Mohd Sofie Azmi Title : Hybrid cars Climate change often refers to as global warming and is considered as one

of the greatest threats facing the world today. When petrol, diesel and other alternative fuels are burnt for energy in an engine, the main byproducts are water and carbon dioxide (Co2), carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons. These harmful gases lead to global warming, green house gases and human diseases like asthma and lung cancer, to name a few. According to Plunkett Research, Around the world, there were about 806 million cars and lights truck on the road in 2007. This is an alarming situation towards our environment. Environmental protection agency (EPA) has set a standard of C02 towards vehicles around the world as one of the initiatives to mitigate the environmental pollution. As the air pollution crisis is indeed a major problem all around the world that made critical problems on human health and climate change, most large automobile manufacturers try to produce the most fuel efficient cars to protect the earth through green technology. Green technology is an environmental friendly technology that conserves natural resources and environment. Several famous car makers such as Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda, BMW and Ford are in close competition with each other in producing green cars. Honda is one of the worlds largest car manufactures that has focused on green technology innovation since the beginning of their business. Honda has successfully live their dream, when they changed their direction from specialized high performance car to green technology in 1970. Honda Civic CVCC (Controlled Vortex Combustion Chamber) is the first model in the world to officially qualify the standard imposed by United States under the Clean Air Act Restriction. The Civic CVCC even received No.1 in fuel efficiency ranking for four consecutive years. The model fulfills its social commitment by protecting the environment while it also put Honda in joining as leader in the front line of technology. Hybrids car nowadays are not only seen as a responsibility towards environment in the eye of consumer but it is a cheaper alternative against petrol model. Several countries have imposed a lower tax for Hybrid, making it affordable for consumer and this move is seen as ways for the government to support this holistic act. For example in Europe, models such as Honda Insight and Toyota Prius where both are Hybrid has lower road tax as compared to the petrol model from Audi, BMW and Volkswagen (Figure 1: Comparison tax and Co2). Similarly in Malaysia, government has reviewed and introduced a better tax exemption than previous year,

100% tax exemption for both import duty and excises duty making the hybrid models affordable for consumers. Economic downturn and gradually increase in oil prices will have everyone wishing for a miracle so that they do not have to overspend on fuel. Hybrids are the closest alternative for this solution at the moment, as it features better mileage. Honda Civic Hybrid can go up to 40 miles per gallon for city use, while for highway it consumes only 42 miles per gallon. Once again this proves that Honda ascertain its position in producing an environmental friendly and economy car.

Figure 1: Comparison of Tax and Co2

Several car manufacturers have received tremendous sale from hybrid model. According to Green Energy Efficient Homes There has been a big upward spike in sales of hybrid cars from November 2011 to February 2012 - and this time it isn't raising gas prices that is driving up the sales. Instead, it is the ever increasing availability of hybrid models, as more and more car manufacturers get into the hybrid business or add new hybrids to their product lines. In addition, Hybridcars added Hybrid sales are up 11 percent compared to a year ago, with the leading vehicles being the Toyota Prius and Camry. Honda introduced their first hybrid, Insight

which sales start in February 2009. Initially, the company only forecasted 5,000 unit to be sold but the overwhelming reception from Japan itself has left them shortage of supply. The home demand made the Insight are less available for the international market and their factory in Suzuka is the busiest ever as it is producing 700 units a day. According to Yuri Kageyama In March 2010, Honda announced that the new Insight broke through 100,000 sales in Japanese market in just one year after its introduction. Eventhough they are many competitors jumping into the bandwagon by introducing hybrid car models which has resulted smaller fraction of market shares, forecast has it there will still be demand for hybrid cars and that it would not be detrimental to the car manufacturers due to recession period and incentives offered by government. In a nutshell, green technology does not only impact the automobile industry, but other industries are also receptive towards adopting green in their deliverables. Concern especially towards the environment has triggered this approach. The industry would be able to enjoy cost savings over a long term period with the implementation of green technology. This however, has to be a sustainable and concerted effort in order to make our world a better place.

References 1. Yuri Kageyama (2010 , April 23) Toyota Prius tops Japan sales despite recall woes . Retrieved March 14,2012 from http:// hostednews.com/ap/article 2. Hybridcars(2012, February 3) January 2012 Dashboard. Retrieved March 14, 2012, from http://hybridcars.com/news/january-2012-dashboard-36086.html 3. Hybridcars(2006, September 28) Hybrid Market Focus. Retrieved March 14,2012 from http://www.hybridcars.com/hybrid-drivers/hybrid-market-forecasts.html 4. Danny Tan (2011 , October 7) Budget 2012: Hybrid car incentive extend till 2013. Retrieved 14 March ,2012 from http://paultan.org/2011/10/07/budget-2012-hybrid-carincentives-extended-till-2013 5. The Star Online (2011 , October 8) Sales of Hybrid car set to increase. Retrieved 14 March ,2012 from http://biz.thestar.com.my