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Hybrid cars and flex cars have become phenomenally popular in the last few years. Hybrid engines utilize electric batteries in addition to petroleum burning processes (oil, diesel, ethanol) in order to make cars run. They are more environmentally friendly because they require less gasoline to operate and generate reduced amounts of harmful emissions. The Toyota Prius was the first hybrid vehicle to achieve widespread popularity, and there are now over one million of Priuses on the road worldwide.
To encourage the adoption of hybrid vehicles, many local governments have established attractive incentives, including free use of the carpool lane by solitary drivers of hybrids (Virginia, California, Florida, Utah), exemption from city-driving congestion charges (London, England), and free city parking (San Jose, Los Angeles, and San Jose, California). 1
Flex cars contain engines that can run on different petroleum-ethanol blends containing anywhere from 0 percent to 85 percent ethanol. These vehicles are not only more energy efficient, they also give “consumers the autonomy to buy the cheapest fuel.” Although a relatively new technology, flex cars are now widely used in ethanol-rich Brazil, accounting for 70 percent of the country’s cars. According to one expert, “The rate at which this technology has been adopted is remarkable, the fastest I have ever seen in the motor sector, faster even than the airbag, automatic transmission or electric windows.”2
Picture Source: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/hybridtech.shtml
1 Hakim; Webster; “Clean Fuel Vehicle Purchase Incentive Program”