By Arindam Chattopadhyaya
Buying a new car is a big and pricey decision for most people, and on top of that, the ever rising oil prices make it an even more expensive proposition to maintain and run your own car. With unstable oil prices, which keep shifting with the war, the gold, politics or the rains, it is not strange that the market is eager to be offered more fuel-efficient cars. As if this is not enough, our conscience is now being totally badgered day in and day out, by the awareness that the large scale use of fossil fuels like gasoline, oil etc. is making the environment go kaput. Throwing away the gasoline powered engines would perhaps be easy on our scruples. But is the answer so simple?
Rising out of the need, to find an answer to this question mark and for a solution to the looming oil crisis is a new breed of cars, which combines the best features of electric cars
with that of the conventional gasoline, powered ones. These types of cars are called hybrid cars, and you are likely to hear a great deal about them in the near future.
More than Just an Electric Car
At the first go, the electric car sounds like a great idea since it has no emissions while it runs. However, this is only partially true as the total emissions depend on how the electricity to be used is produced. If it comes from a coal plant for example, it isn’t very clean after all said and done. Furthermore, the storage of large amounts of electricity is problematic at best and in practice, turns electric cars to pure bred city cars-at least with the ways we currently store electricity.
Hybrid cars merge an electric engine with a gasoline powered one. It means that although the use of gasoline can not be abridged to completely zero levels, it can still be greatly reduced. The twin engines also allow for smaller engines to be used and take advantage of things like regenerative breaking. Also, as a direct result of the need to reduce the energy needed to run them, the hybrid cars are extremely lightweight and aerodynamically well designed. In slow traffic, the conventional engine automatically shuts off, producing no emissions whatsoever. When more speed and power is needed, the conventional engine is allowed to seamlessly kick in partially or fully.
Hybrid cars are here to stay because it protects environment
In this domain, the Japanese have taken the lead by developing attractive looking hybrid vehicles, such as the hybrid powered Honda Accord and Toyota Prius. Contrary to what one might hear, these cars have got on very well in the market as the idea of saving on gas is clearly appealing to many people. Most well established North American manufacturers are also expected to jump on the bandwagon of this new idea very soon. Those who have already launched hybrid-powered version of some of their models include- Ford, Chevrolet and Mercury.
As this is a rapidly growing market, many of these cars can be expected to appear more commonly at local car dealers. Because this is considered an innovative technology, one can expect the initial prices to be on the higher side. But then again, a hybrid car will mean considerable savings on gas expenses. No doubt, the competition will be quite severe so it will be fascinating to see how the pricing of these cars develops during the next few years.
The best thing for Mother Nature would be to wipe gas fumes out of the picture completely; and bringing us a step closer to this are the hybrid cars. They represent one of the best alternatives for automobile purchase right now- combining the cleanliness of the electric engine with the mileage of a conventional combustion engine. Rather than the eccentric, they represent innovation; rather than the anarchic, they signal revolution. Hybrid cars are here now- and here to stay.
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Hybrid cars are very popular for a number of reasons. They get excellent gas mileage, which can save huge amounts of money. They are environmentally friendly, which can save the planet, eventually. Moreover, they are a lot of fun and quite popular to drive. The car company Honda was one of the first auto manufacturers to make a hybrid vehicle.
The Honda Insight was introduced in 2000 as a miracle car. It is still a fairly popular model of hybrid vehicle. The Insight is a two door vehicle that seats two people. In creating this vehicle, Honda believed that owners of this car would be the type who usually only have one or two people in the car anyway. To make the car incredibly efficient, Honda reduced the size as much as possible. That offers the car more power and more fuel efficiency, which is something most hybrid owners are searching for. In addition to the small seating area, they also offer very limited cargo and luggage space. Again, the thinking here is smaller is better in terms of engine efficiency. It pays off in terms of gas mileage, but many people are unhappy with the overall size of the vehicle, which leads them to purchase cars with regular engines based purely on interior and cargo space.
Another Honda hybrid option is the Civic hybrid. This vehicle, like all of Honda’s hybrid autos, manages to combine the juice from an electric motor with the power from a traditional type engine whether it is a gasoline or diesel engine. The vehicle contains batteries that give power to the motor. These are recharged during while the car is running by using the motor as a generator. This is better than most battery or electrically powered vehicles in that you don’t have to plug a hybrid vehicle into an external outlet for any type of recharge time because the batteries continually recharge themselves just by running the car. The hybrid Civic is a four door vehicle, and it is comparable to most of the other traditionally powered Civics Honda has offered.
For many of the vehicles sold in the western United States, the Civic offers a zero emissions vehicle status, which is a real plus when you live in an environment that requires low emissions. The car itself offers a very sleek and sporty look. The interior is very functional, but looks a bit plain. There is a center storage console that also functions as an armrest. The Civic hybrid has rear headrests, and front bucket seats, with the driver’s seat being height adjustable, a nice feature for people of varying sizes. Unlike the traditional Civic, the rear seat does not fold in the hybrid because of the necessary space for the hybrid’s battery pack.
The hybrid does well in terms of collision tests, and most people consider it to be one of the safer vehicles on the road today. This car offers an electric based power steering system, and the wheels are a light alloy to reduce the weight of the vehicle. The Civic gets over forty miles to a gallon of gasoline, and features Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist engine system. This combines a gas engine with a DC motor-generator unit. As a result, it is never used as a wholly electric vehicle. The Civic hybrid is great for city driving, as it has excellent low speed acceleration, and it is also good for highway driving as well.
One final Honda Hybrid option is the Honda Accord hybrid. This vehicle, like Honda’s other hybrid offerings makes use of its Integrated Motor Assist engine system. It is also the first V-6 hybrid vehicle in the world. The Accord hybrid gets thirty seven miles to a gallon of gasoline on the highway and twenty-nine miles to a gallon in the city. It offers two hundred and sixty horsepower and offers several weight saving features like aluminum hood and bumper beams as well as a magnesium engine head cover to give the car more bang for the hybrid buck.
Honda has a number of hybrid offerings that all offer the benefits of a hybrid vehicle. Honda’s unique technology, like the Integrated Motor Assist engine system, makes it a leader in the production of hybrid vehicle technology.
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