| The amount of power needed for transportation is immense. There is currently no viable alternative to gas on the horizon. Ethanol, not economically viable, producing it uses about 1.5 barrels of crude for every equivalent barrel of ethanol, it's a net loss. And it corrodes the vessels that are used to transport it. Electric, for get it! In major population centers electric is expensive and cost upwards of .25$ per Kw/h. The estimates of how much power it takes to run an electric car is grossly under estimated. A electric car with 1 or 2 people communing in the summer with the AC on requires power levels that far exceed current battery technology. Gasoline has to approach 6$ a gallon to be on par with optimistic electric technology that does not yet exist. For viability, electric would have to cost half of what is does now and that would take an increasing energy supply by building more coal power or nuclear power plants. That's not going to happen for a long long time. We need to build dozens of new nuclear power plants just to replace the ones we currently have which are scheduled for decommissioning because many of them are 30 to 40 years old and their regulatory license is going to expire. Hydrogen, net loss, it requires more electric or gas to crack hydrogen from gas or water it than it delivers. Might as well just use the electric or gas in the first place and avoid all monumental energy it takes to compress it, store it and transport it. Hybrids and Diesels are the only viable alternative now and in our life times. The efficiency improvement is significant, real and viable. America today is still totally devoid of any long range planning so we'll still be depending on our enemies for energy and gas will spike again. Next time it'll be 6$ not $4.50. The realist in me suggests that long as Obama and Clinton are running foreign policy, Israel will be thrown to the wolves as a quid-pro-quo for cheap and abundant oil. Thats basically our energy policy for now. We have a revolution (election) every 4 years or so. As quickly as things have changed they can change back. But for the Z the future is bright, it's still and will always be a fun, cheap and tunable car. Modern cars with drive by wire, hydroelectric transmission and other interfering technology can make the driving experience detached.
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