Probably, while going through this article, you may have certain doubts about various eco friendly vehicles which are now available in the market. There are many cars which are now hybrid and Toyota Prius is one of the popular brands which have been liked by the people.

Another car which is being introduced shortly in the market is totally an electric car, which is likely to gain more popularity with the people who love cars.

There may not be any specific difference; one may get confused about the performance of each one. The next few paragraphs will deal with the guidance which will help you to choose a better eco friendly vehicle.

Hybrid car, as the name suggests the hybrid cars are those which can run on more than one technology, the conventional hybrid car has both combustion engine and an electric motor. This car can run both on gasoline and electricity which it gets from the recharged batteries which run the electric motor. The batteries are recharged during the periods of braking through specially designed regenerative brakes. When the vehicle is under full load, it can run on fuel powered engine and during minimal demand it can be switched to the electric mode.

Pure electric cars are totally different from hybrid, as these vehicles run only on electricity. This car is fitted with larger electric motor and more batteries to provide power to run the vehicle. The main benefit is that there is no carbon emission which is great contributions to the environment.

Another benefit is that the running cost is very low as compared to gasoline. One does not have to run to the gasoline pumps for refueling as you can simply recharge it from the convenience of your home.

In Comparison: The Pros and Con’s

Before you go for such vehicles, you must carefully weigh pros and cons and decide accordingly. The biggest advantage is noise as there is no noise from electricity powered vehicle; these vehicles are totally silent which a great way of curbing noise pollution.

Some of the manufacturers have a mechanism of creating fake noise in these cars; this is done to give you some indication whether the car is running or not. This can be totally your personal preference.

If the prices are compared, electric run vehicles are more costly than hybrid cars, however in the long run electric cars are economical to run as compared to hybrid cars.

Electric cars can be recharged at home but since the technology is still not that developed it takes hours together to fully recharge the batteries. The main reasons is the design of sockets fitted in our homes, the hybrid cars simply can be refueled at any gasoline stations that too in minutes.

In terms of mileage electric cars cannot compete with the combustion engine, which are more powerful and needs improvement. Electric motors perform best in low RPM ranges. However the electric motor fitted in the hybrid car does not match the performance of a pure electric car.

Cars are known to be the most favored means of our transportation on the roads, for their comfort, mobility, speed and great looks. Whether it is in the days of steam powered engines or in this age of most modern segments, the cars still rule supreme on our roads for transportation of passengers.

While this is an accepted fact in the entire world, the usefulness of cars has been greatly marred by the negative impacts they make on our environment. The carbon emissions from the cars are known to cause almost one third of the total air pollutions. Hence despite their usefulness, the cars have also been identified as the health hazards in the environmental context.

Efforts that continued to manufacture more eco-friendly cars have led to invention of electric cars in the field of transportation. However, several earlier versions of electric cars had existed in the past, in competition with the gas run vehicles, but they could not withstand for long. After invention of electric cars by Cadillac, the mass production was started by Ford.

But it is only in the recent past that the electric car industry grew further by developing more popular models. Most of the electric cars run on the roads were those converted from old cars with the spares. It was possible for any car owner to have converted his conventional type car into and electrical one, by spending a few hundred dollars.

The idea of conversion further gained momentum and many people were caught up with this and longing for such conversions. There were various publications readily available in the market conveying this idea and giving Do-It-Yourself (DIY) guidelines. It soon appeared on the world wide websites also, that became easily accessible to all.

Steadily, more number of web sites has come up for electric cars, offering all types of information to all categories of customers. Most of such sites are selling DIY electric car kits, guides, spare parts and full- fledged models at a best negotiated price. The information sharing on the internet became very easy, prompting even a beginner to go ahead with conversion process, without very elaborative knowledge on the electric cars. Such cars were known for their fuel efficiency and their positive impact on environment.

Electric cars have as edge over the other cars, as the entire energy stored in the batteries is used for their operation, while the conventional types use only 20% of the energy from a liter of gasoline and the balance go wasted as the hazardous emissions and potential energy!

