No people, we are not talking about cars that are green in colour. We are talking about environment friendly cars that are much the need of the century, those that will soon become a necessity. Cars though a very important part of our daily life which we cannot exclude from our lives are a major source of air pollution. We the user of great destruction have led pollution and global warming to such a level that it has now become absolutely necessary to take conscious steps to at least undo a bit of what havoc we have already wrought. The green cars, the hot topic of discussion in vehicle world, might just be the newest way to achieve this. Let us now remind you of the environmental education class which you always tried to bunk and go through more information about green cars.
What are Green Cars?
The cars that are more environment friendly as compared to conventional cars basically owing to the fuel that they use are called Green Cars. They consume less amount of petroleum and use renewable sources of energy as fuel thereby causing less damage to the environment. The various types of Green Cars available today are as follows-
- Electric Cars
- Hybrid Cars
- Hydrogen cars
- Solar Cars
What is the need of Green cars?
The internal combustion engines in conventional cars burn fossil fuels to impart motion to the car. These fossil fuels are non-renewable sources of energy which means that once that we use up the reserves of fossil fuels, they will not be replenished easily. Moreover, the burning of fossil fuels release greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which cause global warming and depletion of the ozone layer. Most of the conventional cars use petroleum as fuel the transportation of and production of which is risky as it may cause oil spills which are destructive to marine life.
Therefore, there has been the development of Green Cars.
How to be a smart Green Car buyer?
As mentioned earlier, there are number of options available in case that you want to go green in your vehicle of choice. But in order to ensure that your car really is green, you should look for the following-
- Check for the amount of Carbon-dioxide emission. If it is low then it is green. If the emission is less than 100g/km, it is a pretty green car.
- Check the if the tax band is low. There are a number of cars in the market which cost nothing to tax due to their low Carbon dioxide emission.
- You would also do good to read online reviews on the green cars before deciding on a car to buy.
What would be the cost and savings on a Green Car?
There are so many cars available today that it becomes really difficult to decide on a single car to be bought. The best way is to consider the car’s fuel efficiency and emissions. A more efficient vehicle helps save money and is even healthy for the environment. The Green Cars, although they have a different name, cost almost the same as conventional cars.
Small cars are much more efficient than big cars and produce lesser toxic fuels. They even cost less in road tax and thus help in saving up. The higher the MPG (Miles Per Gallon) the better is the fuel efficiency of a car and helps you in saving up on the fuel bill.
What are the different types of Green Car technologies?
We have mentioned earlier about the different types of Green Cars while defining the term ‘Green Car’. There are a number of different Green Car technology that are available on the market, each with unique features of it’s own and more and more are being developed. Here are a few prominent one’s in some detail-
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Electric Car
These cars do not use an internal combustion engine, instead they use an electric motor.Rechargeable energy is stored in the form of chemical energy in rechargeable battery packs. They are much more energy efficient than conventional cars ad do not produce any exhaust fumes. They are even much quieter than conventional cars. As is apparent, they reduce the need of petroleum usage and can be recharged using renewable energy sources. Sometimes they run for miles without need for the battery packs to be charged. But travel distance between travel distance and recharging is different which may prove to be an inconvenience. The new technologies are trying to produce batteries with a longer life-span and a reduced recharging time which will surely improve the cars.
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Hybrid Cars
Hybrid Cars use both the internal combustion engine like a conventional car and an electric motor. Petrol and diesel are used to power the internal combustion engine and the electric motors are powered by electric batteries. Of course they use less petroleum, are much quieter. Also the internal combustion engine is more efficient thereby making them eco-friendly. On the downside, some hybrid cars have a power boost which would ultimately mean that there would be no benefit for the environment at running cost. Ways are being developed to improve them.
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Hydrogen Car
The primary source of power is hydrogen in these cars. There are two ways in which hydrogen is used-
- Combustion conversion- hydrogen is burnt in the engines like in conventional cars.
- Fuel-cell conversion- In this process the fuel-cell turns the hydrogen into electricity to power the electric motors.
These cars use Oxygen and Hydrogen in the air as the power source which in turn produces water vapour which is not at all harmful for the environment. The drawback is that they are expensive to produce and are really few in the market as they are not as much popular. There are also not many hydrogen refuelling stations and the problems may persist for more than a decade still but steps are being taken to overcome these challenges.
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Solar Cars
As the name suggests, these cars run on solar energy. The solar energy is provided by solar panels on the surface of the car which converts it into electrical energy. There is no fuel cost as they run on solar energy and there are no resultant exhaust fumes harming the environment. But, it would be problematic for them to run on cloudy days and nights as the sun is their source of energy. Steps are being taken to improve them as well.
This is all about the Green Cars and here we come to the end of our adult environmental education class. Hope that you will be a good student and discharge your duty towards the environment. Live green and save the planet.
