Tesla2Go said:
But a transition period of how many years? If Whitestar will be out by 2009, and then a third model by 2011, we are talking here 5 years to having a viable electric vehicle solution? And by that time batteries will be better too, perhaps giving you a range of at least 500 miles.
I wouldn't count my miles before they're hatched.
Remember, even if the "White Star" and the next model after it are as great as we all hope, it will take time to penetrate the market and transition to electric vehicles. If there's a real oil crunch during that time, we may need all the alternatives we can get. Cellulosic ethanol might fill a critical need there for a while. There are a lot of flex-fuel vehicles on the road that can burn it.
If you look at the blog entry that Tesla Motors posted on their website about ethanol, they show how even cellulosic ethanol wouldn't easily replace gasoline for all our transportation needs. However. . . There's some waste cellulose material available practically "for free" that could be used, so it could be very useful up to a point. (Sort of like the people who are driving today on waste cooking oil -- it works pretty well, as long as everybody in the country doesn't try to do it.)
As I look into the far future, I think vegetable oil and biodiesel made from genetically engineered algae is very promising. As a power source it's not the most efficient -- however, there's always going to be a demand for oil. It'll be needed for aircraft, for farm equipment, construction equipment, military vehicles, and also for the whole petrochemical industry: fertilizers, pesticides, solvents, plastics, paint, etc. As best our geologists can figure out, petroleum originally formed from algae. The oil you can get from cultivated algae is a pretty good substitute for both fuel and petrochemical uses.