Electric Cars

I read a piece on the net today that said electric cars are not selling well. Maybe not now, but it's only a matter of time. The price of gas is hovering around $4/gallon at the moment.  It can only trend upward from there.  The world's petroleum supply is in permanent decline.  The days of cheap gasoline are over.

I like electric cars.   They are efficient, and if you get your electricity to charge them from renewable sources, they are pretty much pollution free.   My guess is that by the end of this decade, most of the personal use vehicles sold in auto showrooms will be either plug-in hybrids or all electric.  The combination of high prices at the pump and the urgent need to stop polluting the atmosphere will force the transition away from the gasoline powered vehicles we've depended on over the last hundred or so years.

Nissan Leaf All-Electric

Eventually, the car companies will sell a lot of  their all-electric models.  They are ideal for smaller vehicles that only require a limited range on a daily basis.  For larger vehicles that require a lot of power and/or long range and quick fill ups,  the most efficient choice will be an electric vehicle powered by a device called a fuel cell. These vehicles will run on hydrogen, or possibly methanol or ammonia, both of which are really hydrogen carriers.

Honda Clarity Fuel Cell Car

Why hydrogen? Because it's the simplest, most abundant element in the universe. Because it can be produced in limitless quantity by using electricity to split water molecules, each of which contains two hydrogen and one oxygen atom. When the electricity comes from renewable sources, you have a pollution free source of energy. Hydrogen is non-toxic, and it's no more hazardous to use than the fossil fuels we've long depended on.

Plug-in hybrids (PHEV), a variation of the electric vehicles that are just now arriving in showrooms for the first time, also run on electricity. There is a small gasoline engine on board to keep the batteries charged, giving it the same kind of range as cars powered by gasoline.  Within a decade, we'll see PHEV models available that replace the gasoline powered generator with  a small fuel cell for recharging the on-board batteries.  These fuel cell hybrids will run on hydrogen.

Chevy Volt Plug-In Hybrid

The European Union, Japan, South Korea, and China are spending billions to develop the hydrogen fueling infrastructure required to complement the arrival of  fuel cell vehicles.  The U.S. and Canada are not.  Why? Because our energy policy is controlled by the fossil fuel and nuclear power industries.  Despite their efforts to obstruct the transition to clean, renewable forms of energy,  the momentum is undeniable.  Like the rest of the world, we will make the transition to these clean automotive technologies,  but we will not be the leaders. We will be followers, and the leaders will be selling their technology to us.