[hondaguy]

I was reading, in this month's issue of SportRider...about this very scenario. Hybrid cars and scooters are becoming more and more popular and production for these is becoming increased.

What's your thoughts, how far away are we from actually "running out of gas" ? Are these hybrid vehicles, scooters, lawnmowers, etc really a thing of the very near future that we will all be using? or is it alot farther away yet ?

These new hybrid technology though, doesnt seem to boad well for sportbikes, as they require and engine, electric motor & battery, which all adds weight; to a sport where the very essence of success depends heavily on lightening the bike as much as possible.

since there is so much yet to be discovered with alternative fuels, that we can only hope that technology will find it's way to the sportbike world too.

 

[Captain Morgan]

I don't know how true it is, but I've heard that the major oil companies own all of the patents on alternate fuels. Also, hybrid vehicles have been produced mainly for large companies to have their fleets meet government set guidelines for fuel consumption. If the company adds a few hybrid vehicles to their fleet, they can greatly increase their average fuel economy, thus avoiding taxes or fines set by the government. Based on that, and the fact that oil companies want to make money for as long as possible, I seriously doubt we will "run out of gas" anytime in the near future. Maybe in the next hundred years, but by then, I won't really care. :lol:

 

[DAN DUBEAU]

There is no friggin way we will ever run out of gas in our lifetime. Even your kids lifetime, or your kids, kids lifetime. If the oil companies own all the patents for alternative fuels, and we were going to run of out gas in the near future, don't you think that it would be chaos. All the oil companies would be scrambling around, pouring billions into r&d for alternative fueled cars. if we were going to run out of gas in our lifetime, there definatly would be a full market of alternative fueled cars by now and the oil companies would be getting rich off that instead of selling us gas for $0.95 a litre.

I hope that makes sense, to everyone.

Another thing, they say that oil is not a renewable resource. how did it get there in the first place. I'm not saying it can be renewed overnight, but it is definatly renewable, maybe over millions of years, but renewable

 

[Gas Man]

They SAY that it won't re-new as fast as we're using it!

But anyway, they are already taking steps to use less...the use of Ethynol is one of those steps...it also helps the environment/ozone....But Dan is right...not anytime soon!!

 

[chev]

I wouldn't worry about it at all. Problem, electic doesn't produce enough power to run big motors...meaning the need for gas and with all the SUV's and trucks that are sold, not to mention all the trucking companies out there, etc etc....gas isn't going anywhere. Now, they are doing some hybrid tech stuff on big trucks. To give you an idea, the electric kicks on during highway cruising type applications but when you need the power....it goes back to being a gas hog. This type of stuff (hybrid) is good technology but as for straight up electric vehicles.....NOPE.

 

[twisty]

Altho there is a ton of gas left in the world. When Gasman went to the track he ran out of it....

 

[Gas Man]

This is true!! There was a shortage that day!!

 

[twisty]

Only with your bike....

 

[Gas Man]

NO WAY MAN!! It was a conspiracy against me...brought on by the "MAN"!!

 

[Need4Speed]

sounds like an excuse to me, gas man :rofl: but really though, I was watching a special on those new hybrid vehicles and how it works, like Chev mentioned. Its definately wild stuff, but IM not sure I wanna depend that much of my life, on such new technology just yet.

 

[kanwisch]

I have a slightly different take. No, oil won't run out, per se, but it will become much more expensive to extract. For instance, the most oil outside of the Saudi fields is in Canada tied up in sand. I think its called tar sand, but I can't remember for certain.

The question isn't so much will we run out, but will we be able to extract it at a reasonable expense.

As for cars, gov't mandate did not drive Honda to create the Hybrid. They're within the upcoming increase in restrictions already. As with the pre-70s marketplace, I think the Japanese automakers are simply looking toward future technology and market conditions. The Big Two are only playing catch-up, as usual.

DOH! As for bikes, many are already pretty lean at 50mpg, so for now, they're in good shape. Hard to say what 10 years will bring.
:2cents: