Cars use a large amount of fossil fuels every year, and even the electric solutions for cars are sometimes going to be problematic if they draw energy from plants that use coal or other fossil fuels. Fortunately, there are some new technologies coming out within the next few years that will help you reduce your carbon footprint when it comes to making your car go.

Power-generating Tires

The type of tires you have on your car can have a huge impact on the miles per gallon rate you get on your car, but they usually didn't feed electricity back into your engine, until now. New emerging technology will soon make it possible to allow tires to use the heat generated from the rubber hitting the road to be converted to electricity.

This material is called a thermal piezo-electrical layer. Obviously, this technology would only work with all-electric or hybrid cars. But the idea is that heat energy created from tire friction is often just wasted anyway. With these new tires, that heat can instead be converted into electricity used to help recharge the electrical batteries your engine uses to generate movement.

This technology often uses a charging cord going from the tires to the charging slot by snaking up through the bottom of the car.  This isn't enough to generate electricity all on its own of course, but it could severely reduce the amount needed once the car is in motion. It will likely be available shortly in the coming years.

Saltwater

Another approach for helping to make cars more eco-friendly in how they generate and store power is using salt water. This is apparently already being done in parts of Europe. Cars with the technology use something called an electrolyte flow cell power system.

The power is generated when two electrolyte solutions create an electrochemical reaction that generates electricity. This electricity is then moved to super capacitors in the car where it can be stored for future use by the car's systems. The power is said to still be enough that it can match the acceleration rate of 0 to 60 for top cars.

Currently, the technology is only used by sports cars in Europe, but there's every indication that it will move down the economic line to more general consumers. Salt water is only part of the electrolyte in the flow battery, however, and the battery requires more electrolytes every few hundred miles to work, but saltwater is still a key component in the power generation. For more information, talk to a professional like XL Auto Service & Tires.