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Five Great Fuel Efficient Cars On The Market Today

With the price of fuel so high, along with everything else for that matter, many people who are in the market for buying a new car have decided to turn their attention to the most fuel efficient cars on the market today. When cutting back on the amount of driving isn’t possible, many people’s only recourse is to buy a vehicle that uses less gas to go the same distance. With technology continually improving, there are many versatile and full feature automobiles available today that do in fact offer good fuel efficiency.

Women at the gas station filling her car with gasoline

Here are five great fuel efficient cars that are on the market today:

Ford Focus
Though most people associate foreign cars made by the likes of Volkswagen and Toyota with fuel efficiency, the Ford Focus is one of the more fuel efficient cars out there right now. The Ford Focus also has the distinct advantage of being a surprisingly economical car in terms of the cost to the car buyer. Most vehicles that feature great gas mileage tend to cost a bit more too.

Honda Civic
As one of the most economical non-hybrid cars to drive available from any manufacturer, the Honda Civic has proven popular with individuals and families alike. The Civic is particularly popular with those that have sizable commutes to and from work. For those that do want to take the step to better fuel efficiency as well as want to move into an alternatively powered vehicle, the Honda Civic is also available in a hybrid version.

MINI Cooper
Despite it being well known as one of the smaller appearing vehicles on the road today, the MINI Cooper comes packed with a very spacious interior. Even the turbocharged versions of the MINI Cooper are somewhat fuel efficient. There distinctive look combined with their great gas mileage has made them one of the more popular cars today.

Nissan Altima
The Nissan Altima provides things for the prospective owner that they would not expect to find in a fuel efficient vehicle, including a big 2.5 liter engine and a great deal of space. This is one fuel efficient vehicle that doesn’t get labeled as a small car. The Nissan Altima combines great use of space and fuel efficiency to make it a great family car.

Toyota Prius
The most famous of all hybrid vehicles, the Toyota Prius regularly gets gas mileage in the upper 40s and occasionally even into the 50s. The nice part about the fuel efficiency offered by the Toyota Prius is that to achieve it, the car doesn’t sacrifice anything else that the vehicle owner would want. There is plenty of space and luxury inside the Prius and car buyers have shown how great a car it is with their customer loyalty and word of mouth advertising.

Driving a more fuel efficient vehicle is a great way to combat the high cost of fuel, food, and everything else. When money is saved in one area of a person or family’s life, it can be put to better use in another area that is lacking. These five fuel efficient vehicles show that there are options out there for those interested in improving their gas mileage when they buy a new car. Fuel efficient cars are the wave of the future and there are already plenty of great examples available on the market.

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The Electric Mini Cooper, Finally

For years, auto enthusiasts have seen quite a few electric vehicles come out- most of them extremely small with weird styling cues and by companies that are unknown and lack financing. While most car enthusiasts agree- all companies and cars are welcome to make an electric car a reality, one car and one company sat on the sidelines when they should have been leading the effort who you might ask- BMW and their Mini Cooper.

Mini E - Front View

The Mini Finally Goes Electric

Anyone that has seen these tiny, very stylish and trendy cars has probably asked themselves, why not this car for an electric? It’s extremely small, lightweight and has the engineering powerhouse of BMW backing it. Well, your wish has come true- the Mini Cooper is coming out as an E-plug car as early as 2009.

Mini E

While BMW has plenty of projects with alternative energy vehicles, this will be their first product for the US. The Mini E will be sold in limited quantities- about 500 for the 2009 model year. They will be available for sale in only 3 states: California, New York and New Jersey.

Mini E - Side View

Tech Specs of the Mini E

It looks like the Mini E will definitely not disappoint. The car will featured a powerful motor getting about 204 horsepower and offering decent acceleration from 0 to 60 in about 8.5 seconds. The top speed is slow for those looking to take this baby on the autobahn, but at 95 mph, it will be just fine for American roads. Here is the real surprise, with a full battery charge, expect the Mini E to get a fantastic 150 miles, which is much more that practically any other electric plug in is expected to get. For instance the Chevy Volt is only expected to get about 40 miles on a full charge.

The Mini E will use lithium-ion batteries and these batteries will take up plenty of room in the Mini- good bye back seat. The weight for the new Mini E will also increase to about 3,200 pounds, about 700 pounds more than the gas powered version. However, charging the Mini E using a special charging adapter at one’s home will be quite quick at only 2.5 hours. It should be noted that a driver can use a standard wall socket- but this will increase the charging time. Right now no price has been set, but if the US government offers a tax credit, this vehicle may be in the range of a lot of car buyer’s budgets.

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The Chevy Volt Electric Vehicle Unveiled

After several years of record breaking fuel prices, many consumers have demanded action from car manufacturers to deliver vehicles that are more fuel efficient.  One of the earliest vehicles on the market that became incredibly successful due to its fuel economy is the Toyota Prius.  As General Motors saw a big chunk of their market buying Priuses, GM took a bold step and created the Chevy Volt- an all electric vehicle determined to reshape the car industry for the future.

