A Substitute to Fuel Vehicles

There are vehicles nowadays which are capable of running without the need of using fuel. With the ongoing threat of world fuel diminishing and the rise and fall of fuel price, motorists are now looking at other options of travel; particularly ones which do not use fuel. The majority of vehicles which use other alternatives as opposed to fuel are also bio-friendly. The vehicles that use other materials to run are known as Alternative Fuel Vehicles. They are designed in a way that the usage of pure diesel or petrol is not necessary in a vehicle. Instead of solely using petroleum products, they can be mixed with other substances or not be used entirely. These types of vehicles are also referred to as FFVs or Flexible Fuel Vehicles or simply flex. There are different kinds of vehicles which run without needing fuel. The first of these types is the electric car. This car is also referred to as BEV or Battery Electric Vehicle. The chief energy storage is located in the battery’s chemical energy.

These electric vehicles are considered as vehicles with zero emissions by the Californian air resources body, CARB or California Air Resources Board. When the vehicle is running, there are no emissions being output because the vehicle id running on an electric current. These types of vehicles are good but are overlooked due to their slow speed. There are other vehicles which use both electricity and fuel to run and they are known as hybrid vehicles, which in this case they are petrol-electric hybrids.

Other vehicles that use electric current are the solar powered vehicles. These vehicles convert solar energy into electric current and then utilize the converted energy to run a vehicle. These vehicles are faster than the direct electricity vehicles with some having recorded top speeds of 84 mph or 140 Km/h. There only downfall is when there is lack of solar energy from the sun. The most common of the flex vehicles are the ones which use some form of bio-fuel mixed with gasoline. These types of vehicles are similar to the fuel-only vehicles but the only difference is a slight modification in the fuel system and the engine.

The flex vehicles run on a blend of around 85% ethanol commonly referred to as E85. Due to the similarities to the vehicles using fuel, the flex vehicles do not experience any loss in regards to performance. The main difference is the production of energy because gasoline produces more energy than ethanol; therefore gasoline vehicles have 20% to 30% more miles than the flex vehicles in every gallon. Aside from ethanol, methanol is also used as an alternative fuel and it is also mixed with petrol to run a vehicle. Methanol is not as common as ethanol because ethanol has great support from the farmers mainly because of the incentive programs from the government and subsidies for ethanol that is corn-based. The M85 flex fuel vehicle was tested alongside the E85 to establish concrete results.