Is the eco car the way to go?

[k69atie]

ECO-CAR IS A HYDRO-GEM

It may not be a favourite for petrol-heads - but a new eco-friendly car has been designed that runs on hydrogen.

A university lecturer has produced a taxi-type vehicle called Microcab - and its only emission is water vapour.


The vehicle can hold a driver and three passengers, has a maximum speed of 30mph and does around 150 miles to the gallon of hydroge.

John Jostins, a senior lecturer in design and digital media at Coventry University, has been working on the ultra-light taxi-type vehicle for eight years.

He said: "My passion is developing alternative fuels to reduce noise pollution and improve air quality in cities.


"Microcab is completely silent and its only emission is water vapour. It could be the answer to the environmental and cost problems associated with oil."

Mr Jostins hopes within the next three years a handful of pilot schemes around the country to help will help to refine the design.

It will be on show at the awareness-raising Fuel Cells in Action exhibition on Monday, October 3, in Trafalgar Square.

 

[collector123]

cool, but 30mph (50kmh)? you wouldnt be allowed to drive that in like 95% of streets..

 

[RaDeK]

i would never drive that car just because of the 30 mph limit. and i doubt many others will unless they fix that

 

[DeeezNuuuts83]

Unfortunately, we will never get rid of the internal combustion engine, at least in passenger vehicles. Even with rising gas prices, it is just so readily available and practical. Hydrogen isn't really the easiest thing to get a hold of, plus hydrogen-powered cars won't be cheap. People with minimum-wage incomes will be forced to stick with buying used cars, all of which are gas-powered at this point in time and will be for at least another couple decades.

 

[not really ken]

i would never drive that car just because of the 30 mph limit. and i doubt many others will unless they fix that

You and many others may not have a choice.
Besides, this technology is in devlopment and will be improved and made better in the coming decades so that it will be pratical and will be faster. Remember computers were as big as houses a few dacades ago.

 

[Duke]

Aye, it's on the come up. And although the coolness of such cars is dramatically low , it's unavoidable and good in the long run.

I'd still not drive one untill i'm forced though

 

[Freedom Froggy]

id buy a hybrid.. i was just thinking to my self actually... but how fast are hybrid car??? do they have the same horse power?

 

[Duke]

id buy a hybrid.. i was just thinking to my self actually... but how fast are hybrid car??? do they have the same horse power?

Well depends of course. The thing we're going to see more and more i think are cars with a normal petrol engine and one or more electrical engines for city use. Any "eco-engine" is not practical enough yet to build a solely eco-powered car.

The petrol engine can be anything really. From 1.5 to a 6 litre lump.

 

[Pittsey]

We have a few electric cars at work. The new generation cars are pretty good. Can still only do 30 miles per charge though.

Weird as fuck to drive. It's silent.

The new 1's are pretty quick.

 

[PELLA]

this whole technology of battery powered cars is the worst! After like...3-5 years of driving, you need to replace the battery, and that costs around $3000 US.

its true.

and how are you gonna get rid of this battery? Its not regarchable, so forget that idea. Getting rid of batteries are more environmentaly unsafe than driving a Civic.

DONT GET THEM

 

[dubk]

Since this is a pretty old thread I doubt my comments would be heard by the original poster, but in any event, hopefully they'll help someone out.

Hydrogen cars will never happen, I can promise you that. The reason for this is hydrogen is a secondary fuel source, meaning that you have to have an original source and then convert it to hydrogen. The only two ways of getting hydrogen is either by methane (which is a fossil fuel so that is pointless), or through electrolysis (which requires so much electricity that it doesn't even make sense). ...so no go on the hydrogen cars.

Hybrids are a waste of money. The gas engines aren't built that well and what you really save at the pump doesn't add up to the premium that you are paying for the hybrid technology. As far as the battery situation is, they are required to be able to last 10 years or over 100,000 miles. So generally when you're normal IC (internal combustion) car is headed for the dump, so would this thing...so the battery isn't the issue, it's the cost and the quality of the car.

Electric cars, yeah right...

So what's left? Right now if you want to get something that'll help the environment, get a diesel engine and run bio-diesel fuel. I've read a lot of literature on the topic and unless a new source of fuel comes out within the next 15-20 years that is better, it looks like bio-diesel will possibly be the way to go. But for our lifetimes, stick with IC cars, we do have enough oil to hold us over.

 

[PELLA]

^ well said

 

[S O F I]

But for our lifetimes, stick with IC cars, we do have enough oil to hold us over.

For our lifetimes, but what about the next generation, and the generation after?

 

[Duke]

For our lifetimes, but what about the next generation, and the generation after?

