WHICH color would you rather drive, brown or green?
Brown is the new Ford Excursion, the biggest SUV on the road, as big as a full-size pick-up truck. It gets a staggering eight or nine miles per gallon, meaning you could guzzle an entire gallon of more-expensive-than-ever gasoline just driving to and from the gas station. It spits as much as three tons more pollution out of its tailpipe as the average sedan. Then, there’s trying to squeeze this monster into a garage or parking space.
Green is the new Honda Insight, the first vehicle to break the 70 mile per gallon barrier in federal highway testing. It can travel 600-700 miles between visits to the gas pump, carries five passengers comfortably, and kicks out half as much noxious fumes as that so-called average family sedan. All of this for just under $19,000. No wonder this little green giant has won so many awards from environmental and scientific groups, including the first-ever product award in the 108-year history of the Sierra Club.
Good name, Insight. Mr. Webster defines the word as “mental preparation”. In other words, something to get ready for.
The Insight is a hybrid, a combination gas and electric vehicle that seems to offer the best of both motors. Toyota also has a hybrid, the Prius, similar in size and price to the Honda. In a hybrid, the electric system helps out the internal combustion, or gas, engine when extra power is needed, such as during acceleration. In addition, the electric system recaptures energy normally lost during deceleration, called regenerative braking. The gas engine kicks in at higher speeds, simultaneously recharging the battery. The combination power plant is lighter than a pure electric, and less polluting than traditional gasoline.
Both Honda and Toyota marketed pure electrics, the Honda EV-Plus and the Toyota RAV-4, both small SUVs. Even though they could hit speeds of 70 mph and go 70-100 miles before recharging, they didn’t catch the public’s imagination. Neither did the bullet-shaped two-passenger Saturn EV-1. GM and Honda have stopped producing them.
You’ll be hearing a lot about hybrids, especially if the Insight and the Prius start selling like the proverbial hotcakes. But hybrids are just one of the so-called alternative fuel designs heading to US auto showrooms.
Even as Ford takes an excursion into the super-size SUV, it has invested millions into research and development of hybrid electric vehicles since 1993, based on Ford’s Ecostar electric vehicle, and just announced plans to market a hybrid family sedan by 2003. Ford also sells a pure electric, the Ranger pick-up, and a low-emission natural gas Crown Victoria. There are several dozen CNG, Crown Vic, New York City taxis, and Ford has loaned several CNG Expeditions to the NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation and the Central Parks Conservancy. Chrysler has been tinkering with a CNG version of its muscle car, the Charger, to provide a travel range of up to 350 miles on a single tank, triple the current CNG cruising range.
The big promise, though, may be the fuel cell, and every automaker is investing heavily in research, including GM, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Ford, Volkswagen and Daimler Chrysler. A fuel cell produces electricity silently and without combustion, using hydrogen or methanol as fuel, and the only thing that comes out of the tailpipe is pure water-steam vapor. Zero emissions. No greenhouse effect. No planet-warming gasses. Busses powered by fuel cells are on the road in Los Angeles, Chicago and Vancouver, British Columbia, and Ford and DaimlerChrysler hope to have fuel cell-powered passenger cars on the road by 2003 or 2004.
Check out these new alternative fuel prototype vehicles later this month at the Greater New York Auto Show. Look at the brown cars, but think about the green ones.