Eco Friendly Cars You Can Truly Enjoy

When you hear reports on the radio news or television from such cities as Mexico City, Cairo, Egypt, Moscow, Russia among others, that give announcements that, "today air pollution index levels are high, so elderly persons and children should not go out" or "asthmatics going outside today must carry portable oxygen cylinders with them" or perhaps that "athletes or others practicing outdoor sports should not do so today", you should have pause to wonder about what's happening with gasoline or diesel-powered automobile and truck emissions controls. Are eco friendly cars truly a possibility?

A Solution to the Problem Has Been Found

In 1996 a solution to the problem was found when General Motors Corporation produced the EV1 (Electric Vehicle 1) an eco friendly car, which began circulating on the streets of California. Attractive, sleek and "futuristic looking", the EV1 met with immediate succes and approval with the limited number of consumers who were allowed to rent them on a trial basis. The eco friendly car EV1 could almost silently go from zero to 100 kilometers per hour in less than nine seconds - pretty snappy for a pollution-free electric car, right? That's pretty good for ANY type of car. The car could also be recharged from a special outlet installed in your garage. They didn't even have an exhaust tail pipe. So why haven't you heard of them? Likely because within ten years, GM collected all the EV1s in circulation as their leasing agreements ended. Finally, do you know what happened to these zero-pollution vehicles? The eco friendly cars were all collected and ultimately destroyed.

The Japanese Get Into the Act

In 1997, Nissan unveiled a hyper-mini electric eco friendly car in Tokyo show rooms. The car was leased by the city of Pasadena, California for municipal employees. The eco friendly car was easy to park, maintain and get around crowded city streets in. In August of 2006 however, when the lease for the cars between Nissan and the city of Pasadena expired, Nissan refused to sell the cars to the city. Again, in this case, these zero-pollution, eco friendly cars were all collected and ultimately destroyed.

In 2003 Toyota halted production of its eco friendly car, the RAV4 - EV (the EV denotes Electric Vehicle). By 2005 all the lease agreements for this vehicle were expired and these cars were returned to the manufacturer. In this case though, after a three-month international court battle against Toyota, consumers who had leased RAV4-Evs were allowed to purchase them from the company.

The Terminator Drives a Hummer

Reportedly, California governor Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger drives a specially - produced Hummer, an eco friendly car that runs on hydrogen. BMW also has a hydrogen - fueled, environmentally friendly, commercially available vehicle. So now we know that eco friendly cars truly are a real possibility for reducing pollution coming from gasoline and diesel-powered automobile and truck emissions. We can only hope that petroleum-based conglomerates do not fully succeed in halting the development and distribution of eco friendly cars to environmentally-concerned consumers.