The Alternative Fuel Revolution

Put yourself in this not-so-hard-to-imagine scenario:

You're driving around in your car powered by the latest technologies. You think you're at the top of the totem pole. Nothing could be better. Then, along comes some upstart alternative energy source for cars. Expensive, hard to work and unproven. Why would anyone switch to something like that?

You might think I'm talking about the current hybrid surge or even the possible implementation of hydrogen cars. I'm not. The upstart fuel is gasoline.

In the early days of motoring, the first quarter of the century, most of the cars in the US were actually electric. Gas-powered cars were noisy, smelled bad and were hard to start. There was resistance to the new power source then, as there is to alternative fuels today. It seems, however, that today we are slowly progressing past the period of apprehension and into acceptance.

But the fight is still going on. Big Oil and many car nuts will stand up for gasoline. They don't think global warming is a big issue, if an issue at all. They want to stay the course, so to speak.

The other side can be just as fervent and ludicrous. The idea that we can simply stop driving gas-powered cars is nonsense. Until mass transit is available to everyone everywhere (which it isn't, not even by a long stretch) the car is going nowhere.

Each side has its point. Environmentalists want clean cars regardless of the cost to driving. Anyone who has ever had to spend more than a few seconds behind the wheel of a "clean" car like the Prius or Insight knows they are nothing more than transit from point A to B. And that is the major problem with alternative fuel cars. They are unbelievably DULL.

I got into cars for one reason: Fun. As a child, I didn't have posters on my bedroom wall of the mechanical workings of vehicles or the aerodynamic information. I had Lambos and Ferraris going fast and smoking tires. The appeal of the car to people who drive sports cars has nothing to do with fuel economy. It's about that youthful draw to the exotic. Before I knew what girls were, cars ruled my thoughts.


That having been said, any responsible driver will be happy to switch away from gasoline if the adrenaline results can be reproduced. But they haven't been. Not even close. And many of the hybrid "poseurs", such as SUVs that slap on an electric engine to get 12 miles to the gallon instead of 10, are making the switch to another energy source look like a 4 ton joke.

If you compare the Mercedes hydrogen concept to some of its other designs (let's pretend the blowfish car doesn't exist) you can see the basic problem.




It isn't difficult to tell which is which. While the concept for the hydrogen car panders to the masses who want something eco-friendly to get them to the next Al Gore lecture, it doesn't address the people who are causing the problems. What about us who love the fast, sporty cars that get bad gas mileage. We're the ones who are pointed out for ruining the environment. The eco-nuts were already driving the most fuel efficient cars on the market, they aren't the problem. We are. Yet no cars pander to us. Who is to blame?

Well, us partly. The fact is that technology like hydrogen fuel will never take off unless it is mainstreamed. It can't become mainstream because we car nuts refuse to buy them. Until the car companies can lay down some money and develop something that gets car nuts to stand behind them, they will have a heck of a time switching to alternative fuels. Maybe that's the idea. Throw down a few million. Make a concept alternative fuel car. Appease the eco-nuts. Then scrap it and say "Sorry. We did our best. Nobody wants one."

I can't comment on the politics of it all. I only know the basic fact. Unless you can make a car that is exciting, car nuts will never spend their hard earned money on it. I want to save the environment, I really do. But I want to do it at 0-60 in 5 seconds, not 5 minutes.