CTindex - Christian Today UK Interactive Catalogue
Society

Hit by fuel prices motorists look to alternatives

With oil prices near $140 a barrel, motorists are starting to look seriously at both alternative fuels and electric vehicles as a way to be able to keep driving their cars.

Posted: Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 7:39 (BST)
Font Scale:A A A
With oil prices near $140 a barrel, motorists are starting to look seriously at both alternative fuels and electric vehicles as a way to be able to keep driving their cars.

But experts say it will take five to 10 years for these alternatives to take root, given the capacity challenge for an auto industry that is adding 65 million new cars a year to a fleet of 1 billion.

In the meantime, car and parts makers, oil companies and even electricity generators are left guessing which way motorists will turn and what technology will win.

"We don't know at the moment whether it's battery-based electricity technology or sustainable biofuels that will be successful," said James Smith, chairman of Shell UK, speaking at a climate change seminar hosted by Reuters.

"The strategic issues confronting us are very significant."

A range of options will emerge as motorists pick between "plug-in" electric cars, longer-range gasoline-electric "hybrids," or simply downsized, more efficient gasoline and diesel models, and as governments, worried by global warming and energy security, give more or less support for biofuels.

Hybrid vehicles, which have both a conventional internal combustion engine and electric motor and battery, are already popular. Toyota Motor has sold 1.5 million Prius hybrids since 1997 and it wants hybrids to reach one tenth of its total sales by 2011.

In a hybrid, the electric battery and motor aid stop-start city driving, while the gasoline engine allows longer trips, together cutting energy use and carbon emissions.

Hybrids accounted for 3 percent of U.S. car sales in 2007. Makers absorb most of the extra $5,000 (2,500 pounds) engine cost, leaving the street price only $1000 to $2000 higher.

Hybrids could be "broadly present" in the auto industry in five years, said Vlatko Vlatkovic, head of electrification research at GE, which has much to gain from widespread electrification of road transport.

Paul Nieuwenhuis, automotive researcher at Cardiff University in Wales, said that hybrids like the Prius are soon likely to be overtaken by plug-in hybrids, which will have the extra option to charge from the grid.

General Motors wants its plug-in hybrid, the Chevy Volt, to reach showrooms in 2010. European brands including Mercedes, Volkswagen and BMW and Japan's Honda plan rivals.

Pure plug-in electric cars, meanwhile, have no combustion engine at all and have struggled to shake off a quirky image - with tiny sales of fabulous cars at prohibitive prices or else economy-sized "golf carts," both with limited range.



continue to read > 1 | 2
© Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
Have your say on this article
Light for Last Days
Google Advertisement
Externally generated - Report offensive links here
Methodist Insurance
World Headline
Christian groups respond to deadly flood in Brazil

Christian groups respond to deadly flood in Brazil

Christian relief groups are on the ground helping victims of a flood being labelled the “worst environmental...
Sponsored Features
Give a disadvantaged young person a brighter future this Christmas. Order books for all ages commending the free and sovereign grace of Almighty God.
01582 765448 For holidays and retreats in the Scottish borders. Whitchester Christian Guest House 01450 377 477 Friendly printing company for churches, charities and businesses nationwide!
Sanct Maria Abbey, NUNRAW
Cistercian Monastery and Guest House
Bookings: 01620 830 228
Email: nunraw.abbot@yahoo.co.uk
Google Advertisement
Externally generated - Report offensive links here