The electric cars always maintain a silence in running and are generally welcomed by any quiet neighborhood. Unlike the conventional cars, the absence of engine is a great positive feature of an electric car. The vehicle runs almost with a silence and causes no sound pollution. The car runs with the power derived from the batteries for the operation of the motors that are attached to the controllers.

This concept of energy made practicable makes such cars totally eco-friendly. Therefore it will be quite ideal for any car owner to go ahead with converting his car into and electric vehicle as soon as possible. It will not only be beneficial to the users, but will also go a great way to help keep our environment pollution-free.

The motor draws electricity from the car’s rechargeable battery. If the battery is fully charged, the car can run from 150 to 250 miles. Then the battery gets exhausted and must be recharged again.

You can recharge the battery either at your home or at battery recharge stations. For the convenience of electric car drivers, a number of battery recharge stations are being set up across the country.

To encourage the use of electric cars, the UK government is planning to provide subsidy to those who opt to buy EVs. The time a battery takes to get fully recharged depends on the power input capacity of the socket.

On an average, it takes one hour or less to recharge an electric car battery. Since electric cars don’t burn petroleum products, they don’t produce exhaust fumes. This is the reason why electric cars are considered to be environment friendly.

But indirectly, EVs also play a part in the production of carbon dioxide because the electricity needed to recharge the car battery comes from the power plant where fossil fuel is burnt. The regenerative braking mechanism incorporated into an electric car minimizes the loss of energy.

How Safe Are Electric Cars On The Road?

An electric car is in no way less safe than an ordinary automobile. In most cases, an electric car is heavier than other cars and the weight of the car keeps the passengers safe if there is a car crash. Depending upon the make and design of the car, the safety features of electric vehicles can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Another area of safety concern is the electric circuit and electric shock to the passengers. An electric car has all the necessary safety measures in place to prevent electricity from passing on to the chassis of the car. The passengers are therefore safe even under wet conditions.

An electric car doesn’t function at all if the chassis of the car comes into contact with the electric circuit. There are circuit breakers and fuses to ensure that no short circuit takes place within the car. Since electric cars are heavier than their counterparts, it is better to choose cars with power steering and power brake.

The main drawback of a pure electric vehicle is its silence. An electric car runs silently and people on the road may not notice the car coming. Lack of sound poses a risk to pedestrians, especially to those who have poor vision.

To ensure the safety of pedestrians on the road, some governments are planning to make it compulsory for electric cars to produce some sound.

Are Pure Electric Cars Popular?

Electric cars haven’t got the popularity they deserve yet. They were popular at the beginning of twentieth century when oil price was high. But when the oil prices fell later, they lost their popularity too.

Some governments have even started offering incentives to buyers of electric cars. It is hoped that electric cars will become more popular in the near future.

When I asked my readers whether the increase in the price of gasoline affected their daily living, I was surprised at the various replies which I got. That people feel badly about this issue is a given. Let me share what some of the people had to say about this problem and its impact on their lives.

1) Generally, people are more careful about their household expenses, but even so, this increase in gasoline price has made a huge dent in their budget and they feel bad that they may have to deny their kids extra-curricular activities because of this.

2) They do what is the bare necessity in terms of spending. They buy the groceries, medicines and pay all the usual household bills as well as buy gas for the car.

In spite of being so careful, they find themselves short of funds. They are distraught about how they are going to manage everything under such circumstances.

3) Instead of just increasing the price of gasoline every now and then, they wish the government could take some smart measures to solve this problem once and for all. In the end, it is the citizens who suffer.

Some analysts have suggested that everyone could cut down use of at least one gallon of gas to reduce the problem, but they feel that this is not really going to help their situation.

4) They have decided to forego their yearly vacation to some nice destination this year because they simply cannot afford to buy expensive airline tickets and still have enough left over to enjoy the vacation. They will go to places nearby and keep it simple and inexpensive.

5) They have started to use the public transport system to cut down expenses but even so, the rise in price of gas causes a corresponding increase in the cost of other products and so they are still considerably affected.

Recently people started circulating emails asking people to boycott purchasing fuel on a particular date to send a harsh message to the oil companies who are indiscriminately increasing the price of gasoline without considering the impact on the middle class.

