Toyota Camry Hybrid utilizes a four-cylinder gasoline engine, 650V electric motors with 30 kW (40 hp) and 270 N·m (199 ft·lbf) and a NiMH 245V traction battery with a maximum output of 30 kW (40 hp) to produce a peak of 192 hp (140 kW). Its fuel economy is 40 miles/gallon in the city and 38 miles/gallon in the highway.

Tesla Roadster: The first 500 of which are scheduled for delivery in early 2008 uses Li-Ion batteries to achieve 245 miles per charge, while also capable of going 0-60 in under 4 seconds.

Sequel from General Motors is a fuel cell-powered vehicle with a power output of 9.0 kW @ 600mV/cell (12.2 hp) and cruising speed net power of 5 kW (6.7 hp) — fuel cell operating at 50 – 65°C (120 – 150°F). Equipped with a hydrogen tank with a volume of 31.1 liters and the hydrogen energy consumption is 0.53 kWh/mile.

Main energy sources

Andrew A. Frank argues that hybrid cars that can be plugged into the electric grid (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) will soon become standard in the automobile industry. This is confirmed by the current PHEV mass-production race, especially among Toyota, GM and Ford. Other technologies include the following:

• Dual-mode vehicle or vehicles able to platoon that use relatively small electric motors and fuel supplies or battery reserves for door-to-door service off electrically powered arteries. Some swap battery packs to avoid waiting associated with recharging. This also avoids deep discharge that shortens battery life and makes a smaller and lighter battery pack with logistically infinite range using incremental energy sipping through frequent fully automatic battery exchange at speed. The monorail mode provides superior safety at very high speed.
• Battery electric vehicles have the potential of using locally available sustainable energy resources while at the same time reducing vehicle energy requirements by 1/2 to 1/4 when using batteries to store electricity. A new high-performance electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster has attracted much media attention since its release in June 2006.
• Hydrogen cars could eventually be produced that use sustainable energy resources and water. The resulting hydrogen could be burned in an engine or converted back into electricity by a fuel cell and its support systems instead of a battery to be powered as an electric vehicle. Due to the additional conversion losses and added distribution and support logistics overall efficiency is currently not as good as current ICE (“internal combustion engine”) vehicles. Rather it is far simpler and more efficient (by a factor of three to six by some estimates) to transmit locally available sustainable electricity directly into the batteries of a battery electric vehicle.
• Alternative fuels are being proposed: alcohol fuel, water, highly compressed air, garbage, hemp oil.
• Powering electric vehicles directly from the grid would use the least of any kind of fuel because utilities obtain much higher efficiencies than cars. Vehicles also do not have to carry the weight of the many components between the filler cap and the tip of the exhaust. Electrification of highways and arterials is greatly simplified if vehicles form into trains

Energy savers

Various technologies have been developed and utilized to increase the energy efficiency of conventional cars or suppliment them, resulting in energy savings.

• Regenerative braking
• BMW’s Turbosteamer technology to harness the heat generated by conventional internal combustion engines and use it to generate mechanical energy, resulting in a 15% increase in fuel efficiency.
• Utilization of waste heat from the engine as useful mechanical energy through exhaust powered steam, stirling engines, thermal diodes, etc

Materials

• Duraluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber, and carbon nanotubes may totally replace all steel in cars (potentially improving lightness and strength).
• Nanotechnology-enhanced cars will be stronger than steel which can help to reduce weight and better protect passengers

Bottomline, I think future car technologies will be one among many feasible solutions to the global environmental issue as it will use alternative fuels instead of fossil-based ones. Although the prices is very high so that only developed countries can afford to make future cars, I’m pretty confidence that our country Indonesia can acquire the technology, or even be one of the producers in the world.

Fuel Pump: Gasoline on the left, alcohol on the right at a filling station in Brazil.

Reference(s): Wikipedia