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Green living can extend to
environmentally friendly cars and car ownership. Here's how to make
your car more environmentally friendly.
Sales of Honda's
New Natural Gas-Powered Car Pick Up Speed as Fuel Prices Accelerate.
With gasoline prices soaring, more
people are looking for alternatives to gas-guzzling SUVs or, well, any
type of gas-guzzling car. Hybrids that run on electricity supplemented by
a gasoline engine have proved popular, and now Honda has become the first
automaker in the U.S. to offer consumers a car that runs on natural gas,
the same fuel you may use to heat your home or cook your breakfast before
driving to work every morning.
"The market is coming to us," said
Gunnar Lindstrom, head of Honda's alternative fuels division, in an
interview with the Associated Press.
The Honda Civic GX looks and runs
the same as a regular Civic. It even sounds the same, so drivers don’t
have to put up with the kind of rattle and hum that have been a problem
with diesel engines. The new model costs about $4,500 more than a basic
gasoline-powered Civic, but that’s not what has made it a hard sell. Many
consumers like the idea of driving a car that is less polluting, costs
less to operate and doesn’t rely on foreign oil, and they’re willing to
pay more for it.
The big problem up until now has
been that there are relatively few public stations that sell natural gas
for automobiles—only about 600 in the United States—so drivers were afraid
they wouldn’t be able to get fuel when they needed it.
That problem has been solved by a
Toronto-based company, FuelMaker, Corp., which sells a home-based
refuelling machine that motorists can keep in their garage and use to
refuel their cars overnight. The machine, about the size of a suitcase,
compresses natural gas from the lines in your home and pumps it into the
fuel tank of the Honda Civic GX. Refuelling takes about eight hours.
Other benefits of driving a car
powered by natural gas include hefty tax credits in some states and a new
federal tax credit (beginning January 1, 2006) of $3,600 for the car and
$1,000 for the home-based refuelling machine. Another federal tax credit
of $30,000 for anyone who builds a public refuelling station, plus 37
cents for every gallon sold, may also increase the number of refuelling
stations along the highway.
"Traditional"vs."Plugin
Hybrid Cars"
Which is Better and What's the Difference
The mass-market gasoline-electric
hybrids made by Toyota, Honda and others make use of an electric engine
right under the hood next to the gas engine. That electric motor creates
fuel economy by kicking into use during idling, backing up, slow traffic,
and to maintain speed after the gas engine has been employed for
acceleration. The car doesn’t need to be plugged in because the on-board
electric battery is constantly being charged by the gas engine and by the
motion of the wheels and the brakes.
The Advantages of
Plug-in Hybrid Cars
The so-called “plug-in hybrids,” now
in prototype stages of development, take this technology a step further.
By adding the ability to charge up
from a standard household outlet, typically overnight, such cars relegate
the gas engine to back-up status and instead let the electric motor do
most of the work.
Proponents claim
that such
“gas-optional”
cars—if you don’t
take long trips you
can rely entirely on
the electric
motor—can be twice
as fuel efficient as
hybrids, which
already get double
the gas mileage of
traditional
vehicles.
Additionally, they
say, powering up
plug-in hybrids with
wall sockets results
in far less
pollution (from the
power plants
providing the
electricity) than an
equivalent
gasoline-powered car
spews out its
tailpipe. Meanwhile,
plug-in hybrids
recharged from
rooftop solar power
systems might
approach being the
world’s first
mass-market “zero
emission” vehicles,
requiring no power
from the grid at
all.
Will Drivers Accept
Plug-in Hybrid Cars?
Convincing a
sceptical American
public that plug-in
hybrids are the way
of the future is the
challenge of a loose
network of advocacy
groups led by the
California Cars
Initiative
(CalCars). Indeed,
the experimental
electric vehicles of
a decade ago and
older required
recharging every
25-50 miles,
rendering them
useless for anything
but short trips. The
new breed of plug-in
hybrids solves this
problem by employing
much more
sophisticated
battery technology
while still keeping
the insurance of
gasoline (and a gas
engine) on-board.
