Auto’ newest hue: GREEN

Our cars, they mean the world to us and take our breath away … literally, with car pollution and smog-related emissions, besides triggering respiratory problems. As gasoline prices reach new highs, the green movement takes on new impact as Americans struggle to balance our love of the automobile with the desire to reduce our dependence on crude oil. The auto industry is scrambling to provide alternatives. By 2010, J.D. Power and Associates (a national statistic and certification corporation) predicts there will be 65 hybrid models on the market, with half of those expected to be trucks.

What’s so special about these hybrids? Actually, as far as science goes, they’re nothing new. If a vehicle makes use of two or more sources of power, it’s considered a hybrid. So that locomotive we see traveling across Colorado is usually a diesel-electric hybrid. A moped can also be considered a hybrid, since it relies on a small gasoline engine and the rider’s pedal power.

Why bother with two fuel sources when it seems easier to simply use a gasoline engine for your bike or your car? Because as the world becomes more green, consumers and manufacturers are looking at reducing emissions and getting better gas mileage. Most hybrids use a smaller, more efficient engine to increase fuel efficiency. Some capture energy and store it in a battery. A hybrid’s two energy sources would share work time: A gasoline engine might turn off and an electric motor and batteries take over.

Remind us again, why all this effort? According to the Sierra Club, switching from an average car to a 13 mpg SUV would use as much energy as leaving your refrigerator door open for six years.

In March at Denver’s International Auto Show, attendees saw Toyota’s new plug-in (PHEV) prototype. Like the popular Toyota Prius, it can switch from electric to gasoline powered by plugging into a grid to recharge. It will offer major gains in mpg and major decreases in tailpipe emissions.

General Motors showed off its 2-Mode hybrid system, which can be adapted to gasoline or diesel engines. It also has its electric E-Flex System, for electric plug-in vehicles and fuel cells. Consumers saw the Chevy Volt last year, which could manage only 40 driving miles, but on the upside, used zero gasoline and produced zero emissions. GM promises new battery technology will increase those driving miles.

Ford taught us more about green by introducing Interface Fabrics Inc., a company that turns plastic pop bottles into gold. In truth, the company has won awards from the Environmental Protection Agency for taking used materials — from plastic to polyester — and spinning it into the fabrics you’ll find in the 2008 Ford Escape and Escape Hybrid. That’s impressive enough, but Interface Fabrics suggests Ford will save 600,000 gallons of water, 1.8 million pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents and more than 7 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year.

Alternative fuels are garnering additional interest. In the J.D. Power study, consumer interest in clean diesel vehicles is gaining ground: It was at 12 percent in 2006 and had moved to 23 percent by 2007. Wikipedia’s popular definition of biodiesel is a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel typically made from vegetable oils or animal fats, which can be used (alone, or blended with conventional petrodiesel) in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles. Biodiesel is made in the United States from algae, palm oil, coconut, soy, peanuts, sunflowers and most notably in Colorado, corn, among other products.

E85 is an alternative fuel that has created increasing interest in Colorado, with dozens of vehicles capable of accommodating this kind of flex-fuel. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, it is the term for motor fuel blends of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline and is a completely renewable, domestic, environmentally friendly fuel. There are 51 refueling stations in Colorado according to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.

DaimlerChrysler’s Smart Car arrived in Colorado in 2006. These tiny gas sippers are popular in Europe and one of the new greens, simply because it’s small, really small. The two-seater is a gas-only user but the 2008 Smart Fortwo (its new name) is purported to get great mileage and comes in at 4 feet shorter in length than the Mini Cooper. It’s less than 5 feet wide and 5 feet tall. With that diminutive stature, three of the Smart Cars can back into a curb parking space that would usually accommodate a single vehicle.

If you haven’t decided whether to buy hybrid, buy small or try an alternative fuel, visit some green web sites and up your green IQ: FuelEconomy.gov; HybridCars.com; TreeHugger.com; MotherEarthNews.com; and ConsumerGuideAuto.com. Of course, there’s one final coup de grace we could take: Americans could decide to use those feet for walking, biking, skateboarding, rollerblading – and maybe who knows what?

– Marywyn Germaine