Originally Posted by jwalsh22

I figured I'd poke into this argument -

Really, electricity is NOT a pollution free energy (it can be, but as of today it rarely is). Will we ever be able to get the performance out of an electric car that we get out of our X5s? I personally don't think so - but I could be wrong. I know that Venturi (I think that's what it's called - a custom car builder based in Monaco) makes a $300,000 electric sports car that revs to 14,000 rpm and has some great performance features - but only generates a couple hundred horsepower and about 250 lb/ft of torque. These are about the same specs as our cars, only we didn't pay over $300,000 for our engines. Hydrogen and ethanol seem to be more realistic (cheaper and more accessible as of right now); they keep most, if not all of the same performance characteristics as the wonderful engines we love (ex: 745h). As I understand it, hydrogen engines require few changes in engine design, and would produce many of the same desirable characteristics of gasoline engines. Then there's ethanol, which to me, makes the most sense. The ethanol is synthesized from corn and can be burned in any current engine when the fittings are changed to stainless steel. Not only would this quench our thirst for traditional engine technology and increased fuel efficiency and dramatically reduced emissions, but it would benefit the struggling farming industry here at home. All this is just sitting in front of our nose - in fact, all gasoline sold in Michigan (and most mid-western states I think) contains 15% ethanol instead of the traditional MTBE. My dad actually has a company car that runs on an 85% ethanol/ 15% gasoline fuel mixture. It's here, there's no need to spend billions on development, and it would benefit multiple segments of society. Maybe it just makes too much sense...