Re: Hybids not answer to high mpg

Nomen has to blather about something once in a while, I think he likes to exercise his fingers by typing........

powerplants

Wow, Nomen, did you just discover what the rest of us already knew?

See

vehicle weight is 2500 you can buy them now. If that's too heavy for you then go here and buy aSmart Car as soon as Zap finishes getting regulatory approval to sell them in the US. Weight is

1500

Well, they needed to build all those fat cars to carry around lard-asses like yourself.

Ted

If they really cared about better mpg performance we would have switched to direct fuel injection years ago. Better mpg and better performance.

Richard.

Daimler Chrysler heavily into alternative fuels?

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

You're comparing the weight of a very old vehicle to a modern hybrid vehicle, which is absurd. Compare a the weight of a hybrid Civic with a non-hybrid Civic, identically equipped, and you might have a case. Or not. The cars of today have far more equipment and crashworthiness than that old Rabbit you mention. There are also issues of noise, vibration, harshness and ride quality that are more difficult at low curb weights.

Hybrids are specifically designed to improve city mileage, not highway mileage. Batteries are expected to have a useful life of 8+ years and the manufacturers are not concerned with the car's usefulness beyond the batteries' warranty period.

Modern diesels are reaching the point now where they're highly viable here so perhaps we'll start seeing more of them, assuming there are enough buyers for them.

Applying aircraft standards is a just silly. The priorities of flight are vastly different than the priorities of propulsion on wheels. Cars also have to comply with ever more stringent crash standards that aircraft do not have to comply with. Aircraft do not have to pass collision tests since the planes won't survive any crash that they're likely to encounter. That being said, they have been working on ways to reduce fatalities via newer and more innovative aircraft designs.

powerplants

I just thought it a another loose nut behind the keyboard.

So the whole car is supposed to be scrapped after 8 years? Hmmm - for those whose reason for excitment for the hybrids is "the environment", did anybody do an impact analysis on the environment of that kind of entire-vehicle life cycle?

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my adddress with the letter 'x')

snip

I think you mean to say "Energy requirements are directly proportional to weight " etc.

Rod

Don't bet on it. He probably meant inversely proportional.

So far the batteries are holding up just fine according to Toyota, when they fail their parts can be recycled, and it is likely that prices for the batteries will be much lower by the time the warranties are over.