The first place in the ranking of 2013 was confidently taken by a hybrid Toyota Prius C, pushing to the second place Honda FitEV. How could a gasoline-burning hybrid be greener than a completely emission-free electric car?
The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a non-profit organization from the USA, recently published its annual list of the greenest cars. Despite the fact that the rating is called the "green ten", the number of cars in it is greater. Obviously, this is due to the fact that different manufacturers have models that are very similar in terms of the minimum degree of impact on environment.
The first place in the ranking of 2013 confidently took Toyota hybrid Prius C, pushing the Honda Fit EV to second place. How could a gasoline-burning hybrid be greener than a completely emission-free electric car? It's all about arithmetic.
Each position in the rating is justified by "green" points, which are calculated according to a certain formula. In it, ACEEE takes into account both smog and greenhouse gases emitted by vehicles and companies that produce electricity to charge electric vehicle batteries.
In addition, when determining positions in the ranking, the energy required for the production of vehicles and the environmental impact of disposal at the end of the life of the vehicle and its components are taken into account. The economic indicators were not left without attention.
As a result of these calculations, a small-capacity hybrid came out on top with 58 points. Toyota hatchback Prius C with 1.5 liter engine. Its energy efficiency rating is 53 miles per gallon of gasoline (4.44 l/100 km).
Fully electric car Honda Fit EV scored one point less, 57. It does not use any fuel, and is not able to drive a single mile per gallon, liter or ton of gasoline. Instead of liters of hydrocarbon fuel, an electric car consumes kilowatt-hours of electricity. At one kilowatt-hour, the Fit EV is capable of running 3.9 miles (6.28 km) in the city and 3.1 (4.99 km) on the highway. A fully charged battery lasts for up to 80 miles (128.75 km).
Places from third to fifth were taken by cars that scored the same number of points - 55. The Toyota Prius with a 1.8-liter engine and a rechargeable Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid is followed by Honda hybrid Civic. Profitability indicators turned out to be decisive in the distribution of positions.
The next two positions behind a unique pair of cars with exclusively engines for the ranking internal combustion. They turned out to be Mercedes-Benz Smart ForTwo and Scion IQ. With the same score as the Jetta, these miniature cars lost to her in terms of fuel consumption.
Electric Ford Focus Electric and hybrid Toyota Prius V took 10th and 11th positions with the same number of points - 52. The ranking is completed by the tandem hybrid cars Ford Fusion / Ford C-Max, owners of the largest internal combustion engine of 2.0 liters. Their score is 51 points.
electric car
Electric car- a car powered by one or more electric motors, rather than an internal combustion engine. An electric car should be distinguished from cars with internal combustion engines and electric transmission and from trolleybuses. Subspecies of an electric vehicle are considered to be an electric car (a cargo vehicle for movement in closed areas) and an electric bus (a bus with battery traction)
hybrid car
hybrid car- a highly economical car driven by an "electric motor - internal combustion engine" system (hereinafter referred to as the engine), powered by both fuel and electric battery charge. The main advantage of a hybrid car is reduced fuel consumption and harmful emissions. This is achieved by complete automatic control operating mode of the engine system using the on-board computer, starting from the timely shutdown of the engine during a stop in traffic flow, with the possibility of continuing the movement without starting it, exclusively on energy battery, and ending with a more complex recuperation mechanism - using an electric motor as a generator electric current to recharge batteries.
Main article: Electric car on solar panels
Usually, silicon wafers with a rough surface are used for the production of solar cells, which allows them to better capture the rays of sunlight falling on the battery from different angles. Despite the fact that silicon wafers are very widely used in modern microelectronics, their cost is too high for the mass introduction and commercialization of solar cells.natural gas car
Refueling a car with gas
Main article: Gazo fuel system car
gas fuel system- the fuel system of an internal combustion engine modified to use compressed or liquefied gases as fuel.
