The recent increase in the price of gasoline has forced car buyers to look for fuel efficient vehicles. Aside from that, the awareness of the threat of global warming is increasing among American motorists. That translates to an increased demand for fuel efficient and eco-friendly vehicles.
To meet that growing demand, car manufacturers are developing and producing clean cars which not only offers savings on fuel consumption but also reduces the amount of emission released into the atmosphere. One of the leading car manufacturers in the manufacturing of green cars is the Japanese brand Honda.
Recently, the company was given the distinction of being the "2007 Greenest Automaker" by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The distinction was given to the second largest Japanese car maker for the fourth consecutive time. The award is given biennially which means that for almost a decade, Honda is the greenest car manufacturer. The award is based on the low overall production of smog-forming and global warming emissions of Honda's U.S. auto fleet.
The design of Honda's vehicles allows the engine to burn conventional gasoline but this also limits the release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by the use of filters designed exactly for trapping carbon dioxide.
Don McKenzie, a vehicle engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists, has this to say about Honda's accomplishments: "Honda remains the greenest U.S. automaker. The company installs clean technology across its entire fleet of cars and trucks and that consistency makes it a top environmental performer. Honda is one of only two automakers to have better-than-average global warming scores in every class of vehicles it sold in MY2005. In addition, Honda continues to have the best smog score in four out of the five classes."
The distinction is the result of Honda's three-fold environmental goals. The company's first challenge is to produce vehicles which will have good fuel efficiency and at the same time reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide is mainly the largest contributor to the threat of global warming. This greenhouse gas is produced by burning petroleum based products like gasoline. This means that by reducing the amount of gasoline burned, they are also reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
The second goal for Honda is to reduce smog-forming emissions. This is a response to the growing problem of air pollution on major cities all over the world. By reducing emissions, harmful gases will not be released into the atmosphere where they react with other gases to produce acid rain.
The third goal for Honda is the development of alternative fuels which can be used as a substitute for gasoline in the long run. This effort is due to the fact that petroleum products come from non-renewable sources of energy. That means that there will come a time in the future that the amount of petroleum products produced will not meet the demand of the global community.
So in order for the world to reduce dependency on that non-renewable source of energy, Honda is aiming to develop alternative fuels for their vehicles.
The Japanese brand, while producing eco-friendly vehicles is also known for the reliability of their cars. That is one of the strongest selling points of Honda's lineup - their reliability. And this kind of reliability is very similar to that of .
