Hybrid cars Essay Example for Free

Hybrid cars Essay Hybrid 1 Outline I. Introduction A. Gas prices are up, the environment is suffering, and Americas are fearful of relying too much on foreign oil. Are hybrid cars the answer? II. What a hybrid car is A. Description of a hybrid car B. The two types of a hybrid 1. Parallel 2. Series III. Advantages of a Hybrid car A. Environment 1. Carbon Dioxide 2. Global Warming 3. Effect on the human body B. National 1. Discussion on foreign oil 2. What America can do to reduce our dependence C. Federal 1. Tax Deductions on National level 2. Local incentives D. Mileage Hybrid 3 1. Why hybrids get more mileage 2. Calculator on my own car IV. Disadvantages A. Price V. Conclusion With all the advantages that hybrids have to offer, it’s something a new car consumer should seriously consider. One person can make a difference! Hybrid 4 Gas prices are up 23% from a year ago and global warming is a constant fear of scientists and people alike. What then can one person do to help the current situation of gas and pollution? Buy a hybrid car! Hybrid sales have doubled in the past year and according to J. D. Power and Associates, hybrid sale should hit 200,000 in 2005. Within 20 years, Toyota’s top guy in the U. S. , Jim Press, thinks almost every car on the market is going to be a hybrid. So what exactly is a hybrid car and what are all the things a consumer should look for when buying one? Here are some specifics; the good and the bad. A vehicle is considered hybrid is the source of power comes from two sources. A hybrid car combines gasoline and electric power. The car has a normal gas tank, but also a set of batteries. The batteries are recharged every time the person drives the car so there is no need to plug it in like very old, original electric cars. Instead of having just a transmission, the batteries provide electricity to an electric motor which then turns the transmission. There are two different types of hybrid cars. One is a parallel hybrid. This has a fuel tank and batteries and both the engine and batteries turn the transmission over at the same time. Both the electric motor and gas engine can provide power. The other is a Series hybrid, which has a generator. Gas turns the generator and that can either charge the batteries or power the motor. The gas engine never actually powers the car. The electric motor of a hybrid car is very sophisticated. It works as a motor and generator and draws energy from the batteries. The batteries store energy for the car and the motor can either draw energy from them or recharge them. Hybrid 5 So what are some advantages of owning a hybrid vehicle? This is going to look at environmental, national, federal, and economic advantages of having one. First is environmental. â€Å"A car that burns twice as much gas to go a mile will generate approximately twice as much pollution. † (Nice, Karim. ) A gallon of gas weighs about 6 pounds and when it’s burned off it produces almost 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. In the U. S. alone, cars and trucks consume 8. 2 million barrels of oil EACH DAY which calculates to over 300 million tons of carbon each year. This is the largest part of carbon dioxide emissions, even more then factories and homes. If cars and trucks improved by just 5 mpg, Americans could save 1. 5 million barrels of oil a day or 55 million tons of carbon a day. Decreasing fuel consumption therefore reduces emissions. There is also carbon dioxide that cars release into the air and that scientists believe contribute to global warming. Again, twice as much gas leads to twice as much carbon dioxide. If saving the environment still sounds like something too big for one person and one at a time, here is a more personal thing to consider, the effect that vehicle air pollution has on the human body. It can cause problems such as decreases in lung capacity, acute respiratory problems, reduces the release of oxygen to body tissue, contributes to birth defects low birth weight, infant death, and makes otherwise healthy kids 3 to 4 times more likely to develop asthma. There are also concerns on the national level. Even though our consumption of oil is ever increasing, our production of oil has gone down since the 1970’s. For most of the 20th century, we made so much oil that we had enough left over for export. But now Hybrid 6 America relies on imported oil. â€Å"In 2001, imported oil accounted for 55% of US consumption; this figure is projected to rise to 70% by 2020. † (http://www. hybridcars. com. ) Nearly two-thirds, or 80%, of the world’s known oil reserves are under just six Persian Gulf nations: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iran and Qatar. This forces the U. S. military to stay in foreign bases to oversee our free excess to oil, it arouses hostility from those in these countries who have anti-American feelings, and the production of oil in these countries only benefit world super-powers and make the rich richer and the poor poorer leading to more hostile feelings toward America. Some also go so far as to say us paying these countries for oil is providing terrorists with great sums of wealth, which they use for organized anti-American endeavors such as the plane high-jackings of September 11th. Ever since September 11th, Americans are leery of relying on gulf countries for our oil supply because rely is exactly what we do. The gas prices we pay reflect what other countries charge for their barrels of oil. Increasing efficiency of cars and trucks can play a role in reducing our dependency on foreign oil. By raising fuel efficiency by just 2. 