Flexible fuel vehicle- can run both on gasoline and on a mixture of gasoline and ethanol, and in flexible proportions (from 5% to 95%). The car has one fuel tank, adaptation to composition fuel is achieved due to the original design of the engine or due to the structural modification of the conventional gasoline engine internal combustion.
Fuel cell transport
Hydrogen transport – various vehicles using hydrogen as fuel. These can be vehicles with both internal combustion engines and hydrogen fuel cells.
airmobile
Tata/MDI OneCAT
airmobile A car that uses compressed air to move. Pneumatic vehicles use a modified version of the conventional four-stroke motor. Pneumatic motors also allow you to take advantage of the advantages of electric motors - regenerative braking systems: in pneumatic hybrids when braking by using the engine as air compressor, the air is compressed and the tank is filled with it.
Means of recovery and conservation of energy
Regenerative braking
Regenerative braking- the organization of braking, in which the kinetic energy of the vehicle is not dissipated in the form of heat, as usual, but is again used for movement. Regenerative braking is widely used on electric locomotives and electric trains, where, when braking, electric motors begin to work as electric generators, and the generated electricity is transmitted through a contact network either to other electric locomotives or to the general power system through traction substations.
Flywheel
Flywheel- a heavy rotating disk used as a storage (inertial accumulator) of kinetic energy. When using a flywheel, mechanical energy does not require conversion into other types of energy; losses associated with such conversions can be avoided. On the other hand, the flywheel quickly loses energy due to the fact that its rotation is hindered by the friction force.
Production
To combat environmental pollution in Europe, more and more stringent environmental regulations emissions harmful substances for cars. According to the plans of EU Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas, the average carbon dioxide emission by 2012 should be reduced from the current 163 to 120 grams per kilometer.
Everyone is working on the creation of environmentally friendly cars major automakers- from Peugeot and Audi to Ferrari (Ferrari 599 Hybrid) and Rolls-Royce (102EX Phantom Experimental Electric). It is significant that even companies from China, where so far few people care about environmental protection, are beginning to invest huge amounts of money in the creation and development of lines of "green" cars. And this is fully justified, since today the key to the main world markets, along with quality, safety and affordable prices, becomes the "environmental friendliness" of cars.
Automakers compete with each other both in an effort to save as much as possible non-renewable energy resources, and in minimizing the negative impact on the environment. And if earlier no one moved beyond concepts, now companies are moving from statements and experimental samples to the mass implementation of their developments.
Promotion
The "alternative" automotive sector is growing slowly, but at a steady pace. Demand ecological cars formed even before the current crisis and has not died out, despite the long-term decline in oil prices. Today, in the light of the fight against global warming and taking into account the implementation of plans to reduce dependence on traditional non-renewable energy carriers, the governments of many countries use monetary and non-monetary instruments to motivate their citizens to buy "green" cars. However, for the time being, such vehicles are too expensive and inconvenient for everyday use, since all the necessary infrastructure has not yet been created (stations for refueling biofuel and for quick recharging of electric vehicle batteries, service centers etc.).
In general, with regard to stimulating sales of "green" cars, there are three main areas.
Producer and vendor initiatives
Such initiatives are leasing programs(leasing either the entire car or the most expensive elements - for example, batteries or "home" stationary refueling / charging complexes), assistance in the disposal of failed elements (batteries, electric motors), providing free consulting and technical support.
State initiatives (government, local authorities)
The state creates a kind of "compensation package", which, in turn, can be divided into two parts - monetary and non-monetary incentives. Monetary incentives include: a tax credit, grants (government bonus payments to buyers of hybrids or cars that use alternative fuels), tax exemptions when registering a new car, and tolls. Non-monetary incentives include: free parking, free travel on toll roads, free use of special zones ( road lanes for buses or special vehicles).
