Occasionally your car would simply freeze up on the road, you’d have to pull over, wait a while, re-start the car and drive on. You would do this without bothering to complain to the car maker or seller as it’s too much hassle.
Now and again, whilst doing something a little more out of the ordinary – like a three point turn for instance – your car would cut out and be unable to re-start and you’d have to install a new engine. You would accept this too for the same reason re hassle.
Every time the lines on the road were repainted, you would need a new car. This would happen once every three or four years and the re-sale value of your car would be next to nothing.
All new car offers would be unbelievably cheap – but only without the necessary equipment to make them work. Steering wheels, gear knobs, foot pedals and ignition keys would cost 40% as much again as the basic car.
Apple would make available hybrid cars which were a little more to buy, but much faster, twice as reliable, far cheaper to run and which never broke down. But these cars would only be allowed to drive on less than ten per cent of all roads.
Now and again, an expert would service your car, installing new gadgetry which would make it run much more slowly – and crash more often. You would pay handsomely for this service and s/he would make you feel like a complete idiot in the process for not knowing how to do this yourself.
If your car crashed, you would have no idea how or why this happened.
Now and again, without warning, the car would go a lot slower – then whizz along at great speed for a bit.
When signalling right or left, you would first be asked: “Are you sure?”
Strangers would be able to break into your car and steal your stuff as you drove along.
When turning the car off at your house at night, you would have to wait ages for it to lose power.
If Microsoft Built Cars…
Round the world in an EV
In a bid to show how reliable electric vehicles are, three emission-free electric vehicles have completed a round the world trip promoting green energy. The Zero Race began and ended in Geneva. The final leg ended at the UN’s European headquarters in February 2011 – with an Australian three-wheeler, a German scooter and a Swiss motorcycle arriving in convoy.
The journey took a total of 188 days to cover 27,000km (16,800 miles). In all, 80 days were actually spent driving. The course went through 16 countries and the vehicles visited 150 cities to spread the word about renewable energy.
The Zero Race was organised by Louis Palmer, the first person to go around the world in a solar car, called the Solartaxi. Palmer dreamed up the Zero Race as a way to promote renewable energy powered travel to people around the world.
In order to take part, there were strict criteria that the vehicles had to adhere to. They needed to be powered by a 100% electric motor, that itself was powered by 100% renewable energy. The main obstacle during the trip was finding places to recharge in remote or rural areas.
Although none of the Zero Race vehicles could really be described as family cars, they had to be able to carry at least two passengers and have an average speed of 80km/h or above. They also had to be able to travel a maximum of 500km per day, with a recharge stop of four hours over lunchtime.
As the Zero Race was a promotional tour for eco-friendly driving, participating teams received a code of conduct and guidance to ensure a minimum of social and environmental impacts during the 80-day race.
While the vehicles that took part were not production models, there are already plenty of hybrids and electric cars on the road today that are helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by transport.
Cars that run on booze
Did you know that there are certain parts of the world where the cars run on a very potent hooch?
In fact, it’s a legal requirement for them to do so!
The fuel we’re talking about is ethanol – a kind of distilled alcohol just like whisky or brandy etc. The ethanol is produced by fermenting then distilling crops such as sugar cane or potatoes. One of the biggest producers of ethanol as a fuel source is Brazil, due to the predominance of sugar cane in that country and the tradition it has in growing the crop.
In fact, the Brazilian government made it compulsory to mix ethanol with petrol in 1976 and the country remains the world’s main producer of sugar cane.
Ethanol is classed as renewable energy because it is generated by using an inexhaustible resource, namely sunshine! It can then be used as a petrol substitute or, more usually, a petrol additive.
Last year, the world’s ethanol production for fuel reached 22.95 billion U.S. gallons, with America as the world’s biggest producer, followed by Brazil. These two countries are also the world’s biggest consumers of ethanol as a fuel substitute or additive. So if you happen to be visiting Rio on holiday and see what you may think to be environmentally unfriendly gas-guzzling 4×4 cars on the road, it may well be that the cars are actually very “green”.
In the UK, biodiesel is more common than ethanol, though biodiesel is usually made by chemically reacting vegetable oil with alcohol.
The different kinds of alternative ways of fuelling cars are currently competing fiercely for market share. It may be that the eventual solution combines the best elements of many different technologies including electricity as in hybrids, alternative fuels such as ethanol, and possibly solar power.
For the time being, though, hybrid cars in the UK look set to continue to use petrol and to a lesser extent diesel, for the basic fuel source (which then recharges the battery for its power support).
