Hybrid Vehicles: A Sustainable Mode of Transportation

www.greencarreports.com

By Daniel Mercurio


Hybrid cars are much better for the environment than traditional vehicles since they burn much less gasoline. In fact, the term hybrid originated from the idea of designing a vehicle that can run on two different sources of fuel. Like a traditional car, hybrids can also run on gasoline. However, the hybrid car burns much less gasoline than traditional cars since they can tap into energy generated from a secondary fuel source such as electricity or hydrogen once the gasoline runs out. The significant decrease in the amount of gasoline burned by hybrid vehicles can have major benefits for the surrounding environment. However, this will only occur if the vehicle is largely integrated into the fabric of society.       

A large enough adoption of hybrid vehicles by society can significantly decrease the large amounts of gasoline burned by traditional vehicles and help preserve the environment. One reason is that hybrid cars achieve better miles per gallon of gasoline burned when compared to traditional vehicles. Another is due to a hybrid vehicle’s use of alternative sources of fuel. The combination of these two factors will result in travelers having to refill their gas tanks much less frequently.

This would have an impact on the amount of crude oil that gets brought up to the earth’s surface via hydraulic fracking practices, which can harm plant and animal species. Moreover, this would also prevent vast amounts of fossil fuel emissions from entering into and contaminating the atmosphere from solely gasoline powered vehicles that emit tremendous amounts of toxins. In fact, survey information acquired from www.bcairquality.ca states, “Cars emit nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and smaller amounts of other pollutants such as Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and ammonia (NH3).”

There will be much less atmospheric pollution as energy efficient cars such as hybrids become more integrated into society. In fact, five U.S. states along with several overseas countries plan to pass regulations that ban the creation of traditional gasoline powered vehicles in the near to mid future. According to Business Insider’s Bryan Logan’s article titled "Eight US states want to ban cars that run on gasoline only by 2050," “In 35 years, California, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, and Massachusetts — plus Oregon and Vermont — will prohibit automakers from selling new gas or diesel-powered vehicles in their states. In addition to those eight states, Quebec, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany and the United Kingdom are vowing to implement similar bans.”