In the automotive industry there is plenty of different ways to move your car, truck or van. The majority of them involve gasoline but there have been new developments over the past decade or two involving smart cars, electric powered cars and solar powered cars. There has even been discussion about vehicles being propelled by water. The automotive industry has become more and more interesting over the past decade for these specific reasons. The future of the industry relies on new and effective ways to propel a vehicle being developed; especially with the ever rising gas prices affecting the wallets of millions of drivers worldwide.

For the most part, vehicles have been using gasoline to gain power and propulsion, enabling them to move from one location to another. Gasoline is, for the most part, is pumped over seas in relation to the United States. There are oil fields all over Europe, especially the Middle East. There are some oil barges off the coast of the United States along the Gulf Coast but the majority of the country's oil comes from other countries. The increasing rise of gas prices in the country right now is not the only problem with gasoline that the country has seen. In the 1970s, 1973 to be exact, there was a fuel shortage. Many people had to walk to work, carpool with others or take public transportation because there wasn't enough fuel to go around. The fuel crisis was a direct result of the members of OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) refusing to ship fuel to any countries that supported Israel in its conflict with Iraq, Egypt and Syria. The United States was one of those countries.

For the past decade or two, scientists working for vehicle manufacturers have been working on developing effective ways to propel motor vehicles without using fuel. Some developments have been hybrids, the smart car, electric cars and cars that run on solar power. The main problem with a solar powered car is the obvious one. How does it run when the sun is not shining or the clouds have taken over the sky? Hybrid cars are becoming more and more popular across the country as the gas prices begin to rise.

The hybrid car uses two or more different power sources to propel the vehicles. Those sources can be a combination of any of the following: gasoline, hydrogen, a rechargeable energy system, compressed air, solar power, coal, wood, wind and even compressed or natural liquid gas. The Toyota Prius is one of the most popular hybrid vehicles on the market today and is even used by the New York Police Department in a handful of their traffic districts.

Electric vehicles have been developed over the past decade or two but have not become as widely popular as the hybrid vehicle. To propel a vehicle using electric the vehicle must have one or more electric motors. The majority of these cars are operated by an electric battery that needs to be recharged every so often.

The development of different propulsion technologies has led to the invention of the hybrid car and will lead to more important inventions for the automotive industry that will help with the high gas prices.