Transportation is a large concern in today’s modern world. Most individuals have opted to buy vehicles for their personal use. Most of these vehicles consume gasoline and a smaller proportion is hybrid based. These two types of vehicles have many similarities.
The two such vehicles require an energy source and both types of vehicles provide an important function to society. That function is to provide people with a reliable form of transportation. Although these two types of vehicles have many similarities, their differences are what distinguish them. Hybrid vehicles are more cost effective, environmentally sound, and safe than the standard gasoline vehicles in the long run.
Cost is a key factor to consumers in determining what vehicle to purchase. On average hybrid vehicles cost fifteen hundred dollars more than the standard gasoline vehicle. However, this extra expense is well invested. A hybrid vehicle can reach sixty-one miles per gallon, whereas a typical gasoline vehicle can only reach twenty-eight miles per gallon. Currently gas costs two dollars and ten cents per gallon. The average individual can be expected to drive fifteen miles per year.
This amounts to a total gas expense of eleven hundred dollars. If one were to own a hybrid vehicle this expense would eventually pay for the extra fifteen hundred dollars that was required to buy a hybrid car. In two years one would expect to have saved over seven hundred dollars and in three years more than nineteen hundred dollars. With such an incredible long term saving potential, the hybrid car is surely an economically sound choice. In addition, another economical factor that hybrid cars have is a technological mechanism known as “regenerative braking”.
When a hybrid car brakes; the motion of the wheels against the braking mechanism creates heat in the form of kinetic and thermal energy. This kinetic and thermal energy is turned into electricity. This electricity then travels back to the battery source where it is stored until it is needed, or used. In contrast, conventional vehicles use a different braking mechanism.
When a standard gasoline car brakes the wheels are merely dragged to stop turning freely. This friction effect causes the same form of heat found in hybrid cars; however this heat is dispelled into the atmosphere instead of being turned into useable energy. The more an individual uses a hybrid car, the more useable energy is produced for the car to use. Furthermore, the hybrid vehicle is an environmentally life saving decision. Most hybrid cars have been classified as Super Ultra Low-Emission Vehicles (SULEV) or Ultra Low-Emission Vehicles (ULEV).
This means they are fifty to ninety percent cleaner than most gasoline vehicles, and this includes models that have come out on the market today. Conversely, gasoline vehicles consume forty percent of the oil in the United States each day. This consumption is the single cause of twenty percent of the carbon pollution that is causing global warming. Not only are hybrid cars cleaner for the environment but they are also the most fuel efficient.
As noted before hybrid vehicles can reach a fuel efficiency of sixty-one miles per gallon. That beats any gasoline vehicle hands down. Safety is also an important issue in buying a vehicle. Although hybrid vehicles are rated as having the same safety standards as gasoline cars, there is one key advantage hybrid cars have that gasoline cars do not. That advantage is a back up power source. In a standard gasoline powered car, gasoline is the driver’s only source of energy.
Hybrid cars by their very name have two. The advantage of driving a hybrid car is the ability to get safely off the road, even when the electrical generator fails or there is a lack of fuel. If a driver is ever caught in a situation where the gas gauge reads empty, the battery power alone is enough to finish the trip. A feature such as that will give any driver, peace of mind. A dependable form of transportation is often hard to find.
Yet, when a technological advancement comes along such as the hybrid car; society is slow to acknowledge it. If an individual were to choose a vehicle, the hybrid one is surely the better choice.
