Federal Rules To Promote Environmentally Friendly Cars Concept
The more strict federal rules are going to promote vehicles that will be 40% more fuel efficient by 2016. These national standards will bring the U.S. in line with other countries that are already manufacturing fuel-efficient cars. Starting with 2012, car makers will have achieve fuel efficiency for their products ranging from 37.8 mpg for passenger cars to 28.8 mpg for vans, SUVs and pick-ups.
Such changes can save millions of barrels of oil and at the same time reduce the greenhouse gas emissions during the lifetime of vehicles manufactured under the new regulations.
Fuel-efficient compact and subcompact cars such as Chevrolet Cruze, Mazda 2, Ford Fiesta or Fiat 500 are already an option for buyers, together with electric cars such as Chevrolet Volt or Nissan Leaf.
One feature of fuel-efficient cars is direct injection engine, a system that can yield maximum power by using high pressure to pump gas into the individual cylinders. Turbocharging is another feature enabling small engines obtain performances similar to larger ones.
Design and weight are going to improve the aerodynamics of future cars with the use of aluminum and carbon fiber for the car body and low-rolling resistance tires for further increase in the fuel economy. Although these cars will cost more, on the long term savings can be obtained by reduced fuel consumption.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also proposed a change of the rating system for fuel economy of vehicles. There are two proposals for reflecting the purchase of vehicles with lower emissions and improved fuel economy.
One is a letter grade from A to D, to reflect both fuel economy and tailpipe emission efficiency. The other is a MPG rating comparing vehicles for tailpipe emission efficiency.
The current label, in the form of a window sticker, is required for all the new cars or light-duty trucks sold in the U.S. The new proposal wishes to make it easier for consumers to make comparisons for all vehicle types, including electric, plug-in hybrids and conventional gasoline or diesel vehicles.
Some of the most fuel efficient cars on the market today are 2010 Toyota Prius, 2011 Ford Fusion Hybrid, 2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid, 2010 Honda Civic Hybrid, 2010 Honda Insight, 2010 Lexus HS 250h, 2010 Nissan Altima Hybrid, 2010 Mazda Tribute Hybrid, 2011 Ford Escape Hybrid, and 2010 Mercury Mariner Hybrid. The fact that most are hybrids is an indicator of where the green technology is heading in the auto industry.
Ford F-150 has been the best selling car for the 17 years, but in 2008 it has been surpassed by Honda Civic and Accord or Toyota Corolla and Camry due to the high costs for fuel. American companies have reconfigured their lineups in order to stay ahead to the need for more fuel efficient models.
Hybrid technologies and lighter mass proved to be the most cost-effective strategies to achieve better fuel economy. The next-generation Prius and a plug-in version will further increase fuel economy in 2011.
Your Future Cars Purchase
Chances are that your next car purchase will not be anything like the car purchases you have made in the past. Years ago we were not concerned about the things we are concerned about today. While it use to be all about keeping up with the neighbors and having vehicles that made us feel like we control the road today and in the future it is much different. We’ll examine a few of the factors that will weigh in on your next purchase.
The Economy – For the last 5 years a growing trend has been weakness in the economy. Many have either lost their jobs, wonder about job security or their businesses ability to produce. All these factors make us less secure about buying vehicles that are more expensive. Read the rest of this entry »
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars The Future Car
With all the new technology out there where should we turn for the future car. One of the speculations to this is hydrogen fuel cell cars. Even though this technology has been around since the 1950′s. We are just know beginning to see the potential in using hydrogen fuel cells technology as a way to power our cars. Major automobile manufactures have been playing with the likely hood of using a fuel cells for over a decade now.
Ford alone was one of the first to begin designing hydrogen fuel cells. Although ford was not able to build a design that was small enough to place in the current vehicles. Fords design was so awfully huge they needed to try and redesign the car around the design. The one thing they did not account for was making Hybrid Hydrogen fuel cell cars. This means the car would then run on both gas and hydrogen. Instead they where looking for a way to build a fuel cells itself and power the car only on hydrogen only. This design would be great except for think of the Hindenburg blimp. This was the first hydrogen vehicle and we all know what happened to that. Read the rest of this entry »