Cars On The Blog

A family of six going on a trip to a resort about two hundred kilometers away from home will either take the bus, if one’s available, or take the family van and gobble up around 20 liters in diesoline. Imagine the pollutants that family van emits!

Not anymore. These days, that same family can bring a hybrid van that is not only safe, but more so, cleaner and healthier, both for the environment and the passengers. Capitalizing on the practicality of combining gasoline and electricity in hybrid technology, hybrid vans can offer other features that will definitely be a come-on for the environmentall-conscious.

What does a Hybrid Van have to Offer?

Before making that decision to go for a hybrid van for your family or office, let us take a look first at what these vans of today and of the future have to offer.

Take a Toyota Estima Hybrid Van for example. It combines a four-cylinder engine with two electric motors. The electric motors are placed one in front and one at the rear of the vehicle, making a four-wheel drive arrangement. Without the complex transmission shafts and all of a four-wheel drive, the hybrid is lighter, thus more fuel or electric efficient.

Improving on the designs and features of the heretofore Grandias and Hi-Aces, Estima Hybrids bring a new meaning to sleek and environment-friendly. A handsome van, this hybrid takes into consideration the mobility needs of families and even office groups or sports teams of all ages and abilities, while also ensuring that high mobility does not take its toll in the environment.

Hybrid vans may run on combination fuel-electricity technology or on purely-electric mode depending on the batteries’ charge. And running on batteries mean no more carbon dioxide emissions. No toxic substances are released to the atmosphere, not to mention to the van’s interiors. One is assured that one’s kids do not inhale any dangerous amount of carbons in and out of a hybrid van.

Hybrid vans also incorporate smart features like humidity monitors for air conditioners, and this reduces the use of the air-con whenever possible. This only translates into fuel and battery-life economy.

Why Go for a Hybrid Van?

Traveling with your family or your friends and officemates, you want the trip to be as safe as possible, of course. Hybrid vans incorporate safety features, standard and state-of the art, to eliminate traffic accidents and injuries or fatalities to passengers. While seatbelts and air bags are standard issues, hybrid vans are going for radar-based features that ensure no crash accidents happen. Simplicity amounts to safety, too. With electric motors, complicated and oftentimes heavy mechanicals are done away with. With lighter vehicles, stability and balance is better maintained.

And then again, you want to contribute to the global drive to protect and preserve the environment, even while going on that family vacation. Hybrid vans are a great contribution to the effort, as they go around and away on minimal fossil fuel, thus making the atmosphere cleaner. No more carbon dioxide, volatile compound emissions, just pure mobility.

Health-wise, hybrid vans ensure this not only to the pedestrian but to the driver and passengers, too. Low emissions, smart air conditioners, streamlined aerodynamic designs, mobility balance, all these combine to ensure not only freedom of movement but freedom from harmful substances and unnecessary pressures of road travel. Gone are the days when one had to bear the fuel plumes overtaking the car’s air conditioner, or stiff bucket seats that rub one’s shoulders and back thin.

The road travelers nowadays consider the vehicle their homes away from home. Manufacturers are looking at this need to create vehicles that are cozy and comfy, offering the luxuries of home, yet not forgetting the safety factors. Who would want to feel unsafe in one’s home? With a hybrid van combining feature with facility, safety to the user and the pedestrian is ensured - where else can one get the best of both worlds? Go hybrid now!

Visit Green-Hybrid-Cars.com to learn more about Toyota hybrid cars and used hybrid cars.

Article Source: http://www.totallyawesomearticles.co

GM Only Automaker to Build Hybrid Transmission in United States; 75 Percent of 2-Mode Suppliers U.S.-based

WHITE MARSH, Md. – General Motors’ Baltimore Transmission Plant today officially began production of the auto industry’s most technologically advanced hybrid transmission – the only hybrid transmission designed and built in the United States by a major automaker.

The 2-Mode Hybrid transmission will debut in the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid and 2008 GMC Yukon Hybrid, the industry’s only full-size hybrid SUVs. GM’s Arlington, Texas, assembly plant will begin building the hybrid vehicles next month. For more information: http://media.gm.com/us/chevrolet/en/product_services/r_trucks/r_c_tahoe_hybrid/index.html.

“This 2-Mode Hybrid transmission is not only shifting the gears in the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon Hybrids, it’s also helping shift GM’s efforts to reduce gasoline consumption and emissions into overdrive,” said John Buttermore, GM Powertrain vice president, global manufacturing. “Better yet, here in Baltimore we are showing that an American workforce is up to the task and can take the lead in advanced technology.”

More than 500 highly trained U.S.-based GM engineers and more than 350 highly skilled United Auto Workers members are assigned to the 2-Mode program, researching, developing, validating and manufacturing the most technologically advanced hybrid system in the auto industry.

In addition to GM designing and producing the 2-Mode transmission in the United States, more than 75 percent of the program’s suppliers are U.S.-based in 16 states.

Source and Full Story: GM Media Online