How would you like to run your car for the equivalent of less than one dollar per gallon, with much lower emissions? Impossible, right?
A step-by-step breakdown of what happens when you sit behind the wheel of a hybrid car.
Are all hybrids created equal? Get a grasp on the definitions: full hybrid, mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid, parallel hybrid and serial hybrid...
“All vehicles in 2020 will have some level of hybridization.” The statement is blunt and to the point. It might be dismissed as idle speculation until you see the source.
In recent years, the State of California has become the unofficial capital of plug-in hybrid technology. But proposed certification standards from the California Air Resource Board (CARB) could create an obstacle for small companies selling plug-in hybrid conversion kits.
Despite what many green consumers might like to think, we won’t all be driving electric cars—or even hybrids—next year. Hybrids may be a much larger portion of the market by 2015, but large numbers of cars between now and 2020 will still be fueled by plain old gasoline. Within a couple of years, however, they will be much, much more efficient with that gas—thanks to gasoline direct injection, or “GDI."
As the auto industry scrambles to produce vehicles with greater efficiency, each firm is developing its own strategy and its own way to market its tactics. BMW uses “Efficient Dynamics” to describe its approach, which has a nice ring but has lacked much substance. A sneak peek of BMW's upcoming 2009 7-Series sedan reveals a few more details.
The Toyota Prius’s design—raking windshield, rounded roof line and swooping hatchback—has been emblazoned in the public consciousness as the very definition of what a hybrid is supposed to look like. That will present a difficult challenge for Honda, as it prepares to launch its new hybrid-only subcompact—shown here as an "unofficial" illustration based on spy photos.
Last week, former Intel CEO Andy Grove called for a massive effort to put 10 million plug-in hybrids on the roads in the next four years. His plan is simple: Harness the ingenuity of America’s entrepreneurs to convert a sizable chunk of America’s existing non-hybrid gas guzzlers to plug-in hybrids. Groves comments illustrated how an expert in one industry can reveal himself as a novice in another.
What does it take to make a four-seater car that equals the gas mileage of hybrids sold in the States, but without the expensive battery pack and electric motors? Many cars made for the European market use a simple formula to get the job done. Case in point: the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic.
