Are Hybrid Cars Becoming Safer or More Harmful to the Environment?

mark gondola cable gondola cars hold in a precise special locomotive locomotive engineering science beca subroutine they boast two domain of a function powerfulness sources a regular accelerator engine and an galvanic tug powered by a colossal barrage unlike established cars which strike scarce regular throttle engine. These comp integritynts by and large work in tandem, though the exact mechanism varies seeming on the car. When the car is at stop, the engine shuts off. While you push the accelerator, the voltaic motor turns on to train the car forward. When you need the power such(prenominal) as for come up a hill, the gas engine gets a boost from the galvanizing motor.The galvanizing motor norm in ally recharges itself by censoring the heat expertness generated as you brake (Brown, two hundred8). mark cars withal help to reduce the hail of smogginess emission beca single-valued function of less(prenominal)(prenominal) working(a) of gasoline engine . This does not mean that intercrossed cars help the surroundings be go they console have the issue of their batteries close to world extremely damaging to the environment. Nowadays, in that respect be more than 5 one million million million crossbred cars around the world provided if this means that there go forth be also 5 million batteries from these loanbl rarity cars. What would happen in the succeeding(a) few years if these batteries end up in landfills? agree to environmental researchers, 90% of 1 million metric tons of pinch which is produced all(prenominal) year is ingestion for vehicle batteries ( interbreeding Battery perniciousness, 2006). These batteries still have issues even though they argon more environmentally friendly than the standard batteries. Nickel may bugger off stick outcer in human body because it is considered as a human carcinogen (Olberding, 2010). Therefore, some population ar concerned about nickel note dig as one kind of misu se of natural resources. According to the Environmental Defense, there ar three important stamp battery types such as pinch, nickel, and lithium.The worst subject that hurtful to the environment is lead battery, followed by nickel, and lithium (Banas, 2010). By the way, the r eternallysible crossingization cars whoremaster force power plants to produce excessive amounts of galvanical competency therefore, power plant emissions plunder be just as libelous as exhaust pipe emissions. Running intercrossed cars on the channel eject also contri only whene the amounts of greenhouse gases as same as running normal vehicles because intercrossed system works effectively only on heavily congested streets ( intercrossed Cars electronegative Environmental wedge, 2007).Even though crossing cars help the environment, they argon still harmful to the environment due to battery use, use of natural resources, and ineffective use of motor systems. II. Opposing Arguments A. Batterie s The batteries in hybrid cars give a transgress choice for the sack economy and environment that have been becoming to the next generation of cars technology. They allow the electri urban center for electric motor hence, the motor uses less gasoline when they ar working in an urban area. Hybrid cars are able to provide more than 35% in raise economy (Facts on Hybrid Cars, 2012).The nickel metal hydride batteries have been victimisation in every hybrid car since the first hybrid car was produced. twain lead battery and nickel hydride batteries are rechargeable batteries, solely the environment impact of nickel is untold lower than lead acid which are used in conventional vehicles. According to the denomination Nickel-Metal Hydride (2006), the nickel-Metal Hydride is a solid battery more energy drive out be given for the amount of space. Density is an essential concern, as weight is a severe wall to aptitude.Hybrid cars are still sold in lowered amount therefore, the co ntradict effect of hybrid batteries are not instant. B. Natural resources Todays hybrid cars are arrangementn up by many benefits ontogenesis fuel economy, and saving the fuel. Even though it is true that hybrid cars can save plentys of gasoline, and we can get our tax back from them, the vanquish thing of these benefits is the very less produced amount of gas emissions. Hybrid cars widen 80% less greenhouse gases than conventional cars (Hybrid Cars Emissions Information, 2012).This translates to less airborne pollutants and a cleaner earth. The important factor of negative effects of vehicles on the environment is greenhouse gasses. As a result, some of greenhouse gasses are from human activities and cause the temperature in the air and ocean to bone (Hybrid Cars and Pollution, 2012). In fact, the temperatures are increasing. The changes have observed over the in the end few decades are mainly because of human activities, but we cannot refuse that the important phonatio n of these changes is also a mirror of natural changeableness (Hybrid Cars and Pollution, 2012).Large metropolitan areas around the world are widely covered by this smog while many millions of cars are concentrated. This smog is made of nitrogen oxides, hydro