Green Vehicle

Energy efficiency

But car with similar production energy spendings can obtain, during the life of the car (operational phase), large reductions in energy costs through several measures:

• The most significant is by using alternative propulsion:
  • An efficient engine that reduces the vehicle's consumption of petroleum (i.e. petroleum electric hybrid vehicle), or, preferably, that uses renewable energy sources throughout its working life.
  • Using biofuels instead of petroleum fuels.
• Proper maintenance of a vehicle such as engine tune-ups, oil changes, and maintaining proper tire pressure can also help.
• Removing unnecessary items from a vehicle reduces weight and improves fuel economy as well.

Types of green vehicles include vehicles that go fully or partly on alternative energy sources than fossil fuel. Another alternative is to use alternative fuel composition in conventional fossil fuel-based vehicles, making them go partly on renewable energy sources.

Other approaches include personal rapid transit, a public transportation concept that offers automated on-demand non-stop transportation, on a network of specially-built guideways.

Electric and fuel cell-powered

Examples of vehicles with reduced petroleum consumption include electric cars and fuel cell-powered hydrogen cars.

Electric cars are typically more efficient than fuel cell-powered vehicles on a well-to-wheel basis. For this reason, battery powered vehicles are gaining popularity. They have better fuel economy than a conventional vehicle but are hampered by range from a charging unit. The electric car batteries are their main cost. They provide a 55% to 99.9% improvement in CO2 emissions compared to an ICE (gasoline, diesel) vehicle, depending on the source of electricity.

Hybrid cars may be partly fossil fueled and partly electric or hydrogen-powered. They are more expensive to buy but pays back in a period of about 5 years because of better fuel economy.

Solar car races are held on a regular basis in order to promote green vehicles and other "green technology". These sleek driver-only vehicles can travel long distances at highway speeds using only the electricity generated instantaneously from the sun.

Improving conventional cars

A conventional vehicle can become a greener vehicle of a sort by mixing in renewable fuels. Typical gasoline cars can handle up to 15% ethanol. There are some places that have built cars that run strictly on ethanol, but another option is a flexible-fuel vehicle, which allows a varying mixture (often up to 85%, sometimes up to 100%.

Diesel-powered vehicles can often transition completely to biodiesel, though the fuel is a very strong solvent, which can occasionally damage rubber seals in vehicles built before 1994. More commonly, however, biodiesel causes problems simply because it removes all of the built-up residue in an engine, clogging filters, unless care is taken when switching from dirty fossil-fuel derived diesel to bio-diesel. It is very effective at 'de-coking' the diesel engines combustion chambers and keeping them clean. Biodiesel is the lowest emission fuel available for diesel engines. Diesel engines are the most efficient car internal combustion engines. Biodiesel is the only fuel allowed in some North American national parks because spillages will completely bio-degrade within 21 days. Biodiesel and Vegetable oil fuelled, diesel engined vehicles have been declared amongst the greenest in the US Tour de Sol competition.

This presents a problem, however, as biofuels can use food resources in order to provide mechanical energy for vehicles. Many experts point to this as a reason for growing food prices, particularly US Bio-ethanol fuel production which has affected maize prices. In order to have a low environmental impact, biofuels should be made only from waste products, or from new sources - like algae to make biodiesel.

Other

Public transportation vehicles are not usually included in the green vehicle category, but Personal rapid transit (PRT) vehicles probably should be. All vehicles that are powered from the track have the advantage of potentially being able to use any source of electric energy, including sustainable ones, rather than requiring liquid fuels. They can also switch regenerative braking energy between vehicles and the electric grid rather than requiring energy storage on the vehicles. Also, they can potentially use the entire track area for solar collectors, not just the vehicle surface. The potential PRT energy efficiency is much higher than what traditional automobiles can attain. For example, the proposed SkyTran urban transit system proposal includes calculations of cruising drag under 11 horsepower at 100 miles (144 kilometers) per hour, using highly-streamlined magnetic levitation vehicles weighing under 200 pounds (100 kilograms).

Controversy

A study by CNW Marketing Research suggests that the extra energy cost of manufacture, shipping, disposal, and the short lives of some of these types of vehicle (particularly gas-electric hybrid vehicles) outweighs any energy savings made by their using less petroleum during their useful lifespan. Critics of the report note that that the study prorated all of Toyota's hybrid research-and-development costs across the relatively small number of Priuses on the road, rather than using the incremental cost of building a vehicle; used 109,000 miles for the length of life of a Prius (Toyota offers a 150,000-mile warranty on the Prius' hybrid components, including the battery), and calculated that a majority of a car's cradle-to-grave energy gets expended during the vehicle's production, not while it is driven.

Environmental

Vehicle emissions contribute to the increasing concentration of gases linked to climate change. In order of significance, the principal greenhouse gases associated with road transport are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Road transport is the third largest source of greenhouse gases emitted in the UK, and accounts for over 20% of total emissions. Of the total greenhouse gas emissions from transport, over 85% are due to CO2 emissions from road vehicles. The transport sector is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases.

Road transport also remains the main source of many local emissions including benzene, 1,3-butadiene, carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and partuculates matter (PMs). Within urban areas, the percentage of contributions due to road transport is particularly high - in London road transport contributes almost 80% of particulate emissions.

Health

Vehicle pollutants have been linked to human ill health including the incidence of respiratory and cardiopulmonary disease and lung cancer. A 1998 report estimated that up to 24,000 people die prematurely each year in the UK as a direct result of air pollution. According to the World Health Organization, up to 13,000 deaths per year among children (aged 0-4 years) across Europe are directly attributable to outdoor pollution. The organisation estimates that if pollution levels were returned to within EU limits, more than 5,000 of these lives could be saved each year.

Monetary

Many fleet operators of hybrid vehicles have reduced brake maintenance costs, through less use of brake parts due to regenerative braking. The labour costs saved from this maintenance is also significant. As much as 65% of brake related costs have been saved, according to a report by the Toronto Transit Commission.

Hybrid taxi fleet operators in New York have also reported that reduced fuel consumption saves them thousands of dollars per year, as well as reduced maintenance costs.