Gas prices rising OR EVEN ABOUT SQUEEZING a few more miles out of each precious tankful. But among the special-edition Ferraris, bizarre Cadillac studies and a whole new crop of gas-guzzling SUVs, not all that many people were talking about cheaper and cleaner ways of getting around. The section of the show dedicated to ‘New Energies’ was a tiny corner on the second floor of Hall 2, behind the stands of the insurance companies. There were exactly two exhibits. The lull is deceiving. Never have so many automakers put as much money and effort into building a greener car. Not entirely without some prodding, mind you. Facing clean-fleet laws in the U.S. and “voluntary” restrictions in Europe, the industry is committing to cut emissions of its gasoline and diesel-powered cars. Gridlocked Italian cities like Rome and Milan may ban conventional cars altogether from their historic centers. In Tokyo, putting 30,000 natural-gas-powered taxis in the streets has already helped clean up the air. But most of all, carmakers have been whipped into action by California’s Zero Emissions Mandate that requires ten percent of all cars sold in the state to be pollution-free by 2003. Mention green cars, and most people think of some battery-powered buggy that the average driver wouldn’t be caught dead in. Electric cars have been around for decades and never caught on. Their problem: batteries aren’t very powerful, so the car’s speed, range and weight remain strictly limited. The typical result is Ford’s new TH!NK, already on the market in Scandinavia and about to hit a few dozen American dealers as well. The TH!NK is a tiny two-seater with a grubby-looking plastic shell that can go about 50 miles between recharges, at a top speed of 50 mph. A full charge takes eight hours, but costs only 50 cents. With a sticker price of $15,000, the car will win a small market niche at best. If you’re not willing to put up with the performance of a glorified golf cart, there are always standard cars powered by alternative fuels like propane, ethanol or liquified natural gas. Also around for decades, these cars have actually begun to catch on. There are 4 million cars in the world today running on a propane/butane mix, including 1.2 million in Italy alone. Many gas stations offer this cleaner fuel as well, so chances are you don’t have to drive very far for a fillup. GM’s U.K.-based Vauxh... ... middle of paper ... ...drogen in favor of methanol, which is simpler to transport and releases hydrogen fairly easily. Trouble is, methanol leaves toxic byproducts that need to be disposed. BMW uses a different technology, burning hydrogen in a conventional combustion engine. Clean steam comes out of the exhaust pipe. As with any other technology, there’s a fierce battle for the standards that will define our hydrogen fuel-cell future. So while hydrogen may be what DaimlerChrysler CEO Juergen Schrempp calls “the great big alternative,” it’ll be a while yet before this technology is mature enough to replace gasoline-powered cars on a grand scale. The first models will roll out in a few years, but they’ll be expensive and hard to find a filling station for. But industry analysts predict that by 2010, the market will be ready; another ten years, and half the cars sold in the world could run on hydrogen. “Everyone is buying a ticket to the lottery because we all know that whoever wins will win big time,” says Paul Everitt, chief economist at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. If he’s right, greener cars will start to be a much hotter category at the auto show.
Increasing environmental awareness, coupled with a responsible American government and improved technology, have all contributed to the comeback of low-and zero-emissions vehicles in the US. It remains to be seen whether the automakers and oil companies will once again work to halt this progress, or embrace it as the technology of a more responsible future.
The main reason people have not converted to cleaner, healthier fuel is that hybrid and electric cars are more expensive than the cars and gasoline we are using now. However, we could implement a program for selling cleaner fuel at a lower cost than it is now offered. If this program were organized correctly, the increased costs would be minimal in the long run and the benefits would be enormous. After considering several possibilities, I concluded that alcohol-burning cars are more practical than other environmentally friendly options because electric and hybrid cars or cars that run on natural gas are more expensive and are less convenient to refuel.
During the late 1900’s, fuel efficiency was given very little thought by automakers. Instead, they competed with each other by coming out with larger and more powerful vehicles each year, and by doing so they sacrificed fuel efficiency, because each new vehicle that they built got fewer miles per gallon. Americans craved bigger and more powerful cars, so to comply with the car buyers, that is what the automakers built (Surowiecki 25). However, “polls show that, given an option, some three-quarters of them vote for dramatic increases in fuel-economy standards” (Surowiecki 25).
The 2006 documentary about Who Killed the Electric Car shows the determination of several California citizens whose willpower was to keep the electric car alive and running. The first existence of the electric car under General Motors (GM) dates back to 1996 when they launched the EV1 electric vehicle. And although several consumers took to this new form of transportation, a car that was powered by an electric motor in place of the basic gasoline engine, GM decided to take back its newest technology and removed all existing EV1’s from off of the streets. With several upset consumers who were concerned as to both what GM and the government were up to and how they could get their cars back. Overall, the fact behind why the electric car became such a superior commodity and then vanished was the question being asked. The electric vehicle was destroyed during 2004 and 2005 because a car of this statue was far ahead of its time and greater parts of consumers were not about “going green.” Today the electric car has begun to revive itself because of the existence of global warming, and the efficiency of the electric car is rising. In other words, the electric car has been brought back to life, and many automobile manufacturers are gaining interest.
The American economy has suffered many financial blows in the recent years, but none have such a drastic and heavy effect on the average American than the rising gas prices. A solution to the Gas Crisis, a new and formidable crisis involving the high cost for gasoline powered transportation, must have widespread results across American commuters to either increase the efficiency of drivers, drastically lower gas prices, or provide alternate modes of transportation, consequently allowing for American commuters to be able to efficiently transport themselves at a moderate price.
Nissan was the first company to introduce a 100 percent electric car that produces zero emission and they had great hopes for this vehicle (“Nissan Product Information”). According to Michael Strong, the company believed that this car would be the future of transportation and that it would soon be responsible for 10 percent of all new vehicle sales. However, after 3 years on the market, Nissan’s CEO Ghosn admitted that the Nissan Leaf is only accountable for 4...
