If you just listen to the car manufacturers, hybrid electric cars are the best and innovative invention since slice bread. Although, there many reasons to purchase an electric car, it is of great help to have the understanding of its benefits and drawbacks of hybrid electric cars and in owning these new “green vehicles.

Benefits of hybrid electric cars are normally fuel efficiency because they are composed of two motors, a gasoline motor and an electric powered motor. It is also equipped with special system to catch braking energy and store it on an onboard battery.

The main reason for two motors is both the strength and weakness of the two types. Distinctively, electric motors are not energy during idle times, they turn off and utilizes lesser at low speeds compared to gas motors. On the other hand, gas motors function better at high speeds and can generate more power for a specified motor weight. This simplifies, that in rush hours stop and go driving, electric motors work great and additionally, it helps in reducing smog levels because it does not produce any toxic exhaust. At higher speeds, typically above 40mph, the gas motor sets in and gives that bouncing feel making car owners go forward on driving on highway.

Another benefits of hybrid electric cars are the point for having gas motor, it charges the battery while the engine is on and is running. There are cases of electric car owners that have been stranded with just out extension cord of an outlet. Hybrid owners can neglect this annoyance because the gas motors starts automatically in replacement when the battery gets low and then goes forward to charge the battery, without the need to be plugged into the outlet.

On the contrary, drawbacks of hybrid electric cars are complex and expensive. It contains two motors and ancillary systems to handle them, a heavy battery and a regeneration system that will be used to generate electricity during breaking.

All of the systems need to work together, that is adding complexity, making it one of the drawbacks of hybrid electric cars. Although an ordinary car, as controlled by computers are getting more reliable, but they still suffer from inevitable failures. As, expect owners of hybrid cars have more time in repair shops and pay larger bills.

Indeed, benefits of hybrid electric cars include being the most gasoline efficient, getting 48 to 60mpg. It is only about 20% to 35% better than a gasoline powered vehicle. Let’s take Honda Civic for instance that gets 36mpg. When comparing prices, the hybrid costs from the range of $19,000 to $25,000 and the ordinary gas saver car costs $13,000 to$17,000. The justification to buy an electric hybrid car becomes less clear.

So, in calculation of this benefits of hybrid electric cars, the discrepancy in the average annual fuel bills, $405 for a hybrid Honda Insight compared to the $635 for an ordinary Honda Civic means you can never compensate the added initial cost of a hybrid electric car. For the span of ten years, owning a hybrid will just save you only $2,300, much lesser than the cost difference for equipped cars.

These benefits of hybrid electric cars just came from the improvements in aero dynamics, smaller gas engine and weight reduction. As a matter of fact, any car will have considerably better mileage by just reducing the engine size.

In other cases, car manufacturers are producing hybrid vehicles that use added energy as provided by the hybrid systems to cause the vehicle to boost its power, rather than improve the fuel efficiency. Boosting the power may then add as one of the benefits of hybrid electric cars.

Electric Vehicles | Street Legal Electric Vehicles | Street Legal Electric Cars

EV cars has been in the news for sometime now. Yet many are still unsure if it’s worth it converting their gasoline cars to electric. Let’s take a look at it from another point of view; that of our children.

Clean Air

First and foremost benefit for children would be that great outdoor air they can breathe without damaging their health. Automobiles using internal combustion engines (ICEs) burning fossil fuels are the single largest contributor to air pollution on our planet, that’s air pollution due to gasoline-powered cars. To emphasize on this fact let me quote:

“Components of air pollution include:

Carbon Monoxide (CO) – reduces the blood’s ability to carry oxygen, aggravates lung and heart disease, and causes headaches, fatigue, and dizziness.

 Sulfur Dioxides (SOx) – when combined with water vapor in the air become the major contributor to acid rain.

Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) – cause the yellowish-brown haze over dirty cities, and when combined with oxygen becomes a poisonous gas that can damage lung tissue.

Hydrocarbons (HC) are a group of pollutants that react to form ozone (O3), some HCs cause cancer and others can irritate mucous membranes.

Ozone (O3) is the white haze or smog seen over many cities. Ozone can irritate the respiratory system, decrease lung function, and aggravate chronic lung diseases (such as asthma).

 Carbon Dioxide (CO2), although naturally occurring, can cause problems. In large quantities it allows more sunlight to enter the atmosphere than can escape – trapping excess heat that can lead to the “greenhouse effect” and cause global warming.

Ozone is a toxic gas, but it’s not emitted directly from tailpipes. Ground-level ozone is formed by a chemical reaction between VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and NOx, released from fuel combustion, in the presence of sunlight. Ground-level ozone concentrations can reach unhealthful levels when the weather is hot and sunny with little or no wind. Gasoline and diesel powered cars, trucks, and buses are the major sources of NOx and VOCs.