7 mpg, Americans can save enough to extinct all oil imports from Iraq and Kuwait combined. By raising it 7. 6 mpg, Americans could eliminate 100% gulf oil imports! And, in President Bush’s energy bill proposal, he said he wants to use empty military bases as oil refineries in order to increase our supply, but instead of relying on government, individuals can really impact our part in buying foreign oil by getting better gas mileage and basically using less. Hybrid 7 There are also the federal level incentives the think about when buying a hybrid vehicle. The Clean-Fuel Vehicle Deduction tax break was given during this season. People who bought a hybrid in 2004/05 could claim up to a $2000 deduction when they do their taxes. In 2005/06, it’s scheduled to drop to $500, but if a new energy bill passes the number will go back up. There are also local incentives to buying a hybrid. If a person bought one in San Jose, CA, they are exempt from local parking fees. Colorado offers a tax credit. Connecticut exempts the sales tax on a hybrid meeting certain requirements. In Florida and Georgia people who have hybrids can use the high occupancy lanes at any time of the day and no matter how many people are in the car. And Illinois has a program called The Illinois Alternate Fuels Rebate Program which pays 80% or up to $4000 to convert your vehicle to an alternate fuel system. On to mileage. This is a big one that car consumers are looking at today. Instead of getting the average 15 to 26 mpg, a hybrid can get anywhere from 50 to 60 mpg! That’s a huge difference! This is achieved because hybrid vehicles convert energy that is normally wasted when a person coasts and breaks into electricity, which is then stored into the batteries until needed by the motor. The motor is also used to assist the engine when going up hills or when the car is driving in low speeds. Low speeds, like city driving are the least efficient fuel conditions. Some hybrids also automatically shut off the engine when the car comes to a stop preserving the fuel and energy. Some websites have online calculators that measure your own car up against a hybrid of your choice. I used one to measure my own car and got these results. If a person typically drives 10,000 miles a year and pay the national average of $2. 10 per gallon and gets 23 miles per Hybrid 8 gallon, this is what a person would save if they had a hybrid: 235 gallons of gas, 4,696 pounds of carbon dioxide, and $493 a year. (Stern, Linda. ) For this online calculator, I used http://www. hybridcars. com/calculator/index. php to compare my car with a new Lexus RX, which is a hybrid vehicle similar to my own. This website allows you to put in what make and model your car is and compare it to any hybrid vehicle to see the difference in consumption and cost. Hybrid 9 So are there really any downsides to owning a Hybrid? Almost every car review only state one flaw, and that’s the price. A 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid base cost $27,560. The Toyota Highlander Hybrid with four-wheel drive costs $39,290. And the most popular, Toyota Prius, cost around $27,000. The sophisticated computer control that makes everything work in these cars makes is what makes them expensive, at least more expensive then their non-electric counterparts. Also hybrid owners complain that they don’t actually get the mileage they are supposed to but that can be said for every car since too many factors go into affecting your mileage per gallon. With all the advantages such as helping the environment and saving ourselves from being so dependant on foreign oil, not to mention helping our health and our own personal wealth, most feel the added price of a hybrid vehicle is not something to hard to overcome. New car consumers should seriously look into whether a hybrid car is the right choice for them because this really is something that individuals can do to better our world. Hybrid 10. Bibliography Nice, Kerry.â€Å"How Hybrid Cars Work. † How Stuff Works. 1998-2005. http://auto. howstuffworks. com/hybrid-car. htm. Newman, Richard J. â€Å"Invasion of the Green Machines. † U. S. News and World Report. V138 (May 9, 2005) pg. 48-54. Stern, Linda. â€Å"Money: Is a Hybrid Worth It? † Newsweek. April 4, 2005. Berman, Bradley. 2003-2005. http://www. hybridcars. com/. No Author. â€Å"Spotlight: What’s a Hybrid Car? † CARE2 Make a Difference. 2005. http://www. care2. com/channels/ecoinfo/hybrid.