Types of Alternative Fuel Vehicles

The gasoline powered automobile has been a driving force of the American economy and a symbol of freedom.

With the desire to get away from oil products and toward cleaner fuels and to straight out save money on gasoline, alternative vehicles have become a consideration for more and more people. These are the top options available today.

Electric Vehicle

You cannot have a conversation about alternative vehicles without talking about electric cars. Electric motors have many advantages and that includes becoming more efficient the faster you go.

The cost?  Two cents per mile.  Compare that to the cost of a hybrid (aprox 45 miles to the gallon) and you get a savings of more than $2 per equivalent gallon of gasoline.  Chevy introduced an all electric car called the Volt in 2010 and Tesla is working daily to perfect their vehicles.  We should expect to see much more press on this type of vehicle for city and local driving

Diesel

Diesel has become a very efficient fuel despite its history of smelling bad and having poor performance.  The new diesels get surprisingly good gas mileage.  Europe and Asia have diesel vehicles that can get as much as 60 miles to the gallon.

Compare that to hybrids and you get a 33% savings in mileage.  This also works with large vehicles.  You can get a V8 diesel that will get 20 miles to the gallon as opposed to its gasoline counterpart that gets only 12.

This, however, is not where the real savings come in.  The real savings come in biodiesel.  Now the gas stations in my area have pulled a quick one by not offering biodiesel at a reduced price.

This means they are paying less for the fuel but charging the same amount.  This runs up their profits.  Considering the opportunities for gas stations to increase their profits are few and far between I cannot blame them for this.  There is just not enough competition in the biodiesel market to make them compete for customers, thus no price wars.

So if the gas stations are not lowering the price how does that help us?  You can make your own biodiesel at home.  I personally have not gotten to this step but have looked into it throughout the years (once gasoline hit $2 a gallon).

From what I can tell, the cost of homemade biodiesel is somewhere between $1-$1.50.  Take this into account with the increased mileage benefits and you can see that there are considerable savings to be had with the switch to a diesel engine.

If you are looking for recipes and instructions for making your own biodiesel, Popular Mechanics has the most comprehensive list of biodiesel information I have found.  I believe that diesel and tomorrows alternative vehicle are the easiest to get a hold of and are what I am really considering for my next car purchase.

Natural Gas

The last of the alternative vehicles that are currently avaiable is the Natural Gas vehicle.  This type of alternative fuel has been around for decades.  Many fleets of government vehicles run on Natural Gas.

This means that if you look for them they are available. There are two types of Natural Gas vehicles; Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquid Petroleum Gast (LPG).  Which one is best for you really depends on what fueling stations are in your area.  The best website I have found to get an idea of stations in your area is the Alternative Fuel Station Locator.

If there are no fueling stations that are convenient for you and natural gas is available at your home you can purchase a home fueling station from Phill.  This will cost you about $2k but if you drive long distances each day the savings are substantial.

How substantial?  Well, Natural Gas vehicles run at about the same mileage as gasoline but only costs around $1.50 per gallon equivalent.

Other factors to consider with Natural Gas is that it burns so cleanly that you do not have to change the oil as much and the engines last longer.  A well maintained CNG engine should last for about 500k miles.

This means by the time your CNG vehicle dies on you we should have some other alternatives to talk about.

Hybrids

Other than the diesel engines, you can actually get a hybrid gasoline and electricity or natural gas vehicle. The great thing about these options is that you get the benefit of your lower cost of fuel vehicle while having the security of being able to use gasoline when that fuel service runs out.

One hybrid that doesn’t get enough notice is the plug in hybrid. Instead of having the complicated systems of the hybrids most of us think of, these cars receive their charge from your home or work electrical plugins.

Once charged the automobile works solely as an electric vehicle. Once the charge on the electric side runs out, it switches over to gasoline.

For most people the electric vehicle side would allow them to get at least 100 miles per gallon in their everyday lives.

For me CNG seems to be a great option.  The idea of fueling up at home is very appealing.  I hope this has been fun and informative and that you will consider purchasing a vehicle that saves you money and allows for a little more supply in the regular gasoline market.