Environmental Hazards
...his mind all of the time. Various automobile companies are striving to introduce means of alternative energy that will fuel cars and provide the citizen with a healthier mean of transport not only for him but for his surrounding environment which suffers so much because of the gasoline fueled cars. One such company is Opel. I had the opportunity to talk to Panagiotis Liakis a theme writer for a known automobile magazine called Car and Driver, and the topic of our discussion was the alternative energy that Opel is trying to introduce and implement on one of its models the Opel Zafira. This is what he told me about the Opel Zafira Hydrogen 3 since he wrote an article on the subject a couple of months ago: Since the spring of 2000, when the first Hydrogen 1 was introduced there has been tremendous progress in various technological aspects of car embodied in the new Hydrogen 3. The new prototype has all the advantages that its diesel counterpart has to offer and nearly the same speed and horse power. But, the most important progress, economically wise, is that it can be put together in the same line of production with the regular diesel Opel Zafira decreasing the cost of its production a lot. Another important factor is that it does not pollute the environment at all, its electrically based engine does not produce any emissions at all thus making it the dream of environmentally friendly practices. The question is, though, can it be mass produced? It could be when 2 major obstacles were overcome: First of all, there have to be basic foundations of infrastructure in each country that it will be introduced, foundations such as enough hydrogen for refueling, a basic network of refueling stations all over the country and the procedure of refueling to be done by experienced people in a safe manner. And of course political judgment and approval. Second and last is the high cost of production for such a car as the Opel Zafira Hydrogen 3 which even though has been reduced dramatically it is still very high which means that if the cost of production is very high then the price in the market is going to be even higher, its basic economics. Another ques...