Question of the Month: Which technology will power automobiles in 20 years?

e14 Question of the Month

The future of transportation is renewable energy. Electric vehicles are growing in popularity, and more resources are being invested into the development of hydrogen-powered vehicles. Take the poll and let us know what technology will power cars in the near future, and please elaborate in the Comments section below!

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michaelkellett over 2 years ago in reply to Ronald777 +5

This is not correct. Hydrogen used as fuel is (usually) made by electrolysis of water, splitting it up into oxygen and hydrogen by using electrical energy. The oxygen is released to the atmosphere and…
michaelkellett over 2 years ago +2

Synthetic fuel (which might be hydrogen or a mix of hydrogen, diesel, petrol and methane). The world has over 1 billion petrol and diesel vehicles and the infrastructure to get liquid fuel into them. …
koudelad over 2 years ago +2

I recommend this video, which explains why hydrogen won't save us. Currently made mainly from fossil fuels, very complicated for storage and building the infrastructure. www.youtube.com/watch

bradfordmiller over 2 years ago

Assuming we still have cars (most will be forced into mass transit by government dictat and economics) something not currently being considered.
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scottiebabe over 2 years ago

Interesting question! I'm not sure about hydrogen being energy source for the everyday car

If an ICE engine is 25% efficient, you are making use of approximately 8MJ/L of the energy in gasoline. So assuming a hydrogen powered drivetrain is 100% efficient. It would seem you would need the same volume of liquid hydrogen as gasoline to travel the same distance. SUVs have 80L gasoline fuel tanks. Not sure...
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beacon_dave over 2 years ago

For some I could see a potential for a switch from the traditional car to a smaller personal urban transportation device. There appears to be a lot of interesting and fun-looking concept stuff out there already.

I guess it will depend on where legislation is in 20 years whether or not some of the concept stuff can move to full production. At present a lot of it appears to be being used illegally as a) the legislation isn't there and b) it appears cheaper to pay the fine if caught, than to pay recurrent vehicle tax, insurance, MOT test, and parking charges as no-one has the resource to actively police it.

So there could be the question of what does the automobile actually look like in 20 years.
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DAB over 2 years ago

You left out gasoline.

The current combustion engine will still dominate because the infrastructure is already in place.

None of the proposed replacements will be viable at enough locations to really replace them.
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robogary over 2 years ago

None (except for some elites) Physical travel will be outlawed and replaced with enhanced virtual visitation.
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scottiebabe over 2 years ago in reply to robogary

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaverse
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dougw over 2 years ago

Maybe some towns will use super capacitors and vehicles could charge up at every stop light...
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beacon_dave over 2 years ago in reply to DAB

Likely to depend on region but over here two years ago the government decided to ban the sale of new cars with gasoline engines with effect from 2030. So even if everyone buys a new gasoline powered car just before the ban kicks in and they last 10 years to 2040, then that's short of 2023 + 20.

As you say, the infrastructure is going to be interesting as the projection here is for less than 1 rapid charge point per existing petrol station by 2035, even if the roll-out goes to plan. I'm guessing they reckon that a lot of people will opt to charge at home/work and treat that as part of the infrastructure already in place and concentrate on infrastructure on main routes and park and ride schemes.
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robogary over 2 years ago in reply to dougw

There you go, rf toll highways with induction charging embedded in the pavement. Drive forever without stopping.
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Magurch over 2 years ago

Magnetic propulsion
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