light speeds, and many evaporating organic compounds. Hybrid cars produce a a great deal lower these gases than conventional vehicles. However, the size of the car can be a great some(prenominal)(predicate) in emissions between the hybrid and conventional vehicles. According to Banas (2010), the average of federation hybrid cars emits 10% lower smog than their conventional counterparts.This means that the models of hybrid cars such as mid-size cars, mid-size sport-utility vehicles, and full-size SUVs help to reduce smog-producing gas emissions by 15%, 19% and 21%, respectively, more than their conventional counterparts. Hybrid cars are esteemed as being fuel in effect(p), and in effect(p) for the environment. C. The susc eptibility of hybrid cars Nowadays, hybrid cars have been instaling to be more efficient than conventional cars as we known, smallish cars could be run more efficient than life-sized cars.According to the article An origin to Efficiency (2006), one of the easiest ways to show capacity is to get your amount of work with insure to how much(prenominal) energy was taken in the initial place. The efficiency of conventional cars can be described as how much the power of the engine is producing and divide by the amount of energy that was produced by gasoline when it was consuming. The energy of one congius in gasoline is 115,000 British Thermal Units (Btu), and one Btu can augment the temperature of one cubic foot of air 55 degrees F (An Introduction to Efficiency, 2006).Therefore, if a hybrid cars engine had a light speed percent of efficiency about burn mark gasoline, then every single Btu worth of energy carried inside the gasoline would be used only to move the car onward. H owever, today, the best utilise of efficient gasoline engines is 30 to 35 percent. This is al some the same kind as the efficiency of a commons light bulb, which uses the energy to produce light but gains more heat. If you touch the dense fluorescent bulb by your hand, you can feel why it is so effective it produces abundance of light and less wasted heat.Conventional cars are comparatively inefficient at using the all amount of energy which stored in gasoline, and it is because of the engines mistake. machinelike transmissions can be infamously inefficient component in a cars power train. Conventional cars are inefficient using of gasoline. Both aerodynamic and the engines utilize use very little of the energy contained in all gallon of gas when they are burning because they are similarly heavy. So, hybrid cars can rip out the less using of gasoline than conventional cars as a result, they have designed to help increase the using amount of energy efficiency.Hybrid cars use elec tric motors to provide some portion of their driving force. Unlike gasoline engines, electric motors can be greater than 90 percent efficient at using electrical energy (An Introduction to Efficiency, 2006). As a result, if an electric motor consumed 100 kW/hrs of energy from the battery, 90 kW/hrs of energy would be turned into beneficial work. Some hybrid cars use manual transmissions, which they are much more efficient than automatic transmissions. As a result, hybrid cars do not have big electric motors and small conventional engines because electric motors are so much more efficient than conventional engines.This means that gasoline engines are the strongest point because they are wholly developed and presently cost of efficient energy alternation device from a manufacturers standard system. However, big electric motors require huge energy storage like batteries. Big batteries are extremely mettlesome-ticket(prenominal) but that could be lower price if hybrid batteries are far-flung to the worlds market, and being used by consumers as common as hybrid cars in today (An Introduction to Efficiency, 2006). The efficiency of hybrid cars is much more than conventional car due to the use of batteries and the transmission systems.On the other hand, hybrid cars are not good for all aspects of the environment. III. Why They Are Wrong The chemical material, which uses in whether hybrid car batteries or conventional cars batteries, is venomousity. There are three main battery types that many hybrid car companies are using or considering for using in hybrid cars such as lead-acid, nickel-metal hydride (NiMH), and lithium-ion (Li-ion). However, lead-acid is the worst virulent of the three, and its very noisome to the environment (Fuller, 2012 Banas, 2010 Olberding, 2010).Nickel is better than lead, but it still have a big problem because it is potentially carcinogenic and the mining process is considered hazardous (Fuller, 2012). We should be concerned about th e environmental impacts of nickel mining, and decomposition of the batteries. The types of power plants are the about serious cause of the environmental impact of hybrid cars that depend on where they are charged. California, for example, obtains 80% of electric power in its cities from pure sources, such as hydroelectric plants.Charging a plug-in hybrid vehicle in California cannot be good for the environment, since some(prenominal) the cars and the power plants produce harmful emissions (Banas, 2010). However, most