Why aren%26#039;t alternative means of transport penetrating the market? Japanese electric powered cars are now available. A filipino inventor invented a car that can run on water and cars can now convert their engine to run on cheaper liquified petroleum gas. I even heard of one that runs on leftover cooking oil.

So why are we still so dependent on oil driven cars? Why are these modes of transport not penetrating the market? And for the little that do, why are they so darn expensive?

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2 weeks ago

please see this for water powered car:
http://carblog.classifieds1000.com/danie...

and this for the japanese version:
http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2008/06/1...

there are several reasons for that. The oil companies don%26#039;t want alternative energies to destroy their monopoly. Americans like their SUVs and lifted trucks (sad i know). Americans are too lazy to go walk, ride their bikes or use a bus.

They cost far more than gas powered cars.

You are using fossil fuels to charge your over sized golf cart.

Water cars don%26#039;t actually work.

Any diesel engine can be converted to run on cooking oil for pretty cheap.

because of damn oil companies and greedy politicians. how can you put tax and subsidies to water ? so alternative will just be forgotten

Because car dealers don%26#039;t like to sell cars that don%26#039;t break down as much(such as the electric car) as they lose money.

Ya it is about time for that.

because car dealerships are smart in not buying into government scams

Two words...Bush Oil!!!

The oil companies have absolutely every reason to discourage alternative fuels in any way possible and they do.

Being such ethical businesses they have our best interests in mind so are helping us by not putting a biodiesel pump at every station to make alternative fuels AVAILABLE AT THE PUMP, DUH!

Until then it%26#039;s all a game. No way enough concerned people are going to drive miles out of the way to few and far between stations that carry biodiesel to make a dent in consumption.

Ultimately it doesn%26#039;t matter. Our systems produce too much waste heat so even if we stop all excess emission this week, our planet will overheat, the ocean will keep rising.

Those nuclear plants directly heat the planet with twice the energy that they put out in watts, so if you have a 1,000 megawatt plant, it directly heats the world with 2,000 megawatts by warming the water used to cool it.

Any high quality fuel, biodiesel or gas is burned at too high a rate so produces most of it%26#039;s energy just to heat the air, only about 30% at most goes into forward motion.

Until we redesign every machine that transforms energy to capture this waste heat and turn it into work, we%26#039;re on a one way street to continued global heating.

This won%26#039;t be anywhere as easy as switching fuels and you see how easy that is. Every refrigerator, electric motor, gas motor, power plant and the list goes on will have to do this to finally bring global heating under control.

Our homes will be autonomous, producing all the power they need to supply modern lifestyles, or the ocean will keep rising. Those urban heat islands must be turned off.

Until then we are on average heating the universe at twice the rate we capture usable energy, the rest being lost to entropy, something natural systems are far better at because organic combustion is a much, much slower process than stomping the foot on the accelerator ...

Because they aren%26#039;t any better than petrol powered cars.

LPG is only cheaper when the government taxes it less than petrol (and it is still a fossil fuel).

No one has ever made a car that runs on water (but a lot of criminals have gotten rich claiming to have done so).

Leftover cooking oil can be burnt in some diesel powered cars though it may be illegal (since you aren%26#039;t paying fuel tax on it).

Electric cars take forever to change and tend to have pretty crappy range.

The reason that the alternatives haven%26#039;t taken over is because petrol and diesel are simply better fuels (if you ignore the health and safety aspects). A long time ago electric cars outsold petrol burners but the lack of range of electric cars caused petrol to win over them (and steam cars which were the other competitor took a while to start because you had to wait for the water to boil). There were no oil industry dirty tricks the first time around, just consumer preference for decent range and instant starting.

The hybrid car has penetrated the market because it provides the range people want with lower fuel bills because of the more efficient internal combustion engine and regenerative braking (even if you don%26#039;t actually save money on a hybrid right now).