Japanese Unveil Eco-friendly Cars

ANCHOR:
World leaders are gathered in Japan this week for the G8 summit, and climate change is on the agenda. It's the perfect opportunity for Japanese auto-makers to show off their new eco-friendly cars. Here's more:
STORY:
G8 leaders in Japan aim for a green summit, and Japanese automakers are providing the wheels.
At the eco-friendly event, a fleet of electric plug-ins, hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell cars await.
Commercial sales of some, like Mitsubishi's pure electric MiEV, are less than a year away - with prices from $20,000 and plug-in charge prices as low as 1/9th the cost of gas.
[Kazunori Handa, Mitsubishi Motors]:
"The car's popularity will centre on using no gas, the CO2 emission problem and concerns about energy security."
Among prototypes, Mazda's gas-fuel cell RX8 is leased for about $4,000 a month.
Hydrogen hybrids and fuel cell cars are seen as a longer-term answer due to expense, taking time to find local driveways, says Mazda's Tomoaki Saito.
Some 200 Honda FCX Clarity cars will be leased in the U.S., but the water emitting sedans have a mere 60 hydrogen stations, compared with 180,000 gas stands.
We're going on a very short 5km trip, but if we wanted to we could go as far as 620km right now on a single gas tank fill up and the cost of that would be equivalent to 4 to 5 gallons of gas in the U.S.
At the G8 summit amid record energy prices, that makes all eco-cars an easy sell.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• ntd
• japan
• eco-friendly
• cars
• G8
• summit
• climate
• change
• world
• leaders

[JUKIO01]

i agree. america is very slow compared to other countries. its because other countries arent as greedy and they actualy care about their citizens.

[emforty2]

Japan is about 10 years ahead in automotive technology and manufacturing compared to the united states.

its volt 12 years behind toyotas prius which is 12 year old technology

then we have Honda FCX production hydrogen fuel cell

that is available already for lease in Ca.

Detroit will never catch up

[nol50000]

@JUKIO01 Not only that. But research show that only 1 out of 100 parents pass down a trade to there kids in america. In other words the people are getting slightly more stupid ever generation. But yes, If we had different leaders then we would be much better off. But honestly the leaders are decided by the people so we are barely any different from the guys who rule.

[XxXMrDubstepXxX]

america is the best

[Mandimple]

@bionicDirector 99% less,you said yourself,so yes,we still should worry about the Greenhouse effect,but this would give us enough time to figure out a way to power cars with AIR!Or not.

[demonbirdee]

Would be a big switch from gas to hydrogen and electric powered cars. Biofuels is the short term fix if they can be done correctly, but hydrogen seems to be the energy source of the future. We could do it cheaply and over time to slowly implement the switch. Electricity is expensive and damaging to make using coal, natural gas, hydro, widmills, inefficient solar panels, or nuclear. Great concept. Great video. Just gave me a great idea.

[captainparady]

@DylanKershaw sure we can , we mix acid and a basic solution.

[701983]

@DylanKershaw Are you serious? We CAN make water. What happens with the hydrogen in the fuel cell? Oxydation. The result: water. Fuel cell cars have their problems, but the waste of water is none of them.

By the way: Each "normal" car makes water: Water and CO2 are the main components of the exhaust.

[psychotichealth11]

I'm in the market for one. Doing my due diligence at fasteconomicalcars (.) com

[DylanKershaw]

When you take Hydrogen out of water, it is no longer water, it's oxygen. Wow what a good idea, waste something we drink to live. ya know it's like 80% of all animals aren't land dwelling.

We can't make water, science hasn't figured it out yet, and until they do this machine is just as bad as using oil.