Right now there are close to 6 million plug-in vehicles around the world (more than half of them in China!), there are about 3 million ethanol-only vehicles and maybe 10,000 hydrogen vehicles. With an estimated 1 Billion cars in the world in total, that means less than 1% of the current global carpark falls into one of the "alternative fuel" categories.
The fuel decision is a long way from over and from where we stand it's still not clear that electric vehicles will actually replace ICE engines in the way that most folks expect. Hydrogen vehicles remain promising and last year the Australian CSIRO announced the development of a new membrane that allows the production of hydrogen from ammonia.
In Europe and India companies are working on engines that use compressed-air as fuel (pneumatic motor) and the quest for solar vehicles is a long way from over. On top of this, as the traditional internal combustion engine is becoming more efficient all the time. If we find a way to get 100km out of a single litre of fuel, do we really need an alternative? What about 1000km?
The future for fuel is not very clear just yet and the mainstream engine in 20 years time might be quite different from what we expect. What is clear is that no matter what the preferred energy source, Connector will be there with you and create solutions that work for you and your fleet. And your fuel.
Shane Curran | Director Connector APAC
shane.curran@connector.expert
