Today is surely marked on everyone’s calendar as the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Day Odyssey. What? You haven't heard of it? The biannual event celebrates the great strides being made by alt-fuels and the vehicles that use them.
The National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium has sponsored the event since 2002. The consortium, which calls West Virginia University home, includes the Department of Energy and companies like Honda and Toyota. It's purpose is simple: Educate people about all of the things besides gasoline that can propel an automobile and turn people on to all of the automobiles that run on something besides gasoline.
It doesn't do much good to have a bunch of people preaching to the choir, so the Consortium is organizing eco-friendlier motoring events in 125 venues nationwide, spreading the alt-fuel gospel far and wide.
“Even if you reach that many people but only some of them hear the message, that’s still millions of people that are learning about these cleaner technologies and new technologies that can reduce our dependence on petroleum and help clean our air,” coalition honcho Al Ebron told Ethanol Producer Magazine.
Events range from discounts on renewable fuel to hands-on experiences with alt-fuel cars.
There's no doubt that the conventional internal combustion engine will remain the dominant powerplant and gasoline the dominant fuel for some time to come. But things are changing, and quickly. A lot of newer cars are so-called "flex-fuel" capable and can run on E85, and the the feds have approved increasing the amount of ethanol in some of our gasoline. And there are a few (too few, some would say) markets where you can buy a natural gas vehicle.
If you don't want to burn gasoline, there's always diesel, which of course means you can run biofuel or even veggie oil. There's also a lot of progress being made with algal fuels and other direct replacements for gasoline. And cars with cords are rolling silently over the horizon, beginning with the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf. Just about everyone in the auto biz is promising to deliver electric vehicles. And although it's fallen out of vogue, several automakers are still developing hydrogen vehicles.
Alt fuels aren't just for road cars, either. From biodiesel and alt-fuel racers at Le Mans to the electric motorcycle grand prix and even electric drag racing, we're seeing motorsports catching alt-fuel fever as well. Maybe the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Day 2012 will include an alt-fuel Cannonball Run.
Some may question the effectiveness of an event like this, but Ebron says it opens people's eyes to new possibilities.
“We’ve seen results,” he told Ethanol Producer. “Odyssey will touch hundreds of organizations across the country. It really has had a major impact from the consumer to the fleet manager to the government official.”
And what are we doing to celebrate Alternative Fuels Day? As fate would have it, we're getting an i-MiEV electric vehicle from Mitsubishi for a few weeks. Stay tuned.
Photo: Honda. A Honda Civic GX fills up with natural gas using the Phill home refueling appliance made by FuelMaker Corp.
See Also:
