Continuing on
from one of my previous blogs about Driverless cars, there was an interesting
article about the electric C5. This is a battery electric vehicle invented by
Sir Clive Sinclair launched in 1985.
Not only are companies trying to invent cars that can drive themselves
but also cars that can operate on alternative methods to gas.
Petrol is
getting more expensive and you can’t help think that the world is going to run
out. How will we travel from A to B when it does?
Back in 1985
when Sinclair launched the C5, I think he was well ahead of his time. I think the reason the C5 was not successful
was battery technology was not as good as it is today and also because the
price of fuel was significantly lower nearly 30 years ago. Also today, motors
are smaller, cheaper, and more powerful than those used by Sinclair.
These days
battery and electric motor technology is catching up, and with the higher fuel
prices, we may see a major trend towards electric vehicles. These can be
seen already with the development of Hybrid cars. The public today are probably more
accepting of battery powered vehicles.
Batteries for
electric and hybrid cars will drop over the next 10 years to a more affordable
level.
Some other alternative
that are currently being developed:
-
Compressed air
-
Hydrogen fuel cells
-
Ethanol
-
Vegetable oil
-
Water
-
Wood pellets
Inventions such
as the Segway are more successful because it is appealing to everybody, it
looks practical, fun to use, is compact, and is making use of more powerful
compact batteries and electric motors.
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