The future is now. Green automobiles to replace polluting cars.

and we need cars because? I think it's the wrong thinking. We don't need cars. I have not owed, driven or rented a car for 30-years. I have used public transport of all forms and taxi when I have no alternative.I have also lived in the wildest and most isolated of places and lived without a car.We should not be thinking of an alternative to the present car, BIOFUEL, electric, gas etc and etc.We should be seeking a structure that does not require the car. The need for more and more highways and expressways. The vast networks of expressway lighting and flashing signs area all using vast amounts of power.There is only one carbon free car that the one you don't own. After 30-years of no car puts my carbon footprint well into the credit. Now where's the best deal on a Ferrari, electric of cause?

Good news!

Where there is hype, there is hope!

People are thinking about fuel alternatives but no one seems to be thinking about how we construct a society where the private car is redundant. The manufacture of cars regardless of which fuel they run on require vast amounts of energy and materials such as steel, plastics which all come from oil, rubber for and endless amount of tyres. These resources are ship across oceans before being turned into car parts. The construction of highways require even more energy and resources. Even when it comes to farming which you mentioned in your comment its possible to share rather than own individually. The island of Sark, in the English Channel comes to mind. All cars are banned and there is only one farm truck for the entire island. In your comment you still use the phase "public transport" which is a mistake because that would mean there must be a"non public transport." We need a system of free transport which does not involve the private car or public transport. That type of transport won't be a single type like cars, but many kinds, such as moving sidewalks which are driven by power produced by the action of walking. the transport of the future will also be 3-D and not just cars on a road. While society or the manufacturers seek fuel alternatives they won't think about the real solutions for moving people around.

I think we need to a new vision and I don't believe we need to put a time limit by thinking it would take at least one generation to bring about real changes. "A lot of jobs depend on the car industry?" Well, we could say the same about weapons and bombs. We need leaders, technologists, scientists who have a real vision of what transport could be. Alternative fuels are not an alternative but a stop gap to something else. The difficult point, which you make in your last comment, is that there are many with a vested interest to keep the car going, whatever fuel it may use.

I think the most difficult aspect of private cars is breaking down the "status symbol" it has become. People are told via endless advertising that they can't be happy, or their lives won't be fulfilled unless they have one. This applies equally to cars with new fuel systems. Now we have one billion Chinese and one billion Indians seeking this status symbol. But could you imagine a city without roads, never spending useless hours in endless traffic jams. The car, or at least those who drive them, are responsible for more deaths than any disease like cancer. Maybe in the future, new cities will be build underground, under the oceans or even floating around the skies.

Being a former electrical engineer, I think electricity is the most valuable as an alternative to gas because we are already generating vast amounts of it, and power that is produced overnight, is always at a higher rate than what is actually used. We can no longer live without power, but we could live without biofuels, hydrogen. Although hydrogen is probably the most interesting of the alternatives but power is still used to make it. But with electricity there needs to be more advancement with battery technology and much more important is the electric motor. Except for the change from direct current to alternating current, there hasn't been that much change to the electric motor over the past 50-years. If a motor could be produced that consumes only 50% of the power used by current ones would be a very significant advancement. Electric motors are a major part of our live and are used in so many ways.

Nice article Uwe... I think electric vehicles are good...but I think engineers are Not thinking broad enough. They only think about the car..when there are so many other vehicles on the roads..namely Big Trucks, Tractors, Farm Equipment, Vans, Buses, RV's, and small trucks... These are the big polluters on the highways or in the infrastructure....in comparison to cars.... One of the bigger polluters are the other forms of transportation....that is....Cargo Ships, Cruise Liners, Trains, and Planes.... that does not even take into account the Greatest Polluter of them all who is the US Military Establishment....and if you think about that on a world scale.....in each and every country....you see the HUGE problem..... If everyone drove an electric car.....it would have I think less than 10% difference in the pollution problem. It has been one of the other reasons why I am so Anti Military. Electric is not going to move big loads up hills, or carry people in supporting a tourism industry. The answer is something else...that gives clean fuel to the Big Polluting Vehicles in the World Transportation Network. I think it is steam power....one of the most powerful energies in the world... It has to do with designing Thermal Insulation Engines...that attract and retain heat within.... This is very important in concern to serving regions in the world with cold temperatures....via freezing temps. Many people live in cold regions...and if we are going to solve not only the fuel shortage, but the Global Pollution problem....we need to tell Engineers they are thinking too small. We are up against the greatest REVOLUTION mankind has ever faced... I liken it to the end of the world unless we take broad steps toward solving the Worlds Transportation problem. Some of the greatest minds knew these problems in pre Industrial Revolution periods.. As you mentioned when they invented Electric Cars......but they also invented the Steam Engine...that started the Railway Industry...and inventors made steam powered cars.....That is ample proof steam is very powerful when it was able to pull trains along the tracks.....and at this very moment a Steam race car holds the land speed record from the Saltlake Flats in Utah....so we know that steam is also very fast... How can real Mechanical Engineers be so blind to these facts.?..No wonder Japan and American Auto Manufacturers have gone bankrupt..... You should think more about this...and I do not mean that as something negative toward you.....because many people are caught up in the same nightmare we face.... I know I don't want to put my money into electric cars....that do literally nothing to solve the bigger problem.... It is like a flea on dog.....You may solve the flea problem but the big bad dog is still on the loose. I really believe Jetsteam Engines will fly people around the world...and Steam powered big trucks will carry the goods across the Continent... We will learn the true boundries of steam power....How can we not use steam for flying? It is inevitable....Perhaps it is a good thing that Japan Airlines has gone bankrupt...so it can begin thinking about the new Steam Jet. This transportation problem will be solved.....but what stands in the way? It is the Military Complex....who is waging wars and occupying countries... Business can not evolve...because it does not to appear to be supporting the Miltiary Complex because it makes itself a target. 911 is a perfect example to what that association created. Businessmen have pulled out in order to slow the and stop the MIC that President Eisenhower and President Kennedy warned us about... Real True Conservatives have recognized this more clearly since 911 happened. This is what crashed the banks.....and don't let anyone fool you that it collapsed because of some economic burp....by Bank Bonus Greed Barrons, or because of the fallen Wrap around mortgages swaped....derivative market. It is because of the war machine. We won't solve the transportation problem until the Terrorist Wars and occupations are shown to have ended...and the US is perceived more as a Humanitarian Rescue Complex, than an Occupation Military Regime.....trying to control the world. Obama with his recent actions in AfPak and Iraq is closing his door toward reelection.. There is much unrest in the US with unemployment....and although he showed his good side in helping Haiti during this terrible time....I doubt he will use the Humanitarian approach in using the military with it's war on terror. If he did I would think that is a good move by him...to redeem his character in the hearts and minds of the disenfranchised Americans. I only know if America has since 1945 yet to leave Japan.....I see change needs to start there...if any of the above is to be really come to fruition... Have a great Evening ..enjoyed your article..hope I added some realism to it... The Rev.

Of course I disagree with you UP. You beinging a biologists and so educated about the environment knows everything is linked and connected to each other.... I fail to see how you think when I explain the links....that is goes off topic? Also What happened to your Article on Bush and Clinton Saviors of Haiti? Must have deleted it? The Rev.

Everything is linked UP... It is not off topic... Where did your Article Bush and Clinton Saviors in Haiti go? The Rev.

I wonder where your article on George Bush and Clinton Saviors of Haiti went?

Hi there..this indeed an awesome contribution..tnx for sharing knowledge with us..