Posts Tagged ‘Fuel Free’
Author: Deb Powers
Just a few years ago, the idea of electric cars was met with complete skepticism. Oh, sure, people said, the technology is there to make the cars, but drivers aren’t going to buy a car that can only drive 40 miles before you have to plug it in. The argument hasn’t changed much even as ranges increased in mileage. Now that hybrid electric cars are in the mainstream — and their acceptance is growing with each passing day — the conversation is turning to the next hurdle in the acceptance of electric cars. Where the heck do you plug them in to recharge? Here are five facts that help answer that question.
- Most electric vehicles will get all the charging they need at home.
- Many of the newest hybrid batteries can be charged from a low-cost 220V outlet, similar to the one used by any electric clothes dryer. Some can even be charged from a 110V outlet. An overnight charge is more than enough to power most cars for their daily driving needs.
- The driving range per overnight charge is up to 100 miles.
- The standard wisdom says that most electric cars get about 40 miles to a charge — far less mileage than most drivers typically drive in a day. However, most of the newer vehicles actually get between 70 miles and 100 miles to a full charge – about double the daily driving mileage of the typical driver.
- Many businesses are planning to install charging stations on site for customer convenience.
- Whole Foods and McDonalds are just two high profile examples of companies that see the benefits of making it convenient for customers to charge up their vehicles. Some other places you might expect to see public charging stations for EVs include parking garages, mall parking lots, hotels and motels and restaurants. In fact, anywhere that people park their cars for more than half an hour is a good candidate for one or more public charging stations.
- You don’t need a special plug and expensive equipment to charge an electric car.
- A lot of older information on the net tells you that you need a special, dedicated plug and costly equipment to charge your EV. That’s no longer true. The newer models of EVs in development can be charged on standard household current. Read the rest of this entry »
Author: Levi Quinn
As you are aware, the majority of the vehicles on the road use gas or other alternatives to fuel them. Right now, we are experiencing and being introduced to different alternatives to power vehicles. We are being introduced to rivals — natural gasses and propane. A good example is the solar vehicle — which is an electric vehicle that is powered by some type of renewable energy through solar energy — that comes from solar panels placed on the surface of a vehicle ,especially the roof.
The sun’s energy is converted into electrical energy by photovoltaic (PV) cells. Unbelievably, It takes hundreds of photovoltaic cells to produce a one-half volt of electricity to be able to convert the sunlight into electricity. Vehicles that use solar power are not your ordinary, practical transportation vehicles that you see on a day to day basis. Vehicles that use solar energy are primarily for demonstration purposes, as well as for engineering exercises that are, in most cases, sponsored by government agencies. The sun is the sole source of solar energy. Nuclear fusion is the process where heat and light are produced from the sun. Even though not many vehicles are currently using solar energy, the future looks very exciting.
The sun’s energy can be used to cool and heat buildings, operate communication and navigation systems, as well as generate electricity. How cool is that? The sun’s energy is retained by solar panels that are commonly placed on top of vehicles to power the vehicle, as well as charge the batteries that can be later be used when the sun is not available — kind of like when it goes behind a cloud. As soon as the sun arises, the batteries are then recharged to maintain their performance. A majority of cars are designed to put all the sun energy towards driving, thereby, keeping nothing in reserve. Without reserve power, the car will stop completely — in the case of long cloud periods when driving. Read the rest of this entry »
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Author: Brenda Williams
Fuel efficient vehicles are the way of the future. Interestingly enough, Toyota has the majority of these fuel efficient vehicles taking charge of the fuel efficient and Hybrid car market. According to tests, these vehicles are ten of the most energy and fuel efficient vehicles – which decrease greenhouse gas emissions and save money at the pumps, giving the driver two satisfactions.
Honda Insight is a vehicle that has a 3 cylinder engine with a 1L vehicle. This vehicle has fuel costs as low as $400.00 per year with 60 miles to the gallon in the city and 66 miles to the gallon highway.
