Some Japanese and European automakers think a sensible way to reduce the quantity of pollution in the air is to build hybrid cars.
There are actually fifteen naval ships that deliver more harm to the environment than all 750 million cars that exist on the road today. One single transport watercraft pollutes the same as of 50 million cars. Nevertheless, the interest of all the governments is pointed at the individual vehicles, because they are polluting in the big cities, not in the “green” zones of the oceans. The Japanese designers from Toyota got an inspiration in 1990. They wanted to create a car that’s less damaging to our environment. The Prius was the automobile that was designed to create a revolution, but the cost was also an important aspect that affected the sales.
Despite the fact that the Prius may be breaking sales records in the United States, it has been struggling in the European and Japanese markets. The percentage of hybrid car sales in countries in Europe is almost identical to high end luxury cars at less than 1%.
The acceptance of hybrid cars in Europe hasn’t been readily agreed on like the United States. The buyers are not encouraged to buy those cars and often they are also high priced. The only “incentive” is the removal of a pollution tax. Nevertheless the cost difference between hybrids and regular cars with the same scale are pretty big.
Surveys have demostrated that the type of people who drive hybrids are people like doctors, lawyers and engineers. These types of groups think hybrids desirable because of the low fuel consumption. A good example is the Lexus RX 450h SUV which has 300 horsepower but it uses significantly less gas than your typical 1.4 liter car.
Numerous auto producers today have their unique lines of hybrid cars, like Opel has the Ecoflex, Ford has the EcoNetic line, and Volkswagen has the BlueMotion line. This kind of occurrence is also seen in the case of diesel vs. gas. While diesel trucks and cars use up less fuel per liter than gasoline cars, diesel fuel itself costs more per liter than regular gas. Statistics show that the majority of Europeans want to drive the more highly effective and cheaper gasoline car than a hybrid or diesel car.
In the beginning,Japan and the US weren’t fans of the original batch of hybrid cars, like the Blutec model from Mercedes which were considered toxic. But don’t forget all of the thousands of trucks that are on the streets since the 80′s and how they need to be removed.
The 3rd model of the Prius produces the same CO2 emission as the diesel Smart Car at 89 grams per kilometer but is a much bigger car. Furthermore the Prius is actually the only hybrid that can operate on electricity only for 1 kilometer with a speeds up to 50 kilometers and all for a price of 30,000 Euro.