Posts Tagged ‘green cars’

The Pros and Cons of Hybrid Cars

Friday, April 29th, 2011

Ever wondered why more and more people are choosing to buy hybrid cars instead of conventional ones despite the fact that hybrids are so much pricier?

The answer - the pros of owning a hybrid far outweigh the cons. With a hybrid car, you can cut fuel consumption in half than those who own similar combustion engine cars do. This is because hybrid cars run on two engines. One is the conventional internal combustion engine that you will find in conventional cars but the other one consists of an electric motor with batteries. By combining two types of engines, the car earns the name “hybrid”. This balance of energy sources also makes it is less noisy, emits less fumes into the air and works more efficiently than cars with just a combustion type engine. These are the main advantages of hybrid cars.

Another advantage are the tax breaks the government provides.

Of course, there are also a few cons of hybrid car ownership to consider as well. Chief among them is that one of the brightest point about the hybrid, the electric motor, is also its main sticking point. When it stops working properly, it costs thousands more to repair, much less to replace. It also poses a risk for electric shock for anyone attempting to free you from a wreck, due to the high voltage stored inside the unit.

Another disadvantages of hybrid cars is the often prohibitive price versus the lower cost of similar-sized combustion engine cars. That being said, the hybrid is still a better value by allowing consumers to save money in a long term basis. Compute the amount of gasoline both cars will consume during its lifetime and add it to the retail price of the car. It should work out that the hybrid become comparable in cost if not more of a deal using this calculation.

Visit this website for more information on hybrid cars

Green Car To Be Released

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

The Riversimple Urban Car will have a far smaller fuel cell than in current industry prototypes and thus needs less hydrogen to be stored on board and in fuelling stations.

The vehicle is no bigger than a Smart car, weighing just 350kg, and has been developed over three years by teams at Oxford and Cranfield universities. It can reach 50mph and travel in excess of 200 miles, consuming the equivalent petrol energy of 300mpg in hydrogen.

The power in this car actually comes from a very small 6kw fuel cell which is actually very small compared to the 100kw in the Honda Clarity. it is very important to keep the weight down on this car as it allows the speed of the car to be heavily increased.

There is a bank of ultracapacitors to store this electricity, which in turn provides most of the accelerating power, allowing for a small fuel cell.

Design for the Riversimple cars will be placed online in an ‘open source’ environment, meaning any small manufacturer can lease the design, better suiting local environments and allowing for the car to be built almost anywhere in the world.

The cars themselves will also be leased over 20 years, with fuelling included in the leasing cost, and the materials will be recycled at the end of each car’s lifespan.

The head of Riversimple has always been a strong believer in pushing technology forward and he realises that this is going to be big. Of course we now realise that we much minimize the resource source of selling cars which is what these cars are trying to do.”

“The Riversimple Urban Car represents a major step towards practical 21st century personal transport and towards the fulfilment of my great-grandfather’s ambitions for accessible personal transport but this time combining his other passions: light weight and high efficiency,” said Piech.

The real question to ask is will they be upgrading things like used cars to make them greener? If you have recently gone out and purchased a  Audi TT Roadster then you are not going to be pleased when you cannot upgrade it to make it a bit greener. Cheap Audiare just one of the brands that needs to be looked into.

Solar Cars

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

Okay so we haven’t quite got to that stage yet but we are slowly getting to the point where getting a solar powered car is going to be possible. There is actually something on the market that uses the sun and will actually help your fuel costs in the long run. The thing that could really help you out is this solar attachment as believe it or not your air conditioning actually uses up fuel during the course of the day.

 

{It works as you can attach it onto a specially made spoiler in which when you aren’t driving you roll out the cover over the top of your car and it starts to actually charge the car up with solar energy}. Then once you are in the car you can use it on a lot of things including the electrics for the windows, the air con and even to power the CD player within your car.

 

If you think where this kind of technology will be in 20 years time you will begin to understand the potential to this kind of product. Of course the cover itself really isnt that nice and it makes the car look a bit stupid but if you buy these things the money made will go towards something better.

 

It is unsure if they are going to release this product onto the market or not as of yet but if they do it is sure to start selling to the people who are really interested in these green products.

 

For people that don’t really care about this and need a new car then look into getting a new Audi or perhaps a Audi R8. There are also many used cars if you do not fancy splashing out on a brand new car.

So it is up to you really on whether you are interested in getting a brand new green car that is going to help save the world and fix some of the awful damages that we have inflicted on it or if you are going to go out and buy a brand new car to enjoy, the choice is really up to you.

Newer Green Car Is On Its Way

Friday, November 27th, 2009

The Riversimple urban car actually has a very small fuel cell and looks like it is going to be the smallest one to date so far.

Another great thing about this car is that it is actually very small weighing at just a minute 350Kg and is no bigger than the smart car. It is actually quite a good car for someone living in a city as it can reach a top speed of 50mph which isnt bad for a car of this type.

The power in this car actually comes from a very small 6kw fuel cell which is actually very small compared to the 100kw in the Honda Clarity. it is very important to keep the weight down on this car as it allows the speed of the car to be heavily increased.

There is a bank of ultracapacitors to store this electricity, which in turn provides most of the accelerating power, allowing for a small fuel cell.

One of the really good things about the design to this new car is that once it is all ready it will be made available online for any car manufacturer to take into their own.

Something that is also very good to hear is that you can lease these vehicles and everything from the price of the fuel will be covered.

Hugo Spowers, head of Riversimple, said: “Cars evolved under very different constraints to those of today, so we must move on. The sale of cars still rewards the maximisation of resource use – whereas we now accept that we must minimize resource use.”

“The Riversimple Urban Car represents a major step towards practical 21st century personal transport and towards the fulfilment of my great-grandfather’s ambitions for accessible personal transport but this time combining his other passions: light weight and high efficiency,” said Piech.

The real question to ask is will they be upgrading things like used cars to make them greener? If you have recently gone out and purchased a Audi R8 then you are not going to be pleased when you cannot upgrade it to make it a bit greener.  New Audi are just one of the brands that needs to be looked into.

Electric Fuel Pumps

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

It is well worth looking out for newer points as there are sure to be more popping up soon.

London is of course the first place where everything kicked off but now there are other places who have started up the idea. Of course you may be aware that the next place going electric is going to be Brighton.

Brighton was chosen because it’s the home of Elektromotive, the company that developed and makes the Elektrobay roadside charging station and which has installed more than 100 in London since 2006. Brighton only currently has four stations that can be accessed which for such a big place is nothing at all.

The great thing about the Elektrobay is that it allows you to fully charge any plug-in Hybrid car, all customers also get a keyfob to unlock the station.

Moving to a place that is actually a lot smaller shows that the idea is actually really kicking off.

There are two major reasons why people are just not buying these cars, one is that there are not enough places to charge it up and two is that they are still a bit pants. People are jsut not interested because of these two reasons.

Of course with more stations means more people are going to be able to use them which means a higher demand for the cars themselves.

So the addition of a few plugs to Brighton is not just going to offer a few eco-warriors somewhere to park up but actually signify one of the biggest consumer revolutions in recent history.

The real question that needs to be asked is will they be upgrading things like used cars to make them greener? If you have recently gone out and purchased a  Audi TT Roadster then you are not going to be pleased when you cannot upgrade it to make it a bit greener.  Cheap Audi is merely one of the brands that needs some serious attention.