Car and Accessories

Copyright 2006 Dana Buttenhoff The questions about alternative fuel vehicles increase every time gasoline prices rise. There are many options for vehicle manufacturers. Getting these vehicles from the research and development phase to the mainstream public has been a long and tedious process.

 

The American vehicle manufacturers seem to have lagged behind the Japanese in this regard or have they? When most people hear the term "alternative fuel vehicle" the vast majority will think of hybrid vehicles, the gas and electric combination. In the 2006 model year vehicle line-up for cars the only hybrid choices are Japanese. For light trucks however, the only choices are American.

The SUV line up has both Japanese and American choices. The big question remains to be answered; will the demand for alternative fuel vehicles be the saving grace for a faltering American auto industry? Can General Motors and Ford adapt quickly enough to the consumer demand for lower operating costs for the average American driver to use the current spike in gasoline prices to their advantage?

Perhaps the opposite is true and the inability to change will push one or both of the American auto giants over the top and make them a takeover target for perhaps Toyota?

If you don’t think this scenario is possible, have you ever heard of a company called DaimlerChrysler? Hybrid technology seems to be the most recognizable with the general public but it is not the only alternative fuel choice available. Some other alternative fuel sources have been used for years, mostly in fleet or industrial vehicles.

The most notable would be Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) more commonly known as propane. Another similar fuel source is Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). Fleets of trucks, buses and government agency cars have used these fuel sources for many years. Having a network of fueling stations is a stumbling point to bringing these vehicles to mainstream America.

One reason why these fuel sources work well for fleet usage is because of the central garage and fueling station arrangement. When the vehicle has completed its workday it is brought back to the central garage as well as fueled for the next day’s service. Although both LPG and CNG are fossil fuels they produce less emissions than gasoline.

Flex-fuel vehicles (FFV) are vehicles that have a single fuel source and are designed to run on either regular unleaded gasoline or a mixture of gasoline and an alcohol fuel source such as ethanol or methanol. With many farmer owned cooperatives building ethanol production facilities as a way to market their corn and other grain crops this type of alternative fuel vehicle choice has gained the most momentum in mainstream America.

Another type of alternative fuel source vehicle is known as a Bi-fuel Vehicle. This design uses two completely separate fuel system. Typically one fuel source is a readily available fuel such as regular unleaded gasoline or diesel and the other fuel source is either LPG or CNG.

By using two fuel sources the vehicle has greater flexibility to travel outside the limited refueling network for LPG or CNG. The vehicle is designed to easily switch between the two fuel sources based on fuel availability. Electric vehicles show promise but there are issues with the weight from battery storage sources and a network of recharging facilities as well as their limited travel range.

Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCV) are several years away as they are not expected to reach the mass market prior to 2010.Government agencies and domestic automobile manufacturers are joining forces to bring a zero emission vehicle that does not rely on fossil fuels to the American driving public.

Freedom CAR is a cooperative research effort between the Department of Energy and the U.S. Council for Automotive Research whose goal is to develop cars and trucks that are cheaper to operate, pollution free, competitively priced and free from imported oil. With alternative fuel sources there will be growing pains.

These would include setting up a network of refueling stations and training automotive repair technicians on vehicles that are completely different from what they have repaired in the past. There are many automotive technicians who, I am sure, will leave the industry as the new technology is introduced.

The neighborhood repair garage will disappear as these increasingly more sophisticated vehicles begin rolling on American streets and highways. Most vehicle manufactures will keep the training on these new vehicles for their network of dealer service technicians only.

If you are considering an alternative fuel vehicle you should also consider the proximity of refueling stations and how that network will expand in the foreseeable future. Staying informed on alternative fuel vehicles currently in production as well as those that will be available in the near future will be to your advantage as a consumer.

-Reference material from www.fuleconomy.gov , The Department of Energy, FreedomCAR initiative and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Do you own a Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV)? What in the world is a Flexible Fuel Vehicle? It�s a car or truck that is capable of burning certain alternative fuels. Now we�re not talking gasoline vs. diesel engines here, we�re talking about gasoline engines that can also burn ethanol, natural gas, propane, hydrogen, methanol, and p-series fuels.

 

According to some chemist at the U.S. Department of Energy, p-series fuels are �a unique blend of natural gas liquids (pentanes plus), ethanol, and the biomass-derived co-solvent methyltetrahydrofuran� just in case you were wondering. Anyway, if you own one of these flexible fuel vehicles, and you could own one without realizing it, then you might be able to save yourself a whopping amount of money now that gas is nearing the price of gold.

