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Environmentally friendly vehicles
Hybrid electric motor vehicles are the present state of the art in environmentally friendly vehicles. They are propelled by at least one electric motor and an energy converter. They draw the necessary energy from a fuel tank and a storage battery in the vehicle for electricity. The battery is usually loaded by braking force recovery and a direct current generator.
The respective European Union guideline calls this a hybrid electric vehicle. Usually it is called hybrid vehicle, hybrid car or vehicle with hybrid drive. In vehicles such as passenger cars, trucks and buses, the hybrid drive is called also a hybrid engine. Strictly, however, hybrid engines are only combustion engines that exhibit characteristics of diesel and petrol engines.
The hybrid drive is used in series automotive manufacture, where it improves the efficiency and helps to reduce fossil fuel consumption and/or increase power in the low speed range.
In addition to hybrid vehicles, pure electric cars as well as vehicles with fuel cell drives have also been developed. Electric cars are charged from the wall socket. Because the storage capacity of the batteries is not yet comparable with a classical automobile, some electrical mobile have a range extender on board, a small generator that provides the electric motor with energy if the battery is empty (listing of electric refueling stations in Austria).
For vehicles with fuel cells, you refuel liquid hydrogen instead of gasoline. In a chemical reaction the hydrogen in the fuel cell is converted into electricity, which propels then the vehicle. The advantage of fuel cell vehicles is their greater range; however, the production of hydrogen requires large amounts of energy. The fuel cell drive can be seen as environmentally friendly only if the hydrogen is produced by means of renewable energy sources.
The EcoTest
In order to give to consumers clear information about the environmental behavior of cars, the EcoTest was launched by the European automobile clubs with the support of the FIA Foundation. This test applies to all important new auto models that are available on the European market.
The idea behind the test is this: The more consumers select less polluting vehicles, the more the industry is ready to develop and produce such cars.
Test procedure:
The FIA Foundation (world union of the automobile clubs) defined a system of evaluation that merges various pollutants to only one indicator (pollutant valuation) with the FIA EcoTest.
For the pollutant valuation the European-wide valid euro-exhaust standards are consulted. These divide the vehicles into pollutant classes and specify for each class of limit values for Carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons (HC) and particular matter (PM). For CO2 valuation they differentiate individual vehicle classes.
1 Micro car (two seater) Smart
2 Micro car Fiat Seicento, Peugeot 106, VW Lupo
3 Mini car Fiat Punto, Peugeot 206, VW Polo
4 Compact car Toyota Corolla, VW Golf
5 Middle class car BMW 3, Mazda 6, Opel Vectra, Toyota Avensis
6 Upper middle class Audi A6, BMW 5, Mercedes E class, Peugeot 607
7 Higher class Audi A8, BMW 7, Jaguar XJ, Mercedes S class
Vehicle classes example | Example | |
| 1 | Micro car (two seater) | Smart |
| 2 | Micro car | Fiat Seicento, Peugeot 106, VW Lupo |
| 3 | Mini car | Fiat Punto, Peugeot 206, VW Polo |
| 4 | Compact car | Toyota Corolla, VW Golf |
| 5 | Middle class car | BMW 3er, Mazda 6, Opel Vectra, Toyota Avensis |
| 6 | Upper middle class | Audi A6, BMW 5er, Mercedes E class, Peugeot 607 |
| 7 | Higher class | Audi A8, BMW 7er, Jaguar XJ, Mercedes S class |
The EcoTest points consist of 50% from the pollutant valuation and of 50% from the CO2 valuation. The best evaluations in the EcoTest are 100 points (5 stars).
An economical vehicle proves itself at each refuelling