Followin' Tesla's lead... Volvo to phase out traditional engines Wed, 05 Jul 2017: The Swedish carmaker says all its new models will be electric or hybrid by 2019.
Well, since a hybrid still has an ICE, this title is only half true. It would take a new energy source to phase out ICE cars.
Few are talking about this but IMO it's a big damned deal! For years we've had the niche market for hybrids, then a couple of EV models grabbed a little marketshare, but today we know that almost every major car manufacturer is researching EV's. Now Volvo goes all in! The market always decides how technology is accepted and sustained so I'm guessing the market is telling Volvo and others that the time is here to get on the EV band-wagon. Used to be hybrids and electrics were not only more expensive but spooky for some buyers. Not any longer! Hybrids and electrics can be seen everywhere and with the average price of a new car in the USA being $35K alternative transportation is no longer too expensive or spooky. Who knows where the self-driving vehicles will go but if we assume they can find some success all of them can be EV's. Lastly, it's been awhile since Americans had gasoline shortages, outages, or very high prices so we get lulled into complacency, BUT, one major hiccup in the gasoline supply line and hybrids and EV's will quickly gain more marketshare and maybe never look back...
or one major hiccup that lowers the price of gas or increases the efficiency of ICE's and expensive EV's will be a thing of the past
I wonder why Obama killed funding for the hydrogen car? Anyways I still think fuel cell technology is the wave of the future, not a 180 year old electric battery cars. http://www.popularmechanics.com/car...867/hydrogen-cars-toyota-murai-honda-clarity/ Meet the Next Generation of the Hydrogen Car Driving Toyota's and Honda's next-gen fuel-cells. Toyota and Honda have been at work, spending millions in R&D to make the new hydrogen-powered Mirai and Clarity. It's more reasonable than it sounds. Fuel-cell cars are as appealing now as they were during Bush's first term. It's still the only way to get zero-emissions driving with gasoline convenience—pull up to the pump, wait five minutes, and be on your way. But with less than 40 public hydrogen pumps in the United States, the only Mirai and Clarity customers will be coastal and in big cities. At least for now. *Snip* Honda Clarity The sensible crossover-hatchback roofline, the upright driving posture, seating for five adults. It all makes you think: Your Uber is now arriving. Yes, a driver could press the Clarity's Sport mode button and have fun with the on ramps. The steering and especially the brakes feel as natural as any of Honda's excellent OPEC-powered models *Snip* Toyota Mirai Driving north out of Los Angeles, I notice the battery gauge tick down a few bars and experience the familiar twinge of range anxiety. Then, the battery display pulls a stunt I've never seen in an electric car, climbing back up to near full. The car charged itself. So cool. What really happened is that the Mirai's fuel cells sent over some electricity to top off the nickel-metal-hydride battery that powers the 153-hp drive motor. Range concerns alleviated, I gun the little Toyota toward an off ramp, its fuel cells ramping up with a sound that's like someone mowing a lawn two blocks over. Acceleration is reminiscent of a small diesel with excellent torque, good fun once you know how to use it. But the Mirai is a modest setup. Toyota is already demonstrating the high-power possibilities with a heavy-duty truck. The twin fuel cells in that sucker make 670 horsepower and 1,325 lb-ft of torque. Imagine that in a Camry.
They do have fuel cell cars that can run on ordinary fuel, but they require a special converter that operates at high temperature to turn the fuel into hydrogen. The overall efficiency is about 25 percent higher than internal combustion. It basically is an electric car that runs on petrol. If the fuel is going to be converted into hydrogen it makes more sense to use natural gas though, since it has a twice the hydrogen content.
Yea I know fuel cell cars use an electric motor, I think they are / will be alot better then using battery's. .
There are other possibilities as well, such as hybrids that use both a fuel cell together with a small internal combustion engine, and runs on natural gas. Most of the time the car relies on the fuel cell, but the combustion engine is useful while the converter is warming up, or when more power is needed than the fuel cell can supply. Because the fuel cell and converter can be smaller, this helps cut down costs. The heat from the combustion engine can be used to heat the converter, which helps it get started up faster. Otherwise the car would need a big battery and you'd be using electric heating elements to warm up the converter every time you started up the car. So in some ways the hybrid design is very practical.
I guess you are not up to speed on a thing called global climate change and how fossil fuel burning exacerbates this issue? I guess you haven't read that oil is a finite resource? Like it or not, the trend WILL BE away from fossil fuels...
