New Energy Age Survey: Questions 1 & 2
As part of the research for my research paper “On the Threshold to a New Energy Age“, I conducted a survey in order to find out how “prepared” people are for the transition to a new age of energy generation and use as well as to gather opinions on current trends in energy issues.
This is the first post on the question-by-question analysis of the survey results:
Question 1: Do you own a car?
This was the first surprise for me when analyzing the outcome of the survey. More than half the people I surveyed own a car.
Given that the vast majority of survey participants lived in or close to major cities in the United States and Asia, I did not expect many of them to actually own a car. Check out my post Survey Results for more information on the breakdown of survey participants by location.
Furthermore, I found out that most Singaporeans (except one) and Japanese I surveyed did not own a car. Many of them did not even have a driver’s license.
Question 2: Do you plan to buy a new car within the next 5 years?
About one third of respondents indicated they had plans to buy a new car in the next five years. Again, I was surprised by the higher-than-expected share of people planning to purchase a new car in the medium term. However, I have to add that a considerable number of those who indicated in the previous question they did not own a car were planning to buy their first car soon. This might have pushed the number up a bit.
In addition, I asked the third with plans for buying a new car whether they thought it would be a conventional car with a combustion engine or a car with a different propulsion technology. This is how they replied:
Although the overwhelming majority of almost 80 percent replied they were going to buy a car with a combustion engine, it is remarkable that more than 20 percent see themselves buying a car with either an electric motor or some other technology.
Whether combustion engine or not, there are many different power sources available next to gasoline or diesel. Bioethanol and hydrogen are two alternatives for the common combustion engine. Electricity generated from any energy source (nuclear, solar, wind, wave or geothermal energy; energy from burning oil, coal, gas and biological matter) can be stored in the batteries of electric cars to power the electric motor. Another option would be to replace the battery with a fuel cell that converts hydrogen into water and oxygen. The byproduct - electricity - could then be used to power the car.
The Question-by-Question Analysis continues tomorrow. In the meantime, you can take a look at the “Energy Survey” page at http://www.whatmattersweblog.com/energy-survey/
