Fuel Efficient Cars

The FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies (FCVT) Program is developing more energy efficient and environmentally friendly highway transportation technologies that will enable America to use less petroleum. The long-term aim is to develop "leap frog" technologies that will provide Americans with greater freedom of mobility and energy security, while lowering costs and reducing impacts on the environment.

A low-energy vehicle is any type of vehicle that uses less energy than a regular vehicle. The higher efficiency is achieved by a different vehicle design not only power train modifications. The biggest influence on the efficiency however is not the engineering quality but the vehicle specification (top speed, safety reserves & load capacity).

Plug in Hybrid Cars
A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid vehicle with batteries that can be recharged by connecting a plug to an electric power source. It shares the characteristics of both conventional hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles, having an internal combustion engine and batteries for power. Most PHEVs on the road today are passenger cars, but there are also PHEV versions of commercial passenger vans, utility trucks, school buses, motorcycles, scooters, and military vehicles. PHEVs are sometimes called grid-connected hybrids, gas-optional hybrids, or GO-HEVs.

The cost for electricity to power plug-in hybrids for all-electric operation in California has been estimated as less than one quarter of the cost of gasoline. Compared to conventional vehicles, PHEVs can reduce air pollution and dependence on petroleum, and lessen greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. Plug-in hybrids use no fossil fuel during their all-electric range if their batteries are charged from renewable energy sources. Other benefits include improved national energy security, fewer fill-ups at the filling station, the convenience of home recharging, opportunities to provide emergency backup power in the home, and vehicle to grid applications.

As of September 2007, plug-in hybrid passenger vehicles are not yet in production. However, Toyota, General Motors, Ford, and Chinese automaker BYD Auto have announced their intention to introduce production PHEV automobiles. Toyota obtained permission in July 2007 to sell their plug-in Prius in Japan, while BYD Auto expects to introduce their PHEV-60 sedan in the second half of 2008, and General Motors expects to introduce plug-ins in 2009 or 2010. Conversion kits and services are available to convert production model hybrid vehicles to PHEVs. Most PHEVs on the road in the U.S. are conversions of models from 2004 or later of the Toyota Prius hybrid car, which have had plug-in charging added and their electric-only range extended.

Vehicle efficiency and transportation pollution
Fuel efficiency directly affects emissions causing pollution and potentially leading to climate change by affecting the amount of fuel used. However, it also depends on the fuel source used to drive the vehicle concerned. Cars can, for example, run on a number of fuel types other than gasoline, such as natural gas, LPG or biofuel or electricity which creates various quantities of atmospheric pollution.

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A kilogram of petrol, diesel, kerosene and the like in a vehicle leads to approximately 3.15 kg of CO2 emissions, or 2.3 kg/L (19 lb/gal). Additional measures to reduce overall emission includes improvements to the efficiency of air conditioners, lights and tires.

There is also a growing movement of drivers who practice ways to increase their MPG and save fuel through driving techniques. They are often referred to as hypermilers. Hypermilers have broken records of fuel efficiency, averaging 109 miles per gallon driving a Prius. In non-hybrid vehicles these techniques are also beneficial. Hypermiler Wayne Gerdes can get 59 MPG in a Honda Accord and 30 MPG in an Acura MDX.

Hybrid vehicles can conserve petroleum fuel and therefore be more efficient than conventional vehicles.

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The most efficient machines for converting energy to rotary motion are electric motors, as used in electric vehicles. However, electricity is not a primary energy source so the efficiency of the electricity production has also to be taken into account. Currently railway trains can be powered using electricity, delivered through an additional running rail or overhead catenary system. Any pollution produced from the generation of the electricity is emitted at a distant power station, rather than "at site". Some railways, such as the french SNCF and Swiss federal railways, derive most, if not 100% of their current from hydroelectric or nuclear power stations, therefore atmospheric pollution from their rail networks is very low. This was reflected in a study by AEA Technology between a Eurostar train and airline journeys between London and Paris, which showed the trains on average emitting 10 times less CO2, per passenger, than planes, helped in part by French Nuclear generation, which however creates its own waste which air flight does not. So only comparing CO2 is misleading. [8]. This can be changed using more renewable sources for electric generation.

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In the future hydrogen cars may be commercially available. Powered either through chemical reactions in a fuel cell that create electricity to drive very efficient electrical motors or by directly burning hydrogen in a combustion engine (near identically to a natural gas vehicle, and similarly compatible with both natural gas and gasoline); these vehicles promise to have zero pollution from the tailpipe (exhaust pipe). Potentially the atmospheric pollution could be zero, provided the hydrogen is made by electrolysis using electricity from nonpolluting sources such as solar, wind, or hydroelectricity. One advantage of fuel cell vehicles is that they can electrolyze water using their own fuel cells, operating in exactly the same closed-loop fashion as any other rechargeable electric battery.

In any process, it is vitally important to account for all of the energy throughout, i.e., cradle-to-grave. Thus, in addition to the energy cost of the electricity or hydrogen production, we must also account for transmission and/or storage losses to support large-scale use of such vehicles.(wikipedia)

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BEST FUEL ECONOMY TRUCK .COM

Energy Efficient Lights
To save the most energy and money, replace your highest used fixtures or the light bulbs in them with energy-efficient models. If every American home replaced their 5 most frequently used light fixtures or the bulbs in them with ones that have earned the ENERGY STAR, we would save close to $8 billion each year in energy costs, and together we would prevent the greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars.
(source-US Dept of Energy)

Energy Efficient Light Fixtures .com

Energy Efficient Flourescent .com

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FUEL EFFICIENT AUTO TERMS

Alternative Fuels: Generally non-petroleum fuels including compressed natural gas, ethanol, synthetic diesel and hydrogen.
Electric Vehicle: a car or truck that runs on electricity.
Clean Diesel: A type of diesel that has compounds added that greatly reduce emmissions.
Flexable fuel vehicles: Vehicles designed to run off more than one fuel source.
Hybrids: Types of cars that combine two types of fuel source ie electricity and gasoline to make them more fuel efficient
Plug in hybrid: A car that can either run on electricity for a short commute or on all gasoline for longer drives.
PZEV: Partial zero-emissions vehicle - low emissions cars of the future.

Energy Efficiency
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