• "Tata Nano" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: bbjee (B Balaji) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
  
  

History

• Ever since the invention of the automobile during the later part of the 1890s, people have been looking for an alternative to gasoline. Even one of the icons of automotive history, Henry Ford and his Model T, attempted to use renewable resources such as ethanol instead of gasoline. Ironically, the abundance of gasoline and scarcity of ethanol made gas king during the early 1900s; 100 years later and the situation has reversed.
  
  

Equipment

• Not every car has the capability to take advantage of alternative fuels; this requires a special type of engine, usually a hybrid of electric and gasoline. Hybrids cost more than their fossil fuel counterparts, which fuel efficiency might offset depending on how much a person drives. A comparison of various hybrids by Edmunds shows that some hybrid cars require a driver spend up to 63,000 miles a year on the road just to break even with a non-hybrid in some cases.
  
  

Cost of Alternative Fuel

• The alternative fuels themselves are usually much cheaper than gasoline. A hybrid of gasoline and electric, or a straight electric engine are two of the more popular gas-saving methods. On average, electricity costs less than one-third the price of gasoline, according the Environmental Protection Agency's website on electricity. Recharging at off-peak times further reduces costs. Some alternatives can be had for even cheaper or free: Biodiesel uses fats and oils, which can readily be found in grease traps at restaurants.
  
  

Maintenance

• The maintenance costs associated with alternative fuels can vary greatly depending on the type of alternative fuel you use. The EPA reports that a pure electric vehicle needs a replacement battery approximately every three years, at a cost of around $8,000. Biodiesel on the other hand does not have many extra maintenance costs, other than possible complications from prior pure diesel use.
  
  

Potential

• While current fuel alternatives do burn cleaner and offer a cheaper solution to fossil fuels, attention is focused on hydrogen as the probable future for the world's clean, renewable energy needs. Hydrogen is the second most abundant substance on earth, and thus easier to obtain than biomass and other fuel additives. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory believes that storage and production can be overcome to turn America into a "hydrogen economy."