137,916,660,000 gallons gasoline (US demand p.a.) / 2 (hybrid mileage efficiency) saves the USA $276 billion!!!

Or think of it this way, we switch to hybrid and electric vehicles for both passenger and commercial vehicles and we take at least $170 billion (60% of US gasoline comes from tyrants) out of the hands of dictators and terrorists. How’s that for a Homeland Defense strategy?
Consumer interest in alternative-fuel vehicles has grown this year as gasoline neared $4 a gallon. U.S. drivers bought about 275,000 gasoline-electric hybrids last year, led by Toyota’s Prius, and GM and Nissan Motor Co. are boosting sales of rechargeable Volt and Leaf vehicles. Electric vehicles can plug directly into wall outlets.

USA Hydrogen Cars go by way of the Hindenburg, Chu on this

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, whose mandate includes getting more fuel-efficient cars on U.S. roads, is disregarding advisers in his own department and seeking to cut almost half the federal funding for hydrogen-powered autos.

• Funny how the government can digest a 100% cost overrun for predator drones (total tax payer cost $12.3 bln) but we cannot keep a budget for hydrogen vehicles!

A Nobel Prize-winning physicist who also researched advanced biofuels, Chu says hydrogen fuel-cell technology developed by carmakers such as General Motors Co. (GM), Daimler AG (DAI) and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) isn’t yet practical. Auto companies and members of a government panel say he’s wrong and that they will be ready to market such cars by 2015.

Chu, 63, has advocated battery cars and biofuels as options more likely to meet U.S. energy and environmental goals in the near term. Discounting hydrogen means the U.S. risks falling behind Japan, Germany and South Korea in the technology because those nations are moving ahead with plans for extensive fuel- station networks to serve buyers of the cars.

“Fuel-cell technology is viable and ready for the mass market,” Chris Hostetter, Toyota’s U.S. group vice president for advanced planning, said in a May 10 interview at the opening of a hydrogen filling station in Torrance, California. “Building an extensive hydrogen refueling infrastructure is the critical next step in bringing these products to market.”

Toyota, Honda, GM, Daimler and Hyundai Motor Co. (005380) all say the hydrogen tanks on fuel-cell vehicles they’re testing in California and elsewhere provide the same range of 250 miles (402 kilometers) to 400 miles as gasoline autos.

Vehicles powered by hydrogen made from natural gas produce at least 50 percent fewer carbon emissions than the cleanest gasoline autos, according to Energy Department estimates. The U.S. has 58 hydrogen fueling stations, according to the Energy Department.

In 2009, Germany announced plans for 1,000 hydrogen stations. In January, Japan said it will have 100 hydrogen stations in place by 2015, and South Korea may have 50 by the end of next year and more than 100 by the end of the decade.

Making hydrogen from natural gas costs $1.36 to $1.81 per pound, or the equivalent of a gallon of gasoline, and fuel-cell vehicles are twice as efficient as gasoline autos.

Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (APD), the second-biggest U.S. industrial-gas producer, estimates it can sell hydrogen from natural gas for about $2.27 per pound, Ed Kiczek, the company’s senior business development manager, said in an interview. The company, based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, plans to install hydrogen fuel pumps at 10 or more Southern California gasoline stations in the next two years, he said.

California expects automakers to sell at least 53,000 hydrogen vehicles in the state to comply with emissions rules in 2015 through 2017.

Green Autos will command the highways

The newly released J.D. Power and Associates 2011 US Green Automotive Study indicates major growth in consumer interest in green cars—including hybrids, clean diesel, plug-in hybrids and pure electric cars. The market research firm expects as much as 10 percent of sales to come from vehicles with these fuel-efficient technologies by 2016. That would represent a four-fold increase in the sales numbers for green cars compared to 2010.

Carmakers appear ready to supply the growing demand. By the end of 2016, J.D. Power and Associates expects there will be 159 hybrid and electric vehicle models available for purchase in the US market—a significant increase from 31 hybrid and electric models in 2009.

According to the Department of Energy, hybrid vehicles get 40 to 70 miles per gallon, which is much higher than the mileage offered by standard gasoline-powered cars. High mileage means fewer emissions, which can reduce the impact of transportation on the environment.

According to the University of California Berkeley, hybrid vehicles produce 90 percent fewer tailpipe emissions than standard gasoline-powered cars.
References
• US Department of Energy: Hybrid Electric Vehicle Benefits
• University of California Berkeley: Hybrid Vehicles
• Energy Information Administration: Long-Term World Oil Supply Scenarios

Investment ideas ADP, Toyota, Honda, Ford, Hyundai, GM & Nissan