Hybrid Cars - Introduction

Welcome to our website Hybrid Cars. Here we provide a viable argument for owning a hybrid car. If you have been thinking about dumping your gas guzzling SUV vehicle due to high fuel prices, and instead opt for a more fuel efficient hybrid vehicle, then this site is for you.

Here you will also find a hybrid cars book store. We invite you to browse our book store if you would like to learn more about this interesting topic.

Also, you will find here our chat room about hybrid cars. Since the article here is bound to stir up some opinions about SUVs and hybrid cars, we decided to include a chat room so that those opinions could be expressed. Our chat room allows for an unlimited number of simultaneous users. All we ask is that the conversations within our chat room stay within the realm of hybrid cars, fuel efficiency, SUVs, and related topics.

For completeness, we will also touch briefly on the current trend of developing your own fuel efficiency by using a system which is easily adapted to your current vehicle. This system uses water to produce hydrogen, thereby decreasing the amount of gas needed for combustion. We provide links to further your knowledge about this topic, and leave it up to you to decide if using water is a viable means for fuel efficiency.

In any case, this mini site is mainly about hybrid cars and their attributes, and it is about the importance of frugality within the American society. It is also about why the American car companies should have never pushed gas slurping SUVs on the American public in the first place.

The sentiment across the United States is changing. Americans do not want to buy gas slurping SUVs. This in combination with lack of concessions by auto unions has resulted in one of the greatest business failures in the history of the United States. As I write this update, all three auto makers are pleading with congress for a 25 billion dollar bailout. GM barely has a heart beat, while Ford is doing a little better, and Daimler Chrysler needs life support. The American sentiment is to let them fail. This topic will be included in our discussion.

Why Consider a Hybrid Car?

Lets examine some of the components of the argument against SUV ownership and concomitantly examine why more Americans are not purchasing more hybrid cars. At the onset, when I am talking about SUVs in this article, I am talking about the gas slurping type, and not the more fuel efficient hybrids that have finally come out onto the market place.

Hybrid Cars - Today’s Videos About Hybrid Cars

The gas slurping type SUV has been one of the major contributors to the rising of gas prices. Increase demand, fuel prices go up. Our current high fuel prices is really due to supply and demand. Some people think it is a oil refinery issue in that they feel there is not enough refineries. This is only part of the problem. The fact of the matter remains, no matter what industry you are talking about, if supply is low and demand is high, price will be high. SUVs have done the lion share of the contribution to this demand.

Why not own a hybrid car? There seems to be one major reason why individuals have not taken the leap and buy a hybrid car. Cost. Is purchasing a gas-electric hybrid car financially beneficial? Yes hybrid cars at this point are pretty expensive and many people will opt to purchase a traditional fuel efficient vehicle. It really depends how long you plan on keeping the hybrid car and the type of hybrid car you plan to buy. The best gas mileage for the hybrid cars can be seen in the Toyota Prius, at 48mpg city and 45mpg hwy. If you plan on keeping this vehicle for long term i.e. greater then 5 years, then buying this car makes sense.

American car companies are also producing hybrid cars and hybrid SUVs, but as of 2007, they can not produce hybrid cars which come close to the fuel economy seen in Toyota and Honda hybrids. Yes, I agree that hybrid cars are expensive and they may even cost more to operate during the first five years, but in the long run you save money, and as with most forms of new technology, the prices of the hybrid cars should go down.

The point is you do not even have to purchase a hybrid car to save money on fuel. You can purchase a non-hybrid car from Toyota or Honda and still see substantial savings in fuel costs relative to SUVs. Regardless of your income, Americans need to develop the thinking that intelligent frugality is the way of the future. Not bombastic excess.

American Car Companies Should Have Developed Hybrid Cars Earlier

The American consumer will buy what is marketed toward him or her. So is it really the American consumer’s fault that we have so many gas guzzling vehicles on the roads and not enough hybrid cars in the United States. I believe not. It really is the fault of the American car companies, because of the high level of marketing of the SUV vehicle. American car companies could have developed hybrid cars 10 or 15 years ago but they decided to keep on the same path of pushing SUVs on the American public.

Yes, any viable company needs to make a profit, and the car companies make between $10,000 to $15,000 in pure profit from each SUV. But don’t large corporations have a morale standard to abide by? Should not the American car companies be concerned about what is good for our country with a long term perspective. Given the fact that they kept pushing these gas guzzling vehicles on the American public, it appears as if the American car company executives could not think about moving away from the old ways of doing business.

The American car companies kept pushing SUVs to the American public, and now they can barely remain as a viable business. Only lately i.e. within the past five years have they become more interested in developing hybrid cars, and this is mainly because the development of fuel efficient vehicles, such as hybrid cars, has been mandated by our federal government. American car companies continually lay off workers because they did not see the importance of placing fuel efficiency as one of the most important criteria when developing a car. Only today we are starting to see hybrid cars placed into the market place by the American car companies, after Toyota and Honda placed these into the market place a long time ago.

Currently all big three auto makers are on the verge of going bankrupt and they can only survive if they receive a bailout from the United States federal government. So should the taxpayers bailout a company who could not foresee the need for fuel efficient vehicles. Should the United States government start to go down the slippery slope of socialism, or should we let GM, Ford, and Chrysler fail which would be better for the consumer in the long run. These are questions which start to move outside the purview of this article. In any case, it is obvious that the American car companies should have been developing highly fuel efficient cars earlier then they did, and that the gas slurping SUV in the end may be the curse upon the American car companies.

American car companies need to start thinking about what is good for our country and start marketing to a higher degree hybrid cars, and guess what, they can still sell hybrid cars and fuel efficient vehicles and make a profit, as proven by Toyota and Honda.

