ClaytonT

I'm looking forward to the rest of the population running electric cars.

I will be swimming in the floods of dirt cheap gasoline that nobody wants.

Then all of the trails will be mine...

J2H

No Wrangler will ever get 50mpg. They changed Hummvee engines around (after how many yrs) and they get a 2mpg upgrade!

Widewing

A well engineered diesel Wrangler may get close to 30 mpg on the highway, under ideal conditions. However, that is mostly offset by the much higher price of diesel fuel.

I don't know why folks get so nervous about fuel prices. Currently, oil is still over-priced by 30% in the speculator driven market. It won't last. Here's why....

Offshore drilling restrictions have been lifted. Our shale oil reserves are now economically feasible to extract. The total volume of shale oil in the northern plains is estimated to be as much as 1.5 Trillion barrels. That's 4 times the known reserves of Saudi Arabia. ANWR is good for as many as 30 billion barrels, and maybe as much as 80 billion. Offshore oil fields are conservatively estimated at 700 billion barrels. Adding up all US oil reserves, some believe that the total will exceed 3 trillion barrels. Enough to sustain our current needs for 300 years, and far longer as we add alternative fuels.

There's natural gas. Our natural gas reserves are huge. Even better, much of the infrastructure is already in place. Do you have gas heat at home? If so, you already have the basis for a fueling station at your house. Automotive conversions will be affordable. Most vehicles require no internal engine modifications, just a fuel bottle, regulator and special fuel lines. Currently, natural gas is less expensive than gasoline for a given number of driven miles. Tax credits for natural gas conversions would speed up its general adoption.

There is also bio-diesel, which may be cost effective in about 10 years. E85 and and other corn based ethanol in general is a dead end. Sugar based ethanol is far more viable. However, we don't grow enough sugar cane for it to make any significant impact. Brazil uses vast amounts of sugar based ethanol as a result of sugar cane being plentiful.

Electric cars have a place, but I expect it to be less dramatic than many think. Electricity isn't inexpensive to generate. Hybrids are expensive and battery replacement costs as much as overhauling a gasoline engine. That may change, but not over the short term.

There is absolutely no reason why the USA cannot be completely energy independent within 10 years.

I can see no valid reason to panic over fuel issues. It's just a matter of realigning priorities and having an enlightened national energy policy.

I'll be keeping my Jeep for many years (hell, it's warranty is for my lifetime, bumper to bumper).

My regards,

Widewing

J2H

The USA has the SMART car which only gets 41mpg and its designed by Mercedes. The Jeep is not designed to be a luxury vehicle, and I will dump my JK for an old military piece of steel when an electric (or worse) Jeep comes out on market.

spartan99

Wow this board has its trolls!! Thanks for rearing your ugly heads!

yetibear

Ya mean like the guy that asked this question?

MOWrangler

The sky is falling... the sky is falling....

Oh, wait... that's just bird crap!

justinstoffregen

Crazy talk...sell your Jeep A.s.a.p. I might ride my bicycle until the unicorn and rainbow powered one comes out in 2012...yeah. Anyone price out the flux capacitor mod yet? I heard you can go back to the future when gas was $1.50...

K9Jeeper

U can believe what you want, but watch. It's going to happen. Current (unreleased) technology is way higher than 50MPG. In our lifetime, I think 50 MPG will be laughable.

ragtopdave06

Not gonna happen. Jeeps will never get 50 mpg. Well, unless they are being pulled by something else.