The U.S. auto industry is in turmoil, it has spent too many years building inefficient vehicles. Which route will give the auto industry its best chance of survival as the gasoline supply starts to dry up: hybrids, natural gas, hydrogen, fuel cells, electric, steam ? Explain your answer.
The problems in the us auto market can't be put on their inefficient vehicles alone. Many of the companies also make very efficient vehicles. And furthermore, companies like Honda and Toyota are also making cuts, and showing losses. There are MANY reasons why us auto makers are failing and efficient cars is only a small small piece of that pie.
To answer your question, we have lots of oil still. Gas isn't going anywhere any time soon. electic cars have their place, but are still not practical for places with cold climates. anyone who lives in a cold climate likes having heat in a car, and electric heat elements would waste all the battery life. plus, think of the large blackout on the east coast a few years back. Now imagine if everyone had to plug their car in. So ya, that's no good. Hydrogen needs to be stored at like – 400 celcius or something rediculous. or stored under huge pressure. So it's not practical and it's not as stable as gas. Hybrids, many have pointed out, use large batteries which may end up negating the benefits they produce in gas efficiency. Natural gas, needs to be pressurized and is also a limited resource, so that's a band aid solution, and for the time it would buy us, probably not practical for the infrastructure changes it would require. Steam needs something to make steam, coal is used alot, but that's a worse problem. Fuel cells probably show the best promise, but they are still expensive and need much more research. Again, they use hydrogen and therefore, there are some factors that need to be overcome before it becomes a more practical alternative.
so in short. There is no good option at this point. Companies like GM need to just stick with efficient gas engines for the time being, and get restructured. get new contracts, better organization, pay parity ( which i believe they have or are getting), and better technology in their cars.
I think that a new kind of engine could save the face of this industry.
This engine is named Quasiturbine and could save 60% of gazoline consumption compared to pistons engines.
See http://www.quasiturbine.com