The Benefits of Hybrid Cars
Posted in Hybrid Cars | Transportation
The soaring oil prices and the rising level of awareness among the masses regarding the rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions are compelling many car makers to switch over the developing hybrid cars. There are already more than one million hybrid vehicles running on American roads (May, 2008). Big car companies like GM and Toyota have already made big strides in this direction. In fact GM is cutting down on producing and marketing its behemoth gas-guzzling trucks and focusing more on lighter, fuel-efficient cars. The number one selling hybrid car is Toyota’s Prius. Incidentally, Toyota is far ahead in the race for producing hybrid cars.
The environmental concerns have even hit the stars of Hollywood: during the recent academy awards the gaudy limousines were not the most prestigious way of arriving and hitting the red carpet, it was coming in a hybrid car.
A hybrid car has two engines working under the hood. The first is an electric motor and the second is the good old gasoline engine. When your car is running at a constant speed or when it is standing but the engine is running, the gasoline engine automatically shuts off and the electricity part takes on. This helps a lot when you are stuck in traffic jams and your engine is running — lots of pollution is caused during the traffic jams. When you need to accelerate, the gasoline engine pumps in the requisite gas, and then again hands the control over to the electric engine.
This way the consumption of fossil fuel is cut down to almost half and so is the emission level. The noise pollution comes down too.