I was talking to a colleague today and I was saying it’s only matter of time before we see the end of the combustion engine. Rising oil prices, taxes, depleted oil resources, global warming, war and all the other factors will mean in ten years time
(Or less) we WILL start to see the end of mechanical engines in favour of electric cars motors , FACT!

I honestly believe the electric car makes perfect sense. NO more oil, pollution, heavy gearboxes, clutches diffs and all the other parts needed to move a car can simply be replaced with x4 electric motors in each wheel.

I honestly believe the electric car will be FASTER that the mechanical cars we use today. Permanent 4 WD, in car mapping, instant torque will outpace the mechanical counterpart. No more heavy metal, wasted energy needed to convert up and down movements into round and round movements at the wheels, no more flywheels, heavy manifolds and clunky gearboxes.

The technology is coming quick, batteries have now been developed that charge quick, hold lots of energy and are light weight / fire proof.
My colleague thought my theory was laughable; although I think he will 110 % be eating his words in ten years or less!!!!!

The only thing holding electric cars back is Battery technology. However the technology has moved on ten fold. We are now seeing safe, long lasting batteries that will drive the electric motors for substantial periods of time and charge quick.
It is also a FACT that GM invented 1200 electric cars a few YEARS ago although they were DESTROYED to safe guard the multi BILLION pound industry that relies on the combustion engine.

Think of it this way - no need to walk into a dirty garages and get ripped off buying parts , no more clutches, gearboxes etc… the electric car has been HELD BACK by automotive companies that depend on YOU buying parts, having your car serviced etc.... HOWEVER time is running out, they now have no OPTION but to start looking at alternatives.

There will be HUGE benefits: Goodbye rip off garages, goodbye BP, Goodbye sitting on the side of the motorway waiting for the AA, oh and diagnostics YEA RIGHT why not diagnose your car from the inbuilt Screen!

I have a close friend who works in automotive consultancy and he knows of many confidential projects under way by car manufacturers who are developing the electric cars, and from what I have heard it is VERY close.

I admit the soul of cars is in DANGER of being lost... the noise etc... But when we start seeing electric cars that can and WILL outpace the BUGATTI veyron, I say BRING IT on ASAP.


Ten years OR less people, remember this post !!!!

 

But dude, what do you have to do to create the power it runs on.
Burn a load of coal/oil/chicken poo or nuke some core to generate power.

Unfortunatly energy is hard to generate from nothing.

 

Dont agree with you electric is the answer, but there are other answers. IMO im not worried about the future of cars as i know they will come up with an answer as the companies are very resourcefull if their survival depends on it.

THe thing im worried about oil is the fact it goes into a shit load of stuff which im not sure they have an answer for replacement yet!?

 

If someone was able to make a engine that runs on water they would just put a take on water

 

Plenty of things to use other than electric motors, running out of crude oil i don't think will be the end of the combustion engine. There's many more alternatives such as ethanol and others biofuels such as switchgrass, hydrogen. Obviously there are downsides to all of these.

 

i heard a story a few years ago where a bloke had invented an engine to run on water and shell bought this bloke out cause his design would but the petrol stations out of business.

 

didnt he die in a freek accident ???

 

It makes sense to get all the plebs to drive an electric/hydrogen fuel cell vehicle , petrol prices will even out and the die hard performance people still get to buy Shell V max.

Mark

 

i heard this too he got killed off

 

yep, electric cars... the "green" way to travel

 

i heard that too, many years ago, so it must be true!

 

as long as these electric cars can have a bleed valve added to up the boost, i'll be happy

 

Here you go lads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8stApCmxYEM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h75_TGiwg78

I assume this is the guy?

Benni.

 

There are a few things that currently need sorted on this topic. I have quite an interest in it as a young engineer and have attended many IMechE presentations by various 'Engineering Names' and their current and future technology.

