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Alternative Cars And Its Effect On The Environment

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Background Conventional vehicles burn fossil fuels and emit exhaust fumes to the atmosphere. Not only have gasoline vehicles depleted natural resources, they also have caused severe environmental pollutions, especially in some populous nations such as China and India. [1] CO2 is the main contributor of the greenhouse effect. 97% of greenhouse emission is carbon dioxide. And in turn, road transportation has become the largest sector in producing carbon dioxide. [2] Because of the decreasing natural resources and the increasing environmental pollution, scientists focus more on new technologies that can help reduce those consequences. However, even though scientists hope hybrid cars could substitute traditional cars in order to reduce …show more content…

The most apparent difference is that hybrid cars have an internal combustion engine accompanied by an electric motor. When a car is moving at a low speed, the ICE (internal combustion engine) only provides power to the electric motor and the motor drives the entire vehicle. Thus, an electric motor helps reduce fuel consumption as well as car emission. Moreover, a smarter management of power called the regenerative braking system is introduced to hybrid vehicles. It converts kinetic energy to electrical energy during braking so that heat energy due to friction will not be wasted. The electrical energy can be used to charge the storage battery. [4] In addition, the aerodynamics and weight of the car body are carefully considered so the power supplied to drive the car can be lower than usual. Hybrid cars also have an adaptive strategy at traffic stops and idle periods. The engine shuts down so that exhaust will not accumulate at places such as traffic stops.
Apart from technical aspects, governments also take efforts to popularize hybrid cars for home use. In March 2013, the Chinese government extended the subsidy on electrical and hybrid cars for three more years. [3] And in certain traffic crowded cities such as Beijing and Hangzhou, electrical and hybrid cars have privileges on traffic restriction days. Nevertheless, customers still won 't buy hybrid cars because they do not believe that the technology is mature enough to replace traditional ICE cars with new energy

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