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Environmentally Friendly Cars

The Basics of Buying a New One

Buying a new car can be a confusing activity. Add to that trying to be green about it can be downright frustrating. Understanding the basics of environmentally friendly cars can save you money and ensure that you buy the best car for your needs.

Enviromentally friendly cars have come a long way in the last five years. Most major automobile manufactures are selling or developing new alternative technologies for powering their vehicles based on a groundswell of customer demand. There are several options when looking for a car that doesn't guzzle gasoline, including electric, hydrogen-fueled and hybrids.

Electric Cars

Electric vehicles contain large batteries that store an electrical charge. The electric car owner plugs in the vehicle overnight, much like charging a cell phone. The downside of electric cars is that, currently, the technology has not advanced enough to make the electric car affordable or practical for most people. Electric cars require large battery packs which run down quickly. Longer trips on a single charge are impossible. In the future, however, battery pack sizes will shrink and efficiency will increase.

Hydrogen-Fueled Cars

Hydrogen-fueled cars use hydrogen rather than gasoline to power the vehicle. The environmental benefit is that the by-product of hydrogen after using as a fuel is water, rather than carbon monoxide, like conventional gasoline engines. Hydrogen-fueled cars are still in the testing stage and are not generally available to the public but will be in the future.

Hybrid Vehicles

The most widely available environmentally friendly car is the hybrid. Hybrid simply refers to the fact that the car works on two or more different sources of energy. Commercially-available hybrid cars have both a standard combustion engine and an electric engine. The electric engine helps the performance of the gas-fueled combustion engine giving the vehicle higher gas mileage. How the electric engine interacts with the combustion engine depends on the technology and type of hybrid vehicle.

Full hybrid vehicles, like the Toyota Prius and the Ford Escape Hybrid, allow the electric engine to work alone for short distances. This is a great benefit for those who frequently make short trips, such as to the grocery store. When the electric engine only is engaged, the vehicle is practically silent. It takes some getting used to for new full hybrid owners to realize that their vehicle is even running. There are other hybrids that only allow the electric engine to assist the combustin engine. This means that the vehicle always uses gasoline when running, although at a lower rate than a standard vehicle.

Finding the right hybrid vehicle can be confusing because the word "hybrid" isn't standardized. Some cars that simply can automatically turn off the engine at stop-lights and stop-and-go traffic are being marketed as "green" hybrid cars. When in the market to buy a new hybrid vehicle, consumers should do as much research up front as possible then ask the following questions and compare the answers from various car dealers:

1) how many miles per gallon does this vehicle get?
2) when does the electric engine kick in?
3) what car functions power the electric engine? (an efficient hybrid captures energy from both the operation of the gasoline engine and the brakes)
4) are there any dealer or state financial incentives available to purchase a hybrid vehicle?
5) how is this vehicle rated by independent rating agencies, such as Consumer Reports? If the rating is not high, what is the issue?

Buying a new vehicle and being environmentally friendly is possible if you take your time upfront to understand the basics of the technology.