Company initiatives
The companies' initiatives are to financially support employees who want to buy a "green" car, as well as to reorganize corporate fleet by replacing conventional cars with their "environmental" counterparts. For example, Google provides a $5,000 corporate loan to all employees who have expressed a desire to purchase a hybrid car, including the very popular Prius in the US. And in February of this year, CERN and the Swiss Gazmobil Group announced that they had entered into an agreement for the purchase of 100 vehicles for natural gas for employees of the European Organization for Nuclear Research and the installation of a filling station for this type of fuel in Meyren. And there are more and more such examples every month.
Green ratings
Criticism
Existing on this moment"alternative" technologies are not perfect. "Green" cars do not always justify their name, in some cases becoming even more "pollutant" of the environment than standard ones. gasoline analogues. Indeed, for the production of the car itself (all components and assemblies) and “alternative” energy, due to which it works, as a rule, traditional technological / production chains and non-renewable energy resources are used.
The figures for the most environmentally friendly and most environmentally hazardous vehicles have been calculated and compiled into tables. The study was conducted by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
Any car, even the most environmentally friendly hybrid, causes irreparable harm to mother nature. It's not even that some cars emit more harmful substances into the atmosphere or burn more fuel than other models (but this is certainly the most important factor), but that the environment suffers in one way or another during the production of vehicles. Of course, the risks for this are minimized, automotive companies invest hundreds of millions and billions of dollars to improve production processes, update technologies and machines, trying to achieve the highest production efficiency with the least possible damage to nature. And this brings its weighty fruits, it is impossible to even closely compare the factories of the past with the factories of the present in terms of this indicator.
But research organizations would not be such if they did not try to find shortcomings in the work of the structures under study. This time, American experts have selected a group of the most machines that have every chance to prove themselves with the best, or with worst side in 2015.
The most merciful to the environment possessed the following technical specifications: almost every one of the six cars in the Top is a plug-in hybrid, the rest are a combination of gasoline / electric hybrid plants, diesels, one even got on the list petrol model, subcompact Mirage.
See also:
Automakers actively developing a new market segment are trying to saturate it with new Technological cars as much as possible, so it is impossible to find any specific brand dominance in the list.
There is a slight advantage in favor of Toyota/Lexus, but it rather remained due to historical reasons, and its technology and foresight of the market trend hybrid cars in the future made the leader for many years. Despite the high results and the inclusion of three models in the list of 12 "greenest", not a single model of Toyota and Lexus won prizes. c, the Toyota Prius Plug-in and CT 200h were marginalized by competitors.
The full research report is available on the organization's website greenercars.org. Here you can view data and estimates for almost all types, makes and models of cars since 2000. We present the most interesting data for 2015.
List of Top 12 green cars in 2015:
Smart ForTwo Electric Drive, 61 points
Chevrolet Spark EV, 59 points
Fiat 500e, 59 points
Toyota Prius c, 57 points
Nissan Leaf, 57 points
Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid, 54 points
Lexus CT 200h, 54 points
Honda Civic Hybrid, 54 points
Honda Civic Natural Gas, 54 points
Mitsubishi Mirage, 54 points
Ford Focus (electric car), 53 points
Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid, 53 points
In addition to the Top 12 Cars, ACEEE has collected data for many more car models and categories. In 2015, distinguished among others: subcompact Honda Fit, crossover Chevrolet Trax, Colorado and GMC Canyon, midsize pickups. These cars also have very good environmental friendliness ratings, so if you don't want to buy a hybrid and are considering conventional combustion options, but at the same time try to care about the environment on the planet, these models can be a good compromise.
As we wrote above, the main criteria for selecting candidates and grading them were the environmental friendliness of emissions, smoke from certain cars, and fuel efficiency. It is these data that have the strongest influence on the formation of the greenhouse effect. But the criteria for the life cycle of a car, from its production to disposal, and how much these processes affect nature were also taken into account.
