in 1997 Toyota put out the very first mass produced hybrid in Japan. It was the Toyota Prius, which didn’t make it here to the US until 2000. And the rest is as they say history.

The history of the hybrid car reaches all the back to the 18th century. When France had a steam powered motor carriage that traveled at 6mph. Then in the 19th century an Englishman made a car with an electric motor and a blacksmith from Vermont made an electric motor powdered carriage.

The 1800s ended with the production of hundreds of electric cars and a German by the name of Porsche manufactured a front wheel drive electric car and then later a hybrid that used internal combustion engine pared with an electric motor. This is probably the first hybrid car on record. This was the trend until Henry Ford created the first assembly line to manufacturer gas powered vehicles.

Surprisingly the US Congress began launching bills in the 1960s that stated that electric vehicles would help curb air pollution and this revamped the interest in the electric car. The tinkering back and forth over gas prices and issues with the early electric cars lead the industry through many ups and downs, but in 1997 Toyota put out the very first mass produced hybrid in Japan. It was the Toyota Prius, which didn’t make it here to the US until 2000. And the rest is as they say history.

Benefits of the Hybrid Cars

Today we can not ignore the fact that emissions from our automobiles are in effect killing our planet. With even better hybrid cars available today it is a wonder as to why many people still struggle with the back and forth trying to out weigh the pros from the cons. In an attempt to help with the here are a few, just a few, of the advantages of having a hybrid car.

1. Hybrid car economy “” plan and simple, it saves you money. The hybrid car can save you 30 miles a gallon because of the combination of the cleaner electric motor working with the long range gasoline engine. The gasoline engine shuts off automatically whenever the car stops, which helps in cutting gasoline consumptions. Once you step on the accelerator the gas engine engages and powers the vehicle.

2. The environment “” hybrids emit lower toxic emissions as compared to your conventional car. This makes the car more environmentally friendly. Some people out there that still think that global warming is a scam and not something that we humans created. Well, it is real, and though most of us adults will not be around long enough to really see the damage that we have done, our children will. Help save the the planet so that there is an earth for them to enjoy. The Toyota Prius reduces tailpipe emissions by 50% compared to a conventional car.

3. In 2005 President Bush signed a bill of tax incentives for those with a hybrid car a huge tax break. The tax break varies depending on two factors, how fuel efficient the hybrid car is compared to a conventional 2002 car of the same weight class and how much gas the hybrid car can save in its lifetime compared to an equivalent conventional car.

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These cars are called plug-in Hybrid Cars. With this car, you will be able to cut fuel consumption by more than half by taking advantage of the hybrid technology that many car manufacturers are now integrating in their new car models. Although plug in hybrid cars have existed for quite some time now, it was only about a few years ago that it was released in the market. Plug-in hybrid cars are cars that combine the gasoline energy and the electric energy to run or to propel the car. Plug-in hybrid cars will enable you to run your car up to a hundred miles per gallon depending on the engine and the battery installed.

If you think that getting a good mileage per gallon is non existent, think again. With the technology being integrated by car manufacturers in their hybrid vehicles, it is now possible. This vehicle has two engines to run your car. One is the gasoline engine and the other is the electric motor. Just imagine a car that has an extension cord that you can plug-in in your home electricity outlet to recharge. You do not even to worry about the cost of your electric bill because the recharging will just be equal to less than a dollar per gallon.

Just imagine a car that has two fuel sources. If one runs out, the car will still be able to run. You do not have to plug in your plug-in hybrid car but if you do, your vehicle becomes an electric vehicle that will be able to run quietly, cleaner, cheaper and more efficient than conventional gasoline powered cars. You have to consider that the gasoline tanks are there for long driving purposes.