Cars are a fantastic invention. They make our lives even more carefree by getting us from place to place quickly while eradicating the need for legs altogether. There is no doubt that the benefits of driving from place to place are numerous. However, driving takes a whole lot of fuel, and everyone knows that fuel for cars isn’t the most plentiful (or cheapest!) of resources.
The future American commuter will undoubtedly have to transition from the use of fossil fuels to new alternatives due to the diminishing availability of the nation’s oil resources. How will America respond to this upcoming issue? It is difficult to predict which alternative fuel source America will ultimately choose, but with the premier of Nissan’s electric powered Leaf and other companies; such as Tesla Motors and Chevy, with their electric cars ready for market, the electric car may be winning the race to become the new standard for the gasoline alternative. Electric cars resolve long standing environmental issues, but it will need to maneuver around many roadblocks to become a marketable consideration for the general public. The cost of electric cars, currently on the market, makes them an impractical purchase for the average consumer. If cost is not the growing concern in today’s economy which prevents the consumer from considering this option; they may deny the technological advance due to battery storage capabilities and the inadequate infrastructure in place to refuel and provide for them.
Shortly after the Kohlsaat race, Thomas Edison said he believed gasoline, not electricity, would provide the dominant power source for the automobile of the future. "As it looks at the present," he s...
With a gasoline-fueled vehicle, buying gas to operate your car is a never-ending process. With the high price change of gasoline and oil, operating a gasoline-fueled vehicle tends to be very costly. While there are some types of small gasoline vehicles that get much better gas mileage than larger vehicles, even the most powerful gasoline cars will normally desire a contribution every month. According to some experts the only way a mainstream market for green vehicles wills materlize is with a pronounced and prolonged rise in fuel prices. (Buss, 4)
The substantial increase in the demand for EV’s came just in time as we are slowly but surely running out of oil. Some estimate that by the year 2040, 35 percent of all vehicles will be electric (Sullins, 2017). An article from the U.S. Department of Energy stated that “Electric vehicles hold a lot of potential for helping the U.S. create a more sustainable future. If the U.S. transitioned all the light-duty vehicles to hybrids or plug-in electric vehicles, we could reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 30-60 percent, while lowering the carbon pollution from the transportation sector by as much as 20 percent (energy.gov, 2014). It’s obvious that gas-powered vehicles have harmed our planet with their emissions. Although EV’s cannot reverse that damage that has been done, they can eliminate, or at least slow down, the inevitable demise that our planet is headed towards. Along with the beneficial environmental factors that correspond with electric cars, there are also beneficial financial factors. The average American spends about $2,000 on gas annually. In the future, charging stations will charge roughly $12.00 for a full charge, which is about 300 miles. This means that the average American will save about $1,400 per year on these specific car
Depends on Where You Plug In” Paul Stenquist (2012) explains that the dangerousness of electric cars on the environment relies on where the electricity that people use to charge their cars comes from. The author reports that the amount of greenhouse gases -carbon dioxide- produced from charging the car 's battery can have effect on variation of the climate. Moreover, Stenquist states that the impact of electric vehicles on the environment depends on the amount of the greenhouse gases released from the car into the air, which varies with the source of the electricity that charges the car. Further, The U.C.S report demonstrates that there are possibilities for the electric cars to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in places where the electric utility counts on natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric or renewable sources to run its dynamo. On the other hand, places where the dynamo powered by burning coal, electric cars might not be as good as gasoline cars for the atmosphere. In other words, the author says that places that has immaculate electricity sources might produce less greenhouse gas emission than today’s gasoline engine vehicles. However, the author mentions that gas-powered cars are getting cleaner and better, and electric cars will become cleaner if the electricity for charging the cars cames from natural and renewable sources. Indeed, Stenquist believes that the automotive industry must deliver applicable alternative to the oil-fueled internal- combustion, which is producing vehicles which boasts less emissions (Stenquist,
Well-designed electric vehicles, like those produced by major auto companies, travel at speeds equivalent to conventional vehicles and offer all the same safety and high-performance features. Lower Operating Costs The per-mile fuel cost of operating an electric vehicle can be less than one-third that of a gasoline-powered car. The exact amount of savings depends on the local electricity rate, which varies from utility to utility. In addition, electric vehicle owners say goodbye to many familiar maintenance costs–no more tune-ups, oil changes or muffler replacements. No Gas Stations One of the conveniences electric vehicle drivers like the most is that “refueling” can be done easily and safely at home overnight, at work, or at public locations like shopping centers, where electric charging units have been installed.
Hydrogen would be one of the easiest sources of renewable energy to incorporate into our current energy infrastructure. Since hydrogen is a gas of normal temperature, it is possible to have it be used as a fuel in vehicles similar to current ones. For example, Hydrogen could be introduced into the vehicle as a gas, stored...
Competition for good things like public health, making the earth safe to live are positive aspects of competition, but global competition can also have a downside concerning the environment. This is true for the production of vehicles, as companies are coming with designs and new models with improved engines, but fuel consumption and the pollution of the air remains the same. In addition to the concerns about car manufacturing and driving, we should also consider the impact of construction areas where new houses are being built, with many truck with loads going across the country. This is an important contribution to pollution, which creates both air and noise pollution. Japan and Europe auto manufacturing based in US has recently involved activities to improve fuel efficiency of their vehicles. The European car makers planned to design a new engine and at same time to develop long distance vehicles. The autos made in Europe, for example Daimler Chrysler, recently came out with a new product which is a vehicle with 3 liters per hour, and also a diesel engine, which consumes 3.4 liters of fuel per 100