How will "alternative fuel vehicles" affect the American economy?

The American economy is very dependent on the automobile indutry. We usie vehicles for transportaion of both people and cargo, for recreation (racing, "road trips", country drives, etc.), as well as for many specialized applications, like ambulances and other emergency vehicles.

With glass, rubber, metal, paint, textiles, fuels, and many other materials needed to make a modern car, I have heard some eatimate that as many as 27,000 people are needed to make one car (with jobs ranging from tapping rubber trees and mining ore to final assembly of the vehicle).

Partially due to enironmental concern and partially due to governemnt mandates, the auto industry is slowly moving toward "alternative fuel vehicles". These include gas/electric hybrids, "flex fuel" vehciles that can run on ethanol, electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and one company will soon sell (in France) a small vehicle that is powered by compressed air.

What do you think will be the effects of this move

toward "alternative fuel vehicles"? Will this affect our economy in a positive manner (or negative or neutral)? Will the effects be long-term or only shoirt-term?

As a car salesman, I am curios as to where you stand.

It wouldn't seem to affect the economy much because it will still take a lot of people to build alternative fuel vehicles. How many people do you suppose will be involved in research and development, then manufacturing of the Chevy Volt? Also, the internal combustion engine is not going away in our lifetimes - there will just be more choices.

Flex fuel cars would help the economy greatly. They are not more expensive and can burn gasoline or alternative fuel. If all gasoline cars on the road were flex fuel, that would encourage more alternative fuel stations to spring up. Any diesel car can burn either petroleum based diesel OR bio diesel, so we should make all gasoline cars able to burn ethanol or methanol as an OPTION, especially since it is little or no cost. The Chevy Impala has a zero cost flex fuel option for example:
LZE 3.5L V6 SFI Flex Fuel Engine; $0
See the source (it may take a minute or more to load).

Any reduction of our dependence on oil, and especially imported oil, will help.

I don't think they will have a huge affect on the number of jobs. They will be shifted to other industries though which will require different skills/training. We live in a huge country with large spread out cities. There will always be a need for personal transportation.

Really the only thing that will change is the type of cars we use. At some point oil will become more expensive and drive us to other fuels. Right now gas is still cheap enough that its not worth it to create a hydrogen fueling network, more extensive ethanol networks, electrical networks setup for cars. It is shifting to something and only time will tell what that may be.

I feel that poeple will continue sufforing this "hosing" for many years to come. At least until our dependancy on foriegn oil is ended. Remember the electric car that was recalled? Trust me when I say that those who control the oil have many plans to slow down or stop all-to-gether any plan to do so. For the past several years the news-papers have stated record profits for oil companies. That was when gas was a buck fifty-a buck fifty-five! Now gas is at three! I don't know about everyonme else but I predict major problems on the horizon for all of us. We are going to have to pump for oil in places like Alaska if we don't want to starve. If we can stop producing cars that use so much gas it will be a good start. A new mandate that car companies will have to produce cars that get higher mileage just makes me angrier because we should have done that allready!!!! This is a war...

Anything new that appeals to the public is always a good thing for our economy not to mention the billions and billions of dollars we will save from the oil nations . That can all be spent on us . Not sure what it would do to there economy probably cripple it . Maybe we can buy some sand from greedy oil producers . You know just to help them out.

I think the most important thing for a car salesman is which company you work for. The country will all ways need cars, so someone has to build them. The manufacturer that produces the cars that give the public what they need and want will do well. As fuel gets more expensive and Global warming is more understood, people will be clamoring for cars that are the most cost-effective. They will because the cost of operating is high, but also because there will be huge pollution taxes on large gas hogs.

We had cars in the 80's that got over 50 MPG (VW Rabbit and Honda CRX?). With today's more efficient engines we should be able to have small diesel or gas cars that are inexpensive and get 60-70MPG. This is much better than hybrids or Hydrogen or many other options. Why not small diesels that get 70MPG and can burn Bio diesel. That technology is here now. Up to now people just do not want them. They like their big super safe gas hogs.

Later they will love the little ones. The car manufacturer that does the best in this market will do well. The Gas Hog producers will suffer.