| The number of cars on the roads is increasing, and so are the environmental problems. Cars are a big cause of these and the car manufacturers are competing to come up with the best replacement for the fossil fuels.
Many ideas, more or less great, have seen the light of the day in the last few years, and sure, some ideas are really great but they are too futuristic, so in this article some realistic alternatives will be brought up and explained.
|
There are two main roads you can take when developing an environmental friendly car, either you go for a development of the fossil fuel engine and make that clean and low on gas, or you go for a new type of engine, that runs on something else than fossil fuels. A mixture of these two is also an available option.
Let's take a look at a few.
|
Smog in Paris |
The Electric Car
The electric car is in easy terms; a car driven by an electric motor which is linked to a bunch of batteries.
It looks just like any other car but it's a bit different. One characteristic is that they are almost silent while running. They also have a good acceleration.
Electric cars have been around a long time but they have never been a success, this because of their disadvantages.
|
 |
| The disadvantages are the batteries; many, heavy and not very efficient. Because of these the electric cars' range is only about 70-90 km and when it needs charging you have to wait about 8 hours. The picture shows the batteries.
The electric car is, despite its batteries, a great car to have in a city (no exhausts).
|
The Hybrid Car
The hybrid car has a conventional petrol engine and an electric motor linked together, it has batteries but you don't have to charge them.
When driving a hybrid car the two motors "help" each other. If you drive slowly, like in a town, it's mostly the electric motor powering the car.
When you need extra power, while accelerating or on highways, the fuel engine helps the electric motor and also charges the batteries.
|
 |
| This car type is more like a normal car than the all electric one, this because it takes care of its charging itself.
It is also very clean and only needs half the amount of petrol a normal car needs. The hybrid car has been on the market for about two years now, and seems to be working fine. The most common one is the Toyota Prius (picture). There are over 100 000 of these in the world today.
|
The Air Car
This car runs on air! Yes it's true, the Spanish company MDI has created a car which has a motor that runs on compressed air.
The air is held in a container, at a pressure of 300 Bar, which is located underneath the floor. It has a range of 30 km, a top speed of 110 km/h and can be refilled in 3 minutes. The only problem is that there are no refill stations yet. You can also fill it up at home but it takes about 4 hours.
|
 |
The model in the picture carries 6 people and will be in production shortly.
When air fill up stations have been built, these air cars will probably be a common sight.
The only thing that comes out of its exhaust is fresh air and hey, it can't get much cleaner than that!
|
|
|
