Hybrids used to be a fad that people say was one of those things like that stubborn popcorn kernel stuck in between your teeth that you can’t seem to get out that has to fall out sooner or later. Many saw them as a waste of time and that the rule of the petrol powered vehicle was good for another 50 years or so. Gues what, we don;t have enough oil for the auto manufacturers sell more and more cars everyday adding to the already taxed supply. Oil has become a bargaining chip on the global political scene that a simple lack of production would have devastating effect for some of the most gas reliant economies like the US and many countries of Europe. Oil is the most in demand resource and scientists have been telling us that the supplies are limited and it would only be time before we ran out sending us back to the dark ages without power and cars. Then it came, gas shortages and oil wars that prevents it from flowing steadily to fuel the growth of the many booming economies.
As the problems associated with methanol, LPG, LNG and other hybrids got ever more complicated even affecting the global food shortage, PHEV cars are gaining ground. With gas prices in the US soaring above the $4.00 mark, people are desperate for better more efficient cars. Hybrids are in that can be plugged in to charge their batteries for the next day’s trips as their owners rest. The advent of more efficient batteries such as Lithium Ion types has given the electric car a boost that more prefer Plug-In Electric Hybrids over the other types. Even the stock electrical systems of the Toyota Prius have been overhauled using these revolutionary batteries that have the capability to take you over 100 miles on a single charge.
Li-Ion Batteries are found in most gadgets and gizmos such as cell phones, PDA’s and many other small ones we carry around each and every day. Traditional Lead-Acid batteries have a long charge/discharge cycle and are prone to failure due to several factors such as humidity, temperature and the battery’s previous charge which has a nasty ability to have a short life and some safety concerns about the acids they contain should you get into a crash and they spill it all over the place, you get the picture.
Green cars powered by methanol have been given the boot and plug-in hybrids have taken central stage. The food shortage we are currently experiencing is blamed on these green fuels where farmers saw the potential and stopped planting other food crops concentrating on methanol sources for their crops, the result is not enough food for many people (the Mexicans have even rioted over a shortage of tortillas somewhere) and for something to be totally sustainable, that doesn’t look good. So they throw away the keys and focus on PHEV’s which have toxic batteries but have less impact on the environment (for now or till someone blows the whistle about some hidden problem that is also counter the aim of becoming sustainable).
The small compact has been around for quite sometime and is seen by many as a power packed addition to the Honda line of great cars. The Japanese auto manufacturer has released plans to come up with a hybrid version of their ever popular compact that is causing quite a stir in the auto industry due to the apparent size limitations of the Fit. Honda has long been into research and development of commercial hybrid vehicles with their forays into fuel-cell powered cars but they have yet to come up with a commercially successful product. Hybrids in the US and Japan abound but more of them are of the converted types while Toyota has been a major player in the hybrid technology market since 1997 when they released the Prius which to this day has its loyal fans and detractors. Mainly because of the ugly looks the car has and also due to the fact that it is a hybrid which caught up late into the fight. Gas prices have started to soar and with it at $4.00 or more per gallon, the future for gas guzzlers is truly bleak.
With supply woes on the headlines of everyday newspapers and with the US going into severe economic slowdown, the effects of the problems have started to bite hard all over the globe. Hybrids are the way to go and along with better and more efficient cars that are currently on the market today, the future for hybrids and other auto technologies are truly more of a necessity rather than a fad. The oil crisis has many giving up their rides in exchange for public transport such as trains and buses (some bus fleets in the US and elsewhere have started to use hybrid technologies as well due to high diesel prices which in some cases has been more expensive than gasoline) and with no solution within reach soon, the future is leaning towards hybrids.
The Fit as well ads the many other hybrids that are currently on the roads are making themselves felt within the congested streets of many major cities. Hybrids will make our air cleaner and easier to breathe but it may also correct the congestion we are currently having to deal with on the road.
The Japanese auto maker has surpassed any other hybrid vehicles in the same class and their reaching the 1 million global sale mark solidifies their point. Toyota once challenged Ford’s dominance as the worlds leading car manufacturer in the world and now, they have also taken the seat from the many hybrid manufacturers out on the market. May it be in Europe or in the US, hybrids are seen as one of the most prolific and family friendly hybrids around. In Asia and Japan where the hybrid has been sold for quite sometime already (actually way before the gas crisis hit the US and world markets), many have been seeing the familiar silhouette of the car driving around the streets in major cities. Toyota has continuously improved on their vehicles and technology is one of the areas where the Japanese have excelled promptly finds its way down into the consumer who benefits from such improvements. Other Auto Manufacturers have been on the leading edge of automotive technology with Honda and Mazda taking part of the
Intelligent Transport System (ITS). A form of transportation system where all the vehicles have the capability to determine conditions on blind corners, steep hills and many other information for other sources (Traffic Bureau, etc.) . All these advancements to design highway/road safety systems that aim to augment the drivers ability to make the right decisions and take the right actions as a result.
