GoinGreen is the retailer of one of the UK’s best selling electric cars, the environmentally friendly G-Wiz. GoinGreen has just launched an insurance scheme that is dedicated specifically to the G-Wiz car and offers owners of these cars extra advantages on top of normal insurance policies. Read the rest of this entry »
Plug In Vehicle
Toyota and EDF Energy have teamed up to road trial the first Plug-in-hybrid Vehicle (PHV) in the UK that was recently introduced by the car manufacturer. Trials started last month and will be tested in normal driving conditions by employees of EDF Energy for a period up to a year. The first European PHV trials took place in France in 2007, and the new tests will use the same program with aims to improve the PHV technology in future years. The vehicle performance, requirement and driver’s opinions will all be analysed in order to make improvements on PHV technology.
Given the current scenario with Oil reaching the price tag of $135 and inflationary pressures setting in at most places across the world, many countries are taking a serious look at alternative transportation methods. So far, the electric car and its modern Hybrid had been developed with an eye on the environment but even then, the Hybrid car [petrol based] is able to cut emissions by only 30%. It is high time that we used our respective think tanks to come up with a car that is more attuned to provide us with a clean break from liquid fuels and bring alternative means to the center stage.
There are a variety of ideas with regard to alternative fuels, ranging from electric to those based on hydrogen power cells. The last one is still in development and a full sized model is yet to be created. The electric cars seem to be our best bet with regard to this and in that aspect, Hybrid cars certainly have a role to play, sort of an in-between to help us wean away from the gas-guzzlers. But the Hybrids that are in existence are not perfect, for one they do not provide as much mileage as one would like. Take the Audi A3, it provides something like 4.5 litres/100 km where as the Hybrid Toyota’s Pirus gives about 4.4. As you can see there is not much of a difference between the two.
Given that Hybrids are the way to go, the respective companies should start developing Hybrid cars as an alternative to the current models in the market, not just as a means to an end. That means fine tuning the Hybrid model to provide more mileage and the emissions cut, well, that is just a perk to using the car. With Hybrids selling at $32,000, the buyer may not be all that keen to shell out that amount if the gas-guzzlers prove to be more advantageous. Bottom line, when it comes to personal purchases, we all tend to look after only one thing, us. So if Hybrids are the cars to use, then they should prove to be advantageous when compared to any other model in the current market, otherwise, Hybrids may well turn out to be just a pipe dream.
We have all heard as to how good it is to use ‘green’ energy, from the electric batteries to the renewable ones. The latest one to join up with the all green bandwagon seems to be the singer Neil young. Generally when it comes to a green platform or any issue that seems to raise social consciousness, all that the celebrities do is show up, wave around and go home in their ‘gas polluters’. But Neil young decided to put his money where his mouth is, having invested about $120,000 of his own capital, all for the conversion of his 1959 model into an electric car.
This is a most welcome development and showcases the fact that ‘green energy’ is indeed the way to go forward. The singer plans to use his ‘electric’ car as a model to show the world that mass production of cheap variants of the electric car is a possibility. There are quite a few top companies that have already beat Neil to the finish line by revealing cheap hybrid cars, like the latest one to roll off the ‘Tata’ block. But Neil still plods on, having teamed up with Jonathan Goodwin a mechanic from Wichita with a decided flair for re-engineering the power sections of the big cars in order to increase their horsepower.
Neil Young’s 1959 Lincoln Continental convertible is undergoing a transformation of sorts and should become operational at the earliest. Electrical cars are great as they glide along on battery power but one of the major hiccups has been the battery issue. Since there are not that many shops that sell batteries for an electrical car, Neil may have to realize soon that in order to make the electric car universally usable, he may have to talk many of the gas stations to carrying an alternative such as the ‘electrical battery’. The best option for a green car to become viable would be the hybrid version at least for the near future. Maybe Neil will realize this in time and reconvert his electric car to a hybrid one.