And so, what about the dirtiest cars of 2015, the list is as follows:
Ram 2500, 17 points
Chevrolet Express/GMC, 18 points
Bugatti Veyron, 19 points
Bentley Mulsanne, 21 points
Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG, 21 points
Mercedes-Benz G550, 22 points
Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, 23 points
Lamborghini Aventador Roadster, 23 points
Toyota Sequoia, 23 points
Lexus LX 570, 23 points
Ferrari FF, 23 points
Nissan Armada, 23 points
It can be seen with the naked eye that the list is made up of the most expensive or most big cars on the planet.
How did the researchers correlate and compare hybrids and hypercars? Let's look at the example of Smart ForTwo Electric Drive and Bugatti Veyron. While the electric Smart will need 0.2 barrels per year, and at the same time harmful emissions will be exactly zero, then Bugatti will use up about 33 barrels in the same period and release about 847 greenhouse gases one mile away. And this despite the fact that expensive supercars a very small number of kilometers are driven per year ...
The researchers also warn environmentalists against unreasonable attacks on the owners of cars with internal combustion engines about their non-environmental friendliness, everything is relative. Electricity does not fall from the sky (in a figurative sense, naturally), it needs to be mined, but it is mined, as you know, by methods that are quite destructive for the ecosystem, burning cheap fuel, blocking rivers, using nuclear energy. Impact on the medium is applied in any case.
At the Motor Show in the glorious city of New York, the assembled jury announced the most environmentally friendly clean car 2016 year Toyota Mirai. This development of Japanese engineers uses hydrogen as fuel. According to the voting results, the model took first place. For specialists, this event is not surprising, because Toyota has long been actively developing cars that run on alternative sources fuel.
hydrogen car Toyota Mirai created using unique technologies and deserved to be rightfully considered the most environmentally friendly car in the world. Japanese engineers have come a long way in the development of hybrid cars. Each new model gets rid of the shortcomings of its predecessor and becomes better.
The Toyota Mirai was presented to the general public in 2013 as part of the Tokyo car showroom. The machine is a hybrid vehicle powered by hydrogen fuel. Sales of the car began in 2014. Machine at work power plant does not emit harmful substances into the environment. From exhaust pipe water vapor comes out.
The development of Toyota is considered successful and competitive. At the heart of the creation of the car are unique engineering solutions and development. Appearance car attracts attention with a futuristic design.
The list of countries where car sales began last year is still small. In the near future, the company plans to significantly expand its sales area hydrogen car in the world.
Cautious Japanese took a wait-and-see approach to increase the production volume of Toyota Mirai. High interest in the car and positive reviews critics forced the company's management to force the expansion of the sales area.
According to the International Organization of Automobile Manufacturers OICA in 2014 the number of operated cars in the world was 907 million 20 thousand units.
One car, on average, absorbs up to 4 tons of oxygen per year, emits up to 800 kg of carbon monoxide and 40 kg of nitrogen oxide into the atmosphere. In the world, 3 billion 628 million tons of oxygen are burned annually due to the fault of cars.
Cars emit 725 million tons of carbon monoxide and 36 million tons of nitric oxide into the atmosphere every year (according to the site's calculations). These are monstrous figures and it is not surprising that car manufacturers are actively engaged in reducing the level of harmful emissions in exhaust gases.
For many years, researchers have been struggling to find an alternative to gasoline as the main type of fuel for vehicles. It makes no sense to list environmental and resource reasons - about toxicity exhaust gases only lazy people do not speak. Scientists find a solution to the problem in the most, at times, unusual species fuel. Recycle has selected the most interesting ideas that challenge the fuel hegemony of gasoline.
Biodiesel based on vegetable oils
Biodiesel is a type of biofuel based on vegetable oils, which is used both in pure form and as various mixtures with diesel fuel. The idea of using vegetable oil as a fuel belongs to Rudolf Diesel, who in 1895 created the first diesel engine for vegetable oil.
