Auto department looking toward alternative fuel
Nick Mukhar
Issue date: 9/27/06 Section: News
- < prev Page 2 of 2
"Santa Barbara is not the place for big biodiesel. Electric hybrids would probably work the best in urban settings," said Wally Loster, a 2004 graduate of the City College auto program.
Bob Stockero, a 20-year automotive instructor at City College sees a future in combining electric hybrids with biodiesel engines. "[Biodiesel hybrids] would be ideal. If you could get a diesel engine running on biodiesel fuel in a hybrid, you could get over 100 miles to the gallon," he said.
Stockero said students have been working tirelessly with alternative fuel. Some students are even cooking up biodiesel at home. This trend toward fuel alternatives in the City College program is a microcosm of what is happening in the world of automobile manufacturing.
BMW has developed a 12-cylinder, duel-fuel engine that could run on octane or hydrogen. It has plans to release 100 hydrogen-hybrid cars as early as next year. Mercedes, Jeep, and Toyota are racing to create the most fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly car.
Manufacturers failing to stay up to date with alternative fuel are quickly falling out of favor with consumers. Toyota just eclipsed Ford as the second-leading seller in the United States and is preparing to hasten its plant closings already in progress.
Merrill Lynch has downgraded Ford's stock to "sell" status and in 2008, the company expects Ford to sell only 3.6 million vehicles annually in North America, a 26 percent decrease from 2005.
"The job market in this industry is only going to increase as time goes on and more and more is learned about what we can do with alternative fuel," biodiesel executive Olsen said. Adding that there are a fair amount of biodiesel producers, but distributors are hard to find.
"There is no John Rockefeller of biodiesel," Olsen said. "Nobody has taken the lead in the industry." He added that any automotive student interested in the future of alternative fuels should look to biodiesel. The limited availability of biodiesel alone presents entrepreneurial opportunities for businessmen.
But alternative fuels are only one part of the evolving industry.
Technicians have gone from repairing strictly mechanical parts to becoming computer-literate, City College graduate Loster said.
"Corvettes, for example, now come with up to 15 computers in the car, including censors and switches. When I was still at SBCC [in 2004], we had only begun to look into things like that," Loster said.
Aside from the wide range of knowledge that mechanics now need to work on modern cars, there is a higher level of trust that the consumer must place in the mechanic. "Things have gotten more complicated and it's easier now for a mechanic to sell someone a whole lot of nothing," Stockero said.
Bob Stockero, a 20-year automotive instructor at City College sees a future in combining electric hybrids with biodiesel engines. "[Biodiesel hybrids] would be ideal. If you could get a diesel engine running on biodiesel fuel in a hybrid, you could get over 100 miles to the gallon," he said.
Stockero said students have been working tirelessly with alternative fuel. Some students are even cooking up biodiesel at home. This trend toward fuel alternatives in the City College program is a microcosm of what is happening in the world of automobile manufacturing.
BMW has developed a 12-cylinder, duel-fuel engine that could run on octane or hydrogen. It has plans to release 100 hydrogen-hybrid cars as early as next year. Mercedes, Jeep, and Toyota are racing to create the most fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly car.
Manufacturers failing to stay up to date with alternative fuel are quickly falling out of favor with consumers. Toyota just eclipsed Ford as the second-leading seller in the United States and is preparing to hasten its plant closings already in progress.
Merrill Lynch has downgraded Ford's stock to "sell" status and in 2008, the company expects Ford to sell only 3.6 million vehicles annually in North America, a 26 percent decrease from 2005.
"The job market in this industry is only going to increase as time goes on and more and more is learned about what we can do with alternative fuel," biodiesel executive Olsen said. Adding that there are a fair amount of biodiesel producers, but distributors are hard to find.
"There is no John Rockefeller of biodiesel," Olsen said. "Nobody has taken the lead in the industry." He added that any automotive student interested in the future of alternative fuels should look to biodiesel. The limited availability of biodiesel alone presents entrepreneurial opportunities for businessmen.
But alternative fuels are only one part of the evolving industry.
Technicians have gone from repairing strictly mechanical parts to becoming computer-literate, City College graduate Loster said.
"Corvettes, for example, now come with up to 15 computers in the car, including censors and switches. When I was still at SBCC [in 2004], we had only begun to look into things like that," Loster said.
Aside from the wide range of knowledge that mechanics now need to work on modern cars, there is a higher level of trust that the consumer must place in the mechanic. "Things have gotten more complicated and it's easier now for a mechanic to sell someone a whole lot of nothing," Stockero said.
Be the first to comment on this story