Are you planning to buy a car that will not pollute the atmosphere as much as those old gas guzzling ones your friends own? Well, why don’t you look for greener cars? Hybrid cars are the in thing! Yes, it is true, the future has arrived. No more pollution checks, no more petrol pump visits, no more hassles – just plug in your spark plugs. Come let’s take a journey into the awesome world of alternative energy powered cars – tomorrow’s technology today!
Water powered cars have been on the roads since the very first motorized vehicles – or ‘horseless carriages’ as they were called – appeared on the streets in the early 20th century. Being steam driven, they were too slow, noisy and bothersome and not surprisingly were soon driven off the roads by cars with internal combustion engines. Cost of running wasn’t then a barrier either; in those good old days oil prices were only $6 a barrel!
A century later, times have changed – and how! Oil has already touched $145 a barrel. Now that gasoline and diesel are becoming far too expensive, the search for anti-polluting fuel-efficient technologies has taken the auto manufacturing industry by storm. Yes, very soon, you’ll have cars straight out of Star Wars movies! Some viable alternatives have been found, namely, solar, hydrogen, hybrid, bio fuel and water powered cars. The automobile’s circle of life is inevitably bringing it back to the use of water!
First, let’s scan the horizon for alternatives. Solar powered cars are good in theory but seriously not an option, our experts advise you, since these cars do not produce enough horse power which means it is not cost efficient. True, in 2008 a Swiss adventurer drove round the world in a self-designed solar powered car but that’s a one-off case meant for record books irrespective of its hideous cost. Steam power was a historical milestone, but as we saw, outrageously impractical – so they quickly ran out of steam!
Enter the Next-Gen hybrid cars pioneered by Honda of Japan who launched the world’s first hybrid car, Honda Civic, in 2008. Today’s hi-tech hybrid car is a vehicle which runs on a small petrol engine but generally derives power from an electric motor. Ingenious isn’t it? So, when the car is running at high speeds, the electric motor offers the velocity you need, whilst when the car is inching along or is at a traffic light the petrol engine takes over. The carbon emissions are therefore cut down to a negligible amount.
For a while now, hydrogen has been running parallel to hybrid. Extremely environmentally friendly and endlessly renewable, hydrogen seemed the answer but isn’t. It’s horribly volatile, as the Hindenburg disaster (1937) showed. So now, back to water! Water powered cars are moving fast from drawing-board to machine-room. Water contains both hydrogen and oxygen, a huge advantage. Water powered cars are 100% environment-friendly, matched only by horses. Horse carriages, though, are darned difficult to maintain while water powered cars are not. Trust me!