When only going green will do
Dear PropellerHeads: I told my husband I wanted a green car for my next vehicle. He looked at me strangely and said green was his least favorite color. Since I clearly can't count on him for help with this one, can you help me?
A: Let's just hope you set your poor husband straight about what a green car is, and that they are available in a multitude of colors. In case you haven't yet, here's a short tutorial.
Green cars, as they're referred to, are cars designed with our environment in mind. Most cars still run on gasoline alone, causing carbon emissions to fill the air that we breathe. With green cars, the emphasis is to create cars that both have high miles per gallon rates as well as lower carbon emissions.
There are many cars now that are considered green. There are hybrid cars that primarily use batteries to power an electric engine with a gas-powered engine as a backup. The Toyota Prius is number one it that category. There are also green cars that combine an electric engine with essentially a gas-powered generator to re-charge the batteries like the Chevrolet Volt. There are electric cars that use no gas and have no carbon emissions like the Nissan Leaf and the new all-electric Ford Focus.
There are issues to consider when buying electric and electric hybrid cars. Primarily, charging stations are not readily available, nor is recharging a quick process compared to filling your tank with gas. They tend to be quite a bit more expensive by comparison to other cars in their size category. And finally, they're not available everywhere. For example, there was not a single Nissan Leaf available to purchase in my mid-sized city. To find green cars available in your state, visit the Environmental Protection Agency site at www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/Index.do.
There are federal tax breaks available for many of the super-green cars to help defray some of the initial cost of the vehicles. They range from $0 to $7,500 based on the number of each of the vehicles sold. Let's just hope your purchase isn't one over the maximum sold such that you get no tax break.
Take a look at the Kelley Blue Book (KBB) rating of the top green cars for 2011 (http://bit.ly/ecVpZC). The list features cars that are hybrids or electric with the Nissan Leaf topping their list as the greenest. The Leaf can travel 73 miles on a charge; that's with NO gas and NO carbon emissions.
However, if you're a bit wary of buying electric or hybrids, there are many cars on the KBB list that still burn gas or diesel but are considered green. Each of them gets at least 31 mpg and has met the EPA standard for considerably lower emissions. Among them is the Ford Focus with an EPA gas rating of 28 city/38 highway. The Volkswagen Golf TDI burns diesel fuel and has an impressive EPA rating of 30 city/42 highway.
Fiat has a green option for 2012 available in the US after having been out of the US market for 27 years, the Fiat 500. This Fiat is getting rave reviews. Let's just hope the Fiat reputation (fix-it-again-tony) of the past is long gone.
I will be looking for a greener option in my next vehicle in the near future. I don't think an electric or hybrid car is for me, as I drive like Mario Andretti, and the greenest car options don't go 0 to 60 nearly quick enough. But thank goodness there are many options available that are also fun to drive and fuel-efficient which will allow me to keep a little more of the green stuff in my wallet ... MONEY, my favorite color of green!
Other options for more fuel efficient and environmentally-friendly cars in the works are cars that use hydrogen fuel cells (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fuelcell.shtml) or cars that operate on natural gas (http://naturalgasvehicles.com/). Expect to see more of these in the not too distant future.
For more information on green cars, take a look at www.greenercars.org. You may want to bookmark that site for your husband!
When the PropellerHeads at Data Directions aren't busy with their IT projects, they love to answer questions on business or consumer technology. Email them to questions@askthepropellerheads.com or contact us at Data Directions Inc., 8510 Bell Creek Road, Mechanicsville, VA 23116. Visit our website at www.askthepropellerheads.com.