As a rule, rapeseed, sunflower and soybean oils are used to produce biodiesel. Of course, vegetable oils themselves are not poured into the gas tank as fuel. Vegetable oil contains fats - esters of fatty acids with glycerin. In the process of obtaining "biosolaria", glycerol esters destroy and replace glycerol (it is released as by-product) into simpler alcohols - methanol and, less often, ethanol. This becomes a component of biodiesel.
In many European countries, as well as in the USA, Japan and Brazil, biodiesel has already become a good alternative to conventional gasoline. Thus, in Germany, rapeseed methyl ester is sold for more than 800 filling stations. In July 2010, 245 biodiesel plants with a total capacity of 22 million tons were operating in the EU countries. Oil World analysts predict that by 2020 the share of biodiesel in the structure of consumed motor fuel in Brazil, Europe, China and India will be 20%.
Biodiesel is an environmentally friendly transport fuel: compared to conventional diesel fuel, it contains almost no sulfur and is almost completely biodegradable. In soil or water, microorganisms process 99% of biodiesel in 28 days - this minimizes the degree of pollution of rivers and lakes.
Compressed air
Models of pneumatic vehicles - machines that drive compressed air- released by several companies. Peugeot engineers once made a splash in automotive industry, announcing the creation of a hybrid, in which the energy of compressed air is added to the internal combustion engine. French engineers expected that such a development would help small cars reduce fuel consumption by up to 3 liters per 100 km. Peugeot experts claim that in the city the pneumatic hybrid can move on compressed air up to 80% of the time without creating a single milligram of harmful emissions.
The principle of operation of the “air car” is quite simple: it is not the gasoline mixture that burns in the engine cylinders that drives the car, but a powerful air flow from the cylinder (the pressure in the cylinder is about 300 atmospheres). The pneumatic motor converts the energy of compressed air into the rotation of the axle shafts.
Unfortunately, machines entirely on compressed air or air-hybrids are mainly created in scanty batches - to work in specific conditions and in limited spaces (for example, at production sites that require maximum level fire safety). Although there are some models for "standard" buyers.
Engineair's environmentally friendly Gator microtruck is Australia's first compressed air vehicle to go into the real world. commercial exploitation. It can already be seen on the streets of Melbourne. Carrying capacity - 500 kg, volume of cylinders with air - 105 liters. The mileage of the truck on one gas station is 16 km.
Waste products
What progress has come to - some cars do not need gasoline to run the engine, but human waste that enters the sewer. Such a miracle of the automotive industry was created in the UK. A car was rolled out onto the streets of Bristol, which uses methane, isolated from human excrement, as fuel. The prototype model was Volkswagen Beetle, and the manufacturer of the VW Bio-Bug on innovative fuel is GENeco. The feces-recycling engine installed on the Volkswagen convertible made it possible to drive 15 thousand kilometers.
GENeco's invention hastened to be called a breakthrough in the introduction of energy-saving technologies and environmentally friendly fuel. The idea seems surreal to the layman, so it’s worth explaining: of course, already processed fuel is loaded into the car - in the form of ready-to-use methane obtained in advance from waste products.
At the same time, the VW Bio-Bug engine uses two types of fuel at the same time: the car starts from gasoline, but as soon as the engine warms up and the car picks up a certain speed, the supply of human gastric gas processed at GENeco factories is turned on. Consumers may not even notice the difference. However, the main marketing problem remains - the human negative perception of the raw materials from which biogas is obtained.
Solar panels
The production of cars powered by solar energy is perhaps the most developed area of the automotive industry focused on the use of eco-fuel. Solar-powered cars are built all over the world and in a variety of variations. Back in 1982, inventor Hans Tolstrup crossed Australia from west to east in the Quiet Achiever solar car (albeit at a speed of only 20 km per hour).
In September 2014, the Stella car failed to cover the route from Los Angeles to San Francisco, which is 560 km. The solar car, developed by a group from the Dutch University of Eindhoven, is equipped with panels that collect solar energy, and a 60-kilogram battery pack with a capacity of six kilowatt-hours. Stella has an average speed of 70 km per hour. In the absence of sunlight, the battery reserve is enough for 600 km. In October 2014, students from Eindhoven took part in the World Solar Challenge, a 3,000-kilometer rally across Australia for solar-powered cars, with their miracle car.
