Diesel, Hybrid, Flex-fuel…What better???
Posted by admin | Under 2009 Cars Wednesday Dec 5, 2007HYBRID
Gas/electric hybrids use electric motors to assist a gasoline engine in driving the vehicle. In hybrid cars now on the market, the batteries for the electric motor are charged by the gasoline engine and by power recaptured during slowing and stopping of the vehicle.
Vehicle costs: Adds about $2,000 to $3,000, but hybrid models usually have unrelated additional features making it difficult to assess the cost of the hybrid feature alone.
Efficiency: Increases fuel efficiency by anywhere from 25 to 40 percent compared to vehicles with similar-sized gasoline engines.
Fuel costs: Uses gasoline, so reduces fuel costs to the same degree that it increases fuel efficiency
2007 Ford Escape Hybrid
Greenhouse gases: In any vehicle, CO2 emissions vary directly with the amount of fuel burned, so hybrid vehicles reduce CO2 emissions to the same degree that fuel efficiency is improved.
Other pollution: Reduces emissions of other pollutants to the same degree that fuel efficiency is improved, assuming hybrid and non-hybrid vehicles are otherwise the same.
The future: General Motors is working on two new plug-in hybrid vehicles, but it has not set a specific timeline. A plug-in hybrid could have its batteries charged by plugging into an electrical outlet as well as by using power generated from an on-board engine. The first GM vehicle would be a plug-in version of the new Saturn Vue Hybrid. The other would be something like the Chevrolet Volt concept car, where the wheels are driven by electricity alone, and an on-board engine is used only for back-up generator power.
CLEAN DIESEL
Thanks to new emissions cleaning technologies, you’ll be seeing many more diesel-powered vehicles in the U.S. over the next few years. By their very nature, diesel engines offer much better fuel economy than gasoline engines. In Europe, diesels make up about half the market.
Diesels have been scarce in the U.S. because of strict emissions standards that older diesel engines couldn’t meet and because of poor consumer perceptions of diesel engines.
Today’s diesels don’t puff out black foul-smelling smoke like older ones did. Because of other advancements, they don’t make those clanging, rattling noises, either.
Ultra-clean diesel fuel, which has greatly reduced sulfur content, is now available at many gas stations. Like unleaded gasoline, this low-sulfur fuel allows for more advanced emissions cleaning technologies.
Diesel engines cost more to produce than gasoline engines, though, and the need for extra emissions cleaning devices adds even more to the cost.
2007 Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec
Purchase costs: Adds about $1,000 to $2,000 to vehicle cost. It can be difficult to judge final consumer cost since the diesel engine is often not directly comparable to a gasoline engine available in the same model. Unrelated features may also be included in the diesel version, and car companies don’t break out the cost of the engine separately.
Efficiency: Increases fuel efficiency from 12 to 35 percent compared to the same model with a similar-sized gasoline engine.
Fuel costs: Uses ultra-clean diesel fuel, which fluctuates in price independently of gasoline. The engine’s greater efficiency acts to reduce fuel costs, but how much is ultimately saved depends on the price of diesel fuel compared to gasoline.
Performance: If your only experience with diesel engines comes from watching buses and trucks or driving an old diesel car from the 1980s, performance is much better than you think. It is a little different from driving a gasoline-powered vehicle, though. Engine RPMs are lower than with a gasoline engine and the engine sound, while not harsh or noisy, is slightly different, too. But when you step hard on the gas pedal, the turbocharger kicks in quickly. (All modern diesel engines are turbocharged.) With its superior torque - torque gives the pull you feel when accelerating - you’ll be surprised how quick a diesel car can be.
Greenhouse gases: Diesel fuel contains more carbon than gasoline so it releases more C02 per gallon burned. The diesel engine’s greater fuel efficiency, however, means considerably less C02 is released per mile driven compared to a similar-sized gasoline engine.
Other pollution: Even with cleaner fuels and improvements in emissions controls, modern diesel engines still emit more smog-forming emissions than gasoline engines, particularly nitrous oxide.
The future: By 2010, diesel cars will be held to exactly the same EPA emissions standards as gasoline-powered vehicles. Several car companies say they will make cars to meet those standards.
FLEX-FUEL vehicles
Flex-fuel vehicles can run on either gasoline or E85, a fuel that’s 85 percent ethanol, an alcohol made from fermented plant material (in the U.S., it’s usually corn) with 15 percent gasoline. To accept E85, some parts of the engine have to made from materials resistant to the corrosion ethanol can cause.
E85 contains less energy per gallon than gasoline so when sensors in the engine detect that ethanol is being burned they adjust by, among other things, pumping more fuel into the engine. Because of this, vehicles will get about 15 percent lower fuel mileage when burning E85 rather than gasoline.
For now, at least, E85 is almost impossible to find at gas stations outside the central Midwest. Until E85 becomes more widely available, most flex-fuel vehicles will just burn gasoline.
Purchase costs: Adds no cost to the vehicle
Efficiency: When running on gasoline, no difference. When running on ethanol, fuel efficiency is reduced by about 15 percent
Fuel costs: The cost if E85 fluctuates independently of gasoline but, at the moment, it costs less. Because of E85’s poorer fuel economy, though, using E85 exclusively would cost you several hundred dollars more per year, based on EPA estimates.
Performance: No difference when running on gasoline. When running on E85, the vehicle will have a small increase in peak horsepower, but the difference will be undetectable to most drivers.
Greenhouse gases: No difference when running on gasoline; Since a vehicle needs to burn more fuel when running on E85, more CO2 is released. However, there should be little net production of CO2, theoretically, at least, since burning plant-based ethanol releases only carbon that had recently been absorbed by the plants used to make the fuel.
Other pollution: E85 burns more cleanly than gasoline so, in spite of burning more fuel per mile, produces about the same amount smog-forming pollutants as gasoline.
The future: Cellulosic ethanol, which could be made from plant parts not normally used for food, could greatly increase the supply of ethanol, which may allow it to supplant a significant portion of the petroleum-based fuel now used in cars.
[Via - CNN]