In short what I think i've gathered is:

The future of the car and thus its propulsion systems must be;

1) cost effective
2) clean enough to be accepted on todays 'carbon' budget stuff
3) point 2 really means a sustainable method of producting it so that it can last in to the future
4) able to work with current infrastructure
5) be able to be disposed of correctly and recycled... - meaning point 3 again but at end of life

Point one is the driver at the moment, its being enforced by introducing point 2, which is passed off as lies but really means point 3. Point 5 is for the future and its what all the legislation wants to see happen so if the car companies dont do it, the consumer will need to pay. If the car companies dont meet point 2, we too shall have to pay, because the companies wont be going under since everyone needs vehicles.

The electric car would be feasable if we could generate good clean electricity and use it, but its not that simple. no-one wants to use nuclear so at the moment we'll struggle along doing daft stuff like windfarms because at the moment it can help a bit. Cost effectieve clean energy doesnt exist, yet.

The internal combustion engine is the heart of nearly all vehicles at the moment and alternative fuels can be made to run with it. This means there would be no requirement to completely re-tool all the production facilities. Although bio-ethanol or methanol seem the perfect choice, they require massive quantities of land, if we could solve this then it would be perfect, just like nuclear would be perfect if it wasnt for the waste - Both are relatively low carbon output. According to Lotus the future should be Bio-methanol, since it can be synthesized and to some extent fit in to current infrastructure. They also say that if the EU would force all car manufacturers to make all new petrol cars able to use Bio-eth and methanol aswell it would add only 50euro the cost of the car; thus providing an area of the market to be opened to investement (oil companies have money to invest if it means the future still makes money).

Hydrogen can also work with the car, BMW i think have just released a 7 series with a 300km range i think, on 9kg of hydrogen. But the cost is INsANE. It has a backup tank of petrol which has a 700km range

There are alternatives, but they all have their downsides. From what I've seen Hydrogen and electricity just arent possible now, in time they may be, but not now and we need a solution now its nearly 2010!!!

Its sad to say it, but oil's days are limited. I personally hope for bio-eth or meth and they seem to be excelent fuels for cars

JAmes.

 

Electric cars currently work out at about 2p a mile in fuel to run, versus 15p typically for a combustion engined car.

They already make a lot of sense, and have a range of upto 100 miles, im amazed more people arent using them already for run arounds in town TBH!

 

On a small scale they work. what about everything else that needs fuel?

JAmes.

 

In the long run we are going to HAVE to find a way to be less dependant on oil than we are now, i suspect bio fuels will get used a lot more.

 

i think electric cars still have the stigma from the 70/80s as being really shit and unreliable etc. until they are able to make a battery that can charge almost instantly, so you can pull into a garage, quick charge then off you go, people will always be put off as the last thing anyone wants is to be stranded miles from home.

i think in the next 10/20 years you'll start to see the introduction of real alturnatives to combustion engines, as its in the best interest of the oil companies to push these forward as a replacement product to oil. dont forget successful companies evolve to suit the demands of their market,it would be ignarent for them to ignore the fact their product only has a limited supply.

 

It would also be foolish to encourage people to find an alternative to a product that you in a limited list of suppliers, can supply and no one else can due to a massive barrier to entry to that marketplace, ie having oil!

They will want to keep us using oil till it nearly runs out, if they switch us to something else too soon, they lose money, although by using oil there im including shit like plastics, not just fuel.

 

yeah i agree, they will milk every penny that can from it and wait till the very last moment to push the alternative, it just makes good business sense, but i think they will have to start to lay the ground works for the alternatives, as i cant see a nation or the world for that matter just switching over night.
it'll be drep feed into the system, kind of like how now hybred cars have started to come onto the market, a small but not overy shock horror switch to something new.

it'll certainly be interesting to see what we'll be driving around in in the next 50 years as i do think we're on the cuff of what seems like a new age.

 

that story must be right then.

 

The reason folk dont already use alternative vehicles is the high initial purchase price!
If I could buy a leccy car for cheap then I'd already have one!

Given that the most I've ever spent on a car is around Ł1000 I cant see it ever being a viable alternative.
For the moment I stick to 'bangernomics', which is actually the most environmentally sound option of the lot!

