Save Gas, Buy Water! You Could If You Owned Genepax's Water Powered Car

Ever thought about putting water in your gas tank, on purpose? You can if you owned the new prototype from Japan. The Japanese company Genepax, has created a water-powered car. The eco-friendly car uses an energy generator to separate the hydrogen and the oxygen from the water through a chemical reaction. The hydrogen is used to generate electrons, which powers the car. Whenever your car gets thirsty, just dump a bottle of water in the tank and you're ready to ride!

The new car was revealed in Osaka, Japan on June 12, 2008. It is believed this invention may solve the oil crisis and revolutionize the automobile industry as they move towards the mass production of this type of vehicle. The production cost for the car is just over $18,000, but that amount is expected to decrease to about $4,600 if the company is successful in mass producing the vehicle--of course you can expect the car salesmen will probably charge more than double that when it is released, especially if the cars become in high demand.

Some problems may arise should the car make its appearance in the United States. One can only imagine the fight over water during a drought and how many bottles of water will disappear off the shelves at your local Wal-Mart. Water may be more plentiful than a barrel of oil right now, but will it be later? However, people are looking to alternate fuel sources as gas prices jumped over $4 a gallon in many cities, so this may be a temporary solution.

The car can run for about an hour at 50mph on just a quart of water. The water can be from a river, stream, or even from the rain or sea. Believe it or not, it can even be powered by tea--so you can sit have have a cup of tea with your car and watch the scenery pass by, wouldn't that be fun? Anyway, its fuel cell stack produces 120W and its fuel cell system produces 300W.

This powerful little car may not win a race with one of the gas-powered sports cars, and it may look like an Urkel car but you'll be laughing at all the people still forced to go to the pumps. Besides the savings on fuel purchases, you'll also be helping the environment as it doesn't produce any carbon dioxide.

You can view a short video of the car in action on the TrendHunter website, just click here. If you type in "water powered car" on YouTube, you'll come up with hundreds of videos of various inventions of the same concept. While the technology has been around for decades, no company has successfully managed to mass produce such a vehicle. Perhaps now the idea may catch on as gas prices reach record highs across the nation.

If you don't want to wait to start saving money on gas, you can convert your car to run on water and gas. While it won't run on water alone, you can save as much as 50% on gas by doing it (note some sites claim more). You can find tons of guides on how it can be done, and the parts you need can be found at your local hardware store for usually under $150. According to many of the guides, you don't need any "special car knowledge" to install a "conversion unit" in your car.

While I have some skepticism about the actual savings such a unit would bring, I have come across many people who claim it does work. The "conversion unit" looks like a jar with a bizarre lid and hoses attached to it. You can find some pre-assembled on eBay, some for $100, others $150.

There is no question that another source for fueling our transportation must be found, but is water really the answer? Garbage seems to be more plentiful than anything so perhaps someone will find a way to turn garbage dumps in to fuel. As gas prices keep rising, many of us will just tighten our belts and hope for the best, waiting for the day, cars like the one invented by Genepax, make its appearance at our local car lot.