Well right now it doesn't really make sense to be focusing on battery-powered electric cars while there are still coal burning power plants. Think about it. Your money could be better spent reducing CO2 emissions by focusing on power plants, rather than use electricity to power your car while that electricity is coming from coal. (Not to mention the inherent efficiency losses of storing that electric power temporarily in a battery) It's just like solar panels. Politicians in Europe began waking up and realizing it makes more sense to buy solar panels for countries in Africa than to switch over completely to solar panels themselves, because Africa has a lot more solar energy, being closer to the equator and having fewer clouds in the sky. Now consider this, most of China's energy is produced from coal. Rather than being stupid and wasting money on expensive electric cars, maybe it would be a much better idea to use that limited money to help China pay for renewable power plants. Electric cars do have other benefits though, like helping to reduce pollution levels in crowded cities. But if we're looking at it only from a global CO2 emissions standpoint, it makes more sense to send that money to China.
nice theory but 1/100 degree per year is not enough to get anyone's attention which is why coal consumption is still heading straight up. And of course nobody knows what is causing the tiny warming anyway. Scientists have made a joke of science by firing all those scientists who disagree with them and by so many wrong predictions. And of course EV's don't save fossil fuels anyway since they are oftened charged at night by coal fired power plants.
thats what they thought 100 years ago anyway when PA ran out, and that was before cars and before 7 billion people! Do you understand?
One of your many thinking problems is that you only think about yourself and this moment? If you believe oil is an infinite resource then please share with us how oil is being produced today? Maybe if you were sitting on Mars and looking at Earth from afar you might realize that Earth is an isolated rock suspended in space and the ONLY resources it has are those that exist on that rock...and are affordable to produce. Then try to imagine more and more people, more and more fossil fuel use...at some point you will have shortages of oil then outages of oil...
thats what they thought 100 years ago anyway when PA ran out of oil, and that was before 400 million cars used it and before 7 billion people used it for many many different things! Do you understand now that if anything resources are expanding rather than contracting thanks to Republican science and Republican capitalism?
OMG!!!!!! Thanks to Republican fracking, horizontal drilling, tar sands we in fact have 200 year supply of oil!!!! And, Republican capitalism has already provided substitutes should they ever bee needed. Liberals have been brainwashed with the finite resources BS to create yet another excuse for libcommie govt to take over and allocate the scarce resources. Now you must understand?
https://www.fool.com/investing/gene...in-america-how-much-do-we-really-have-an.aspx http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...il-supply-price-reserves-profits-environment/ Like I said...try living in reality. Further, as supplies decrease, as the US depends more on imports, the prices of gasoline to the consumer increase. The dialogue should not be about accounting for every drop of oil on US soil but about how much of it can be affordably produced? What happens to the US economy when gasoline reaches an average of $4/gallon? How about $5/gallon? Even your stupid fracking will be in decline! Sorry to upset your way of thinking but oil is a finite resource and oil is not a solution to anything long term in our future! What is BS is your rude comments...
Actually supplies of oil are increasing not decreasing prices are going down not up we have a 250 years supply of oil so it is 100% stupid to be thinking of oil as a finite resource especially when we already have substitutes should they ever be needed which now seems highly unlikely he as I said the finite resources BS is just another excuse for the central lib commie government to take control to manage the supposedly finite resources which are actually Infinite that's the reality I'm afraid to break it to you
Sure...but the process takes millions of years and don't simply pop up every couple of weeks. The thing about oil reserve estimates is that they are estimates based on what is known today plus some speculation. Your subduction process is not going to be a solution for us mere mortals who will be lucky to survive another couple hundred years...I think I read this in a book...
OK fracking tar sands and horizontal drilling are myths, that 250 year supply is a myth and gas prices being at a 15 year low is also a myth.
Fracking is not a myth? It doesn't make a lot of difference how much oil is speculated to exist. What is important is how much of all the oil in the US, or Earth, can be affordably produced...affordable to the consumer?
a liberal will lack the IQ to understand capitalism so the current 15 year low price of gas, lower than bottled water, will mean nothing to a liberal. How do you debate with people who have no business debating?
I'm guessing with each post you create you have less and less people interested in debating anything with you...
I'm guessing with each new post you create you have more and more people interested in debating with you because you are so easily defeated when you say things like we are running out of oil and gas even though tar sand, horizontal drilling, and fracking have given us a 250 year supply.
