Hybrid Cars – Save Gas By Going Green
category: Hybrid Cars
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Hybrid Car Dealers would like us all to think that buying hybrids will save us a ton of money on gas and save the planet at the same time. Is this really the case, though? Let’s take a look at the facts and myths behind this new technology.
Buying new hybrid cars involves more than simply looking at gas mileage. The average hybrid will save roughly 30% in gas costs over a similar fuel efficient gas powered car, however the cost of buying the hybrid typically runs several thousand dollars more than the conventional car. This is understandable as the cost of building a car with two motors and the systems that go with that are naturally more than a typical combustion engine.
Not only will the initial price be higher, but the resulting finance charges, as well. They hybrids are going to cost more to maintain in some ways as repair bills are usually higher. This is in part because there are a limited number of mechanics who are trained in the newer technologies. Because of the higher initial costs when buying new hybrid cars and the higher operating costs due to repairs, there are those who say that hybrid technology is not economically feasible.
However, new hybrid cars are subject to federal tax credits and sometimes even state or local tax breaks are available. This, coupled with the gasoline savings, could bring the hybrid down to the same economic level as the gas powered cars. Now that the technology has been around for a while, we’re also starting to see more choice in the aftermarket with a greater variety of Used Hybrid Cars available. Buying a recent model used hybrid car will often bring initial costs down below that of buying a gas car, although you may not qualify for any tax credits that way.
The other big consideration touted by hybrid car dealers is the environmental impact of a hybrid compared to the conventional gas powered vehicles. Not only will the right choice save on gas usage in the first place, hybrids also cut emissions by up to 35% over traditional automobiles. That means up to 35% less pollution released into the air for each hybrid on the road.
One of the latest innovations in the greener car movement is the hybrid SUV cars. A lot of naysayers will tell you that since they hybrid SUV cars don’t even get better than 40 mpg, then they are not in any way environmentally friendly. If you are going to switch from a tiny Geo Metro to a Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, then they are right – that would increase impact on the environment which wouldn’t be green at all. However, most people buying hybrid SUV cars are switching from comparable gas powered SUVs and the impact can be quite a lot that way.
Ultimately the choice of the driver comes into play and affects the eco-friendliness of hybrid technology. Choosing used hybrid cars over new versions and avoiding the larger hybrid SUV cars are two ways to have the most environmental impact at the least cost to the consumer.
The author of this article is one of the best Hybrid Car Dealers. With the knowledge, the author has written many articles on Used Hybrid Cars.
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The Crooked Mile: Through peak oil, biofuels, hybrid cars, and global climate change to reach a brighter future
Americans love their automobiles. More than a mode of transportation, cars provide us with freedom, social equality, and entertainment. The price we pay for our infatuation with four wheels is high. Air pollution, global climate change, energy insecurity, injury and death, and urban sprawl are fair charges against the automobile. Some critics suggest we abandon the automobile. This is not likely. In The Crooked Mile, award-winning journalist and author, Kevin Clemens, examines the past, present, and future of energy and infrastructure to take us through the challenges of depleting oil, global climate change, innovative automotive technologies, and new concepts in personal mobility to reach a better transportation future.
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Sustainability lesson in 260 non-technical pages,
A fellow car enthusiast sent me The Crooked Mile as a gift, and so I had to read it. This was a good gift, worth the reading. While the ideas are developed based on cars, fossil fuel and climate weirdness, The Crooked Mile is a very readable introduction to the much bigger problem of how we (globally) move to a sustainable future.
It offers one of the best assessments of the challenges we face in replacing fossil fuels as our cheap energy supply. Kevin Clemens clearly introduces the idea that we need a multiplicity of solutions – both for energy sources and for transportation.
As a student of sustainable practices, I find that this is easily the most readable, and least preachy, book I’ve read to date. While focused on the car and transportation, most the the major issues are raised in the context of why the car poses a problem.
As a nitpicker, I’ll note that there are a few bloopers – Double check numbers before you cite them. A minor negative in an otherwise very good exposition of the the issues.
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|SpeedReaders.info Review,
The Crooked Mile: Through peak oil, biofuels, hybrid cars, and global climate change to reach a brighter future
by Kevin Clemens
Have you ever worried that one day the fossil-fuel spigot will run dry? Or that motor fuel will become so expensive that you will need to drastically change your lifestyle in order to provide life’s basic necessities for yourself and your family?
As car enthusiasts, we more than anyone should be tuned in to the ramifications of our nation’s dependence on fossil fuel and should be keenly aware of the fact that people have been working on alternative fuel solutions since the dawn of the automobile age, often with limited success. This is more or less the approach automotive journalist Kevin Clemens takes in his latest book, The Crooked Mile, an exploration of the past, present and future of energy and the automobile.
Clemens opens his book with an introductory mea culpa about his own fossil fuel addiction: “My own case of oil addiction has been chronic. For much of my professional career I have written about cars. I’ve driven cars in all 50 states, in more than 50 countries and on five continents.” He goes onto explain that his reason for writing the book was to: “find out for myself and write about what is coming next in the world of transportation and to put a human face on the technologies that we will use to meet the future challenges of personal mobility.”
“Unfortunately,” he concludes in the intro, “the deeper I got into it, the more I discovered that finding a way out of this mess, caused in part by 100 years of cheap energy, is not going to be easy.”
Clemens touches on all of the hot button issues: peak oil, climate change, biofuels, the viability of hybrid cars, the promise of lithium ion batteries in electric cars as well as the question of where electricity to power electric cars (and the lithium for the batteries) will come from. It’s a well-researched, topical and timely book that car enthusiasts owe it to themselves to read if for no other reason than that we might be better prepared to intelligently discuss and defend our favorite topic from ill-informed critics.
Copyright 2009 Mike McNessor (Hemmings Motor News – September 2009- used with permission)
(Reviewer McNessor is an Editor at Hemmings Motor News)
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|Everyone should read this book,
Kevin Clemens tells the facts about how fuels relate to climate change without bias. He gives the history, pros and cons of each type of fuel,and ideas for change all in terms that the everyday person can understand. This is a crisis of our making, and Mr. Clemens not only acknowledges that fact, he gives some wonderful alternatives and things for every citizen to think about.
The planet belongs to all of us, all of us should read this book.
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