Hybrid Vehicles

Hybrid Vehicles

Automakers are facing energy instability and higher gas prices, and customers are pushing for cleaner and are gaining traction as Americans therefore more effective solutions. New vehicles and alternative fuels try to tackle the planet’s most pressing concerns–terrorism (financed by Persian Gulf petro-dollars) and global warming. These forces have converged in the Hybrid Phenomenon–millions of automobile owners choosing hybrid and other fuel develop the greening of the automobile business. American manufacturers, late to the game, are working overtime to catch up to, and eventually surpass, their Japanese competitors. .

By 2006, more than 250,000 U.S. drivers had bought Toyota hybrids to reduce oil dependence and enhance the global environment. Globally, Toyota dioxide and 125,000 gallons of gasoline has reported more than 500,000 hybrid sales to date, and the company’s one million sales target, set for 2010, appears more reachable all the time. The company has cut the additional costs associated with building hybrids almost in half since 1997. The Hybrid Phenomenon is about saving time and resources at the next gas pump, but it’s also part of the world every day. Transportation is responsible for about a quarter of the greenhouse gases released into the outdoor atmosphere, and the United States is the greatest greenhouse gas contributor on the planet. Hybrids have saved more than an estimated one million barrels of crude oil, three million pounds of smog-forming gases, one million metric tons of atmospheric carbon.

The Hybrid Phenomenon is allowing drivers to change the earth recently begun and feel good enough about it. In business and commerce, hybrid dollars help stimulate economies and create jobs. The group also is creating global virtual communities and empowering citizens to promote environmental sustainability. The Phenomenon shouts globally and acts locally every day. Yet, few people understand what a great role this technology will play in the near future of the transportation sector, how intense the coming industrial battle over the hybrid market will be, and how, indeed, the Hybrid Phenomenon has only just begun.

It’s amazing to think that the Hybrid Phenomenon emerged largely from the Toyota Prius, originally reduce gas consumption, only to land on a 100-year-old technology, the hybrid, which simply increased efficiency and doubled mileage.

In the 1890s, when horseless carriages were as fit to work on steam or electricity named Ferdinand Porsche was asked by his boss, Jacob Lohner, toas on gasoline, a junior engineer get a better electric car. Lohner-Porsche successfully offered a hybrid alternative a few years later. It filled up on gasoline, but electric motors turned the wheels. The hybrid solved the electric-vehicle problem of restricted speed and range.

Gasoline-powered cars had taken over the front car market by the 1920s, thanks to the electric starter and Henry Ford’s assembly line, which made Model Ts affordable for most families. Still, commercial uses for hybrids flourished during the rest of the twentieth century. Diesel-electric hybrid trains and substantial equipment helped to industrialize America. As for cars, numerous incarnations of composite concepts were built, but none took significant market share until the Prius, which emerged out of Japan in 1997 and harm the United States in 2000. The Honda Insight 2000 was actually the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, but the 2001 Prius and its successors have been the runaway best sellers.

Providing greater efficiency and flexibility, hybrids are sustaining an auto industry in crisis. More-efficient power administration and the capability to save energy serve to increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.

Benefits of hybrid technologies go well beyond gas mileage and saving money. They lead toward new applications and platforms. The hybrid has the position to see to greater innovations for a growing number of products and related services. Hybrid platforms can potentially increase the value of almost type any fuel and of vehicle. The tradeoff in cost seems minimal compared with the growing number of key benefits. If users continue their current rate of investment, hybrid technology will surely become the core technology of the automobile industry.

Surveys show that many hybrid owners joined Hybrid Phenomenon not only to help themselves, but also to improve the real world. Drivers save money on other purposes. They enjoy quiet rides allowing others to breathe cleaner air. They continue to experience good about the car they drive. Their hybrids recycle energy and demonstrate how to appreciate life.

Automakers, politicians, and scientists are all fueling the Hybrid Phenomenon. But what will really accelerate this transition are those daily choices that we, as consumers, make in terms of demanding new vehicle platforms and different fuel choices. Such choices are what truly count in the common quest for sustainable ways to meet the good life–for everyone, not just the wealthy few. The Hybrid Phenomenon represents millions of consumers making the decision to move away from oil dependence and toward a cleaner world.

References:

Erjavec, J., ; Arias, J. (2007). Hybrid, electric and fuel-cell vehicles. Clifton Park, NJ: Thomson Delmar Learning.

Povey, K. D. (2006). Hybrid cars. Our environment. Farmington Hills, MI: KidHaven Press.

United States. (2007). Hybrid cars: Increasing fuel efficiency and reducing oil dependence : hearing before the Subcommittee on Energy and Resources of the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Ninth Congress, second session, July 20, 2006. Washington: U.S. G.P.O.

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