source - you have to put a "shitload" of energy (to quote another writer) to get the hydrogen out. Unless this is from solar or wind you may as well forget it. I feel it would be better to source hydrogen or a derivative from Ammonia or Methane, both large scale byproducts of animal husbandry and human wastes. I certainly look forward to a future where wastes are treated as potential commodities. They may also generate useful fuels using microbes and algae. The technology overall is still a bit distant to help save you and I, some money.
I hope the car of the future in about 2 years time will use hydraulics and some sort of hybrid system to make the engine twice as efficient or a great deal more than it is now. Unless it is, it won't be worth the money.
Until then:
Drive your car less. Drive it more efficiently (there are lots of tips about how to do this). Try and use biodiesel or bioethanol if available. Consider getting a water hybrid system installed, they are not widely available, but such systems will soon be available. Alternative engine modifications will also come on board. I pray that the motor manufacturers are revving up the existing technologies for a leap in engine efficiencies.
Postscript:
The next VW range will incorporate hybrid technology as well as the "blue motion" innovations currently built in - sadly the miles per gallon (at the time of writing) are still not leaping off the page. Be patient.
