hybrid automobiles
In this era, we are facing many environmental issues caused mainly by our treatments to our surrounding. Prices of petroleum are going up rapidly. In 2003, crude oil prices were only 25 dollars per barrel, but this price went up dramatically and in March, 2008 oil prices reached 105 dollars. In this situation, many people are paying this high amount of money to get fuel in their cars. This was the start of the “boom” selling of environmentally friendly, fuel efficient vehicles. In this category, hybrid cars were selling in an extraordinary way. Hybrid cars are vehicles using both electricity and conventional fuel in order to power the car. Now, car companies are considering this technology as the future of the automotive industry.
In this century, buying a hybrid vehicle helps reduce the amount of CO2 in the air and satisfy the buyer’s environmental and oil price concerns. This type of vehicle usually has less noise when driving, creating less noise pollution in the surrounding. By considering this, hybrid vehicles are a perfect choice for the people who have problems with neighbors because of the sound the automobile emits. After buying this type of car, the neighbors won’t have problems with the noise and complaints will vanish. However, there are also negative facts about hybrid vehicles. While you pay less money for the fuel, the prices of the hybrids are more expensive than conventional ones. According to Toyota USA, the normal Highlander Limited has a base price of 32,000 dollars while the Hybrid Highlander Limited has a base price of 40,000 dollars (price as of March 9, 2008). That’s about 8,000 dollars more than the conventional one! By looking at this, it is easy to identify that the car is not a perfect choice for people who are low in budget. Another negative thing about this car is the fact that these cars have less power than the ones powered by fuel. This happens because of the car’s use of an engine using both electricity and gasoline. Electricity is not a power-oriented source for an automobile; and therefore, the vehicle’s energy output is far lower than a car that uses gasoline as its sole source. For this reason, hybrid vehicles are not intended to sell for a wide range of people. Many power oriented minded people would not consider such a car that has a low energy output.
In conclusion, hybrid automobiles are a great choice for people who are concerned about the environment and the ones that are willing to pay the extra money. However, this is not an excellent choice for people who require lots of power in their vehicles and the ones that are low in money.
Information from:
www.wikipedia.org www.toyota.com
Personal thoughts
In the past few years, my parents were considering the Prius, a Toyota made hybrid, for their next automobile. However, they easily erased this choice from their list because of the negative facts of this type of vehicle. First of all, we often travel on rugged roads. A car that lacks the energy required to run smoothly on rugged terrain is not a good choice for these kinds of people. Since I was the first person in the family that suggested this choice, I was disappointed by this decision. I felt like this because I strongly believed that our earth is being damaged severely by the pollutants derived from automobiles. In the future, if people continue like this, our world will soon be filled with disgusting little dangers flowing through the air. It is true that companies are starting to produce some sort of energy efficient vehicle, but if the thoughts of people doesn’t change, a high amount of car pollution will be produced. Currently, a large population of the world is highly concerned about the environment, but there are still some stubborn people who ignore the environmental problem. As stated before, these are the remaining human population that may continue to create pollution and increase the energy consumption in the world. In order to stop the world’s upcoming danger, I strongly believe that every single human being must understand that all people must contribute and know that we are facing environmental problems. In this case, the introduction of hybrid vehicles was a positive action that may be considered as one of the contributions to the alleviation of the pollution problem. Buying this type of car is one way to reduce and help our environment.
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