Honda and Toyota are doing well, in relative terms. Toyota is the number one selling car company in the world. To put it bluntly, either the people at Toyota and Honda are smarter then the executives of the American car companies, or the American car companies are not able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and start to compete head-on with Toyota and Honda. Many years ago Toyota and Honda had the insight to realize that frugality and fuel economy is really what will win out in the end.

Hybrid Cars Contribute Less to Global Warming

Carbon monoxide emissions are directly proportional to fuel consumption. The heavier the vehicle the higher the fuel consumption. So the monolithic non-hybrid SUV vehicles are greater polluters. The SUV therefore is contributing to global warming to a much greater degree compared to smaller and lighter vehicles. Hybrid cars on the other hand contribute very little to global warming.

Global Warming NASA CENTIGRADE GLOBAL WARMING CHART image from: http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/ The following headlines were recently syndicated to the major newspapers around the country: Earth Warmest in at Least 400 Years It’s Hot, and We’re to Blame Study: Earth’s Temperature Is at a 400-Year High Wired News MSNBC TechNewsWorld USA Today Chicago Tribune

Global warming has increased steadily over the past several decades. SUVs have done their part in the development of global warming. Currently, we only have one planet to live on, therefore is it not prudent to take care of this planet? Sport utilities are heavy vehicles which means they put out a greater amount of carbon monoxide. Excessive carbon monoxide emissions lead to global warming. Hybrid cars on the other hand produce much less carbon monoxide emissions.

The following is interesting statistics on fuel economy and global warming contribution between a typical SUV and a hybrid car:

Image courtesy of Why do SUVs suck?

Too Many SUVs and Not Enough Hybrid Cars

In reality, only 5 percent of SUVs are ever taken off-road, and most of these vehicles are used for everyday driving. The said fact is there are still a lot of them on the road. In 1985, SUVs accounted for only 2 percent of new vehicle sales. In 2001 SUVs accounted for one in four new vehicles sold, and at that time sales were climbing. In 1999, Honda released the two-door Insight, the first hybrid car to hit the mass market in the United States. In 2000, Toyota released the Toyota Prius, the first hybrid four-door sedan available in the United States. During this time, SUV sales were doing well so American car companies kept marketing SUVs to the American public.

Fast forward to 2008, and now we are in a fuel crisis with gas prices sky rocketing and American car companies are doing poorly as a business. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that the heavy SUV usage in this country has played a major role in the development of super high fuel costs.

Yes, I realize that it will take time to get SUVs off the road and concomitantly place more hybrid cars on the roads. The new SUVs produced today can still be on the road for the next 15 or 20 years. But the SUV removal process must be started by discouraging individuals from buying new SUVs and encourage individuals to buy fuel efficient vehicles such as hybrid cars.

I do believe there is light on the horizon. It appears as if the demand for poor fuel efficiency SUVs has dropped. Amercians are starting to realize that frugality is a more desirable human characteristic and not bombastic excess.

It really comes down to doing what is right. Yes, you can purchase what you want with your hard earned money. But we must all display a certain morale standard and do what is right for the long term benefit of our country. Americans hopefully will continue to send a message to American car companies by placing less demand for poor fuel efficiency SUVs and a greater demand for hybrid cars.

For those who want to do something productive which contributes to the removal of SUVs from the American roads, go to the left side navigational bar and there you will find a link to a letter that you can send to your Congressman. The gist of this letter is to encourage the formation of a SUV tax. Heavy SUV usage means greater demand for fuel, which means we all have to pay more at the pump. Should not SUV owners therefore pay their fair share for contributing to the current fuel crisis. As stated earlier in this article, here SUV refers to the gas slurping type, not the fuel efficient and hybrid SUVs that have recently entered the market.

On the left navigation bar you will also find another link to a letter you can send to an American car company. The gist of this letter is to let the American car companies know that as an American, you would prefer that they market fuel efficient vehicles, and not low fuel efficiency SUVs. Go to GM, Chrysler, and Ford, copy paste, and send the letter. Most importantly, hopefully the big three auto makers will learn from their major mistake, and that fuel efficiency should be the underlying foundation of their business model. It has worked for Toyota and Honda.

Using Water to Produce Hydrogen for Fuel Efficiency

Given that fuel prices have skyrocketed, viable alternatives for fuel efficiency are starting to be developed. If you are not ready to purchase a hybrid vehicle, how about using water to produce hydrogen. Using hydrogen fuel for cars is not as difficult as it sounds, nor will it cause your car any harm.

True, there are some scams floating about which are giving people the wrong idea about using water to power your car. These are easy to spot because they will tell you to use water in your fuel tank! This is obviously something you should not do. Hydrogen fuel for cars is a little more technical than that, but the concept is really quite simple. In any case, if you want to expand your knowledge about fuel efficiency, I invite you to learn about this interesting topic. There are a number of ads on this page dealing with this method for fuel efficiency. Click on these ads to learn more about this topic.

Hybrid Cars - Conclusion

In conclusion, we must all do our part in terms of reducing the demand on fuel. Most of us need to drive. If we must drive, we must move away from driving vehicles with poor fuel efficiency and start thinking about what is good for our country. Fuel prices do not need to be so high. Purchase an energy efficient vehicle such as a hybrid car, help bring down the cost of fuel, and concomitantly save money in the long run. Hopefully intelligent frugality is the way of the future for Americans, and not bombastic excess.

Resources:
1) “The Unstoppable SUV,” Keith Naughton. Newsweek, July 2, 2001

2) “Bad Sports”, Paul Roberts. Harper’s Magazine. April 2001
3) Newsweek