Of course you do!  But that’s not what we’re here today to talk about.  Today, I will be talking about all the different kinds of fuel (or at least the kinds that wikipedia can tell me about), and what they all have going for (or for that matter against) them.  This little faceoff will include good old gasoline, biofuel, hydrogen and the geeky glasses-wearing kid in the corner – electric.  The criteria will include efficiency and the cool factor.

So let’s start out, shall we?

First up is the question of efficiency.  Now you may be asking yourself, “well surely the car that runs off water will be the most efficient!”  Well, you would be wrong.  The process of extracting hydrogen from water (otherwise known as Electrolysis) is quite wasteful and requires significantly more power input than you get from it.  Essentially, you are turning stored hydrogen into a battery that becomes water once again after it has expelled its stored energy.  A great deal of power can be saved by simply having a battery in the place of the hydrogen.  Electric motors also run a lot more efficiently, and they don’t require a hydrogen compression stage, which saps even more power from the end result.

Now, the only culprits are biofuels, gasoline and electric.

Biofuels and Gasoline both consume roughly the same, although there are situations in which one may outperform the other.  So in this case, I will compare them both to the electric car.  Assuming your electric car takes an average .20Kw-h (kilowatt hours) for every mile, and your car has an 85% charge efficiency, given that your average Kw-h costs roughly $0.10, then (.20/.85)*.10=.0235!

That’s right, electric cars cost roughly $.0235 per mile!  Given a normal car gets 30mpg, your electric car will only cost you the equivalent of  $0.70/gallon!

Check one for electric.

Finally, there’s the question of the cool factor.  When it comes to hydrogen cars, there’s not much cool about a guy that requires a garage full of hydrogen compressors and drains his neighborhood’s power grid.  As a matter of fact, that guy is a grade A jerk.  Electric cars aren’t that much better, because though I am sure the sensitive guy that cares about the environment look is cool now, nothing is cool about a guy that has kids, and people that care about the environment clearly want to save the planet for their kids.

Let’s just come to the understanding people: kids aren’t cool, and neither are hybrids/electric cars.  So why don’t you pull over your Prius, because there’s a real eco-friendly badass in town!

That’s right, she runs on biofuel.  If Willy Nelson and Kinky Friedman weren’t reason enough to move to biofuel, then surely the Koeinegggsegggsegg CCXR should be the kicker.  Sure, there’s tons of cool gasoline cars, but how many cars actually get 25% more performance from biofuels?  Better yet, I would be willing to bet that this is the fastest road car you can buy.  And it’s a biodiesel…

So in summary, everyone should buy Swedish cars.  I don’t care what brand, just do it.  Just make sure they are biofuel or electric based, and for the love of all that is holy, don’t go hydrogen!