Friday, September 9th, 2011
With all of the cars that are on the market, you may be thinking that there must be a car you haven’t discovered yet. You’ve heard of convertibles, Mazdas, Fords, and Buicks. And, you being an educated car-buyer, know all about hybrid cars, too. But surely, you think to yourself, there must be a more fuel-efficient car than a hybrid. If only you could find it.
This car that you believe is more fuel-efficient than a hybrid car, must be hidden in the back of a dealership behind the red, green, and yellow cars. It must be stuck between a big SUV and a van somewhere.
And what does it take to fuel this car? You don’t know the answer to that question. You barely know if this type of car exists. But there just has to be something out there better than a hybrid car. You insist that it’s true.
Well, there are a few choices for you. You could be thinking that a very small conventional car is more fuel-efficient than a hybrid car. You could be thinking that an electric car is better than a hybrid car. You could also be thinking that the dealership employees must have some cars in the back that they are creating on the spot that run on anything but gasoline and batteries. These cars, you think to yourself, would be better buys than hybrid cars.
Well, electric cars don’t get better fuel-efficiency than hybrid cars mainly because a lot of times electric cars don’t even need gas to power them, so you can’t even compare electric cars to hybrid cars.
A small conventional is definitely not more fuel-efficient than a hybrid car because no conventional car is.
And there are not any just-made cars sitting in the back somewhere. Car dealerships don’t make cars. They sell them.
But the final answer to the question is the new fuel-economy numbers that have been issued by the EPA. Those numbers conclude that the most fuel-efficient cars available to the public when looking at 2008 models are hybrid cars. Just the Toyota Prius as an example has a combined highway or city mileage of 46. This and other hybrid cars have overcome the 40 miles per gallon mark.
So, it looks like there are no new discoveries to be made at the auto dealer. And that’s a good thing. You wouldn’t want to be outdone by the Joneses because you thought you bought a great car, but you saw that they had a better, more fuel-efficient one. Nope, that’s not going to be you. Now you are armed with the knowledge that hybrid cars are the most fuel-efficient cars around and until automakers start to come up with more ideas, a hybrid car is what you have to work with.
However, advancements in fuel-efficient cars are on the horizon. Auto manufacturers are working on plug-in hybrids, battery-electric cars, and gas-engine systems that are more efficient. So look out, your dream car is coming soon. But if for now, you just buy a hybrid, you won’t regret it. if you plan to buy, consider looking for fast cash loans, to your finance partner.
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Monday, January 3rd, 2011
The Pros and Cons of Hybrid Cars
Hybrid cars are considered to be the car of tomorrow. Because of the benefits it can give you, you will definitely want to get one for your own. In fact, more and more people are now considering selling their conventional car and purchase a hybrid car. So, why is it that more and more people prefer getting a hybrid car instead of a conventional car even if hybrid car retail prices are far more expensive?
The answer to this is that these people are thinking of the long term benefits that a hybrid car can give. With a hybrid car, you can cut fuel consumption in half compared to conventional cars. Hybrid cars will be able to give you maximum fuel efficiency. It will be able to give you far better mileage to the gallon. Just imagine, with a hybrid car, you can get more than 60 miles to the gallon of gasoline.
This is because hybrid cars run on two engines. One is the conventional internal combustion engine that you will find in conventional cars and the other is the electric motor and batteries. Hybrid cars are basically cars that combine electric energy and gasoline energy. By combining these two to power your car, it will run quieter, cleaner and far more efficient than conventional cars. These are the main advantages of hybrid cars.
Another advantage is that you will be able to save more money from tax breaks imposed by the US government to hybrid car users and buyers. If you own a hybrid car, you will be able to enjoy tax breaks. Also, you will be able to enjoy free parking and other incentives that the government imposed on hybrid car owners.
Now that you know about the main pros of the hybrid cars, you also need to know what the cons of hybrid cars are.
People have been purchasing hybrid cars because of the ability of saving a lot of money from fuel consumption. However, the main advantage of hybrid cars, which is the electric motor, is also its downfall. When a hybrid car is involved in an accident it will be difficult for you and the rescuers to get you out of the car because of the dangers of electrocution. Hybrid cars carry large amounts of voltage. When it gets involved in an accident, wires from the battery may tear off and will be potentially dangerous to handle.
