The Latest Trend Of Hybrid Cars
Hybrid cars are the craze these days with their advanced features, modern design, and fuel economy leaving fewer impacts on the environment. The latest models of hybrid cars encompass many new trends that are absent in ordinary vehicles. Some of these latest trends are mentioned below:
Fuel Economy
Fuel economy is the ultimate bonus point of a hybrid car. It gives you a lot of leverage on your fuel consumption and the monthly gasoline bills. Although hybrid cars have always been known for their fuel economy capabilities, latest models are more efficient than the older ones. Additionally, they also come at much lower rates as compared to the earliest models of hybrid cars.
The combination of electric motor driver and a gasoline engine helps in a better performance on the road. The electric motor is perfect for a normal driving routine while the gasoline engine can be used on highways and mountainous tracks. The mileage on the electric motor has also been improved in the latest models of hybrid cars.
Design
Hybrid cars have attained an almost unparallel advantage over ordinary cars. The differentiating factor is the availability of sleek designs and modern accessories that come with these vehicles. Most hybrid cars now come with great designs and unique colours. Additionally, they keep the green factor in mind and ensure a complete compliance with the environment safety rules. The designs are thus totally environment friendly.
Exterior
Apart from the modern design, the latest trend in hybrid cars is the inclusion of technology for driving guidance. Parking assistance software, for example, help in a quick parking of a hybrid vehicle, including a complete guidance of difficult parallel parking. The exterior lights are brighter and consume very less energy as compared to an ordinary vehicle.
Interior
The interior of the new breed of hybrid cars is equally plush as is its interior. The modern style seating comes in leather with a high emphasis on the comfort factor. The seats are wider than the older models and are equipped with modern seat adjustment features that are adjusted through a remote control. Entertainment features are also installed including audio system, DVD players and TV screens. One can also install individual LCD screens at the back side of the front seats to give your car a touch of a modern airliner.
Transmission
Transmission system of the latest hybrid vehicles is that it can accommodate eight different speed levels in a quick succession. The brake system of the new breed of hybrid cars is completely based on electronics and gives a better performance on road. The braking is fast, but does not cause an abrupt braking that can injure the passengers or the vehicle.
New models of hybrid cars come equipped with electronic stability controls that help in a better driving experience and increased road safety. They are also equipped with Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management (VIDS) that helps the drivers in controlling the vehicle without any difficulty.
Danny Green is a car specialist. Get latest news and views about Hybrid Cars and compare prices to buy at http://www.lexus.co.uk.
Honda CR-Z Hybrid Sports Car Coming in Fall 2010
The Toyota Prius is such an iconic car that many people believe Toyota was the first company to come out with production hybrids. It was not. Honda was the first, but miscalculated the market and missed out on a huge opportunity. The announcement that the company will be introducing a hybrid sports car, the CR-Z, to the US market in the fall of 2010 is an effort to right that wrong.
The CR-Z is nothing less than a full frontal assault on the hybrid market in the United States. The car is a two-seater that is rumored to incorporate an integrated motor assist system that incorporates a 1.3 liter engine. The CR-Z, which stands for Compact Renaissance Zero, gets its sportiness from both the design and the fact that it is expected to be very light weight.
The initial prototype of the vehicle was shown at the 41st Tokyo Motor Show. It incorporates a longer nose with sleek, banked styling that runs to a higher end, flat rear. If I had to compare it to any other car, it looks like a revved up Honda Insight although with very distinct lines. You can look up images online from the show to see it.
The real beauty of the CR-Z is found in an area that is rarely available in a new, revolutionary sporty car. Yes, I am talking about the price. All indications are Honda is trying to bring this car in to wipe up the market. The proposed retail price is a paltry $20,000. This is the equivalent of a Prius, but with much better lines and performance. Well, at least we think better performance. Honda has released no information on just how sporty the performance will be. Still, one has to imagine it will be better than your average hybrid.
The age of hybrids is in full bloom. The Honda CR-Z seems to fill a niche that has demand these days. With a price in the $20,000 range, it may be a huge hit.
Dirk Gibson is with DCJAutoParts.com – your online clearing house for low prices on aftermarket car parts and accessories.
