Alternative fuels for cars

Comparing environmental performance, price, and efficiency

The Popular Mechanics Magazine web site published an interesting comparison  between various alternative vehicle fuels. They imagined a rally from New-York to California and calculated how different types of cars would perform in terms of raw material consumption, fuel need, fuel cost, and mileage.

lectricity turns out to be by far the cheapest fuel option, having a fuel cost of $60, compared to $110 for natural gas, $231 for biodiesel, $425 for ethanol and $804 for hydrogen fuel cells.

This shows again the superiority of electricity over hydrogen as an energy carrier for vehicles. Electricity has the natural advantage over hydrogen in that it requires one conversion step less. It is a pity however that Popular Mechanics used the assumption that all electricity is produced by coal, instead of supposing a realistic power utility fuel mix. Had they done so, the environmental advantages of electricity stand out as well.

Popular Mechanics also published a more detailed article ('Crunching the Numbers of Alternative Fuels') on the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative fuel. In this comparison, the balance for electricity turned out quite positive again. As advantages, the articles names

• A motor that doesn’t need warm up, is silent, and has excellent performance
• Cheap fuel
• You can recharge at night, when power-generation units are under-utilized
• No tailpipe emissions
• Less total emissions than an internal combustion motor

The only disadvantages the article names are the limited mileage and the slow charging. But those two points are likely to improve as battery technology evolves.