The fastest solar-powered electric car at the moment is Sunswift, created by a team of students from the Australian University of New South Wales. On tests in August 2014, this solar car covered 500 kilometers on a single battery charge with amazing for such a vehicle average speed 100 km per hour.
Biodiesel on cooking waste
In 2011 the Ministry Agriculture The United States, together with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, conducted research on alternative fuels. One of the surprising results was the conclusion about the prospects of using biodiesel fuel based on raw materials of animal origin. Biodiesel from fat residues is a technology that is not yet too developed, but is already being used in Asian countries.
Every year in Japan, after preparing the national dish, tempura, approximately 400,000 tons of used cooking oil remain. Previously, it was processed into animal feed, fertilizer and soap, but in the early 1990s, the economical Japanese found another use for it, setting up the production of vegetable diesel fuel based on it.
Compared to gasoline, this custom gas station releases less sulfur oxide, the main cause of acid rain, into the atmosphere and cuts other toxic exhaust emissions by two-thirds. To make the new fuel more popular, its manufacturers came up with an interesting scheme. To everyone who sends ten batches to the RTD plant plastic bottles with used cooking oil, stands out 3.3 square meters of forest in one of the Japanese prefectures.
The technology has not yet reached Russia in such a volume, but in vain: the annual amount of waste from the Russian food industry is 14 million tons, which in terms of its energy potential is equivalent to 7 million tons of oil. In Russia, waste put into biodiesel would cover the need for transport by 10 percent.
liquid hydrogen
Liquid hydrogen has long been considered one of the main fuels that can challenge gasoline and diesel. Hydrogen-powered vehicles are not uncommon, but due to many factors have not gained wide popularity. Although recently, thanks to a new wave of concern about "green" technologies, the idea of a hydrogen engine has gained new supporters.
Several major manufacturers now have in their model range cars with hydrogen engine. One of the most famous examples is the BMW Hydrogen 7, a car with an internal combustion engine that can run on both gasoline and liquid hydrogen. BMW Hydrogen 7 has petrol tank for 74 liters and a storage tank for 8 kg of liquid hydrogen.
Thus, the car can use both types of fuel during one trip: switching from one type of fuel to another occurs automatically, with preference given to hydrogen. The same type of engine is equipped, for example, with a hybrid hydrogen-gasoline car. Aston Martin Rapide S. In it, the engine can run on both types of fuel, and switching between them is carried out intelligent system optimization of consumption and emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere.
Hydrogen fuel is also going to be developed by other auto giants - Mazda, Nissan and Toyota. It is believed that liquid hydrogen is environmentally safe, since when burned in pure oxygen, it does not emit any pollutants.
green algae
Algal fuel is an exotic way to get energy for a car. Consider algae as a biofuel began, primarily in the United States and Japan.
Japan does not have a large supply of fertile land for growing rapeseed or sorghum (which are used in other countries to produce biofuels from vegetable oils). But the Land of the Rising Sun produces a huge amount of green algae. Previously, they were eaten, and now they began to make dressings based on them. modern cars. Not so long ago, in the Japanese city of Fujisawa, a passenger bus DeuSEL from Isuzu, which runs on fuel, part of which is derived from algae. Euglena green became one of the main elements.
Now "seaweed" supplements make up only a few percent of total weight fuel in transport tanks, but in the future, the Asian manufacturing company promises to develop an engine that will allow the use of the bio-component at 100 percent.
In the United States, too, the issue of algae-based biofuels has been closely tackled. Propel's gas station chain in Northern California has begun selling Soladiesel biodiesel to the public. Fuel is obtained from algae by fermentation and subsequent release of hydrocarbons. Biofuel inventors promise a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and a marked reduction in toxicity in other respects.