Toyota Camry Hybrid Review
It is said that as a hybrid the Toyota Camry hybrid does not have the same performance capabilities as the conventional sedan, but I would venture to say that as a moderate recreational driver, this car has all the performance capabilities one would need.
The Toyota Camry Hybrid is a more spacious, luxurious, comfortable version of Toyota’s popular Prius hybrid, with equally impressive fuel economy. The Camry hybrid lacks the aspects of the Prius that some buyers might find off-putting, such as the compact size. The Camry hybrid establishes a perfect balance of fuel economy, ‘green’ living, and a functional family sedan.
The electric qualities of the Toyota Camry hybrid are subtle compared to its counter parts. While driving the Toyota Prius, the driver can tell when the gas engine has shut off and the car’s power is coming from the battery. Likewise, one can also tell when the gas engine has kicked back on, and the car is needing more power than the battery can provide. This is not the case with the Toyota Camry Hybrid. This car offers a smooth, seamless ride. One has to be really paying attention to the engine to determine which source is powering the car.
With the 2008 model’s reduced retail price, and the high gas prices facing our nation, the Toyota Camry Hybrid is a breath of fresh air. As far as I’m concerned, nothing available right now can match the quietness, comfort, and fuel economy of the Toyota Camry hybrid.
Toyota Highlander Hybrid Review
Toyota was one of the first entrants into commercial production of hybrid models, and their Hybrid Synergy Drive is still the industry standard for improving fuel economy and performance in a hybrid car. They’re aiming to stay on top of the heap /and/ expand into other classes with their Highlander model of Hybrid, but do they succeed?
Toyota wisely chose to keep the engine light, pairing their hybrid drive with a 3.3L V6. The result is a car that is a fully functional family-sized SUV, with much better gas mileage than almost any competitor in its class. It feels noticeably larger than the old model, with both storage and seating space improved, but driver reviews and road-tests have consistently reported capable handling and a soft and easy ride that is slightly better than average for this size of SUV. The engine puts out a combined 270hp, which is far from sporty for the size of the car, but gives it an acceleration that is barely below similar sized non hybrid models.
Most impressively though, is the performance and savings in miles per gallon. At 27 city miles per gallon and 25 highway miles to the gallon, it sits comfortably on the higher portions of the curve for SUV fuel economy. The increased city miles over highway is not unusual in this class of hybrid car. The engine takes more advantage of the hybrid drive at lower speeds, and has more power from recovering the energy of frequent breaking.
For the family that wants to be environmentally responsible, but still be able to pack everyone and everything they need into a roomy SUV, the Toyota Highlander is a hard choice to beat.
Used hybrid values have "fallen off a cliff"
As we’re sure you’ve noticed every time you’ve gone to refill your gas tank in the last few months, gas is once again relatively cheap. Just under a year ago, the price for a gallon of fuel was about double what it is today in most parts of the country, and those high costs were driving the sales of hybrids – both new and used – to record levels. Now? Well, not so much. According to Kelley Blue Book , used hybrid prices have fallen by an amazing 23.5 percent since last summer, and 4.5 percent of that has come in the first two months of 2009. It’s not just fuel prices that are causing hybrid values to plummet. Due to the lack of discretionary spending money and despite the savings on each tank of gas, the extra cost associated with a hybrid at the time of initial purchase is something that many buyers are unwilling to consider. Perhaps there’s a positive side to this story. Buyers looking to get a good deal on a used hybrid should have plenty of options to consider. Then, when the price of fuel inevitably climbs back up, you can laugh all the way to the bank. [Source: USA Today ] Auto Blog: Hybrid , Green Daily Used hybrid values have “fallen off a cliff” originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
See more here:
Used hybrid values have "fallen off a cliff"
Ford CEO Mullaly expects many Fords to be electric in a decade
