Green Car

According to GreenerCars.com (owned by American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy or ACEEE), the top 6 current positions for the greenest cars are held by Honda and Toyota:

1. HONDA CIVIC GX
2. HONDA INSIGHT
3. TOYOTA PRIUS
4. HONDA CIVIC HYBRID
5. TOYOTA COROLLA
6. TOYOTA ECHO

The autos include partial zero-emission vehicles (PZEV) and super-ultra-low-emission vehicles (SULEV). According to American Automobile Association's Westways magazine, the following vehicles qualify as PZEV vehicles: Ford Focus 2.3-liter, Honda Civic Hybrid, Hundai Elantra, Mazda3, Toyota Prius and Volkswagen Jetta sedan.

The cleanest of the clean cars are the electric cars and hydrogen cars as they emit zero pollutants. Next come the natural gas and hybrid vehicles, which are the next best thing to zero emissions. Ford and Chevrolet have all rolled out their own lines of trucks and SUV's that are clean burning hybrid gasoline / electric models as well.

What is clear is that with rising gas prices and vehicles that have backslid on gas mileage to the levels of the early 1980's and the general acceptance that global warming is a reality, green cars are here to stay. With any luck, we will no longer backslide as we have been doing for the past 25 years but will go forward with ever greener vehicles from here on out.

get from:hydrogencarsnow.com

Electric Vehicle

image of Prius (one of Toyota's top sellers in the United States). There are over 1 million worldwide


An electric car is a type of alternative fuel car that utilizes electric motors and motor controllers instead of an internal combustion engine (ICE). The electric power is usually derived from battery packs in the vehicle.

In general terms an electric car is a rechargeable battery electric vehicle. Other examples of rechargeable electric vehicles are ones that store electricity in ultracapacitors, or in a flywheel.

Vehicles using both electric motors and other types of engine are known as hybrid electric vehicles and are not considered pure electric vehicles (EVs) because they operate in a charge-sustaining mode. Hybrid vehicles with batteries that can be charged externally to displace are called plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), and are pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs) during their charge-depleting mode. Electric vehicles include automobiles, light trucks, and neighborhood electric vehicles.

A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a hybrid vehicle which combines a conventional propulsion system with a rechargeable energy storage system (RESS) to achieve better fuel economy than a conventional vehicle. It includes a propulsion system additional to the electric motors, to be not hampered by range from a charging unit like a battery electric vehicle (BEV).

Modern mass-produced HEVs prolong the charge on their batteries by capturing kinetic energy via regenerative braking, and some HEVs can use the internal combustion engine (ICE) to generate electricity by spinning an electrical generator (often a motor-generator) to either recharge the battery or directly feed power to an electric motor that drives the vehicle. Many HEVs reduce idle emissions by shutting down the ICE at idle and restarting it when needed (start-stop system). An HEV's engine is smaller than a non-hybrid petroleum fuel vehicle and may be run at various speeds, providing more efficiency.

HEVs became widely available to the public in the late 1990s with the introduction of the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius. HEVs are viewed by some automakers as a core segment of the future automotive market. Futurist magazine recently included hybrid electric vehicles as cars of the near future.