Toyota Hybrids have been at the head of the pack when it comes to numbers and they are now one of the world’s top car manufacturers in some niches. Ford and other industry giants have kept them on their toes and with a surplus inventory of millions of vehicles as a result of the global economic slowdown, they are seeing quite a slow sales season this year. But their grip on the hybrid market has been established as they continue to lure in drivers in Europe where they have begun to sell their favorite hybrid the Prius as well as hybrid versions of other vehicle types in their arsenal.
With the acceptance of plans for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) has been widely debated and criticized but with many city’s, manufacturers and other groups accepting and formulating their own support infrastructures for future implementation of such types of vehicles a question surfaces in the sense that would the utility companies have enough will to support such technology by 2010, the period when most car manufacturers have signified that they would begin releasing PHEV vehicles to the general public. The utilities companies are the ones who would be bearing the brunt of the strain with the advent of such technologies and proposals like the ones below can make the difference between having a greener electric car future or not. Utility companies should be able to develop smart meters that would prevent charging of such vehicles during peak times to avoid overloading infrastructure that is already in place. The Utility Company cannot simply replace and upgrade all of the transmission and management systems at so fast a pace due to costs which are also quite high. The current level of off-peak surplus energy (electricity) is so much that even today, it is possible to support a very large fleet of electric vehicles. The adoption and use of PHEV’s would or could lessen CO2 emissions by as much as 50% which is great for the environment. Time is still on the side of utilities but they should act soon if the vision of an almost fully electric vehicle market is to take shape. Even with the minor changes required, billions of dollars of commitment from utility companies is needed. These developments are indeed in debate and are being discussed in the Industrialized world but implementation of such systems in the developing world may take longer than targets set by the various environmental groups and governments for cost is still the main deterrent. Tomorrow might see the rise of the PHEV as the main form of transport, but till these issues are addressed, the fate of the move is still in question and time is running out.
There has been much talk into the ability of tomorrow’s smart cars that have the capacity of augmenting the human driver at the steering wheel of all vehicles. While the driver may not be totally eliminated form the total driving experience, there are technologies in development and use that are designed to augment the driver’s abilities with respect to vision, reaction time and collision avoidance. Technologies in development like the ones currently being researched and proven by the Japanese car manufacturer Honda, their ASV and DSSS systems are designed to lay out the future of smart cars that talk to each other and communicate with traffic computers allowing them real time data acquisition form other vehicles.
Additions of vision augmentation such as the ones used by Mercedes that have built in IR emitters that are seen by an onboard camera that allows drivers to see in front of the vehicle and at the rear when parking avoiding hidden dangers that cannot be revealed even with current HID technologies. Adaptive lighting also used by newer Mercedes cars which has servos and sensors that maintains the most amount of light on the road and out of the face of drivers in oncoming vehicles is also making roads safer and better to drive. Blind corner detection which Mazda is developing is also to take part in the development of an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) that would be the framework of tomorrow’s smart roads where cars and drivers are able to gain information form each other and directly form the traffic management people.
Technology has gone a long way in terms of improving the safety and ease at which we drive tomorrow’s cars but the question on how far we would allow these technologies to take over our vehicles is for us to say and many still feel uncomfortable at letting technology rule our lives. That’s why we still have pilots when planes can fly themselves without them and Ship Captains when current high-tech ships can sail on their own. The human ability to react and reason is still the best technology when it comes to risk analysis and no computer can top the intuitive human touch to date.
For almost $4,000.00 that is, the Poulsen Hybrid is a Power Assist Unit that is hailed as a simple bolt on upgrade for standard gas-powered or diesel vehicles. The device has caused a stir and is raising eyebrows for the device simply has the old car retro-fitted with rear DC motors, controllers, on-board charger and storage batteries. The move has the standard vechicle running using electric motors for propulsion on level roads and as with hybrids, switching to the gaspowered engine during high demand conditions like going up hills or when the battery is going flat. The system works by switching to the electric motors after the car has reached a pre-set speed say the cruising speed you select, after which the gas engine halts operation leaving the maintenance of the pre-set speed to the electric motors that gets power from the batteries.