Click above for high-res gallery of the Ford Focus EV “mule” Ford may have been relatively quiet on the electric vehicle front while General Motors got all the attention for its Chevy Volt series hybrid, but the Blue Oval has come roaring back in recent months. It was revealed in its viability plan submitted to Congress back in December that an electric commercial van would be launched just one year from now followed by an electric car the next year. According to CEO Alan Mulally, that’s just the start. At a conference in California this week, Mulally declared, “In 10 years, 12 years, you are going to see a major portion of our portfolio move to electric vehicles.” Mulally told the conference that internal combustion efficiency will also improve dramatically over the next decade, and more hybrids will join the lineup including a plug-in hybrid that will debut in 2012. Ford is shifting a significant proportion of its truck building capacity to cars over the next two years and the company doesn’t expect truck sales to recover to their previous record heights. While fuel prices are low now, they are expected to climb again as the economy recovers. The shifts to cars and more hybrid and electric vehicles will be necessary to meet both market demands created by those expected higher fuel prices and government mandates for higher fuel efficiency. Gallery: ABG Quick Drive: Ford Focus EV mule Photos Copyright (C)2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc. [Source: Automotive News , sub. req'd] Auto Blog: EV/Plug-in , Hybrid , Ford Ford CEO Mullaly expects many Fords to be electric in a decade originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
Car Blog Greenthe original post:
Ford CEO Mullaly expects many Fords to be electric in a decade
Posted in Auto Green, Hybrids | 
alan mulally, alanmulally, copyright, europe, fordev, fuel, green-daily, mulally, next, over-the-next, photo, program-similar, ricardo, scrapvehicle, sentience | 
Leave a commentGreenlings: How power-split parallel hybrids work
Over the past decade, if there is one word that has become synonymous with green motoring it is hybrid. Ever since Toyota launched the first modern commercially viable hybrid with the original Prius (above) in 1997, over one million of them have hit the roads. Of course, as is so often the case, this overnight sensation was anything but. In fact, the technology was nearly a century in the making. The first known hybrid was developed by the original Ferdinand Porsche back around the beginning of the twentieth century. The hybrid, as we mostly know it today, was actually developed and patented by engineers at TRW in the late 1960s. While most people have by now heard of hybrids and know that they can improve efficiency, few understand how they work. Since the debut of the Prius, most automakers have been working on hybrids and have developed their own variations in an attempt to reduce the cost and/or improve the efficiency. Let’s start (after the jump) with a look the power-split parallel hybrid as popularized by Toyota and Ford. Gallery: 2010 Toyota Prius Continue reading Greenlings: How power-split parallel hybrids work Auto Blog: Hybrid , GM , Mercedes Benz , Toyota , AutoblogGreen Exclusive , Green Daily Greenlings: How power-split parallel hybrids work originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
Car Blog Greenthe original post:
Greenlings: How power-split parallel hybrids work
GM responds to Carnegie Mellon study
Click above for a high res gallery of the 2011 Chevy Volt After reading through the recent study from Carnegie Mellon University that suggested the best compromise between price, performance and environmental benefit would put a 3kWh battery in plug-in hybrids – enough for about 7 miles of electric-only travel – Jon Lauckner, GM’s Vice President Global Program Management, decided that he should weigh in with his own analysis of the situation. The big problems that GM has with CMU’s study are its suppositions on the cost of large-scale battery packs and the omission of the federal tax credits that plug-in hybrids like the Volt will be eligible for. A vehicle that only allows for a 7-mile EV range would not qualify for any credits while the Volt would earn the full $7,500 allotment due to the capacity of its lithium ion battery. What’s more, GM says that CMU is overestimating the cost of the pack that GM will be using for its Voltec powertrain. The Chevy Volt’s 16 kWh of capacity should provide an electric range of about 40 miles, which GM believes will be sufficient for nearly 80 percent of the population to get to work and back on an average day. If the Volt were primarily driven under this 40-mile limit, GM says drivers could recharge the car at night when electricity is cheap and plentiful. After already holding back on hybrid technology once due to cost considerations, GM’s not about to make that mistake again. Gallery: 2011 Chevy Volt [Source: GM Fastlane ] Auto Blog: EV/Plug-in , Hybrid , Chevrolet , GM , Green Daily GM responds to Carnegie Mellon study originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
Original post:
GM responds to Carnegie Mellon study
Posted in Auto Green, Hybrids | back-on-hybrid, carnegie mellon, chevy, chevy-volt, daily, Hybrids, plug in, plug in hybrids, plug-inhybrids, population, university | Leave a commentToyota announces 150 plug-in Prius hybrids are coming to Europe in 2009
Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2010 Toyota Prius Toyota Motor Europe CEO Tadashi Arashima has announced that Europe will get 150 plug-in Priuses this year, followed by another 350 in 2010. These PHEV units will be used for testing purposes and will not be available for the masses. Even better news from ToMoCo: 2012 will see the introduction of an all-electric vehicle. Toyota could use the plug-in help to meet its self-set goal of average corporate CO 2 emissions of 140 g/km, including Lexus offerings, this year and drop to between 120 and 130 g/km before the mandatory limit comes dues in 2015 . Arashima also said that, since the price of diesel cars will climb significantly with the introduction of the Euro V and VI anti-pollution rules, diesel vehicles won’t be as attractive to buyers who might also consider a hybrid vehicle. He did acknowledge that diesels will continue to be significant in European markets. [Source: Automotive News (subs. req'd)] Auto Blog: EV/Plug-in , Toyota , Europe/EU Toyota announces 150 plug-in Prius hybrids are coming to Europe in 2009 originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
Car Blog Greenthe rest here:
Toyota announces 150 plug-in Prius hybrids are coming to Europe in 2009
Posted in Auto Green, Hybrids | a-sample-along-, cars, data, entry, europe, fordtransitconnectev, geneva 2009, introduction, market, median car age, plug-in toyota, transit-connect, year | Leave a commentAt Witz’ End: Detroit Auto Show: Reality Check – Part II
In my first column reality checking the Detroit Auto Show , some of you questioned my assertion that even Toyota’s relatively high-volume hybrids are probably not profitable. Of course, Toyota has lowered the costs of its Hybrid Synergy Drive components over many years and hundreds of thousands of units. But I believe they’re still too high for any Toyota Hybrid – even the Prius or the soon-to-come higher-priced Lexus HS 250h – to turn a profit. I can’t prove it – Toyota is not about to share its cost numbers with me or anyone else – but that’s my opinion, and these are “opinion” columns. Yours may differ, and yours may be right. But I’ll bet no one outside of Toyota knows for sure. What most folks outside the industry don’t see or comprehend are the enormous costs of designing, testing, developing and validating every one of the thousands of parts and pieces that go into every modern vehicle. Beyond the mostly expensive and relatively low-volume hybrid system components themselves are all the Prius’ specific body, chassis, electrical and comfort and convenience parts and pieces, few of which are shared with other vehicles. The addition of the new Lexus HS 250h on the same architecture will help by raising the volumes of parts that are shared, but I doubt whether even that will turn a profit at its higher prices but much lower volumes. Am I suggesting that Toyota is fibbing by claiming that Prius is profitable? It depends on how they calculate their costs. If they add up the costs of all those parts and pieces – including the still very expensive battery, EVT transmission, motors, wiring, control systems and more – and toss in the relatively minor cost of assembly, the total may indeed be less than the Prius’ average selling price. But they would have to discount all those years and huge costs of design, testing, development and validation, which must be spCar Blog Greenout (“amortized”) over hundreds of thousands, even millions, of units. Their business plan has depended on long-term profitability from growing sales of higher-priced luxury hybrids and sales of the Synergy drive system to other OEMs, neither of which has fared as well as hoped. What I don’t understand is why Prius’ profitability seems so important to some ABG readers. If each unit sold does make a buck, bully for them. If not, so what? Toyota’s whole hybrid program is still a hugely profitable investment as one of the best-ever image-building efforts any automaker has ever carried out. Whatever they have spent on it through the years is worth far more than any amount of paid advertising they could have bought for similar money. What should be important to potential owners is whether any EV’s or HEV’s selling price is worth the long-term gas savings it offers, whatever its cost to its manufacturer. That said, let’s reality check some other electrically-powered vehicles showcased at this year’s Detroit North American International Auto Show. Follow us after the jump. Continue reading At Witz’ End: Detroit Auto Show: Reality Check – Part II Auto Blog: AutoblogGreen Exclusive , Detroit Auto Show , Green Daily , At Witz End At Witz’ End: Detroit Auto Show: Reality Check – Part II originally appeared on AutoblogGreen on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green | Car Blog Green
View original here:
At Witz’ End: Detroit Auto Show: Reality Check – Part II
Posted in Auto Green, Hybrids | bluezero, bmw hybrid, bmwhybrid, edag, entry, oled, smart ed, toyota | Leave a commentGet Approved!
Recent Comments