Do you remember the days when you were a kid watching shows or cartoons like “The Jetson’s”? What did we all anticipate about the future after watching shows like this one? If you’re like me, you know one thing we anticipated was the future of cars. What did we expect? Wasn’t it space cars and vehicles that could hover. There were the cars that had blazing speed. We could probably think of a million things we expected cars to be like in our future but just haven’t taken shape. Research and development of automakers also seem to be steering clear of these kinds of innovations.

Instead the future of cars, has a different kind of innovation that all automakers are racing towards. The key is not necessarily the car but instead what runs the car.

The fact of the matter is for what we need cars for they can already handle it. We really don’t need cars that take us to space. A car that hovers serves little purpose. And as fast as cars are police are trying to slow people down. So these kinds of innovations are not practical for our time. Thus automakers avoid this. It’s highly unlikely we’ll see it anytime soon.

Let’s get back to the kind of innovation we will be seeing. Energy! Right now when we drive up to the pump to fill up we experience sticker shock. We are just so annoyed that the high price of fuel that keeps getting higher and higher. If you live in the United States this is annoying. Just think about someone who lives in Europe where prices are double and even triple what you pay for fuel in the United States. And unfortunately fuel or oil is not being produced or found fast enough to keep prices under control.

This is leading automakers to think of new innovations to power their vehicles. The love affair with oil is starting to run out. Instead they are looking to sources of energy like electricity. Take for instance one American automaker who for the past several years has been working on an electric hybrid that runs entirely on electricity without fuel for the first 40 miles of its electric charge.

Then we see innovations with hybrid vehicles that run on fuel. Almost every automaker is racing to make their cars more efficient to meet government standards and standards of consumers. The sales of these cars are dramatically increasing.

Down the research and development pipeline are new kinds of fuels like hydrogen. Replacing the fossil fuels with a synthetic fuel source. This innovation still has a ways to go. For not only is the car in need of being being re-engineered but so are the fueling stations.

One fuel that appears to be on the back burner is that of e85. Unfortunately there are not enough corn based crops to care for the vast need of fuel to make this form of fuel a mainstream alternative to fossil fuels. However e85 can still be found available at select fueling stations and most American made cars are ready to run on e85. While the price of e85 might be slightly less than petroleum the fuel burns faster and has reportedly caused engine decay.

What does the future hold for cars? One thing we can say for sure is that innovation will be slow. Unfortunately this kind of innovation is not like a race car but more like a snail. So subtle changes will come as we see the unrolling of the new future car.

So, no, we can not expect flying cars or vehicles that hover. Cars that take us to the moon are still a ways off. However we should see cars that are much more efficient and green for the planet!

Author Bio: The writer of this article recommends cars auctions for buying cars. You can view an auction source here: http://www.carauctioninc.com/

Category: Automotive
Keywords: cars, automotive, future of cars