Thread: Hybrid vs petrol - surprising outcome

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings all,
The hybrid vehicles are likely close to the end of their run. I had spotted that they don't save much in fuel. Plug in hybrid vehicles are a little better but you still have to maintain a petrol or diesel engine which rubs out most of the savings. Electric vehicles are the future but we are not there yet. They will take over once batteries get better and cheaper but I may not see it. In the mean time my little Jimny chugs along using way less petrol than many hybrids and only doing around 7,000 km pa I will likely wear out before it does. Downsizing your vehicle to what you actually need will save more fuel than a hybrid.
Regards Grandpamac.

I think Electric is part of the answer but not the answer. They have their uses and application where they are ideal, but they have shortcomings. The biggest of which is that iot would mean complete replacement of the entire motor vehicle fleet......A much better solution would be a fuel alternative that allows the current stock to be altered/ retrofitted / retuned . I saw a study a few years ago where a fellow in Canada was developing the technique to use electricity to split water and hydrogen, the combining it with Carbon from the atmosphere and making it into a hydrocarbon that could be used in an engine. He was having issues scaling it up past the stable chemical compound stage so years or even decades away from being viable as an alternative but it had significant advantages over electric vehicles.

1) the distribution network would be similar to fuel distribution so fuel companies would be able to stay in business and it would simply be a replacement product rather than see them buy it to protect their current investments...
2) It would be compatable with almost all of the current vehicle stock albeit wwith some minor tuning alterations depending on the final 'octane' performance.
3) It could be made anywhere there is flowing water / or salt water and a supply of electricity
4) Carbon negative even though it uses carbon as the source of the carbon was existing atmospheric carbon.

This may not end up being feasible even if it is successful. It is merely a point that a solution will come if the greater minds keep working at it, but I do not think Electric is the overall solution.



125 years ago there were no cars and I would suspect in 125 years the solution will be found and it wont be cars at all. What it is I do not know but it has not been thought of yet.....