Some have decided to comply and when they went over the next day to fill gas in their vehicle, they found that the price had gone up further by five cents. Obviously, the oil companies did not get the message.

We’ve been hearing that many refineries have been affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other issues and problems that they have.

But people are suffering tremendously and they have started to hear reports of people filling up gas in their cars and simply driving off without paying to show their ire. While they may not be able to appreciate their rationale for the rising prices of gasoline, this kind of ‘drive off’ will not really help.

All that will happen is that the employees of that particular gas station will be chucked out of their jobs for not being more vigilant.

Employees have no control over the price issue and they will end up suffering financially if we do unfair things of this kind. Let us stop feeling defeated. Instead, let’s take some smart and proactive measures to beat the rising cost of living.

Let us look at all the ways we may be wasting energy, food and water and cut that as a first step. The next step should be to actively do what we can by way of conserving the soil, water and air quality as this is most important.

We must control the way we go out garbage disposal or disposal of toxic wastes as these ruin the environment in which we live and ultimately it is we who will be paying for it. After all if we keep on depleting all the world’s resources without replenishing them, what will be left for our future generations?

Having electric cars is an excellent long term solution to control expenses on the highly expensive gasoline. Though the EVs are slowly but surely gaining popularity, it is still yet to gain momentum because of the higher price and lack of battery recharging stations.

In many places, the local governments have waived off congestion tax and making these cars more lucrative purchase for the car owners. The best part is that owning an electric car though costly at first, will prove to be quite economical in the long run.

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Peugeot iON are the new electric cars which are about to be launched soon. It would be quite interesting to know, how much it would cost to have a pure EV versus a conventional car with an internal combustion engine. It would be wise to analyze it as per kilowatt-hour, the maintenance cost and running expenses of the cars.

Let us analyze the cost of gas, as the car runs at 30 MPH; the gas cost would be £1.84, the car will run on gas costing £6.1 per mile. If we see the efficiency of hybrid cars, these cars get energy from gasoline at an efficiency of 25%. Most of the energy is lost in auto dynamics, engine heating and resistance.

If the car uses its full potential, the same car will run 140 miles on one gallon, rather than 30 miles. The battery of an electric car will charge and discharge by using the power grid functioning at the capacity of 90%. The performance of the cars which have rear engine depends on the size as it translates the electricity in energy, also using 90% capacity.

Both Mitsubishi i-MiEV and Peugeot iON operate at over 80% of mechanical energy. Therefore, the performance of an electric car is three times more effective than gasoline powered cars. The total energy in a gallon of gas is 32.95 kilowatt-hours of energy and the usual cost is £6.1 which makes a trip of 100 miles worth just £2.

Compared to gasoline powered cars, electric cars run on less energy and drive the same distance and the cost of the fuel is much less. This is the biggest advantage of green vehicles in general and electric car in particular.

The running cost of an electric car is much economical when compared to petrol or diesel cars. It would not be wrong to say that you can actually run your electric car just by spending two pence per mile. The road price of Mitsubishi i-MiEV is £24,045, in addition the grant which value around £5,000.

The immediate competitor of the i-MiEV is the Nissan Leaf, which as per the statics is the market leader with the online price tag of £23,990. The manufacturers provide a personal contract buying structure, with an initial down payment of £3,850; you can own the vehicle with monthly installment of £397.

The cost will come to total of £28,204, which is more by £4,214 as compared to hundred percent payments at the time of purchase. Nissan has more functions and additional facilities as compared to i-MiEV.

Costing wise, owning a pure electric car is still on the high side compared with a conventional vehicle. But I’m sure with the economy of scale, the cost of EV will come down sooner or later.

As prices of gasoline continue to rise, increasing the fuel mileage is very important to cut down on fuel costs. It is therefore important to focus not only on car maintenance but also find ways and means to improve car mileage or fuel economy.

Fuel economy is the energy efficiency of a specific vehicle and is expressed as a ratio of distance traveled per unit of fuel consumed. Fuel economy is expressed as miles per gallon (mpg) in the US.

If the car gives more mileage per gallon or is more fuel-efficient, it will help in reducing expenses on gas and will allow driving longer distances without the need to stop on the way for filing up gas.

