Originally Posted by 98CoupeV6
I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Maybe you just don't know much and you're spouting, but when cars were first developed noone really knew which powerplant would be most suitable...they used gasoline, electric, steam, ethanol, etc.
I think you're the one who needs to read up on his thermo. Gasoline has always beens the primary fuel for mobile vehicles. Electric had a short run in the early 1900's but was quickly overtaken. Steam cars use *drumroll* oil to produce the steam...steam is just the working fluid, not the fuel. Fuel for vehicles has never been diverse, it has always been primarily oil driven. So your argument that fuel diversity in the early 1900's led to low cost is bunk.
Originally Posted by 98CoupeV6
I didn't say all in the same car, genius. Maybe Nissan tends to use hydrogen (Sentra, Altima) and gasoline power (Maxima, SUVs), Honda used hydrogen (Insight, FCV, Civic) and diesel (Accord, SUVs) and gasoline (Accord, SUVs, sports cars), GM uses ethanol and hydrogen, etc etc etc. The infastructure will be built when the business strategy is financially sound, just like everything. Extracting oil out of oil sands was never profitable until oil reached $40/barrel, and most said that it would never be profitable. But they found a way. Basic economics, demand of oil will go down as demand for other fuels go up so price of oil will go down...
No one is going to build a national infrastructure around a fuel unless every company is willing to standardize to it. There's too much money and risk involved. Unless every car manufacturer (or at least all the major ones) are on board, it's not going to happen. And then, you run into the problems of low volume production that I mentioned in the last post.
Okay? So electrical is another competing power source right alongside all the other ones I mentioned. Maybe also natural gas will be prominent. Who cares? The specifics have nothing to do with my extremely general point.
Yes it does. You advocate diversifying fuels for vehicles. I say that will increase prices and complicate matters. I say eliminate the fuel entirely by using direct electrical charging. That's my point.