According to the American Lung Association, ozone is a serious threat to public health. Exposure to high levels of ozone causes significantly higher rates of asthma in children. In pregnant women, it can cause a significantly higher rate of babies with birth defects.

According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), even when taking into account power plant emissions, EVs are 90% cleaner than the newest (model year 2005) and cleanest conventional gasoline-powered car vehicles. “

Drinkable Water

Non-toxic water. The use of petroleum products (including processing, storage, transport and disposal) is the single largest source of water and groundwater pollution in the world. Just take a look at the tons of oils spilled into our great oceans.

 Non-toxic foods
It’s a known fact that landfills pollute the soil. And what’s not commonly known is that car parts are a significant contributor to our landfills. These include disposable parts such as oil filters, air filters, spark plugs, exhaust systems, belts, hoses, distributor caps, etc. And these are all parts consumed by the internal combustion engine. EV cars have no such engines and are therefore non-contributors to land pollution. What about their batteries going to the landfill? Guess what, these batteries never go to landfills. They were recovered and re-used in the production of new batteries*. Now that’s soil for us capable of growing non-toxic fruits and vegetables for our children.

(*The Battery Council International report 1996)

 Fairer Weather

Now we are all aware of the so-called “greenhouse effect”. As mentioned above this is caused by elevated quantities of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. We are also aware that these CO2  came from car engine exhausts. This produces thermal pollution which in turn disrupts our stable weather patterns and causes global climate change. Waste heat from internal combustion engines is a significant source of thermal pollution. Imagine what it would be like if these ICEs were permanently eradicated. Global climate change worries will be no more assuring us of  a brighter future for our children.

 Quiet

Without the engine noise, the loudest part of the car is the tire tread on the road at lower speeds, and the wind noise at higher speeds. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that some 30 million are exposed to daily noise levels that will eventually reduce their ability to hear. One in eight children between the ages of 6 and 19 already have some degree of hearing loss, and adults who are going deaf are doing so earlier and earlier.

 Safety

With proper safety features, such as circuit breakers and fusible links, explosion, fire, and electric shock will be unlikely. Unlike a gas car’s battery, the EV’s battery pack does not use the chassis as a ground. This means that, in an accident, sheet metal protruding into the circuit will not suddenly make the chassis “live”.

All of these facts have been borne out by actual crashes of EVs on the road and on race tracks, as well as in formal crash test conditions.

To learn more about EV’s  just visit my  site and click on the link CONVERT2EV.

Electric Vehicles | Street Legal Electric Vehicles | Street Legal Electric Cars

So you’re thinking of getting an electric car? Well, one of the first things you need to do before getting one is to learn a few basic things about these vehicles — especially with regards to how they run and where they get their power. And like all things electric, an electric car relies on an independent power source — the battery.

A normal car (powered by an internal combustion engine) only needs the battery to start the engine as well as run the air conditioning system and the car stereo. That isn’t the case with electric cars. In fact, the battery used in electric cars runs about everything. When electric cars were first introduced, the primary concern was (and still is) the quality and reliability of the electric car battery, i.e. how long can the battery last before it needs to be recharged. Fortunately, the last few decades has produced significant improvements on how electric car batteries are made. Now we already have nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lead-acid and lithium-ion (Li-ion) types that are rechargeable and readily available in the market.

Compared to normal car batteries, how do electric car batteries fare? Here’s a look at the benefits:

Cost-effectiveness. For five bucks worth of electricity, your electric car can run for more than 300 kilometers. Now if you do the math and compare that with your current gas costs and equivalent mileage, you’ll see that going electric can be quite economic in the long run.

Cleaner & Greener. Although you still need to burn fossil fuels in order to generate the electricity needed to recharge electric car batteries, the pollution produced is very minimal compared to the pollution caused by internal combustion engines. Plus, with better power generation sources like nuclear plants, the level of carbon emissions in the process of recharging becomes even lesser.

Re-usability. Electric car batteries can be reused and recycled. So you don’t need to worry about how you can dispose of your battery pack.

However, like any new technology, electric car batteries are not perfect. Here are the drawbacks:

They’re heavy. Because electric car batteries are designed to provide more power, they need to be connected to battery packs to ensure heavy duty performance. And these battery packs are not light. A battery pack can weigh as much as half a metric ton. But don’t worry, there’s hope — manufacturers are designing electric cars with lighter body frames to offset the battery’s weight.

Recharging time. Unfortunately, there’s no technology available yet for quicker and easier recharging. You still need several hours of downtime before your electric car can run again.

Maintenance. Electric car batteries are still uncommon, which means the number of service stations which can do repairs is still fairly limited, too. And since they’re quite fewer, maintenance costs might be a bit higher, too.

