Environmentally Friendly Cars

A McDonald’s branch in Cary, North Carolina is the first in the food chain business in more than 10 years to install a re-charging station for electric cars. The ChargePoint is a step closer for the McDonald’s in Cary to go green. The owner also uses earth friendly materials and other technologies for the restaurant.

The branch is expected to open by 14 July. Car owners who will need to charge their plug-in vehicles will have a designated parking space. The ChargePoint is a way of McDonald’s to promote to the next generation the importance of a cleaner environment.

Back in the 1990’s a branch of McDonald’s in Phoenix, Arizona also put up a charging station to have room for an earlier wave of electric vehicles. Reports also reveal that installing charging stations in the network of McDonald’s in Sweden is also in the works.

How the plug-in vehicles in the market today may really be dependent on the presence of an infrastructure where owners can recharge their vehicles. These stations should be located ideally near their place of work or spots they frequent.

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Scientists from the ETH Zurich are working on the development of a hybrid engine depending on pneumatics. The internal combustion of the power plant of the vehicle will be linked to a compressed air storage instead of the usual battery system. The paper with regard to this will formally be presented during the 2009 SAW World Congress.

Pneumatic engine design may give way to a more efficient fuel consumption that is comparable to hybrid cars. The concept of pneumatic engine design is based on the supercharging and down sizing concepts.

The pneumatic engine works efficiently by utilizing an electronically controlled valve that regulates the flow of compressed air concurrent with the injection of the fuel.

The technology also allows downsizing. The average 150 horsepower car can be downsized to only 30 horse power which is sufficient enough for dialing driving.

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