Energy Alternatives?

Toyota has decided to abandon the mass-production of electric vehicles.  This, despite the billions in government subsidies provided to the electric vehicle industry. 

"The current capabilities of electric vehicles does not meet society's needs, whether it may be the distance the cars can run, or the costs, or how it takes a long time to charge."  Toyota

Now that Toyota, the world's largest automaker, has abandoned the industry's future in electric vehicles, will it be long before other, lesser manufacturers follow suit?  Whither then, anti-oil activists and environmentalists?  Boycott Toyota, shame them, bring out new statistics, implore supporters to invest in greater electric-car ownership numbers?

Toyota stated the disappointed results rather succinctly:  inefficient, time-consuming, costly.  A larger buy-in investment, the irritation of not being able to drive very far before the battery runs dry, the length of time it takes to rejuice the battery, the search for energy-fuelling stations, all of it summing up to inconvenience writ large.

Well, there's another alternative, it's been around awhile, and people who originally ran their converted engines on vegetable oil, exulting at their creativity, now have industrialized commercial versions to select from.  The gasoline-powered automobile really isn't the only game in town.  There is the natural gas counterpart.  So, how about it, then?

Um, a tank of natural gas doesn't go very far; it's compressed but it just isn't efficient as a vehicle-mover.  And there's one model, the Honda Civic GX.  Good reputation, topping the list of Greenest Vehicle of the Year; where's the competition?  That Honda Civic GX costs about $6,000 more than a conventional vehicle, not all that bad, considering the savings in gas; natural gas is cheap.

But if you want to fuel up at home it'll cost $4,000 plus installation to buy a home-fuelling appliance.  It takes fully six hours to fill up the Honda tank, which is so large it takes up half of the space a normal car's trunk would have.  And that fully tanked up car will go as far as eight gallons of gasoline would take you in a conventional vehicle.

Better not run out of that compressed gas too far from home, because fill-up stations are few and far between.  Necessarily, in a profit-generated market, where there are very few such vehicles needing to be serviced.  And, as far as those government-generated assists and platitudes about changing reliance on Gulf oil to home sufficiency - government subsidies are drying up.

And that can be attributed to the fact that environmental degradation, while still real and imminent and even very present at this stage, is no longer as 'present' politically.  Particularly when economic times have become fairly tight and difficult to manage, what with government cut-backs, and etcetera....