However, when you are only driving locally, you do not need to fill your car with gasoline. All you need to do is plug-in your car to your home’s electric outlet and once it is fully charged, your car will be ready to go using the electric motor. Imagine the savings that you can get with a plug-in hybrid car. However, these things are not the only benefits that you can get with plug-in hybrid cars. You will be shocked once you find out about the other benefits that you can get with a hybrid car. If you have a hybrid car, the service cost will tend to be lower because it is mainly electric. Another great thing about plug-in hybrid cars is that it will be able to power your home in case of power outage. It can act as an electricity generator.

Recently, tax incentives have been imposed by the government to hybrid car buyers. This means that as a buyer of a plug-in hybrid car, you will be able to enjoy tax breaks. You will also help improve the condition of the environment because it runs on the cleanest energy source available, which is electricity. This means that the car will produce no toxic emissions when it is running on electricity. Also, when it runs on gasoline, the emissions are also very low because of the small size of the gasoline engine.

These are some of the benefits that you can get with plug-in hybrid cars. So, if you think that you are spending too much on gasoline for your gas-guzzling conventional vehicle, you can start saving money by getting a plug-in hybrid car.

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The major advantages (and since during crisis the one that tends to outshine all the other advantages) of Diesel cars is fuel economy and therefore money saving. If we were to compare it with a vehicle with gasoline engine, we would see that the Diesel car needs far less fuel helping you, on a long term to recover the costs implied by its purchase. Another big pro, sustained by all Diesel cars owners, is driving performance, given by the fact that they deliver much more of their rated power than a petrol engine, givine you the chance to drive quicker from a stop sign, giving you a sensation similar to the one you have when driving a sports car. Still, there’s still a long road to take till technology and mechanics, working together, reach perfection. There are some big minuses, too, that Diesel cars have. The first major inconvenient about Diesel motors is given by its costs. They are more expensive than the gasoline engines, even though, as I have mentioned, those costs can be recovered by the money savings you will make in fuel buying. Another “handicap” would be their weight, since they have much higher compression ratios .Now, for the nature friendly drivers, Diesel’s emission of smelly smoke can be a real problem, not to mention that they are a lot noisier the gasoline engines.

Now, let’s continue climbing this pyramid of the car engine’s technology and make an inventory of the pros and cos of the electric cars. This type of car seems to be any environment concerned driver’s dream. Using one or two motors for propulsion, therefore converting fuel into electricity, they are the less polluting type of vehicles at the moment. That’s not all. If you’re a speed addicted, you will surely appreciate its second major advantage: it can launch from standstill with maximum force, where do you add that, from a mechanically point of view, is much easier to get it repaired. To lower down your enthusiasm, I will have to remind you, though, that you should schedule your driving sessions way in advance, for it will take a while till you get its batteries charged. Also, another issue is represented by the recharging stations’ infrastructure, their high costs, to be more specific, which instantly increases the costs of electricity for the electric cars driven there to recharge their batteries.

We have finally retied the highest position in the hierarchy of car technology, where we can find, nicely displayed, the car of the future: the hybrid car, the one that brings together the energy of the electrical motor with the power of the gas-powered engine. Immediately a thought crosses our minds: it’s the environmental friendly car we have all been expecting, with lower pollution emissions. There’s more! We might be concerned about pollution and CO emission, but we cannot stop thinking about the effect a new car’s purchase might have on our wallet. Luckily, its batteries do not need to be charged by an external source and Hybrid Cars determine a reducing of the dependency on fossil fuels. You might be thinking: since this is the closer to perfection car of our-days, what disadvantages might it present? Well, the first one would be that they are not accessible to everyone, being expensive even from the car lot. The second problem, that we’ve tackled when we focused our attention on Diesel cars, would have to be the engine’s heavy weight. Now, one embarrassing problem and concern for manufacturers would be the high voltage accumulated in its batteries, which diminishes its safety in case of car accident.

In conclusion, dear future buyer, it’s you who decides which is the most important quality from your perspective, the one should prevail in a car: safety, speed, environment safety, costs, reliability etc. There’s no such thing as the perfect type of car, only the newest type of car!

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