You know a hybrid pollutes less than a gasoline engine, but do you know the difference between flex-fuels and biofuels? Electric cars and hybrids? Get your motor running with our green cars quiz.
By Blythe Copeland
You know a hybrid pollutes less than a gasoline engine, but do you know the difference between flex-fuels and biofuels? Electric cars and hybrids? Get your motor running with our green cars quiz.
By Blythe Copeland
Electric hybrid and gasoline hybrid.
Hybrid two-door and hybrid four-door.
Full hybrid and assist hybrid.
Battery hybrid and fuel-cell hybrid.
The terms are used almost interchangeably but they're not the same: A full hybrid can run on just electricity at low speeds, while, in a partial hybrid, the battery supplements the gasoline engine.
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Hybrid Cars: How They Work, Battery Technology, and More
Top Green Hybrid Car Tips
By harnessing the kinetic energy released when a driver brakes.
By plugging it into the wall.
Neither.
Either.
Depending on the car, electric batteries charge by capturing the kinetic energy that comes from braking—or by taking advantage of the conventional electric grid.
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How Stuff Works: Hybrid Cars
The Wide Angle
Why We Need More Electric Cars on the Road
$37.50
$375
$3,750
$37,500
Though hybrid cars aren't cheaper to purchase, the gas savings add up over time; most drivers save an average of $3,750 each year.
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Buy Green: Hybrid Cars
How to Go Green: Hybrid Cars
Heat and water are the only tailpipe emissions.
They are cheaper to produce and install.
They are more durable than other engines.
They take up less space than conventional engines.
Fuel cells run on the electricity that's released by converting hydrogen and oxygen into water, so heat and water are the only emissions—and the battery lasts as long as those elements keep circulating.
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How Stuff Works: Fuel Cells
Public Transit Going Green
Green Glossary: Fuel Cell
4,000
40,000
4 million
40 million
Though there are 40,000 electric cars on the road these days, many of them were built with gasoline engines and then converted by enthusiastic greenies.
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17 Electric Cars You Must Know About
Electric Cars and Vehicles: Who Killed 'Em, New Batteries, and More
Build Your Own Electric Car: 5 Questions to Ask Yourself First
The Ferrari GTB Fiorano
The Jeep Patriot
The Chevrolet Silverado
The Mazda MX-5
Fuel economy depends on many factors—from how much you're carrying in your trunk to how fast the wind is blowing—but the Ferrari GTB Fiorano and the G55 and ML63 (both by Mercedes-Benz) have the lowest fuel economy of all 2009 car models with 11 mpg.
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MPG Meters: Why You Should Get One
United States Department of Energy
The EPA Fuel Economy Tests
Following the speed limit.
Accelerating slowly from stoplights.
Driving aggressively.
Recording your gas mileage.
Hypermiling—or driving in a way that maximizes your fuel economy—includes everything from following the speed limit to braking and accelerating smoothly. So while staying out of traffic jams helps, driving aggressively doesn't.
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Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year for 2008: Hypermiling
How Stuff Works: Fuel Economy
Ethanol
Gasoline
A blend of both ethanol and gasoline.
Any of the above.
Flex-fuel engines are powered by gas, ethanol, or a combination that ranges from E10 (10% ethanol) to E85 (85% ethanol); more ethanol means fewer emissions, but also less fuel efficiency.
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Final Word on Ethanol's Efficiency as Fuel
Flex-Fuel Cars and the Future of Ethanol
They require the conversion of too many food crops.
Their emissions are more polluting than gasoline.
They're too expensive.
They're not a renewable resource.
Biofuels are made from oils, fats, and plant alcohols, and though they are very low in emissions and biodegradable, their production requires extremely high amounts of resources that, in many cases, should be used for food instead.
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25 Things You Need to Know about Biodiesel
Biofuel Comparison Chart: The Good, the Bad, and the (Really) Ugly
How Biodiesel Works
The floormats.
Gasoline left in the tank.
Used oil.
Windows and windshields.
Nearly everything in your car can be reused or recycled, from leftover oil and fluids to glass, cloth, steel, and rubber—but gasoline that doesn't have added stablizers doesn't last.
Read More:
Earth 911
How to Go Green: Cars
Correct
Correct
Correct
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