One of the methods to achieve better fuel efficiency or ‘gas mileage’ is to first review the way one drives. For instance, if someone drives at a speed above 60 miles per hour on a highway, there will be an extra consumption of gas by around 25%. Those driving in town at a speed of 40 miles per hour or less will be able to reduce consumption of gas.

While driving in town, it is not possible to maintain a constant speed. One has to stop the car and start again at regular intervals and sometimes, because of traffic bottlenecks, it is necessary to slow down the car and pick up the speed again in different places. All these factors will contribute to increase in gasoline consumption.

Nevertheless, there are ways to minimize these problems and improve fuel efficiency. When starting the car, there is a need to accelerate to ignite the engine, which results in consumption of extra gas. A careful planning and maintaining proper speed eliminates the need to stop at traffic lights and this in turn reduces fuel consumption.

Those having an automatic car can put the car into neutral gear at traffic signals in order to save on fuel. There will be less consumption of gas, if the car is put in neutral gear when driving downward as in that position engine will not require gas.

One can drive based on the concept called ‘push and glide’. In this method, the driver accelerates the car up to the full speed limit and then allows the car to coast along without the need for the gas till it slows down. When it travels smoothly on the road there will not be any consumption of gas.

Based on these concepts, one can save gas consumption to a large extent. There is plenty of scope to find different ways to improve car mileage by increasing fuel efficiency and it is a continuous exercise one can develop by experimenting with various options. These include cruise control, avoiding braking wherever possible, inflating the tires properly, tuning the engine from time to time and checking the condition of air filter.

In certain situations, using cruise control minimizes fuel consumption by maintaining a constant speed. Braking wastes a lot of energy generated from gas already burned and accelerating after braking consumes more gasoline than driving at a constant speed.

Properly inflated tires can decrease fuel consumption. Inflating tires correctly will prevent uneven wear and tear. A properly tuned up engine optimizes power and can considerably boost fuel efficiency. It is advisable to check the condition of engine’s air filter. A dirty air filter will decrease fuel efficiency or make the engine stall when idling.

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Even though pure electric cars have been around for many years, there are only few designs which have met the expectation of the people. Many models which had prototypes designs were sent to market after making some adjustments and alterations.

In earlier times when gasoline was cheap, nobody thought of improving the battery pack used on electric vehicles as they were not good at all and that is the reason why such technology never became popular. Recent technology advancement has changed the entire scene and now more efficient and lightweight batteries are available in the market.

The most common problem seen with older batteries was it used to power the vehicle with DC power source which had a limited technology and the batteries were too heavy and were quite inefficient. When bigger and more powerful electric motor was used as the power plant of EVs, the effective driving range was limited because the batteries do not have sufficient charge to supply to the motor.

What’s needed was to create a system which works and makes the car power source lighter and could hold more electric charge. There was great reduction in the demand for lighter batteries after researchers created new designs for the electric car power system.

The glaring example is usage of hybrid technology which is based upon a small scale generator that runs on gasoline and produces the electric power required to charge the battery pack which in turn used to run the electric motor. This is really an efficient system because the generator continuously keeps on charging the small group of batteries that is used to power the vehicle.

Other designs which have been tried are using Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels to charge the batteries with a hope enough power can be generated to run the vehicle. This technology worked very well especially during sunny days but after sunset and change in the weather, the technology proved to be very inefficient. Alas, more research and development is needed to make solar hybrid electric car practical.

Research and experiment do help and such experimentation has really boosted the effective driving mileage of pure electric cars. The recently developed technology pertaining to batteries has really spur interest in the electric car segment. Batteries are now smaller, lighter and capable of holding much more electric charge meaning it could last longer in between recharge.

However, the biggest problem with these batteries right now is the cost. They are quite expensive as compared to normal batteries, thus this will add up to the cost of the electric car. But once manufacturing technology gets improved, the price reduction is quite imminent.

Several car manufacturers are working hard and planning to put pure electric cars in the market in the next couple of years which are more efficient and have a longer driving range. You can simply plug in these cars in your garage power outlet for charging. The best thing is, you can drive these cars similar to an automobile with an internal combustion engine.

