What is your thoughts on alternate fuels in the future (next 5 to 10 years). Natural Gas, diesel, hydrogen, electric and hybrids. I know environmentalists want everything renewable but am not sure batteries in landfills is the best solution. With the limitations on recharging I am not sold on electric but not many options out there that are in the normal price range consumers can afford. Is it worth looking at a 10 to 15 year old hybrid that could have a battery issue? How would i best know what to look for. With gas cars mileage is getting up there in the 40s for some and its technology still able to work on.
We went through this garbage in the 1970s.
I have no interest in "alternate fuels". There is no need for them and I will be sticking with gasoline power.
Of course, petrol is superior, but what if we're looking at some Mad Max style stuff going on. What if we run out is the question? We do know diesel is basically impervious and refuses to die but petrol is slowly becoming extinct which is horrific.
Of course, petrol is superior, but what if we're looking at some Mad Max style stuff going on. What if we run out is the question? We do know diesel is basically impervious and refuses to die but petrol is slowly becoming extinct which is horrific.
Predicting "running out of oil soon" has been going on since at least the 1950s. I can lay my hands on articles from over 60 years ago where "experts" say the oil will run out in 10-20 years time.The fact is we won't be running out for centuries. While oil is a finite supply, it is a very large one. It is also possible to convert other forms of fossil fuels, such as coal, into oil products. By the time we would actually run out other sources of energy, some of which we may not even be thinking of today, will have been developed due to the normal course of scientific research.
What you may be referring to is the politicians' senseless war against the imaginary threat of ManBearPig, which of course is another kettle of fish entirely as that would be an artificial, coercive restriction on supply rather than actually running out. Even there for someone my age (same as Scotty) they will never be able to get rid of fossil fuels in my lifetime. So I will not be changing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGoEP-IqoDg&t=24s
they won't run out, but they may price you out.
I'm pretty stubborn when it comes to politicians trying to push things in a particular direction. Even if they make it more expensive to run my old gas-powered beaters than to buy a new electric car I'm sticking with the beaters.
even if it becomes $10/gal ?
Yes, even if it becomes $10/gallon.
the average person would be spending almost $7k every year just for fuel.
How much does a typical electric car plus a home charging station cost? Even with $10/gallon gasoline I might not live long enough to see significant savings from buying an electric car. However the money is not even the point. I'm simply not willing to go along with this nonsense even if it winds up costing more $$$.
At $10/gal, the price of one year of gasoline will pay for a battery pack that lasts 15 years.
hybrid Maverick pickup is $20k. Plugin electrics seem to start around $28k.
a lot of people won't need a station and will get by plugging it into the wall.
Most people will choose with their pocketbooks.
Though some of those figures are questionable (replacing a battery pack in any reasonable fully-electric car is going to be well into 5 figures and is unlikely to last 15 years), none of it is relevant to me.
The price of practically any new vehicle is more than I've spent for every car I've owned put together for the last 50 years. My current daily driver cost $1500 and I've been driving it for over 10 years. The economics you quote simply don't work for me.
However, none of that is really relevant to me. I simply refuse to go electric for my own reasons. What other people base their decisions on is up to them.
when your beater kicks the bucket, you'll be hard pressed to find another for $1500 let alone the desire to be crawling underneath it to keep it going.
It won't be necessary to find another since I already have other vehicles that can be pressed into daily service that I also paid very little for. (Though if I wanted another one I can still pick up Saabs pretty cheap now that the company has been gone for over a decade. Kind of like buying a Studebaker in the 1970s.)
I don't have any problem with working on my own cars, it's a hobby as well as a cost savings, though I don't do heavy work like engine swaps any more. Of course with age I'm a bit slower at it these days but I plan to continue as long as I am physically capable of using a wrench.
You might be surprised at how little work that $1500 beater needs to keep it going at this point. All it's needed in the last few years aside from normal maintenance has been a water pump ($45) and a fan belt ($18). It's quite reliable despite age and high mileage.
As far as the reasons behind my firm refusal to go along with the shift to electric, to get into that would require a deep dive into the true nature of the political and "green" movements behind this forced change and we're not here on this forum for that kind of thing. (Of course there are obvious issues like lack of electrical power and distribution that even Scotty has mentioned make the idea of a massive shift to electric cars a scam.)
I'm waiting for this before committing to an alternative fuel. But then again, I'm still waiting for the flying cars they promised we would all have when I was a kid back in the 60's.
I'm still searching for that 100mpg carb so I can get 5,000 miles from one fill up.
This guy claims 1000mpg🤣
I remember hearing about that guy right after the Tucker movie came out in 1988. The conspiracy theorist in me likes to believe it's all true but I really believe someone would have duplicated the idea by now if possible. A thing like that would make you richer than Elon. 💡
What if we run out ... petrol is slowly becoming extinct
I promise we won't
Everything is in play, IMHO.
It sucks that there are Governmental Engineering, instead of letting the market figure out which technology and fuel is best.
The winner(s) will give you the same or better range than gas, the same or cheaper cost than gas, with the same or better accessibility than gas, and cost the same or better than a gas car. It could very well be gas. The road map for most manufactures points to EV. But that could change. Who knows?
If prices keep going the way they are I'm going to start running a still & make my own fuel.
You'd be surprised how easy it is to make bio-diesel
It's interesting but there's a few hurdles likely in the future, once fuel gets to X amount the companies who pick up the waste oil that you normally get for free might get into paying a decent amount so they can refine or sell it to a refiner in bulk.
Also if you can't get the chemicals you're in trouble. With alcohol you just need mash, a decent still, fire & water. Since it's not for human consumption you can get creative with your ingredients.
Mobility becomes an option although it would look REALLY odd having something that looks like an ice fishing shack on wheels but as long as you find a place to park with what you need, cook for a few days & fill up a large drum to pump from.
Electric cars make governments the most money. They'll probably try to make it impossible for the working classes to afford petrol or diesel. Even the cost of LPG will probably rise to match typical petrol costs, so if you're a tradesman with a laden van you're looking at 20MPG in the cities.
Mechanics often list engines and injection pumps that work well with vegetable oil, but there's always a Youtube video showing an alternative opinion. I might risk it in the future.
I refuse to buy an EV. Everything about them tells me they're just legalised robbery.
I'm on Gas Turbine gang personally hoping that it can be efficient somehow with fancy tech like computers. Cool concept and solves the fuel issue BUT it comes with its flaws where it gets horrible mileage, looking at previous attempts with 12-15L/100km (20-15 MPG)
It's time to at least start the transition from oil, just too many problems with it. I'm personally hoping for that synthetic gas to be the clean answer. Years ago they were cooking up gas with algae but haven't heard anything on it in some time. I'm open to hydrogen but the big problem is moving on something! Whatever comes next large corporations need to be cut out of the equation to prevent price gouging like we are seeing now with oil.
anything that needs to be distributed nationally, or even globally, will require the resources of a large corporation.
I'm all for a real alternative, however I have yet to see one viable alternative to oil based products. Not only does it currently not exist, it never will and that's the point. The technology to create synthetic massive amounts of replacement BTUs is a pipe dream.
The environmentalists dreams are wreaking the environment. From half of California burning down every year due to forest mismanagement to the ethanol scam that creates more emissions than a equivalent gallon of gasoline.
Iowa has cut down over 100 million trees and converted the land to farmland in order to grow corn for ethanol.
Entire forests are being cut down in the US and turned into wood pellets and shipped to the EU so they can feel good about burning that instead of coal.
The amount of environmental destruction that occurs from mining rare earths for electric vehicles is criminal.