Should you be considering driving a motor vehicle that produces fewer harmful emissions while driving to and from your destination? Pundits that support the need to reduce your carbon footprint on the earth will strongly suggest that it is time to move away from the traditional motor vehicle engine to a more environment-friendly vehicle.

What is an eco-friendly vehicle?

Before we look at what you need to know about driving an environmentally-friendly car, let’s look at its definition:

Wikipedia.com defines an eco-friendly car (or a green car) as a “road motor vehicle that produces less harmful impacts to the environment than comparable conventional internal combustion engine vehicles running on gasoline or diesel, or one that uses certain alternative fuels.”

Eco-friendly cars do not need to be powered only by alternative fuels. The modern engine can run on traditional fuel that is manufactured so that it contains less noxious chemicals, and the engine is designed to reduce the output of toxic emissions.

However, there are a number of vehicles on the road today that are powered by both traditional fuels and green technologies. The most common green car is the hybrid car. Primarily, it is powered by a combination of gasoline or diesel and an electric motor.

There are several levels of hybridization from full hybrids to combination vehicles. A full hybrid is a vehicle that can run solely on electric power, while, as mentioned above, combination hybrids run on a mix of electric power and gasoline or diesel.

As an aside, it is interesting to note that the reason why hybrid cars tend to be more expensive than standard cars is that they require two drivetrains to power the vehicle whilst traditional vehicles only need one drivetrain.

Driving a hybrid vehicle

It is common knowledge that a vehicle is powered by gas, diesel, electricity, or a combination of both. This means that before a traditional car will start the tank will need to be filled up with gas or diesel. And, different cars have different sized gas tanks; therefore, they will only drive a specified number of miles before needing more gas.

A hybrid vehicle, on the other hand, has more powerful batteries in the engine that need to be fully charged before the vehicle will start. And, as with gas-powered cars, the cells will run dead after a specified number of miles. It is worth knowing that, fully-hybrid vehicles cannot travel as many miles as a traditionally-powered vehicle. This is the rationale behind the development of cars that use both traditional fuels and electric power to drive the engine.

Therefore, when driving a full hybrid, it is vital to ensure that you are mindful of the distance you can travel before the vehicle’s batteries need recharging. And, you can recharge these batteries to go further.

Finally, the unfortunate reality is that hybrid cars are not immune to motor vehicle accidents. Therefore, in the event of a crash, it is vital to consult with a Toledo WA car accident attorney to ensure that your personal injury claim and insurance claim are submitted timeously and managed correctly.