The range will also be increased and you can drive modern EVs for around 200 miles in a single charge. Understandably, these cars will cost more but you can recover your investment quickly because you will save lot of money on gasoline.

As a cheaper alternative, you can convert your present car into pure electric vehicle using an EV conversion kit. You have the options either to wait till new technologies for EV are available or convert your present car into electric one. With the passage of time and technological advancement, it is only a matter of time before electric car is used by the mass market.

There is an increasing awareness among people these days about pollution-free environment and they are also more conscious on ways to save on their gasoline bill.

With that, more and more people are constantly on the look out for eco-friendly cars that not only cause less harmful impact on the environment, it will also help them to be less dependent on fossil fuel thus countering the effects of soaring fuel prices.

There are broadly two types of vehicles that are categorized as eco-friendly:

• Plug-in-hybrid vehicle
• Pure battery powered electric car

Finding the ideal eco-friendly car is not easy as it requires a very fair knowledge about various types of energy saving vehicles and their advantages and disadvantages.

They are many reputed manufactures that have now put eco-friendly cars in their production lines, with companies like Ford, Nissan, General Motors and Toyota being at the forefront in this market.

The following paragraphs will explain the features of the two popular types of eco-friendly vehicles and their advantages and disadvantages.

Plug-in-hybrid Vehicles

These types of vehicles run either on gas, battery or both. You cannot drive long distances on battery alone. However, there will not be any need to stop at a gas station for fuel often.

One of the well-known names in the market for plug-in hybrid type of vehicles is Chevrolet. Chevrolet has designed one of the most popular models of this type of vehicle known as Chevy Volt.

Chevy Volt can easily get a distance of 40 miles drive powered exclusively by a battery per single charge and an amazing 500 miles per gas fill-up. This type of vehicle is ideal for a person who is concerned with clean environment and does not want as yet to dispense with the internal combustion engine.

Chevrolet is concentrating on designing new models of plug-in hybrid vehicles in which higher capacity battery will be added to the vehicles to enable users to drive longer distances with a single battery charge.

The other principal manufacturer in the plug-in hybrid market is Toyota. Although the Toyota Prius appears similar to a standard Toyota Prius, the addition in this model is the port for charging the battery. While it gives only a low mileage range of 14 miles on battery power, it gets an incredible 50 miles per gallon, when in hybrid mode.

Pure Battery-Powered Electric Car

As the name implies, these types of vehicles are powered only by electricity supplied by battery and therefore, is not provided with a gasoline motor.

One of the principal manufacturers of the pure electric vehicle is Nissan. Nissan has developed the most popular model, Nissan Leaf. This vehicle gets an astounding 100 miles per charge and is the first automobile manufacturer to produce more than 10,000 pure battery electric vehicles.

With such an extraordinary efficiency, it is no wonder that the company has been receiving huge number of orders from both individual users and city and town public service institutions. The basic price of a 2011 Nissan Leaf is around $32,000.

Ford, another leading automobile manufacturer has also ventured into the all electric vehicle market segment with their Ford Focus Electric. Ford has already manufactured the maximum number of hybrid vehicles than any other manufacturer and is now trying to establish leadership in the electric car category as well.

The Ford Focus Electric, which runs only on battery, plans to compete with the Nissan Leaf. Just as the Nissan Leaf, the Focus Electric gets 100 miles per charge. Another advantage with the Ford Focus is that it comes at a lower price of around $20,000 as compared to Nissan Leaf.

Ford plans to introduce more number of models of Focus Electric cars to cater to the requirements of diverse range of customers.

The recent happenings in the car industry are worth watching, a major impact has been made by electric cars in the entire automobile industry. The car industry which was traditionally manufacturing gasoline-engine cars is thinking out of box to explore the possibilities about the launch of pure electric vehicles (EV).

The rising prices of traditional fuel, its side effects like carbon emission are really hard to bear. The alternative is to use neat and clean energy, which lies only in using green electricity and this seems to be a viable solution.