states use coal burning power plants to generate electricity therefore, charging a plug-in hybrid vehicle produces power-plant emissions that can be just as harmful as tailpipe emissions, according to an Ohio realm University study (Banas, 2010). Not only hybrid cars but also the power plants are bad for the environment.An important issue is the process of production as it could be a somber side of hybrid cars. One thing that many people dont usually think about cons uming products is how much energy is expended to actually make them and move them around. For example, when people buy nutrient from long distance, it requires burning lots of gasoline or diesel fuel to transport that food. If more people bought local food, it could reduce wasting fuel in progress (Fuller, 2012). This can ensure that, the process takes a lot of natural resources and energy to build a car and that include hybrid cars too. every(prenominal) material that were used or parts of the car have to be make up and forged therefore, it uses a lot of amount of electricity and the natural resources to make it. The issue of hybrid cars has caught the interest of the media and the cosmos in 2007, CNW Marketing Research, Inc. reported that Dust to Dust The Energy greet of New Vehicles from Concept to Disposal. The article claimed that it is necessary to create the calculation of a dollar value for all energy, build the operation of a vehicle, and there is the surp boost claim th at the Toyota Prius costs more over the course of its animation than a Hummer H3 (Fuller, 2012).This made the Prius drivers plough discomposed, since Toyota marketed hybrid cars and accentuated fuel efficiency and economic friendly driving. After many media and internet news topics started mentioning about the paper and disseminating the information, many publications speedily criticized the information from CNW for ambiguous information and lack of evidence. roughly of the energy used by a vehicle came from its design and production, several other studies have prove that 80 to 90 percent of a vehicles energy is used during operation &8212 in other words, when youre driving it (Gleick, 2007).The most important thing is it probably uses 13 % of their lifetime energy to become a car. Even though hybrid cars save the environment, but onwards they become a car, they have to pass many processes which are harmful to the environment. How hybrid car motor could be work effectively they depend on the driver behaviors and driving styles and geographic areas. If drivers drive very fast, nimble driver that commute to and have to go to work every day on long distances of highway, this does not help anything about saving the fuel. The Hybrid car motors only work in the startup.However, It is firing to be finely even if you want to burn more fuel at quantify as when you are driving on the highway, the gas can be used to recharge your battery system (All About Hybrid Cars, 2012). This is a big concern about hybrid cars. If the drivers drive very long distances, they leave behind not get the benefit from their hybrid cars. If they drive in the city therefore, this process allow be changed. Gasoline assist hybrids are often started by the electric motor, so the stop or go of your commuting forget largely depend on electric as opposed to gas.You can even expect to save about 15% in gas this way. However, you must be mindful that typically the electric motor pull up stakes only run up to about 15-25mph before the gas engine kicks in (All About Hybrid Cars, 2012). If the drivers decrease the speed of their cars many times or rapidly, the gas exit kick inattentively. However, the function of electric motor impart not be work better on the highway and up hills and down hills areas. The electric motor typically assists in startup, but will kick in areas of high speed or when the engine needs run on the very fast speed (All About Hybrid Cars, 2012).Hybrid cars could be worked effectively in the urban area or city commuter. IV. Arguments for hybrid cars A. Batteries toxicity When these hybrid car batteries are dead, where will they end up? When batteries are disposed of improperly these metals can be injurious to the environment. Lead and nickel sitting in a landfill can cause pollution to the groundwater causing acid rain and making it unsafe for inebriety and also harmful to plant life (Bova, Goodwin, Marrs, Oliva, 2010). The effects of these toxicity batteries are human carcinogen, causing many diseases and reathing problem in humans. According to a study done by Environmental Defense, the more popular lithium-ion batteries found in most hybrids and electric vehicles are not as toxic as their lead and nickel counterparts, but still have negative effects on the environment (Bova, Marrs, Goodwin, Oliva, 2010). The big car companies such as General Motors and Toyota claim that hybrid car batteries can be 100% recyclable but the processes are too expensive. However, many companies are promoting the recycle of hybrid car batteries by motivating their customers.For example Toyota offers a $200 stipend and even provides a figure to call printed on the battery itself. Even with these incentives there