What do regular people need? A car that is reliable, reasonably priced, safe, cost effective to run, and can get them where they need to go. One of the roadblocks has been limited range for the amount of fuel a car can store. A tank of gasoline can get you about 300 miles before you have to fill up. We’re pretty used to that. We don’t have to stop for gas every hour, and there are plenty of gas stations within our range. Even if you’re travelling between cities, you can certainly find gas stations less than 300 miles apart. What if your car ran on something else? First you have the issue of how far it can go on a fill-up or a charge. We need to develop ways to store enough energy in the available space with the available technologies. This presents a problem with some of the technologies, including electric and hydrogen. The second problem is availability of fuel wherever you might want to go. Until more customers buy a fuel, it won’t be cost effective for service stations to offer it.

So what’s the solution? How are we going to move from conventional to alternative fuels, as we must do? Hybrids. We need cars that can run on an alternative fuel but also have a gasoline backup. They will greatly reduce our use of gasoline immediately, while providing the flexibility to use something we know we can rely on.

Mazda’s new Premacy Hybrid runs on Hydrogen and gasoline. This increases its range to about 125 miles, double that of the Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE of 3 years ago. That’s still less than conventional fuel cars. Is it enough? For a lot of people it probably is. Especially when you consider the lower fuel costs and the fact that it produces far lower emissions.

But you won’t see any new Mazda Premacy Hybrids on the road in the U.S. This technology is still in the experimental stage. Mazda has just leased a few of these cars to Iwatani, an energy development company in Japan. They’ll use the cars for business purposes and provide feedback to Mazda.

Will hydrogen hybrids become a viable option in the U.S.? It’s difficult to say. A lot depends on the advances that Mazda is able to make on hydrogen technology and on how well other technologies, especially electric hybrid cars, perform.

$23460 Challenger 2dr Cpe SE

2-Door Rear Wheel Drive Car, 250 bhp, 250 lb-ft, 4-sp Automatic, 17/25 mpg

5 passengers, 3625 lb, 3.5-liter, V-6 engine, 14.5 lb/bhp

MECHANICAL

3.5L MPI 24-valve HO V6 engine

5-speed automatic transmission

Engine oil cooler

Autostick automatic transmission

2.87 axle ratio

Rear wheel drive

Heavy duty engine cooling

730 CCA maintenance-free battery

160-amp alternator

Independent touring suspension

Rear stabilizer bar

Pwr rack & pinion steering

4-wheel anti-lock disc brakes

Transmission

Drivetrain Rear Wheel Drive

Trans Order Code DGJ

Trans Type 4

Trans Description Cont. Automatic

First Gear Ratio (:1) 2.84

Second Gear Ratio (:1) 1.57

Third Gear Ratio (:1) 1.00

Fourth Gear Ratio (:1) 0.69

Reverse Ratio (:1) 2.21

Final Drive Axle Ratio (:1) 2.87

Engine

Engine Order Code EGG

Engine Type Gas V6

Displacement 3.5L/214

Fuel System SMPI

SAE Net Horsepower @ RPM 250 @ 6400

SAE Net Torque @ RPM 250 @ 3800