Reasons to Buy an Alternative Fuel Vehicle

There are some good reasons to buying a car that uses an alternative fuel source. One good reason is not relying on foreign countries for our fuel source. Another is less pollution.

Some of the alternative fuel sources for vehicles include the electric/gasoline called hybrid, fuel cell, and Natural gas. Honda, Ford and Toyota all have hybrid vehicles; they are priced in the mid $20,000 to over $30,000 range. They claim they get great gas mileage. The best one for gas mileage is the Toyota Prius with 52 miles per gallon. The car uses the electric part of the engine at a slower speed. When driving on a freeway or in a city it uses both gas and electric plus recharges the battery while driving (Energy Quest, Hybrid Vehicles).

The next type of alternative fuel source would be 'fuel cells.' Fuel cell vehicles will have an electric motor. What happens is the fuel cells "turn hydrogen and oxygen into electricity" and "that powers an electric motor." The fuel cells use oxygen that is in the air and combined it with hydrogen, combined "give off energy and water." No burning is involved. More work is needed to make fuel cell vehicles run more efficiently. This type of vehicle is only in the development stage, and the only ones made are being used for testing. Ford has a demonstration car that they call 'P2000 Sedan.' DaimlerChrysler also has a demonstration vehicle they named it 'NECAR 4' (Energy Quest, Fuel Cell Vehicles).

Another alternative fuel source is compressed natural gas that is being use for vehicles. Natural gas is made from petroleum. This would still make us dependant on fuel because gasoline and diesel are made from petroleum. There are a few cars available that use the compressed natural gas. A couple of the vehicles are the Honda Civic CGX and the Ford Crown Victoria (Energy Quest, Compressed Natural Gas).