Well, pretty much anything you want. With the exception of a handful of smaller producers, all the mainstream car brands currently offer vehicles that comply with the 2040 rule, in addition to some that won't. In fact, if the law was passed tomorrow, car buyers wouldn’t find it that much of a struggle to find a model they’d be happy to purchase. That’s because hybrid cars – those with wheels driven by both a normal engine and an electric motor – will still be on the market after 2040.
The term ‘hybrid’ car is technically quite vague, but in the context of cars almost always refers to a petrol-electric powertrain. This means the car uses a combination of electricity stored in batteries and petrol stored in a tank to propel the car forward. The details of this arrangement will vary from car to car. A hybrid vehicle will almost always be able to charge its own batteries using the petrol engine. In some cases, this is all the petrol engine is there for – to recharge the batteries, which power the electric motors. In other types of hybrid, the petrol motor drives the wheels directly, but an additional battery/motor combination adds some electric drive.
In ‘mild hybrids’, the amount of electric power that drives the wheels is limited. The car won’t normally drive on electric power alone, but a small electric motor can be used to fill in the gaps where the car might be coasting. These systems are cheaper than ‘full hybrid’ models but have a much smaller benefit it terms of emissions. Some hybrid cars are what’s known as ‘plug-in’ hybrids. As the name suggests, these cars can be plugged-in to the national grid by means of a cable. This will charge the car’s batteries and reduce the amount of petrol that needs to be used, which in turn reduces the cost per mile as well as the exhaust emissions of the car. There is no requirement to plug the car in though (unlike with electric cars) and many owners choose not to.
To make things more confusing, some models are available as a petrol car or as a hybrid. And more bafflingly still, some hybrids have a plug-in option. You’d be surprised at how many cars are now available as a hybrid of some description, though – the Volkswagen Golf, Mercedes E-Class, Volvo XC90 and BMW 3-Series are all now available with hybrid powertrains.
An electric car is one that runs on, and is ‘charged up’ with, electric power alone. An electric car is only ever refuelled with electricity itself, which enters the car (normally) by means of a charging cable, and never by liquid or other fuel. The electricity is stored in batteries before being used by electric motors to drive the car’s wheels.
This is in contrast to hybrid cars, which have electric elements to their powertrains but which cannot be considered ‘electric cars’ due to the presence of a petrol engine. This point has caused confusion recently, as some manufacturers (and indeed commentators) have incorrectly referred to hybrid cars as ‘electric cars’.
Electric cars are becoming commonplace thanks to certain financial advantages, including tax breaks and the lower cost of “filling up” compared to a tank of petrol. They’re considered better for the environment due to the fact they emit no exhaust gases. Popular examples of electric vehicles (often abbreviated to “EV”) include the Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe, Tesla Model S, Tesla Model X and Tesla Model 3.
Electric vehicles have several key benefits when compared to ordinary petrol and diesel cars, as well as increasingly popular hybrid cars. Electric vehicles emit no pollution at the tailpipe, which means they have a much smaller local environmental impact. They operate very quietly and are generally extremely easy to drive, with no real gearbox to speak of and a great deal of power at low speeds.
Credit: telegraph
Electric cars are becoming commonplace thanks to certain financial advantages, including tax breaks and the lower cost of “filling up” compared to a tank of petrol. They’re considered better for the environment due to the fact they emit no exhaust gases. Popular examples of electric vehicles (often abbreviated to “EV”) include the Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe, Tesla Model S, Tesla Model X and Tesla Model 3.
Electric vehicles have several key benefits when compared to ordinary petrol and diesel cars, as well as increasingly popular hybrid cars. Electric vehicles emit no pollution at the tailpipe, which means they have a much smaller local environmental impact. They operate very quietly and are generally extremely easy to drive, with no real gearbox to speak of and a great deal of power at low speeds.
Credit: telegraph
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