Chevy Volt

The Chevy Volt is a passenger vehicle and similar in appearance to the Prius, however instead of being a hybrid (running both on gas and electricity), the Chevy Volt offers an electric motor powered by Lithium-ion batteries.  It should be noted that a small gas engine may be included (making it also a hybrid), but this gas burning engine will only power up the batteries and not run the vehicle directly.  Slated for sale starting as early as Fall 2009 as a 2010 production model, on September 17, 2008 the Chevy Volt was finally unveiled to the press.

Fuel economy is unknown until more tests are done, however GM has stated that with a full charge in its current configuration, the vehicle can get about 40 miles to a charge.  This is more than most Americans drive in one day and using the small gas engine to charge the batteries, theoretically, you can drive all day long with relatively high fuel economy.

As far as price goes, most industry analysts are expecting the vehicle to be anywhere from the low thirty thousand dollar range to the forty thousand or more.  However, GM is expecting backing from the US government in the form of tax rebates for consumers which may drive down the price further.

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Benefits Of Hybrid Powered Vehicles

With the price of fuel and the increased emphasis on environmentally friendly vehicles, there has been a lot of attention put recently on hybrid powered vehicles. The appeal of hybrid powered vehicles is focused on those that are environmentally concerned, those that are concerned with the price of fuel, and those that are politically concerned with the western world’s dependence on oil. Whatever the reasons, do hybrid powered vehicles really benefit anyone or anything? If so, what are the benefits of hybrid powered vehicles?

There are a number of benefits that hybrid powered vehicles have for a wide variety of people. How many and how important those benefits are is hard to say without seeing who each benefit applies to.

Hybrid Car

Government Incentives
To encourage the public to invest in this new technology there are a number of government incentives that benefit car buyers who purchase a hybrid powered vehicle.

Fuel Efficiency
The most publicized benefit of a hybrid powered vehicle is the savings in gas. With the electric motor portion of the vehicle handling much of the power needs, the car needs less gasoline to create the power needed to move the car down the road. Using less gasoline means the owner will be spending less money on their travel or commute expenses than owners of standard automobiles.

Environmental Benefits
Due again to the electric motor portion of a hybrid vehicle being present, there is less exhaust emissions eminating from a hybrid vehicle than from a standard automobile. An additional benefit would be that with each hybrid vehicle that is on the road there is that much less gasoline being used. This stretches out the usability of the world’s remaining oil resources.

Warranties
Many hybrid vehicles come with fantastic warranties to take advantage of. Some warranties reach all the way up to 100,000 miles or more and even cover the batteries used to store the excess power.

Long Term Value
One of the worst parts about buying a new vehicle is how much the value of it decreases from the moment you drive it off of the car lot and then each year after that as well. Hybrid vehicles have so far shown to hold their values very well in comparison to standard vehicles.

Hybrid powered cars come with a number of benefits that a wide variety of car buyers can take advantage of. The more that this still new technology develops in the future, the more chance that there will be additional benefits to both current and future owners of hybrid vehicles. Based on their success on the roads and in the marketplace, it doesn’t appear that hybrid vehicles will be losing popularity or market share anytime soon.

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Electric Cars

Electric Cars - A New Age Vehicle

One of the biggest benefits of electric cars is that they are environment friendly and cause less of pollution. Also, their feature of energy efficiency has made them much in demand today.

An electric car is powered by either fuel cells or an electric motor. The rechargeable batteries used in electric cars include lead-acid, nickel metal hydride, Li-ion polymer, and lithium ion batteries. The electricity stored in electric car batteries is measured either by coulombs or by ampere-hours. The electric car runs on rechargeable battery that stores electricity in either ultra-capacitors or flywheel. In some electric cars, one can replace the batteries at the filling stations with the fully charged ones.

Electric Car

Enjoy A Ride On Electric Car

The electric car has small motor but it gives modest acceleration as multiple motors are connected to the wheels due to which each wheel helps in propulsion and applying brakes. The electric cars have a unique feature of regenerative braking due to which energy used for acceleration is recovered and this in turn increases the efficiency of the car.

Environment Friendly Cars

Electric cars are environment friendly as they cause less pollution as compared with gasoline-powered cars. It is difficult to judge sometimes that a car is electric or not as only while driving when you hear no engine noise then you realize that it is an electric car. If you have to spend more while buying an electric car then its worth, the money as the cost will be recovered with its energy efficiency with time.

The electric cars are more energy efficient in comparison to other fuel vehicles. A regular car needs servicing and maintenance of the cooling system, gearbox, and engine tuning while there is no such tension withy electric car. The battery should be charged on timely basis for an uninterrupted travel. One should take due care of the battery in case rapid battery discharge happens suddenly as it might cause fume and fire in the car. So, get an environment savvy car that ensures you do not add to the environmental pollution.

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