Super speed alternatives
While alternative fuel cars began life as handy little runarounds for use in an urban setting, where top speeds and distance range didn’t ever get above 30 miles, there are now an increasing number of speedy sports cars with green credentials.
Take, for example, the Porsche Boxter E – an all-electric car that can reach a top speed of 124mph. However, given that it has a range of 107 miles you won’t be travelling for long at that speed. The Boxter E can be fully charged from a normal socket in nine hours. In the same way as for hybrid vehicles, energy is recuperated through a regenerative braking system.
Similarly, the Nissan ES Flow can travel up to 150 miles before it needs recharging. It’s a two-seater that gets from 0-60mph in less than five seconds. The ES Flow is powered by an electric motor on each of the rear wheels.
As for hybrid cars, the Honda CR-Z is a sports coupé that combines a hybrid petrol-electric powertrain with traditional sports car looks. It’s a successor to the 1980s Honda CR-X both in name and exterior design. Lexus, BMW and Toyota all now have their own sporty hybrid.
You can also get hybrids that run on a dual power source of hydrogen and fossil fuels. The Mazda RX8 can run on either, and at the push of a button, you can alternate between the two. It has two fuel tanks and using both, you can travel for up to 390 miles. And there’s still enough room for two passengers in the back seat.
So, if you feel like being better to the environment, but yearn for to drive a sports car, it is possible to do both, with an increasing amount of choice. However, the electric sports cars definitely have their limitations, given their restricted range, and hydrogen fuelling stations still aren’t easy to find. Perhaps the petrol-electric hybrid remains the best green sporty option for now.
Adopt an eco-friendly driving style
There are many ways that will allow you to drive in a more eco-friendly fashion, including changing to a
hybrid car or one with an alternative fuel engine. However, if you’re not ready to change your car, you could still make savings both for you and the environment by simply changing a few of your driving habits.
Avoid short trips:
This may be stating the obvious; if you can walk a journey, then you should, but even with
low emission cars , fuel consumption and emissions are higher in the warm-up period, and a car’s catalytic converter is less effective at cleaning the exhaust of pollutants on short trips, so it’s best to use the car only if you’re going a reasonable distance.
Don’t coast:
Although coasting in neutral used to be considered a money saving tip, it can be a bit dangerous because it means you can’t accelerate out of trouble if you need to and you don’t have engine braking ability either. Modern cars with fuel-injection systems save quite a lot, especially in stop-start queuing, as they cut off the fuel supply as you slow to a stop.
Change gear wisely:
You can reduce emissions and save on fuel by avoiding revving the engine too hard. Check the rev counter and choose to change gear early, around 2500rpm for a petrol engine. Remember though, that selecting a higher gear too early will put strain on the engine and waste fuel.
Don’t be a drag!
Make sure your car is free of clutter on the roof; cycle racks, roof racks and boxes just add to the aerodynamic drag that your engine has to fight against, and this increases with your speed. Also remember that having the sunroof and windows open will increase the drag.
Know where you’re going:
You can notch up emissions very easily by getting lost, getting stuck in roadworks or taking a circuitous route. Buying asatellite navigation system could save you fuel, time and reduce your stress levels at the same time!
Audi A3 E-tron discussed
It appears Audi are giving us a glimpse in what can be expected from the A3 in the approaching years. First they launched the tavern idea two weeks back, and this morning they launched the new Audi A3 E-tron idea at the 2011 Shanghai motor show. BMW were first to give their ‘hatch the boot’ with the 1 series and it now appears that Audi are following suit. A smaller, more compact version than the A4 but still with huge likenesses the new A3 E-tron will run an add on hybrid powertrain, turbocharged 1.4 engine which should seemingly produce 208bhp, and an 20kW electrical motor adds an extra twenty-six bhp to the 234 total.
If you would like to believe Audi numbers this may push the A3 E-tron to 62mph in 6.8 seconds and up to a 143mph top speed.The lithium-ion batteries give an Electrical only range of 34 miles but they can be charged by point, or while the automobile is in motion using the gas engine. No word on economy or CO-2 emissions yet. Vis the design, yes it’s striking, the enormous front griddle make it seem mean, even for a tiny vehicle, in reality we like all of the front end, it works very well. But though we find the vehicle visually pleasing, we are definitely a bit disappointed to see that each vehicle in the Audi range will now look similar? The same could be said for BMW. It appears the manufactures are playing it safe with proved designs and just shrinking them a little the interior we like, extraordinarily classic and modern but with the hi-tech twist but everyone knows the inside of the particular new A3 will look like nothing close to this and it is a plain pipedream.
So there we have got it, a new motoring masterpiece? We think not, but do let us know what you suspect.