Car Coal
A Hybrid Car in a Garage Near You
Buying a new car is big and expensive decision for most people, and with the ever rising oil price it is becoming a more and more expensive affair to own your own car too. With an oil price that works in a way so that a rain in north America raises the price people in Finland pays for gasoline from Russia, it is not strange that the market is eager to be offered more economical cars.
To make metters even worse, we are today well aware that the large scale use of fossil fuel like oil is very bad for the environment. Getting rid of all gasoline powered engines would be great for the environment.
All of the above has resulted in a new breed of cars being rapidly developed. These cars combine the best features of the electric cars with that of conventional, gasoline powered cars. These type of cars are called hybrid cars, and you are likely to hear a lot about them in the very near future.
An electric car with a twist
The electric car first sounded like a great idea, since it has no emissions while it runs. However, this is only partially true as the total emissions depends on how the electricity for the electric car is produced - if it comes from a coal plant for example, it isn't very clean at all.
Furthermore, the storage of large amounts of electricity is problematic at best and in practise turns electric cars to pure bread city cars. Storing large ammounts of electricity is unfortunately a rather clumsy affair.
Hybrid cars combine an electric engine with a gasoline powered one, which means the use of gasoline isn't completely gone but it can be greatly reduced. The dual engines also allow for smaller engines to be used, and they take advantage of things like regenerative breaking.
Naturally the hybrid cars are also extremely lightweight and aerodynamically well designed, all to reduce the energy needed to run them. In slow city traffic the conventional engine is automatically shut of completely, producing no emissions whatsoever. When more speed and power is needed, the conventional engine is allowed to seamlessly kick in partially or fully.
Hybrid cars are here NOW
Like much of the car market today, it is the Japanese who have been fastest to develop attractive looking hybrid vehicles, such as the hybrid powered Honda Accord and Toyota Prius. Contrary to what one might believe, these cars have also fared very well on the market.
The idea of saving on gas is obviously appealing to a lot of people.
Most well known North American manufacturers are also expected to jump on the bandwagon of this lucrative market very soon. Many of them, including Ford, Chevrolet and Mercury have in fact already launched hybrid powered version of some of their models.
As this is a quickly expanding market, you can expect to see many of these cars appearing more commonly at local car dealers. As this is considered cutting edge technology, one can expect the initial prices to be rather high though. But then again, a hybrid car will mean considerable savings on buying gas. As the competition will no doubt be stiff, it will be interesting to see how the pricing of these cars develop during the next few years.
While the best thing for the environment would be to chuck oil out of the picture completely, hybrid cars represent one of the best alternatives one can buy insted right now - combining the cleanliness of the electric engine with the mileage of a conventional combustion engine. Hybrid cars are certainly not to be considered unorthodox or overly futuristic - they are here NOW.
About the Author
The Know more about content portal contains the latest news and information about hybrid cars.
Car Coal
 |
 Athearn Genesis Toy Train Engine Coal Car IH logo  US $325.00
|
 26 CAR WALTHERS DETROIT EDISON DEEX COAL TRAIN NICE US $359.95
|
 HO SUPER RARE RENWALL COAL LOADER UNLOADER W CAR US $185.99
|
 Athearn HO MoPac 70 Ton Coal Hopper 13 Car Combo US $174.98
|
 NWSL BRASS COAL TAR TANK CAR CUSTOM FINISHED LITE WEATHERING US $135.00
|
 Lionel Train Set Steamer Engine TenderCoal Hopper CarSunoco Car Red Caboose US $129.95
|
 Norfolk Western Engine 100 and coal car Rare Excellent HO Scale Mehano US $129.00
|
 Life Like Reading Company King Coal HO Train Set Locos and Cars only VERY NICE US $125.00
|
 Marklin 01 097 Locomotive Engine Marklin 01 097 Coal car US $100.00
|
 Athearn HO UP Union Pacific 50 Thrall High Side Coal Gondola 5 Car Set 97552 US $100.00
|
 Boxed Bachmann NYCRR HO Railroad Engine Passenger Coal Cars Model Trains US $99.99
|
 H O TRAIN SET CIVIL WAR ENGINE COAL CAR 3 BOX CARS AND A CABOOSE US $95.00
|
 WALTHERS GOLD LINE COMX RD4 COAL HOPPER CARS 6 PACK NIP HO SCALE US $90.00
|
 HO Scale Trix Marklin Northern Pacific 3 Coal Car Lot Each with Load Each NIB US $99.99
|
 HO 8 NIB coal cars US $85.00
|
 Marklin HO DB Coal Container 2 Car Set New Item in Stock US $79.98
|
 Lionel HO 0301 Operating Coal Car And 0900 Remote Track Section With Boxes US $75.00
|
 HO scale Walthers 6pk RTR NS Norfolk Southern Bethgon Coal Cars US $74.95
|
 Marklin HO DB Coal Tubs 2 Car Set New Item in Stock US $74.95
|
 Marklin Special Imprint 1995 Open Coal Ore Car NECKARWERKE 84623 MiB RARE US $69.99
|
 Marklin Special Imprint 2003 DORTMUND FAIR Open Coal Ore HOPPER Car 48603 RARE US $69.99
|
 BACHMAN CO CSX COAL TRAIN LOT OF 20 CARS WITH LOADS METAL WHEELSETS HO SCALE US $67.00
|
 Ho scale ATHEARN coal cars AECX 5 PACK US $60.00
|
 Vintage Silver Mountain Train Engine Marx Wind Up Engine Tender Coal Car US $60.00
|
 HO Athearn RTR Thrall High Side Coal Gondola 5 car set Herzog w Coal loads US $99.99
|
 MTH Train 70 Ton Quadruple Hopper Car Pittsburgh Coal HO Scale 81 75006 US $59.99
|
When Obama asks me to drive an electric car, who's backyard gets polluted with coal/nuclear power? Which dam?
... blocks fish from swimming upstream while I charge my car?
Was I wrong to assume that no pollution / global warming takes place with electric cars because they are a panacea?
Or will a windmill be put offshore near the Kennedy Compound to power my car?
RomeyM,
I try but she's pretty big. You're welcome to wrestle with her if that's your fantasy.
You Dems are so silly. Pelosi is trying to get GM, etc to make electric cars. She even gave them $25 BILLION. They are using BATTERIES.... which use ELECTRICITY. The "Volt" is the big thing that Dems want to hear in Congress.
Electric cars still pollute and there is still no car that solves our energy crisis. Hybrid Cars have their positives and negatives. If every car runs on one single resource we will drain whatever that resource is. Someone needs to come up with an answer to this question which is one of the biggest of this century.