Gas prices... how low will they go?

[dieseldawg142]

....

Edited May 11, 2018 by dieseldawg142

[Atmobil]

There was a company (Better Place) a few years ago that was working on a hot-swappable model for car batteries, but it didn't pan out and they went bust   Their idea was to pull into a garage/car wash style drive-thru, push a button and under the car an robot arm would yank the old battery and put in a new one..required lots of costly infrastructure and garages...they had a working pilot program w/ a fleet of Renault electric sedans in Israel.

I like the concept of electric cars, esp. in large metro areas, but I'm not sure I'd buy one anytime soon.  Hard to beat the go anywhere/anytime simplicity of ICE cars..

That is an idea I support. Interchangeble batteries would make the cars last for a very long time. The way it is now, you are lucky to get 8-10 years out of a battery pack an around here many batterypacks are giving up after just 3 years. If they could also agree on a standard size/shape (think AA batteries and such) then one could buy a new batterypack at service stations when ever one needs more juice and all batterypacks would be in a huge system where they would be recharged and serviced and put back in the loop. We have a system on Euro-pallets here in Europe where a company "buys" a standard size pallet and send away good on it. You will recive another pallet but it does not matter if it is the same one. Bad pallets are discarded and there is a refund system for broken/rown out ones.
If one could tranfer such a system to batterypacks aswell one could make an electric car go on almost forever. That would be much better for the environment than having it they way it is now when a 5 year old car is scrapped because one part is broken.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Here's a little food for thought. Internal combustion engines run happily on hydrogen with relatively few modifications to what we have now. The only significant emissions are water vapor and oxides of nitrogen (which you get when ou burn ANYTHING with "air", and which we know how to control effectively). The water vapor coming out the tailpipe is recycled naturally by the planet itself. Honda's R&D has already indicated it's possible for a household to cost-effectively generate its vehicle-power needs by cracking H₂ from H₂O (wastewater-sourced) using a rooftop solar array to provide the electricity to do it.

The rooftop plant sits there making hydrogen all day, and you couple the vehicle for re-fueling to the system when you get home in the evening. The economics have been worked out to make such a system feasible pretty much immediately on a small scale, it grows as the "economics-of-scale" begin to kick in and prices come down (as the prices of ALL newly-implemented technologies do, given a little time), and it generates operating profits for the utility companies (who would own the rooftop arrays and charge for the electricity and fuel produced). All this, at a cost that's in the ballpark with what we're paying today...and none of the money goes to the Middle East. The dollars stay HERE, and jobs, well-paying jobs, are created.

This is not the only good solution, but certainly one well worth integrating into a well-thought-out energy landscape.

No batteries with questionable lifespans (that have to be replaced several times during a vehicle's service-life) made of expensive, exotic and toxic materials that have to be disposed of and-or recycled...using even more energy. No massive rebuilding of the entire power grid to take the vehicle energy load from liquid petroleum and put it on generating plants. Very long life for hydrogen-fueled engines, because of zero oil-dilution and few combustion deposits (though positive-crankcase-ventilation is particularly important with H₂)

But will we do it? Probably not in my lifetime...if ever. It's entirely too logical.

Edited February 1, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Ace-Garageguy]

 That would be much better for the environment than having it they way it is now when a 5 year old car is scrapped because one part is broken.

And just where does this happen?

[Harry P.]

While I love the prices I'm paying at the pump these days, the downside is that falling crude oil prices are killing the stock market. My retirement funds have taken a huge hit lately. Oh well... I guess that's the chance you take when you play on Wall Street...

[Harry Joy]

Gas around here has been mighty low since late summer. I filled up in Southaven. MS tonight, and regular was $1.449. If I can make that far, I pay less in Batesville or Oxford. However, I had a $1.00 a gallon discount on my grocery store loyalty card, so yeah - I paid about 6 bucks for a full tank of gas.

(I drive for work, from West Memphis, AR to south Memphis, and as far south as Starkville.)

[SfanGoch]

And now, a short musical interlude brought to you by our sponsor:

 

[ChrisBcritter]

The only way that might happen is if Tesla scales up Ideal Toy Corp.'s old Motorific line.

As if Motorifics weren't expensive enough...

Edited February 4, 2016 by ChrisBcritter

[RodneyBad]

I Heard Today that the Idiot in Charge wants to put a $10 per Barrel tax on oil..

There goes Cheap gas. again..

[dieseldawg142]

....

 

Edited May 11, 2018 by dieseldawg142

[Harry P.]

I Heard Today that the Idiot in Charge wants to put a $10 per Barrel tax on oil..

There goes Cheap gas. again..

Don't worry... that idea will never get past Congress.

[Harry P.]

$1.59 a gallon at the local Thornton's today. 

And that's in Crook County, Illinois... high gas taxes and all!

[Rob Hall]

$1.99 a gallon at Shell here in Phoenix a couple days ago. 

[High octane]

$1.59 a gallon at the local Thornton's today. 

And that's in Crook County, Illinois... high gas taxes and all!

I've seen it as low as $1.42 9 just outside of Crook County.

[SfanGoch]

$1.79 at the Sonomax in my neighborhood and $3.59 at a Mobil station on 11th Ave. in Manhattan. Go figure.

[Joe Handley]

I've seen it as low as $1.42 9 just outside of Crook County.

That's what I paid at the BP near work Thursday night, Kane Co. I don't think it's been that low since I bought my Jeep in '03!

[jeffs396]

$1.39 per as of last evening in Columbiana Ohio!

Break out the old V8 gas guzzlers!!!

[High octane]

$1.39 per as of last evening in Columbiana Ohio!

Break out the old V8 gas guzzlers!!!

It's too bad those prices won't be around this summer when I'll be drivin' my "gas guzzler." Oh well...................

[Joe Handley]

Come summer, my 200 will be boozing it up again, eveything is cheap enough that even is the spread sucks, I'll take the cost per mile loss in favor of the gain in smiles per gallon and cooler running temps in hot weather!

[10thumbs]

I agree.

Edited February 7, 2016 by 10thumbs

[High octane]

A lot of people enjoy driving their cars, no matter what they own or how much gas the cars guzzle.

[dieseldawg142]

.....

 

Edited May 10, 2018 by dieseldawg142

[10thumbs]

Dan Smith, I can understand very well.  That's a special thing.

Has anyone mentioned boat fuel mileage?  Even though boats don't register mpg., but man boat motors drink lots of fuel!!  Big time.

I'll bet water sports folks are grinning again nowadays since prices have dropped.

The saying "a boat is just a hole in the water that you throw money into" rings a bell.

Edited February 8, 2016 by 10thumbs

[High octane]

Dan Smith, I can understand very well.  That's a special thing.

Has anyone mentioned boat fuel mileage?  Even though boats don't register mpg., but man boat motors drink lots of fuel!!  Big time.

I'll bet water sports folks are grinning again nowadays since prices have dropped.

The saying "a boat is just a hole in the water that you throw money into" rings a bell.

You got that right Michael as I  made a few laps around the lake in my father-in-law's boat and it cost me plenty to fill up the tank again. Wow!

[Ace-Garageguy]

i knew my truck was going to be in single digit mpg's when i built it, but we camp WELL off the grid, & where we have been, the country we have seen & the times i've had with my family, far, far outweighs any fuel costs to me.....

When someone has a special-purpose vehicle that's intended for a particular function, I agree...who cares about fuel mileage? That's not the primary concern.

On he other hand, when someone commutes, ALONE, in a massively-huge shiny truck that never gets used for hauling anything other than its owner's butt, it's really pretty stupid.