Discussion on:

Will American cars run on propane fuel?

No it will be all elecric once we put the infrastructure in around the Country

I really don't think that electric cars are going to be anything other than a commuter vehicle, or less. People in the U.S. will never subject themselves to a car that can't drive 300 miles without stopping, and can be "refueled" in a few minutes. Today's EVs are doomed to be the second car someone owns because you'd still need that 300+ mile per fill-up vehicle.

@BobA421 Will you care to tell us why you say that or how do you know that? Thank You.

Yes, cars will run on propane as well as bio fuels, "normal gas", electric, hydrogen and more... I think the future won't be an either or situation it will be AND...

30 yrs ago in Italy bought 1967MBZ SL which was converted to AutoGas. Still had regular gas tank. Great flexibility. With both tanks, I could go anywhere in any country. In all of Italy I could fill up with AutoGas but in Greece and Turkey, only gasoline was available. Car ran really, really clean and all sorts of combustion residue in engine was cleaned away by the AutoGas use.

Chuck

back in the 79's my boss converted tour busses and vans to use both propane and gas because propane was easier to obtain in Mexico and Central America. The propane does not let you 'jump out of the gait,, but the engines were clean, no bad emissions, and much cheaper than gas. he did not spend a fortune on the conversion either.

This summer I visited Poland and saw first hand in the countryside funky old cars that ran on either propane or gasoline. The cars had been converted by local mechanics and I can assure you the conversions did not cost $5000.

Way back in 1981, in Italy, I purchased a 1967 MBZ 250SL that had been converted to run on Autogas. Technology back then wasn't all that great of course, and you had to start your car using regular gasoline, and then reach down and flip a switch to feed the car propane instead of gasoline.

Ran like a champ and I saved a ton of money the 7 years I spent in Italy (back then European prices for gasoline were huge because of highway taxes, but both diesel and propane were sold back then nearly tax free in most countries for various reasons.) Now--??

I saved on both the basic price of propane vs gasoline and in taxes. Lot of flexibility as I traveled since my regular gas tank was not removed and could seek out the best deal.

But when the USAF sent me back to the US in 1988, I had the tank and propane fuel lines removed -- because I knew that I'd never find a propane distributor in the US that would fill up my car sinc it wasn't a back yard barbeque tank.

Chuck

In 2007 I drove a propane powered 1/2 ton GMC van/motor home conversion from Vancouver B.C. to Firebaugh, CA and was able to find fuel all along the way.

I am not an expert on all this but it seems to me that the way Natural Gas is produced is pretty darned harmful to our environment. It's a process called fracking. To learn more about fracking see the documentary called "GasLand". According to the documentary fracking is very harmful to our ground water and it seems that little is being done to stop it.
So, I think while there are some benefits to propane, it's downside is very harmful and the overall cost is very high - something that we must not allow.

- Joe

Channtal,

You say: Electric power allows cars to run emissions-free, but as most of our electricity comes from coal, charging an electric vehicle is not as environmentally friendly as it would seem.

Please replace that classic Smart Planet grudging comment with the truth:

Electric power allows cars to run emissions-free, but as 90% of our electricity comes from CO2-generating power stations (coal, oil, gas), charging an electric vehicle is not at all environmentally friendly, despite all the hype from governments and manufacturers to the contrary.

Joe Mason says: I am not an expert on all this but it seems to me that the way Natural Gas is produced is pretty darned harmful to our environment.

You are right. You are clearly not an expert.

The Gasland documentary is pure propaganda from irresponsible greenies who see a real problem coming up (for them), namely the end of their fraudulent energy alarmism. Anybody who doubts this should read Matt Ridley's two latest articles:

http://www.thegwpf.org/uk-news/4102-matt-ridley-making-wind-farms-obsolete.html

and

http://www.thegwpf.org/images/stories/gwpf-reports/Shale-Gas_4_May_11.pdf

Happy reading.

However..with propane the mileage will not be equivalent - the energy density per liter of liquid propane is approximately 27% less than the average regular gasoline (even the current junk "reformulated" gasoline).

EVs are still much cleaner than internal combustion driven cars even if the electricity is produced with dirty fuel. This is because electric motors are around 90% efficient vs about 30% efficiency for ICE driven cars. So you burn less dirty fuel than if it were burned in the car.
Of course if we transition more aggressively to wind, solar and microhydro it gets even better. Some EV manufacturers are selling solar car port/charging stations with their vehicles.
Short-term, until we can recharge batteries in 10 minutes or so, a propane/electric hydrid could be a good solution.