Safety experts are quite concerned at the overall look of the vechile with parts that protrudes from the rear wheels to the trunk but the best part about the idea that makes it interesting is the fact that you don’t need a totally new car to get onto the path to green motoring. New hybrids cost a lot of money and the approach of offering a bolt-on upgrade to save a bit of the gas pump is nice. One European car manufacturer has offered an enticing approch by selling the Think and not the batteries which are kept on lease to eliminate the problems associated with maintenance of batteries which are costly and quite hazardous to the environment. The approach to upgrade existing cars is more realistic that telling a company that has a large fleet of vehicles to simply get rid of all thier cars and get newer hybrids for them to go green. Other options are just not that enticing due to huge investments and often lacking infrastructure limiting their effective range (only certain major cities have support for LPG, LNG and Ethanol Powered Vechiles)
Several reports from consumers have been found to have accidents linked to
old tires being sold at many tire centers across the world. Even newly installed tires that have been manufactured years before they were installed onto vehicles have the potential to fail miserably soon after installation. These tires have long since been in inventories that though they are new have been sitting for as long as 10 years, maybe more in shelves and stocks. Tires like all manufactured goods have a specific timeframe fro them to retain their reliability and for something that is supposed to carry your car as you drive around that becomes a serious matter. Many have died as a result of old tires that have been stripped of treads sending vehicles crashing into everything in its path. Tires that blow out takes away control form the driver for the much needed traction which is the main form of control for all motorized vehicles. Tires that have been sitting on shelves for more than 10 years lose integrity with plies separating and shearing off resulting in accidents.
Tires do have a code to indicate when they were manufactured but they come in
cryptic codes that only the manufacturer knows how to read. Families of people who have died as a result of tire blowouts, wants congress to issue strict laws that would require tire manufacturers to include manufacturing dates on the information stamped on tires and that a ten year limit to be imposed as shelf life for them.
The deaths have to stop and it would only be prudent for these manufacturers who sell millions of these tires worldwide to take measures that allow
consumers to determine the lifespan of their products. Hopefully, these measures would make the Sunday drive safer and people would be assured of safer cars with brand their new tires.
The air-conditioning system if replaced with more advanced designs such as in the compressor which have lighter yet more efficient cooling capability also lowers weight considerably. High strength steel along with advanced adhesives is making thinner sheets of metals perform better as heavier and thicker traditional ones.
One of the heaviest parts of the car asides from the engine is the transmission and power train systems, could be moved to the engine compartment with the conversion of the throttle to a digital along with lighter alloy velocity joints would decrease weight more. All these changes could lower the weight of a car by more than 40 lbs. with a change of wheels from traditional steel ones to aluminum alloys adding 22 lbs to that figure amounting to a total savings of almost 60lbs. Now that’s a lot of weight shaved off a car and that would allow better, more efficient use of expensive fuel. Hybrids would also benefit from all these changes as well as regular cars.
The need for changes such as these is necessary as people want more and more savings in terms of fuel consumption and the ability to shift to hybrids. Experts just wish they had grown with the airline industry that has the best people to ask when it comes to weight to power ratios. With the price of oil at all time high’s the need for more efficient cars with less emissions is the best solution to a growing problem all of us have to face.
Technology is the driving force behind the automotive industry and yes they are some of the first industries to jump in with respect to applications for new materials. One of their main concerns is weight which has an overall impact on the efficiency of a car. It has also been the main deterrent for battery powered cars for the weight of the batteries alone account for a lot of dead weight they themselves consume power. Newer battery and materials has been defined as the trend for tomorrow as the automotive industry seeks to mimic the airline industry with their use of the lightest yet strongest materials available which allows tons of aircraft to fly along with the tons of cargo and fuel.
The most materials that would be seeing use in the cars of tomorrow would be new composite materials, metal alloys such as magnesium and aluminum and of course plastics. In cars, these materials can mean a lot of savings in terms of weight allowing cars to become lighter yet have equal the strength if not greater than traditional steel cars and chassis. The brake system for example uses cast iron calipers which amounts to a lot of weight, using aluminum which is lighter would save weight in that area. The back seat of cars used to have blow-molded foam structures that can be made lighter with the addition of seat cushions which also weight lighter. The floor of the trunk which used to be made from pressed sheet metal can be turned into plastics that are compression molded.
