Story Link

Electric car to drive $1bn in exports

05mar00

A REVOLUTIONARY hybrid-electric car developed in Australia will halve motorist's petrol bills, slash air pollution and earn over $1 billion in exports.

The $30 million car is being put together by the CSIRO and 80 local automobile parts manufacturers and will be presented to Prime Minister John Howard on May 31. The aXcessaustralia Low Emission Vehicle uses an electric motor to drive the car while a fuel-efficient motor powers the generator that charges the batteries.

Its unique combination of parts gives it the performance of a conventional vehicle but with half the fuel consumption and 90 per cent less pollution.

CSIRO spokesman David Lamb said motorists could choose which mode to drive the car in - electric or conventional.

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Comment:
This is a brief article, but interestingly innovative. In view of recent postings at the cost of go-go-juice this might just open another pattern of thinking...hmmm, is it really revolutionary?

Regards from OZ

-- Pieter (zaadz@icisp.net.au), March 05, 2000

Answers

California was supposed to have requirements effective this year (?) which would have required car makers to sell 5 to 10% of their volumne as non-polluting.

The car makers got this stalled/killed, when, obviously, by the looks of the above report it could have happened on time.

Car makers and oil refiners have been co-dependent for 100 years. What do we do about it?

-- IN (IN@onebox.com), March 05, 2000.

Hey, Pieter, this is the way to go! Canada promises to have some alternative-powered vehicles in mass production soon, too. Alternative Fuel Systems is using a combination gasoline/compressed natural gas, while Ballard is already running hydrogen-powered buses. It's exciting.

The oil cartel has always prevented the development of alternate fuels/power by funding politicians who would look after their best interests; it is nice to see small alternate systems companies succeeding in spite of the difficulties.

-- firefly (forest@calm.dot), March 05, 2000.

A $30 million car? Now THAT would strain the Kook's credit line fer shur.

Kook

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), March 05, 2000.

Bear in mind that an efficient hydrogen fuel cell is much easier to invent than a "system" which produces and distributes hydrogen. In the mean time, converters which make hydrogen from methane natural gas or even gasoline must still rely on vulnerable nonrenewable sources.

While this may stretch the production of fossil fuels by a few years, we're still using a limited resource at an unsustainable rate. Jay Hanson has initiated a discussion of this and other long-timespan fuel issues at: http://www.onelist.com/group/energyresources

This is a touchy, complicated omni-issue...much more complex and opaque than Y2K ever was. Just dropped this in as a caution: the current discussion of the "oil problem", as featured in the media and on many discussion forums, has a very shortsighted and narrow focus. Fuel cell technology, while progressing admirably, still awaits a breakthrough in hydrogen production/distribution technology before we can cautiously venture a sigh of relief.

Hallyx

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."-- Aldous Huxley

-- (Hally@aol.com), March 05, 2000.

Kook

What? You can't simply dig into your y2k cash reserve? :) Seriously, I do believe the $30 million was referring to R & D, not individual price...

Hey, Hallyx, I agree the issue is not simple. But we've got to start somewhere, and as consumers and futurists we've got to encourage the development of alternatives, IMO. One neat feature of the hydrogen-powered system is the potable water by-product. Can think of lots of uses for that. :)

-- firefly (forest@calm.dot), March 05, 2000.

Right, Firefly. So far it looks like you'd need potable water input. But like any new technology the major advances are just ahead. In any case, I am still not optimistic about our maintaining let alone increasing energy flows. Oil just has too efficient an energy ratio.

Another area for a discussion of the long-range view on the oil question is right here on Lusenet.

Running on Empty

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a.tcl?topic=Running%20on%20Empty% 20%2d%20The%20Coming%20Petroleum%20Exhaustion%20Dieoff

Yikes! I've got to learn to link. Or just back into the Lusenet forum menu.

-- (Hallyx@aol.com), March 05, 2000.