Topic: BMW will offer four-cylinder diesel engines in North America

[Roddy]

Do you honestly think that enough biodiesel can be produced in north america to run a significant percentage of vehicles on it?

Soybean-based biodiesel is just a stop-gap until algae-based biodiesel takes off:

Algae cost more per unit mass yet can yield over 30 times more energy per unit area than other, second-generation biofuel crops.  One biofuels company has claimed that algae can produce more oil in an area the size of a two car garage than a football field of soybeans, because almost the entire algal organism can use sunlight to produce lipids, or oil.  The United States Department of Energy estimates that if algae fuel replaced all the petroleum fuel in the United States, it would require 15,000 square miles (40,000 km2).  This is less than 1⁄7 the area of corn harvested in the United States in 2000.
...
As of 2008, such fuels remain too expensive to replace other commercially available fuels, with the cost of various algae species typically between US$5–10 per kilogram.  But several companies and government agencies are funding efforts to reduce capital and operating costs and make algae oil production commercially viable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel

Well, I hope they are right, but I wouldn't hold your breath that it's going to be as viable as they are trying to make it out to be.

[Mitlov]

Well, I hope they are right, but I wouldn't hold your breath that it's going to be as viable as they are trying to make it out to be.

I think the possibility of widespread availability of algae-based biodiesel is a lot higher than the possibility of electric cars or hybrids making sense outside of major metro areas.  And I don't live in a major metro area.

[Roddy]

Well, I hope they are right, but I wouldn't hold your breath that it's going to be as viable as they are trying to make it out to be.

I think the possibility of widespread availability of algae-based biodiesel is a lot higher than the possibility of electric cars or hybrids making sense outside of major metro areas.  And I don't live in a major metro area.

Who cares? the majority of north america's population live in cities and larger towns.

[Mitlov]

Well, I hope they are right, but I wouldn't hold your breath that it's going to be as viable as they are trying to make it out to be.

I think the possibility of widespread availability of algae-based biodiesel is a lot higher than the possibility of electric cars or hybrids making sense outside of major metro areas.  And I don't live in a major metro area.

Who cares? the majority of north america's population live in cities and larger towns.

Who cares?  That's one way to look at it.  But not a way I'd recommend on a Canadian car site.  About 80% of Americans live in major metro areas (source), which means that there's 60 million Americans who don't.  That's twice the entire population of Canada, urban and rural combined.  If the needs and wants of small-city, small-town, and rural Americans aren't worth caring about, what does that say about the needs and wants of Canadians?

And why does this have to be an either-or thing?  Why can't clean diesel/biodiesel and electric/hybrid BOTH be developed.  Those outside of urban areas would primarily choose the former; those inside of urban areas might primarily choose the latter.  But make both available and give people a choice.  I, for one, would choose diesel, because electric cars don't make a lick of sense for where I live and how I drive.