“Green” – what does that mean?
Does it mean squeezing the last MPG out of existing technology, or lowering emissions as far as possible, or even developing a recyclable vehicle with minimal environmental impact to produce or dispose of?
Well it is all those things and more yet to come as environmental concerns increasingly push through to the forefront of responsible peoples’ thinking and we all start doing our bit to help save our planet by reducing, reusing and recycling more.
The car and transport is at the frontline of the environmental battle.
Motor manufacturers are busy developing more eco friendly vehicles, not least because of government incentives to do so, but also because to lag behind in the race to be green would be a business disaster.
Forget the environmental side of things for a moment; if you have a choice of two cars with similar space and performance yet one does twice as many miles to the gallon, which would you choose?
With gas prices back at a more realistic sub-$2 level perhaps you don’t care right now but this time last year gas prices were threatening $5 and you probably cared then!
Now if the emissions of that car were considerably lower too, you can give yourself a pat on the back as well as dollars in your pocket for making a sensible choice.
This is the green economic argument – lower costs and lower environmental impact and customers will buy the product.
Honda are at the forefront of the green race and will soon have a complete range of hybrid cars on the market, these use energy wasted in other cars, such as during braking, to top up batteries which are used when additional power is required. This allows a small engine to be used. Emissions are lower than on an equivalent non hybrid car. Additionally the FX fuel cell car is now in production which uses hydrogen to produce electricity and only water as output, the problem with this technology being the requirement to top up with hydrogen so a complete infrastructure would need to be in place to make use of this type of technology viable.
In addition the fully electric car is becoming more available but, apart from the fact that its carbon footprint includes the generation of the electricity used to power it, battery limitations are such that it is only relevant at the moment to short journeys.
