Car companies of today have had to come up with new fuel efficient methods to continue selling their products.  Recently in 2012, the Obama administration passed a law stating that all cars and light-duty trucks in America will be required to get 54.5 mpg by the model year 2025. This has put pressure on many automobile companies to either produce more fuel efficient cars that run off of gas, or has inspired them to manufacture new types of vehicles that do not run off of gas. Below are some examples of car companies’ efforts in creating new fuel efficient vehicles.

Toyota did not wait for laws to require them in making more fuel efficient cars. They saw this environmental issue as an opportunity to embrace and show the world they care about our carbon footprint and the lives of our future generations. In 1997 Toyota released their first Hybrid car, a car that runs off an electric motor as well as a standard gas powered motor. The car will use it’s electric motor until it runs out of energy then switches to its gas powered motor.   When this happens the alternator charges the electric motor back to full power and, then the electric motor takes back over as the cares functioning engine.This was ground breaking in 1997 and made Toyota stand out as one of the first major car companies to make people less dependent on oil. In 2000 Toyota started selling their hybrid car in other countries. Below is a picture of the Toyota Prius, though a more modern versions it resembles their first hybrid car.

This is a type of hybrid vehicle that uses rechargeable batteries and can be restored to a full charge by connecting a plug (from the car) to a source of electricity, which charges the car’s electric motor/battery. These have become more popular today with car companies and even Toyota started having their hybrid’s available with this option.  Right next to Government Center in Boston there are little parking spots where I see many of the newer Prius’s charging up their electric motor’s with a plug.  This has helped because now your car will be able to run off the electric motor more exclusively and even use the gas powered engine less.

For today one of the most notable cart manufacturers that produce electric battery powered cars would be Tesla.  All of the cars they sell do not even have a tail pipes meaning as you guessed it, they produce zero emissions from their vehicles. Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO has become quite a celebrity from his vehicles and has positioned the brand quite uniquely offering high quality premium cars like Mercedes or BMW but with a Eco-friendly twist. Another major milestone Tesla has made is putting power back into these electric cars.  When hybrids and electric motor cars were first put on the market it turned some away because these cars were regarded as slow and ugly.  Below is a picture of Tesla’s 2014 Model S

Elon Musk has put fully powered electric battery cars in a market that will attract many newcomers and make these types of vehicles much more popular.  Tesla has made electric cars sexy, fun, powerful and affordable.  All though to the average consumer this Model S is still expensive with a price tag of about $60,000 the price is still much lower then what many pay for BMW’s or Mercedes. The Model S can go from 0 mph to 60 mph in under 4 seconds, gets 90 miles per gallon, and on a full battery(charge) can go 265 miles without a recharge.  Lastly, this car has been rated for 2014 with a 5 star safety rating and currently is the safest car you can own in America. All though you do have to plug the car into a wall a specific wall charger for hours to get it from an empty to a full charge, many consumers don’t care.  For the average person with majority of the time just trying to go from home to work, run a few errands, then go back home this car does more then get the job done.

We still have a long way to go with making cars more fuel efficient and finding even more renewable energy sources to power them with. Companies’s like Toyota and Tesla have really raised the bar for the entire automobile industry as to what other car companies need to strive for.  These companies have put themselves in a position that  will not be easily matched by rivals, but have allowed electrically powered cars to gain popularity. More importantly, their encouraging consumers to stop using gasoline powered cars and make this world a better place for our future generations!

Sources:

1.) http://www.toyota.com/hybrid/srchid=sem|bing|Prius|BrandCategory_Hybrid|Toyota_Hybrid_Base|Existing|Brand_Hybrids

2.) http://www.teslamotors.com/models/features#/environment

3.) http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/08/28/obama-administration-finalizes-historic-545-mpg-fuel-efficiency-standard

4.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius

5.) http://www.motortrend.com/new_cars/01/tesla/