Alternative Energy Vehicles Essay example -- Exploratory Essays Resear

Alternative Energy Vehicles Interested in alternative-energy driven cars? Here is a brief synopsis of the existing technologies, some of the problems surrounding each of them, and suggestions for further reading. There is no question that pollution from automobiles is a major problem in industrialized countries and is increasing in developing nations. And the number of cars is increasingly rapidly: in the United States, the automobile population has increased 6X faster than the human population and 2X faster than the number of new drivers (Motavelli, 2000). At the same time, the average fuel economy of the 2001 fleet decreased to 20.4 miles per gallon, the same it was in 1980. This decrease is fueled by the growing trend in inefficient SUVs. As over 50% of the USA’s oil comes from overseas, the dangerous level of waste promoted by inefficient vehicles makes this more than simply an environmental issue. What are some of the long-term renewable solutions to the political and environmental dangers that pollution and inefficiency pose? Battery-powered vehicles. There are several electric car models on the market in the making. As of now, their economic viability is restrained by the relatively short distance that can be traveled between recharging and their lower-than-average maximum speeds. Considering the advantages that standard cars have over battery-powered cars, there is little economic incentive to buy battery-powered cars, but their environmental benefits are enormous. Although it requires factory pollution to create the electricity necessary to charge the vehicles, it would take 13 electrical cars to equal the emissions produced by one standard car (Motavelli, 2000). Research is continuing to make battery-pow... ...t cars. Suggestions for further readings: Borroni-Bird, Christopher E. Designing AUTOnomy. http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=00034FE5-BA99-1D80-90FB809EC580000. 2002. California Air Resources Board. Major Automotive Fuel Cell Programs http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/fuelcell/kalhammer/techreport/sec3_3.pdf. 2002 Fantes, Francisco. Solar Hydrogen Energy: Mining the Oceans for the Holy Grail. Harvard Science Review, winter 2002. Hubler, Shawn, Chalk One Up for Hybrids. Http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/cl_et_hubler26mar26.story. 2002. Motavelli, Jim. Forward Drive : The Race to Build â€Å"Clean† Cars for the Future. San Francisco : Sierra Club Books, 2000 Nice, Karim. How Hybrid Cars Work. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hybrid_car.htm 2002. Sierra Club, Energy Fact Sheet. Http://www.sieraclub.org/energy/factsheet.asp 2001