Theres a very good article that compares driving a Morris Minor to driving a new Prius. Taking into account the amount of remanufacturing thats gone on and the amount of carbon expended just to make the prius the Minor comes out top. Its never been 'recycled' and has had virtually no environmental impact since its creation 40 years ago.
My current escort is the same, on a lesser scale. In the 18 years its been on the road, the only impact its had is emissions.

Buying a 'new' car is simply not environmentally sound, it makes no logical sense when you look at the life of its component parts. As for electric cars - what do we do with the moutain of dud batteries that are an inevitable by-product in 5-10 years?

 

Heard this as well, also heard that other people that have tried to develope the same thing have all come to untimley endings?

 

[quote=dunketh;3322141]

Given that the most I've ever spent on a car is around Ł1000 I cant see it ever being a viable alternative.


quote]


heres your future then bud


remember these?

 

pmsl.. quality.
Far better than the C5 Citroen make.

I bet with modern motor technology and batteries you could make one really fly.

I think I'll pass though, until the Tesla Roadster thingme takes a drastic price dive.

 

i agree that ic engines will eventually be phased out, but it's going to be over a lot longer time period.

as for jim's picture - that's a typical photo of someone trying to show a lot of pollution from a power station, when in fact all that it is showing is great big clouds of perfectly clean water vapour from the cooling towers (those things are not chimneys)

nuclear, solar, wind and wave power are the future. in turn, i think these wil be used to make hydrogen to power vehicles rather than pure battery power due to the inconvenience of long charging times.

 

nick, it was a picture to make a point, you know that. a lot of people forget that electricity has to be generated when discussing this subject

 

not so much the fuel side of things, but how about robotics?
this golf gti can drive its self
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zB9suy...eature=related

 

I think oil will be available for many many years to come. There's so many marginal fields, and ones that were once considered marginal, based on over 1000% inflation of oil price in 10 years. Then there's all the oil in the tar beds etc. Then there's the oil we haven't found yet. Then there's the oil that we can't currently access for environmental reasons, Alaska etc., but that can change.

Coal mines will even be reopened, probably in this country too, to convert to oil.

Diesel cars can easily be using bio diesel, petrol cars purchases have been in decline for a long time, in favour of diesel cars.

I'm willing to bet there will be petrol available at the pump in 40 or 50 years time.

 

i've said it before, i'll say it again, tony stark and his reactor in his chest is what will save the day

nearly limitless power from a "safe" nuclear type reactor small enough to wear, yet powerfull enough to fly miles into the air with anacross continents at ultrasonic speeds

etc

 

i know that jim and know that you are not so stupid to think that, but some people are

there are 'clean' ways to generate electricity, they just need the investment to become large scale. nuclear fusion is the way forward

 

i do agree that nuclear is the way to go, unfortunately too many people don't understand it and think "oh no, chernobyl, BAN IT

 

Yeah for Ł100 a litre.

 

as for fuel being expensive at the moment - a litre of diesel is 130.9p/litre around here at the moment which does sound very expensive. but compare it to alcohol. it's not uncommon to pay Ł3/pint (568ml) in a pub. that works out at nearly Ł6/litre. so for something that can accelerate a mass of 2 tonnes up to 100 mph and keep it there for a couple of miles, fuel looks cheap imo.

 

good point, compare it to the price of printing ink lol!

 

Electric motor powered cars WILL be the future and I think they will be very common within 10 years.

At the end of the day it makes more environmental sense to convert millions of polluting IC engines in cars to electric which are powered from just a few polluting power stations, then it is quicker and easier to change the power stations for nuclear/solar/wind/wave/geothermal or whatever cleaner source as the technology advances.

I'd LOVE an electric car for getting to work in, its about 6 miles down some country lanes and so would make perfect sense. The driving feel/sensation of electric motors is also pretty good and obviously the simplicity and reliability makes a huge amount of sense.

 

Agree! I work in the oil/ petrochemical industry for exxon mobil, they are developing kit that can now drill far deeper than we have been able to before. Which will release yet more crude!.

 

phil, go down the road and see zytek then

 

I think they should developed the electric Audi from "I-Robot". Looks good, drives itself, but clean to the enviroment