Here’s the latest reader question, along with my reply!
Maria asks: Whatever happened to the water-powered car?
My reply: I’m not sure exactly which water-powered car you’re referring to here. If you mean hydrogen-powered, what happened is they’re still working on them. Or rather, they work – the problem is, they’re much too expensive to be remotely viable as other than engineering exercises – demonstrators, to show what is technologically feasible.
But economically feasible is another matter.
This is a problem which besets the electric car (leaving as the functional problems) and it’s why they have to be subsidized in order to get even a small handful of people to buy them. Without the subsidies, almost no one would buy them.
Thus we get to the core of the problem- if it is in fact a problem:
Gasoline and diesel-powered cars are economical and practical, in spite of all the regulatory costs imposed upon them. Take those costs away, and EVs and other such “alternatives” would be even more economically and functionally absurd than they already are.
I don’t say the above out of malice toward these “alternatives,” or some kind of demented love for internal combustion. I say it on the basis of the facts as I am aware of them.
If a better alternative – more economical, functionally superior – ever shows up, I’ll be the first in line to say so.
. . .
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Eric,
I’d wager that Maria was inquiring about the mythical “car that runs on water” [i.e. tap water]. I’ve heard those stories since I was a kid; and even recently, I’ve seen nutty things on the web about such, and how “The oil companies bought the patent to keep it from becoming a reality” or, how “the government killed the guy who invented it”…. 😀