Toyota s tall claim
automobiles
Reducing automobile emissions to zero is perfectly possible, claims a recent Toyota advertisement. The ad describes how the auto giant's hybrid technology cuts fuel consumption by almost 40 per cent, compared with conventional petrol engines. It also states the hybrid car's emissions are already 40 per cent below the European standards set to come into force in 2005.
Hybrid technology combines a conventional internal combustion engine with an electric motor. When a vehicle fitted with this technology runs solely on the motor, you get the ultimate clean trundler: a car with zero emissions.
You also get, in the time of cities choking with vehicles, the ultimate selling proposition!
Technically speaking, only battery-operated purely electric cars and those powered by fuel cells can be called zero-emission vehicles. So, the incomplete zero in the ad perhaps inadvertently reveals the truth. From Toyota to Honda, everybody is keen to hop on to the clean air bandwagon by offering various hybrid models, that are a kind of compromise solution.