Oil into the Future

The way I see it, there's basically only a couple of ways to switch from gasoline to a different fuel that powers our automobiles, and as far as I can tell, each auto manufacturer is looking ahead to their own country's future when it comes to deciding where the research money is going.

For instance, the US is way behind on hybrid tech -- they've been investing their money into outsourcing hybrid engines from Japan and making bigger gas-guzzling engines. Part of this is because the American public, while they acknowledge the increase in gasoline costs doesn't realize how much more costly gasoline is in other parts of the world.

In the year 2000, shortly after the introduction of the euro, one country in OPEC declared that they wished to be paid in euros instead of U.S. dollars for their oil. Two-thirds of this country's oil was being bought up by U.S. companies. Anyone want to guess what this mysterious country is? That's right, it's Iraq, the country the U.S. invaded 3 years ago. That being said, after throwing trillions of dollars into the Iraq War, the U.S. is heavily invested in gasoline being the resource to hoard into the future.

Japanese companies have all taken different approaches: some hybrid, some hydrogen, and some electric. This is in large part due to the dependence on imported materials and fuels. For the Japanese, it seems, anything is better than gasoline.

German companies seem split on hydrogen as well as diesel as the next stage. As the top exporter in the world, Germany is in a position where they need to see the trend, and then follow it.