is no way to guarantee that owners will in fact recycle the batteries leaving the window open for batteries to end up in the landfills causing further destruction of the environment (Bova, Goodwin, Marrs, Oliva, 2010). However, no wadays the numbers of hybrid cars around the world is still lower than conventional cars. If the number of hybrid cars is increasing over the year, landfills all around the world will be full of toxicity batteries, corrosive materials, and carcinogenicB. Overconsumption of natural resources Nowadays, the most essential problems in the world are global warming and rising oil prices therefore, we should concern about the alternative energy, and especially friendly environment, which charge on hybrid car designs. The most accessible of these designs was the hybrid car, with working models already on the road. With their highly fuel efficient design, they deliver much of what they promise, but the hybrid picture is not entirely problem empty (Hybrid Cars Negative Environmental usurpation, 2007). some hybrid car companies did a big problem because before they were going to be batteries and electric motors, they are very rare elements and dont exist that much around the world, which go a long way to explaining their expense. Most of these elements shortly come from China, and the supply as it exists today is not expected to last more than several years under even the most handsome estimates (Hybrid Cars Negative Environmental Impact, 2007). Many efforts are going to find a new resource for these rare elements, but they will not be produced that much until they are becoming less and cause a shortage.Hybrid cars are complex vehicles and full of new technologies and high end technology therefore, these make hybrid cars to be hard to build which use lots of energy to build hybrid cars. Some hybrids can charge their batteries from mains power, and this could be generated by a dirty technologies such as coal fired power stations or nuclear power (Hybrid Cars Negative Environmental Impact, 2007). This is the fact about hybrid cars on the market, and it means that divers(prenominal) types of hybrid cars can use different types of power to produce electricity which affe cts the environment. C.Inefficiency of hybrid cars Once hybrid cars are built and spreading everywhere on the road, the important thing that will come up on drivers mind is, they are doing good for the environment. This is the fact because hybrid cars use less fuel than conventional cars but it depends on how they drive. Remember that a hybrid will probably never fulfill the listed fuel efficiency because of the way the efficiency test is done, and because unless you only ever drive on heavily congested streets you wont be utilizing the hybrid system effectively (Hybrid Cars Negative Environmental Impact, 2007).If hybrid cars are running on the high way, there will be only the gasolines engines that are working on the time and neglecting the effective of hybrid system. Even though hybrid cars regard as green environmental cars, hybrid cars with an internal combustion engine will still emit smog. Catalytic converters handle most of the contamination, but theres still that good old g reenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. Even hybrids pump this out, they just pump lower amounts of it, and mostly because most hybrids have engines that stop when the vehicle comes to a halt (Hybrid Cars Negative Environmental Impact, 2007).However, driving hybrid cars is not saving the world but you have just been retarding your harmful to the environment. V. Conclusion Hybrid cars are not good for the environment at all. They are still bad to the environment. Even though hybrid car batteries are good for the environment right now but what if they end up in the landfills when they are expired in the future therefore, our landfills will be full of toxicity. Many people think that hybrid cars are green environmental cars but they didnt think about the process of building hybrid cars.Every process of making hybrid cars is bad for the environment due to the use of natural resources. However, when hybrid cars are shown up on the road, hybrid car motors sometimes cannot work effectively because they are working well only on the congested areas. The effective of hybrid car motors are also due to the behavior of drivers because if they always step on the accelerator, they will void the efficiency on hybrid system. The price difference of a hybrid strength not always benefit the gas deductions. Depending on how you drive, hybrids might not always be a match for your lifestyle.There is always the issue of the toxicity of the battery, even though they are not as harmful as standard car batteries to the environment. It is also beneficial to confine in mind that todays EPA standards are slightly outdated. They will normally be on the lower end of what EPA estimates are, due to differing factors such as driver lifestyle, location, and the type of car it is. I strongly consider that hybrid cars are not that save the environment at all but they have just slowed down the impact on the environmental therefore, do your researches before you buy a hybrid car.