Toyota Prius has an engine size of 1.5 L and an automatic transmission. This 4 cylinder vehicle can be driven for an approximate price of $466.00 per year that gets 60 miles per gallon throughout normal city driving. The Prius has been popularized by green celebs, namely Leonardo Dicaprio and Cameron Diaz.
Honda Civic Hybrid is a 4 cylinder vehicle with a variable automatic transmission that receives 48 miles per gallon when driving in the city and comes with annual fuel costs of approximately $541.00.
Volkswagen Jetta, as well as the Beetle and the Golf are all very earth and wallet friendly choices of vehicles. With a five speed manual transmission, they get about 36 miles per gallon when driving in the city and 46 while driving on the highway. Read the rest of this entry »
What can’t be said about driving in the dark? It’s inherently more dangerous than driving during the day because there is less light to illuminate our pathways. Years and years ago, people didn’t bother going out at night because they didn’t have cars. They had horses and buggies and kerosene lamps: hardly the equipment that you’d want for a midnight run to the coffee shop! Nowadays, however, and with the invention and progression of technology, we live in a much more mobile society. Living in this lap of luxury affords us the opportunity to get up in the middle of the night and drive across the country if we want to. However, driving in the dark is still just as dangerous- if not more dangerous- than it was all those years ago.
If you are comparing and contrasting driving today with traveling years ago, you have to take at least one thing into consideration: there were a lot less people back then. Today, we live in a society where there are massive cities jammed with millions of people, and most of these people own cars. It certainly doesn’t take a genius- just the keen observer- to notice that each and every day between the hours of 7am to 9am and between 3pm to 6pm, we cram ourselves onto the highways to get to and from work. It’s simply a fact of life now. If there were a way to magically reduce the number of people on the roads so that we could coast along as we liked, I’m sure someone would have already thought it up. All of this is suffice to say that driving during the day is dangerous in and of itself because there are so many people now. As an alternative, many people who are going on long road trips or who need to get somewhere other than work will opt to leave at night because they know that most people are sleeping versus behind the wheel of a car. Read the rest of this entry »
By: Colin Jones
If you are considering a hybrid vehicle, you may be hearing quite a bit of “gossip”. Some people think the hybrid car is the best thing on the market. Some people say it’ll just pass. Yet other people again say they think they can save a packet, but you’re not sure it’s really worth it. What’s the truth, and how do you separate fact from fiction with all of the stuff that is being thrown at you? Below, you can read and consider the usual hybrid vehicle myths.
Hybrid cars are just the same as electric cars: This is untrue because hybrid cars are fuel-powered for the most part. But they have what are called ‘battery assists’. The assist is powered by a nickel-metal hydride battery pack that is rechargeable.
You are guaranteed to save money with a hybrid car: If you are doing town driving, you may economize on gas and you may not. The same goes for long-distance driving. There are so just many different factors involved. It has been said that if everyone bought a hybrid car, the fuel consumption would decrease by just 10%. That’s not a very big decline, now is it? Read the rest of this entry »
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By: Brenda Williams
Fuel efficient vehicles are the way of the future. Interestingly enough, Toyota has the majority of these fuel efficient vehicles taking charge of the fuel efficient and Hybrid car market. According to tests, these vehicles are ten of the most energy and fuel efficient vehicles – which decrease greenhouse gas emissions and save money at the pumps, giving the driver two satisfactions.
Honda Insight is a vehicle that has a 3 cylinder engine with a 1L vehicle. This vehicle has fuel costs as low as $400.00 per year with 60 miles to the gallon in the city and 66 miles to the gallon highway.
Toyota Prius has an engine size of 1.5 L and an automatic transmission. This 4 cylinder vehicle can be driven for an approximate price of $466.00 per year that gets 60 miles per gallon throughout normal city driving. The Prius has been popularized by green celebs, namely Leonardo Dicaprio and Cameron Diaz.
Honda Civic Hybrid is a 4 cylinder vehicle with a variable automatic transmission that receives 48 miles per gallon when driving in the city and comes with annual fuel costs of approximately $541.00. Read the rest of this entry »