“It’s like having a
second small fuel
tank that you always
use first--only you
fill this tank at
home with
electricity at an
equivalent cost of
under $1/gallon,”
reports the CalCars
website. The
organization goes on
to explain that with
gas prices at
$3/gallon, operating
traditional cars
costs eight to 20
cents per mile,
while plug-in
hybrids used for
all-electric local
travel and commuting
would cost only two
to four cents per
mile.
The Status of
Plug-in Hybrid
Technology
CalCars is lobbying
the world’s major
automakers to
introduce plug-in
options on future
hybrid models, and
the organization has
built showcase
examples that
achieve 100 miles
per gallon using
Toyota’s Prius.
Meanwhile, a growing
list of state and
local governments
say they would
seriously consider
converting their
fleets to plug-in
hybrids if such
vehicles became
available.
The website
HybridCars.com
reports that
DaimlerChrysler has
built a handful of
prototypes based on
its 15-passenger
Mercedes-Benz
Sprinter van. And
analysts believe
Toyota already has
the technology in
place, but may be
waiting to gauge
consumer demand
before making any
production
commitments. Only
time—with a little
guidance from the
price of
gasoline—will tell.
Keeping Your Tires
Inflated Could Help
Save the Planet, and
Your Life.
Low Tire Pressure
Wastes Money and
Energy, Causes
Pollution and
Accidents.
When tires are not
inflated to the
pounds per square
inch (PSI) rating
recommended by
manufacturers, they
are less “round” and
require more energy
to begin moving and
to maintain speed.
As such,
under-inflated tires
do indeed contribute
to pollution and
increase fuel costs.
Get
Better
Mileage
with
Properly
Inflated
Tires
An
informal
study
by
students
at
Carnegie
Mellon
University
found
that
the
majority
of
cars
on
U.S.
roads
are
operating
on
tires
inflated
to
only
80
percent
of
capacity.
According
to
the
website,
fueleconomy.gov,
inflating
tires
to
their
proper
pressure
can
improve
mileage
by
about
3.3
percent,
whereas
leaving
them
under-inflated
can
lower
mileage
by
0.4
percent
for
every
one
PSI
drop
in
pressure
of
all
four
tires.
Poorly
Inflated
Tires
Increase
Fuel
Costs
and
Emissions
That may not sound like much, but
it means that the average person who drives 12,000 miles yearly on
under-inflated tires uses about 144 extra gallons of gas, at a cost of
$300-$500 a year. And each time one of those gallons of gas is burned, 20
pounds of carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere as the carbons in the
gas are released and combine with the oxygen in the air. As such, any
vehicle running on soft tires is contributing as much as 1.5 extra tons
(2,880 pounds) of greenhouse gases to the environment annually.
Fully Inflated Tires are Safer
Besides saving fuel and money and minimizing emissions, properly inflated tires are safer and less likely to fail at high speeds. Under-inflated tires make for longer stopping distances and will skid longer on wet surfaces. Analysts point to under-inflated tires as a likely cause of many SUV rollover accidents. Properly inflated tires also wear more evenly and will last longer accordingly.
Check Tire Pressure Frequently and When Tires are Cold
Mechanics advise drivers to check their tire pressure monthly, if not more frequently. The correct air pressure for tires that come with new vehicles can be found either in the owner’s manual or inside the driver-side door. Beware, though, that replacement tires may carry a different PSI rating than the originals that came with the car. Most new replacement tires display their PSI rating on their sidewalls.
Also, tire pressure should be checked when tires are cold, as internal pressure increases when the car has been on the road for a while, but then drops when the tires cool back down. It is best to check tire pressure before heading out on the road to avoid inaccurate readings.
Congress Mandates New Technology to Warn Drivers of Low Tire Pressure
As part of the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act of 2000, Congress has mandated that automakers install tire pressure monitoring systems on all new cars, pickups and SUVs beginning in 2008.
To comply with the regulation, automakers will be required to attach tiny sensors to each wheel that will signal if a tire falls 25 percent below its recommended PSI rating. Car makers will likely spend as much as $70 per vehicle to install these sensors, a cost that will no doubt be passed along to consumers. However, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, some 120 lives a year will be saved once all new vehicles are equipped with such systems. |
