How much longer will cars as we currently know them exist?

[SYZ]

Originally Posted by BFGasUte

There is plenty of Hydro power [...]

Unfortunately for the Taswegians, this is not the case at the moment. Due to record low rainfalls, the state is literally running out of (hydro) electricity, and utilising diesel generators to supplement supplies. This has been caused mainly by the disruption to the Basslink cable. Loy Yang currently (pun?) supplies 40% of Tassie's electricity—the very same power station the tree-huggers wanna shut down.

This scenario illustrates the simple fact that we have to rely on coal-fired power for at least the foreseeable future. I live within cooee of a wind "farm" and the number of days the turbines aren't rotating is noteworthy. The other issue of course is how do we get the wind-generated electricity from the country to the city—to charge our battery-driven cars?

[janddbone]

Decades.

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by mik

i dont think it will happen like that Roddy, i reckon it will come down to the price of fuel that will cause a slow slow change in motive power , and as long as we can grow stuff or make rubbish that decomposes .......... both things that humans are very good at , we will always have something to put in the tank, should oil start to become scarce and the price go up to an unpalatable level , then maybe there may be a mass exodus , but while you can still buy a cheap suv tank that will do 1000 k`s to tank or small car for sub 15k that will do 50 mpg and do similar mileage, very few are going to be in a hurry to buy an EV i think .

G'day Mik , Fair enough..As I say though ...necessity dictates what happens perhaps but for essential services may take some sort of precedence. IF fuel as we know it now gets a lot more expensive for whatever reason then it'll be sad to not enjoy our rides as often as we do now..I agree it'll be a few decades yet , some say the s..t will hit the fan around 2050 for fossil fuel . Tell you what though..I heard a bloke on ABC radio a 4-5 years ago talking about this subject and his numbers were thus...Of all the world's current reserves of fuel one country uses more than 30% of that..the USA . Of that 30+% one part of the USA uses half of it..The U.S. military..He was an expert on the subject so I assume those figures were pretty accurate..Scary if true , Sic em treehuggers..Cheers Rod

[barrys123]

I've got a son-in-law that works on the rigs and he said that there is an endless supply of WA and as the get a find they just plug it for the future.

[Qwerty321]

In the 60's they all thought we'd be driving flying cars or autonomous cars etc. etc. During the oil crisis of the late 70s the world thought it was game over for the motor vehicle.

Odds are in 2050 we'll still be puttering around stuck in gridlock in cars that are surprisingly similar to what we have today. Might be more comfortable, might all be hybrids and they may just be able to drive themselves sometimes with us never really properly trusting the computers.