Although some of the more exotic alternative fuels may not be flowing out of the pumps at your neighborhood service station, there is a good chance that ethanol is. Ethanol is alcohol-based and it�s made by fermenting and distilling corn, barley, or wheat. It can also be made from "cellulosic biomass", which is just a fancy phrase for �chunks of trees and grass�, except that this version is called �Bioethanol� instead of plain �Ethanol�. E85 is an Ethanol/Gasoline product that�s being sold at a lot of gas stations. It�s a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. E95 is a 95/5 blend of ethanol and gasoline.

Both blends are capable of being burned by most Flexible Fuel Vehicles. Some service stations are selling an E10 (10/90 ethanol/gasoline blend), that doesn�t really qualify as an alternative fuel. Its primary purpose is to reduce carbon monoxide levels, and it can be burned by most any engine that burns gasoline.

Unlike Hybrid Vehicles, flexible fuel vehicles are not necessarily more expensive because of the alternative fuel option, and they aren�t anywhere near as rare. In fact, there�s a chance that you�re driving one right now. If the salesperson didn�t tell you, and you�re not the kind that reads owner�s manuals, and you�re ignoring the sticker that�s probably on the inside of your gas tank cover, you could be in for a cash-saving surprise. If you�re not sure if you own an FFV, or you�re planning on buying a new car soon, then visit the U.S. Department of Energy�s Flexible Fuel Vehicle (http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/afv/models.html) list. If there isn�t a FFV in your life, there�s still hope.

 You can have an aftermarket conversion done. When you do a conversion, your gasoline-only engine ends up being able to burn some particular alternative fuel such as compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, or propane), or Ethanol. You have three conversion choices; �dedicated�, �dual-fuel�, and �bi-fuel�. Dedicated means that your engine only burns one fuel after the conversion.

Dual-fuel engines can burn two different fuels, and with a bi-fuel conversion, your engine burns two different fuels at the same time. So, if you think that you have no choice but to continue paying through the nose when you�re paying at the pump, look into getting a Flexible Fuel Vehicle or an aftermarket conversion.

After Toyota�s introduction of the Prius, the first hybrid vehicle, in 1997 which was followed by the debut of Honda Insight two years later in America, General Motors adopted the Hybrid technology to their vehicle with the 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid. The introduction the Escape Hybrid is the first entry of any American vehicle in the market. As to Ford�s pioneering model, the Escape is produced on a limited number. 2004 brought only 3000-4000 units of Ford Escape which began its production in late July. About 16,000 to 17,000 units are scheduled to be on the production line in 2005 but with the demand increasingly high, the number might increase.

The dictionary defines the word hybrid as: Offspring resulting from breeding between parents of two different species, and that�s a good definition for our purposes. That�s because a hybrid car has a power plant that�s a cross between a gasoline powered engine and an electric motor.

What�s the big deal about hybrid cars? The automobile industry claims that a hybrid car can give you as much as 20 to 30 miles per gallon more performance than a standard gasoline engine. That means that you buy less gasoline, and buying less gasoline leaves more money in your pocket. You�ll need that extra money, however, because hybrid cars are still relatively expensive compared to traditional gasoline-powered cars.

As more hybrid cars are sold, manufacturing prices will drop, and that drop will be seen in the selling price. How does a hybrid car save gasoline? In a typical automobile, the engine is connected to the transmission via a mechanical link called the drive train.

When the engine�s sparkplugs fire, they ignite gasoline vapor which pushes a piston up and down. This piston movement gets transferred to the transmission via the drive train. The transmission turns the wheels and the car goes down the road. Well, the hybrid car is almost exactly the same except that in addition to the engine being connected to the transmission, an electric motor is also connected to the transmission.

 Actually, there are two different versions of hybrid cars. The one that was just described is called a parallel hybrid, because there are two different energy sources connected in parallel to the transmission. The other type of hybrid car is called a series hybrid because the gasoline engine works in series with the electric motor to power the car.

This is accomplished by having the gasoline engine either charge the car�s batteries, or power the electric motor. The gasoline engine doesn�t actually turn the car�s wheels at all. The parallel hybrid operates off of the electric motor when the car is being driven below a certain speed, and the gasoline engine kicks in when that speed is exceeded, or when sensors in the car indicate that the driver has accelerated suddenly as if to pass or to avoid an emergency situation.

Of course, the gasoline engine is always running even when the electric motor is powering the car, so some gasoline is always being used. The series hybrid is always running off of the electric motor, which restricts the top speed of the car, and the gasoline engine only kicks in when the batteries need to be charged. Like all automotive claims, your mileage may vary.

Even so, if you�re looking to spend less money at the gas station, and avoid much of the effect of rising gas prices, you might want to park a hybrid car in your garage.