No doubt, electric car batteries are still a work in progress. It has its own set of limitations but there’s still plenty of room for improvement. But in a few years, the new generation of batteries will be lighter, more economical and most importantly, more powerful. That’s certainly a comforting thought.

Electric Vehicles | Street Legal Electric Vehicles | Street Legal Electric Cars

Electric vehicles have been in existence since way back in 1830, and are becoming popular again with so many people being concerned about pollution and the rising cost of gasoline. Electric vehicles have been used for many years in the form of golf carts and have also been used as fleet vehicles by servicemen such as meter readers. However, due to the continued commitment and research efforts of the major car manufacturers, electric vehicles are becoming available today that are practical for normal street use, just as a gasoline powered vehicle would be.

Electric vehicles are popular because, unlike gasoline-powered vehicles, they produce no tailpipe emissions, which are known to cause heavy air pollution. Another reason for their popularity when compared to gasoline powered vehicles is that they actually use 75% of the power generated by the electricity, while a gasoline powered vehicle only uses 20% of the power produced by the gasoline, leaving the other 80% to pollute the air, clog up car components, etc.

While there is not a huge market for electric vehicles at this point in time, there are a number of companies that produce them for various reasons, with one of the reasons being NEV’s. A NEV is also known as a “neighborhood electric vehicle”. These electric vehicles are used in large, gated communities usually, and are normally built to accommodate one or two people. These small electric vehicles can reach speeds of 35 to 40 miles per hour.

In addition to the NEV’s that are available, there are a few car manufacturers that are producing and selling street compatible electric vehicles. The Dodge TEVan, an electric minivan built by the Chrysler Corporation, is currently being marketed to utility corporations with a price tag of approximately $100,000. Other companies that produce electric vehicle prototypes for demonstration purposes only include Honda, GM and Ford.

How an electric vehicle works is quite easy to understand. Since the electric vehicle runs on electricity, or a charge, the battery attached to the vehicle is plugged in prior to use in order for the battery to fully charge. Depending on how low the battery’s charge is, and also on the charging voltage that is used to charge the battery, charging can take anywhere between three and eight hours. Once charged, the electric vehicle will normally run for between 60 and 200 hours before the battery needs to be recharged.

A limited production electric vehicle can cost up to $40,000, however, many models that are available for everyday use can be purchased for $15,000 to $30,000, depending on the make and model, as well as the options that you desire the electric vehicle to have.
There also exists the possibility to transform a regular gasoline powered vehicle into an electric vehicle; this is done by using a conversion kit, which can be purchased for about $5,000. Electrical vehicles are safe for the environment, economically priced, as well as fun to drive.

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Benefits of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles.

Are you considering converting your current hybrid into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle but you’re wondering what the benefits are?

After all, being environmentally friendly is nice, but you should get some more benefits than just saving the planet, right?

Fortunately, there are a lot of benefits that will help you actually save money, not just the planet.

1) Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) can get 100 mpg.

That’s right, if you’re going to use your PHEV for trips like your daily commute and you’ll be driving it less than 50 miles per day, you can get your gas mileage up over 100mpg. For long road trips, it will be less, but since most people take short trips on a day to day basis, you’ll be consuming very little gasoline. Some days your gas engine may not even need to turn on at all – which means no gas consumption at all.

2) PHEVs Are Cleaner Than Gasoline Powered Cars

One thing skeptics like to say about plug-ins is that they’re simply transferring the pollution from cars to power plants. While it’s true that PHEVs are transferring the pollution, it’s not an equal tradeoff. Studies show that using electric power in a vehicle results in 67% less greenhouse gases than using gasoline in a car – even when considering that half the power in this country comes from coal. That’s because large powerplants are far more efficient and are far cleaner than a conventional internal combustion engine.

3) Get cleaner as they get older.

Only PHEVs and 100% electric vehicles actually get cleaner as they get older due to the fact that the electrical grid gets cleaner every decade. A typical gasoline powered car gets less efficient as time goes on and becomes dirtier as it gets older.

4) Cheaper To Run And Maintain

While PHEVs and electric vehicles (EVs) cost more money upfront, they are actually cheaper to run and maintain than a regular non hybrid car. For example, if gas is $3/gallon, the very best non hybrid cars will cost 8 cents per mile for gas and gas guzzlers will cost 20 cents or more per mile. A PHEV, on the other hand, will cost only 2-4 cents/mile during short trips. Or if you’d like another way to look at it, when running on the electric engine, you’re getting the equivalent of 75 cent/gallon gas.

5) PHEVs Reduce Dependency On Foreign Oil

Since the electric grid only depends on oil for 3% of its power, there’s very little dependence on foreign oil when it comes to generating electricity (about half comes from coal). It’s been estimated that if everyone drove PHEVs, we’d need 55% less oil and we could eliminate foreign oil completely.

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