Alternative Fuel Vehicles - The Various Types And Models
Many alternative fuels are under consideration as replacements for fast depleting petroleum resources. Most such alternative fuels developed require new designs of engines and/or new designs of the alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) themselves to enable their use. Except biodiesel, all other alternative fuels required new engine/vehicle designs or design changes in some aspects of existing petrol engine or diesel engine or vehicle designs.
The various types of AFVs include the following.
Bi-fuel: As the name suggests, it can operate on any of two fuels. It is equipped with a switch that must be flipped to select a specific fuel option. The vehicle has two tanks. They hold the two fuels separately, one in each separate tank. Bi-fuel vehicles include those that run on either gasoline or propane or also those that operate on either gasoline or natural gas.
Flex fuel: The AFV can run on either E85 (ethanol) or gasoline. The vehicle is equipped with a single fuel tank. It can accommodate either of the two fuels at a time. Further, the two fuels can be mixed in any conceivable proportion and the blend used to operate the vehicle. Most such vehicles have their engine timing altered through use of on-board equipment (mostly electronic) that senses the oxygen content in the fuel entering the engine. Dedicated: This type of AFV runs on a single fuel stored in a single tank in the vehicle. Such vehicles may include those that run on only propane, only hydrogen, only electricity, and only gasoline. Alternative fuel vehicles that use biodiesel include the light-duty passenger vehicle. They also include the light-duty truck, the medium-duty truck, the heavy duty truck, the school bus, and the transit bus. Except for the first mentioned vehicle all the others run on the B20 Blend of biodiesel. They also include the Volkswagon models Golf, Jetta Wagon and the Jetta, the New Beetle, and the turbodiesel-powered Passat sedan. They also include several Mercedes based models from the Daimler-Chrysler fleet, such as the E320CDI and the Jeep Liberty CRD. Electricity based alternative fuel vehicles include the B.I.G. man, the Lido luxury neighborhood vehicles in Coupe, Sedan, and Runabout models, and the delivery vehicle Solectria CitiVan. This category also includes the Global Electric Motorcars. These include the LLC [GEM] in four models, the 2-seater e2, the 4-seater e4, the eS 2-seater, and the eL 2-seater. Electric-gasoline hybrid fuel based vehicles include the 2004 and 2005 models of the Toyota Prius, the Honda Insight, and the Honda Civic Hybrid. Ethanol based alternative fuel vehicles include select models (2002 to 2005) in the Ford/Mercury series of 4.0L Explorers, 4.0L Explorer Sport Trac, 3.0L Ranger Trucks, 3.0L Taurus Sedans and Wagons, and the earlier 3.0L Taurus Sedans (1995 to 1999). Hydrogen based alternative fuel-celled vehicles (FCVs) have not been introduced in the public domain as yet. Japanese company Toyota plans to build 20 FCVs. These alternative fuel vehicles are not slated to enter commercial production before 2010.
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