Another disadvantage of hybrid cars is that the retail price is higher than conventional cars in the same weight class. However, the hybrid car can counter this disadvantage by allowing consumers to save money in a long term basis. When you look at it in a long term basis, hybrid cars tend to be cheaper than conventional cars. Try and compute the amount of gasoline both cars will consume during its lifetime and add it to the retail price of the car. You will see that the conventional car will tend to be more expensive than hybrid cars when you look at it in a long term basis.
These are the pros and cons of hybrid cars. You can see that it contains more advantages than disadvantages. Most hybrid cars today are now integrated with the latest technology in car safety. So, if you are planning to purchase a car, think hybrid.
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Monday, April 12th, 2010
Most hybrid cars are made for fuel efficiency but you can further squeeze extra miles out of a gallon of gasoline buy adapting the same good driving habits you do in your gasoline-engine vehicles.
1. Go easy on the brakes. Your hybrid car has the regenerative braking system that recaptures the energy lost from braking and stores it back to your batteries. If you brake slowly, you give your electric motor more time to store power thus, recovering more energy back to the batteries. If you brake hard and abrupt, the regenerative braking system will not be able to recapture much of this energy and your brakes will take most of the work.
2. Drive at slow speed. When you drive at a slow speed, you are running the electric motor. This saves a lot of gas. Also high speed driving requires your engine to produce extra power to drive the car forward and push it through the air. This consumes more gas just to overcome the aerodynamic drag. (Take note: the air is much denser on snowy, rainy, and slushy conditions. This makes the engine consumes more fuel to push the vehicle through the air.)
3. Avoid quick acceleration. The electric motor can only give your car a certain amount of power. When you require more speed and step on the gas pedal, the combustion engine kicks in to provide that extra speed you need, thus consuming more fuel. Quick acceleration in gasoline- or diesel-engine car wastes a lot of energy and so with hybrid vehicles. If you need to accelerate, do it gradually if possible.
4. Check your tire pressure. Tires are made to improve safety and the quality of the ride. It is not actually made for efficiency but you can actually use the tire to significantly improve your gas mileage. Use and maintain the maximum recommended tire pressure for your car on the sidewall and not the psi supplied by the manufacturer on the doorframe. Also use low-resistance tires for better mileage.
5. Avoid rush hour. Stop-and-go traffic consumes a lot of gas.
6. Use low octane gasoline. Not only it is cheaper, vehicles are actually designed to run well on low octane gas. Check your manual.
7. Glide. If you are comfortable with driving back and forth to neutral, you can get the best out of your speed. Coasting in neutral gives you a longer cruise and better use of energy.
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Friday, April 9th, 2010
Hybrid cars can run from 20mpg to 60mpg. How do they do it? Aside from using both the electric motor and combustion engine to draw propulsion, hybrid cars have several tricks to squeeze every mile out of each gallon of gasoline. Hybrid electric vehicles have:
Lightweight materials. One of the surest ways to increase the mileage of the car is to reduce its overall weight. The lighter the car is, the higher the fuel mileage will be. So instead of steel, lightweight materials such as magnesium and aluminum or composite materials like carbon fibers are used for hybrid vehicles.
Smaller engine. The weight of the car is directly related to its fuel consumption. And because larger engines are relatively heavier, they require more energy just to propel their own weight, thus consuming more fuel. Also big engines have large cylinder displacement that requires more fuel just to stop.
Since hybrid vehicles utilize other sources of power, they do not require large engines. Instead, the smaller and lighter engine equates to better fuel mileage. The Honda Civic Hybrid, for example uses a 1.3 L iVTEC 4-cylinder engine as opposed to the typical 1.8 L or 2.0 L engine for the non-hybrid counterpart.
Improved aerodynamics. When you are driving at a high speed, most work of the engine goes into pushing the car through the air. Hybrid cars are designed in such away that its frontal area chops through the air, reducing drag and increasing fuel economy. The Honda Insight is the best example of how a car can increase its fuel mileage by using a smoother aerodynamic design.
Energy conservation. Since hybrid cars do not rely solely on internal combustion engines that run continuously even at stops, they can shut off the engine temporarily whenever do not need it. It will automatically turn on when you step on the gas pedal.
Energy recovery. Much of the energy is lost when braking, more so at high speeds. Hybrid vehicles are designed to recapture this lost energy and store it back in the battery to be used later.
Special tires. Tires are specifically used to minimize noise, provide a smooth ride, and give good traction in different weather conditions. But tires are rarely used to optimize efficiency. They cause a great deal of drag while driving. Hybrid cars on the other hand use low-rolling resistance tires. They are inflated to a higher air pressure and are stiffer which result in reduced drag and better fuel efficiency.
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