In fact, we must understand about the electric cars, where traditional cars use gasoline to run, electric cars run on electricity which is stored in plug-in-battery packs for acceleration, speed and easy maneuvering.

Another energy which can be used to run the vehicles is being explored and still in the experimental stage, this is solar energy. This will be another revolution in the car industry which can use power of Sun. Another vehicle which is already running in many countries is hybrid vehicle; this car can run both on gasoline and electricity.

The interesting point to note is that electric cars were already very popular in the late 19th century until 20th century. These cars were more popular than gasoline powered cars, this continued till the combustion process was developed. This is also true that electricity propulsion offers more comforts than the gasoline run vehicles.

The internal combustion engine (ICE) technology pushed back the development of electrical cars; this was only because of the quick refueling of the gasoline and the improved driving range. Eventually the further development of the technology pertaining to electrical cars suffered and slowly the market of these cars faded.

Now due to high emission level and the cost of gasoline has compelled the manufacturers to further develop the technology and remove all the hurdles which are associated with the electric car. These cars are eco-friendly and the running cost is also very low, the engine too is less complex as compared to gasoline powered vehicle.

The main deterrent in the purchase of an electric car is the initial cost, high cost of batteries and recharging the batteries. The manufacturers are working very hard to remove all the hurdles so that these cars can be used by masses. This too is a fact that electric cars are suitable only for short distances, but some of the governments across the world are offering tax incentives.

There has to be mass development of infrastructure like setting up of quick recharging stations, this will help in increasing the range of these cars. These cars are quite eco-friendly with no emissions, but these cars use electricity which is stored in the batteries, the conventional electricity comes from the power grids which produces greenhouse gases during the production of electricity.

One has to explore other sources like solar power, wind power, geothermal or water energy; such a move can solve the electricity problem and can be used even for homes and other electric devices including electric cars. This is a fact that the in future lies only in electric run vehicles, government has also realized it and is providing all the assistance possible.

You may have many questions in your mind before you actually go for an electric car, these question are natural. The first thing comes to the mind is how far the car can go and where to recharge the car.

This probably is biggest deterrent for the people who want to buy an electric car. In addition there are other issues like long distance commuting, cost of batteries and other problem. For those who have to use the vehicle for long distance, the electric car is not for you.

Electric vehicle (EV) are suitable for city driving and where recharge points are freely available. There are some vehicles like Tesla Roaster which have a range of 240 miles which seems to be a good distance covered by the electric car. The price is again a deterrent for Tesla Roaster which is around 100,000 dollars; the cheapest vehicles have very short running range and are not suitable for long distance and can be used for driving in city area.

Many potential electric vehicles purchasers are not satisfied with the current electric car technology, but this is also a fact that many governments across the world are developing network infrastructure to install high current low time charging solutions. There are some stations which take 20 to 30 minutes for charging which seems quite reasonable as this time can be used as coffee or burger break.

Recharging from the household sockets may take several hours due to single phase 10 amp limitations of many power points. Some of the countries like Japan and the United States are exploring using 3 – 6 times the energy density of current lithium ion batteries.

Another option could be using Lithium polymer batteries which is considered to be future technology, with this technology range will not remain the issue. This mostly depends upon the number and type of batteries; you may also need a motor which matches the batteries.

The cars which have fast speed will be expensive as the consumption of batteries is more as the motors require more current to run. There are other concerns like exploding of Lithium ion batteries.

Another concern is the safety of electric car; these concerns are being resolved and are at the verge of being solved. The biggest risk is high voltage wiring in the electric car which is not there in the conventional petrol powered engine.

There has to be a safety device like accelerometer kills switches, which will switch off the power from the batteries in case of an accident. Generally electric cars are quite safe as there is no petrol or gasoline in such vehicles.

One has to be extra vigilant at the time of recharge as there is possibility of electric shock, finally the removal of gear box will help the driver to concentrate on driving instead of changing the gears. The vehicle should be able to take you to favorite holiday destination; such a driving may not be possible with electrical cars.

There has to be proper service stations where expert mechanics are available who have thorough knowledge of such cars. Since the technology is being developed, we may soon see all the obstacles removed for a smooth drive of an electrical car.