Exactly. Eco cars are getting there. The technology is new, they're busy. Who knows what they'll come up with in ten or twenty years. It is the way forward, like it or not. And we gotta work on it right now, because of what Sofi stated there.

 

[dubk]

... they aren't busy with shit. They put on this facade like they are putting in tons of money and research into finding the next big thing. To be completely honest with you, unless some Japanese company comes up with a design, the only way any other car maker will find the next thing is if the government funds it heavily. You have to be extremely foolish to believe that car companies want to throw money into R&D of something that might not even work. They're a business; they're here to make money, not to save the whales.

 

[Diaz]

Why doesn't everybody just use those fry grease powered cars seen on Ripleys?

 

[Duke]

... they aren't busy with shit. They put on this facade like they are putting in tons of money and research into finding the next big thing. To be completely honest with you, unless some Japanese company comes up with a design, the only way any other car maker will find the next thing is if the government funds it heavily. You have to be extremely foolish to believe that car companies want to throw money into R&D of something that might not even work. They're a business; they're here to make money, not to save the whales.

They're not stupid. They're thinking ahead, as any sound business does.

Duh.

And a lot of Japansese manufactureres are working on such things.

 

[dubk]

Why doesn't everybody just use those fry grease powered cars seen on Ripleys?

They are in sort of a way. They are using vegatable oil mixed with diesel fuel to operate buses and other commerical transportation that does a lot of starting and stopping. The problem with doing this is that the engine isn't really designed that well for it. The oil (or grease) clog the filter system and lower the efficiency of the engine calling for maintance on such engines to become more frequent.

 

[dubk]

They're not stupid. They're thinking ahead, as any sound business does.

Duh.

And a lot of Japansese manufactureres are working on such things.

I'd like to know your sources for all this "information" you are throwing out.

The reason I'm saying this is because I am currently studying and taking courses in this specific topic. What you watch on television is bullshit...cut and dry. Please don't tell me how a business works, I'm sure you don't know that much to begin with.

You take a simple and very general statement that any sound business need to evolve to stay ahead. You are correct. But you are missing the point. No company is going to look 30 to 40 years down the road now. They are putting money in things that will affect their cars for the next 10 years....and alternative fuels isn't one of them.

So now you are going to say "well, why did BMW, GM, and Ford make hydrogen cars if that isn't about moving their company forward?" There's two reasons, one is you have some senior engineers that like a good challenge, and you had the government request (with aid from universities and government funding) to produce fuel cell technology. IT IS ALL ABOUT LOOKING GOOD. I can't stress this enough about how they don't care about alternative fuels right now. Yes they are out there, yes the government is putting a shit load of money into Bio Diesel (but that's for a reason I won't get into), but in the end, it is just IC. I'm sorry that what I say contradicts what you watch on TV or what you hear from your teacher, the truth is it just isn't here yet and there isn't much work into making it happen anytime soon.

...your turn.

 

[Duke]

I'd like to know your sources for all this "information" you are throwing out.

Which information exactly? I'm only stating the obvious.

The reason I'm saying this is because I am currently studying and taking courses in this specific topic. What you watch on television is bullshit...cut and dry. Please don't tell me how a business works, I'm sure you don't know that much to begin with.

You take a simple and very general statement that any sound business need to evolve to stay ahead. You are correct. But you are missing the point. No company is going to look 30 to 40 years down the road now. They are putting money in things that will affect their cars for the next 10 years....and alternative fuels isn't one of them.

I never said anything about alternative fuels. That technology is still up and coming. Hybrids is what it's about. There are already commercial products out there. That's undeniable. People are buying them. That's undeniable. They work. That's undeniable too.

So now you are going to say "well, why did BMW, GM, and Ford make hydrogen cars if that isn't about moving their company forward?" There's two reasons, one is you have some senior engineers that like a good challenge, and you had the government request (with aid from universities and government funding) to produce fuel cell technology. IT IS ALL ABOUT LOOKING GOOD. I can't stress this enough about how they don't care about alternative fuels right now. Yes they are out there, yes the government is putting a shit load of money into Bio Diesel (but that's for a reason I won't get into), but in the end, it is just IC. I'm sorry that what I say contradicts what you watch on TV or what you hear from your teacher, the truth is it just isn't here yet and there isn't much work into making it happen anytime soon.

...your turn.

Actually, no, don't put words in my mouth. Hydrogen powered cars are still too far away. What we're going to see are more and more hybrids. Not necessarily now. But the manufacturers know there is a market for this. Take Toyota and Lexus f.e., they're seriously working on it.

Those companies are simply covering their bases.

Please don't tell me how a business works, I'm sure you don't know that much to begin with.

No need to get personal here, now is there? I'm sure you're taking courses in it and that's nice, but it doesn't make you an unchallenged authority on the matter.