40 mpg Prius vs 50 mpg European Diesel cars

Right, and recovering energy in the process, energy that can be used on the up-side.

It isn't true for hybrid cars if you winter where the snow falls.

According to the information on this site

there are 228 batteries roughly the size of a D-cell battery. There is a picture of the battery pack on the site.

I'm not sure that hybrid vehicles get better fuel economy in the winter than in the summer. For conventional internal combustion engines, the air is denser in cold weather so theoretically, the air-fuel mixture burns more completely. The engine takes longer to warm up in the winter so the air-fuel mixture is enriched a little longer so in the real world, most people tend to get better fuel economy in warmer weather.

I was in DaNang during the TET offensive. I had been scheduled for a short TDY to Hue, but it was postponed because of the anticipated offensive that only we MI types believed was going to happen. That was very fortunate because everyone in the office that I would have been at was either killed or captured by the NVA.

-- Michelle

Thanks, bookmarked for later consumption. I'm told by the service manager at my dealer the battery pack is surrounded by computers and not user serviceable. Amazing technology and I think it will only get better.

I have a friend who has a hybrid Highlander and likes it. He just checked mileage in city driving and it was 36 mpg city driving. Not bad for a vehicle of that size and weight. I just had my 04 Sienna on a road trip this week and I checked the mileage, 27.63 MPG, also not bad for a 4400 lb vehicle, gas only. I'm a prudent driver which helps.

Amazing luck. I'm happy we both made it out alive. I hope to make it back to the Vietnam memorial at least once more in my lifetime.

You know, in my Passat (which I'm going to sell), I always seemed to have so much energy left when I came to a stop (even when I started braking/slowing WAY back), that I found myself thinking about that a lot....

You can go to toyota.com and look at Prius faq's and info about hybrid technology to learn why the Prius does not offer optional battery packs, plug-in chargers, etc., even the response to a question about whether the Ford Escape uses Toyota's technology (it does).

It is natural human nature for people to think that their ideas are better than what the automakers have designed and built, but in most cases, the automotive engineers have thought everything through pretty thoroughly. Other factors to keep in mind are the marketability of a product, production and retail costs, and utility of the product.

Okay, I see his point. Fair enough, if the flexibility you go on to describe can be made to work.

My short-term expectation is that battery technology will shrink the current pack. This would (a) release more space in the rear of the car (for normal uses like carting around random rubbish) and/or (b) allow more battery capacity in much the same volume.

yeah, I wonder what the corporate image makers were thinking with that name? Is it supposed to suggest anything at all?

The only association that 'Prius' brings to my mind is 'Priapus', but maybe that's just me?

"recharges."

Oh, I do not think I am smarter than Toyota's engineers. I figure they are thinking about this or have thought about it and the idea has been at least temporarily shelved under the heading of "infeasible" for reasons I don't know or "unmarketable, except to that DH character and a few loons like him."

:-)

I will check the faq, though, and see what they had to say. I hadn't realized they would bother to put up a faq that included speculative items like this.

*** Posted via a free Usenet account from ***

According to the faq section of Toyota's web site, "Prius" is derived from the Latin prefix meaning "to go before"

It is not true, the real thing is that the Prius has lower mpg's at winter, it is because it's main target is to be a close to zero emission vehicle, so at colder weather the catalyzer needs more gases going through it to keep at good work temperature to avoid contamination.

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You would still have your petrol engine for times when the battery got low. But at least you could arrange to always start out with a full charge. If you did a lot of short journeys, it would vastly reduce overall fuel consumption.

Generally you are correct. Problem though is if there is a lead foot behind me I'm compelled to accelerate much quicker in city traffic. What happens then is instead of the engine taking over at about 10-12 mph it kicks in about 2-3 mph. I've had people pull up beside me and yell (like they're ready to kill me) get that piece of shit off the road. My only recourse then is to not move at all. mark_

Yes - I think all variations stop altogether. In the Toyota system the engine is cranked by using the pair of motor/generators differentially to spin the engine up to 1100 rpm (IIRC) before feeding fuel and spark. Since some Prius cars are over 200K miles and running sweetly the strategy must be working. There aren't many engines that get oil pressure before being fired up.

What amazes me is that except for the occasional shudder when coming to a stop that Bill mentioned, I can rarely tell when the engine starts or stops. I would hazard a guess the engine restarts an average of something like once to ten times per mile in city driving. There is no starter sound ever - just "hmmm" and the engine is running as if by magic. OTOH, having the engine shut down is unnerving to new drivers (at least it was to my wife and me!)

Mike

Mine at least is US.

Mike

Michelle, as a fellow Arizonan (Zonie) I have to mention the best we've had is the round trip from Flagstaff to Sedona and back: 61 mpg for the 60 mile trip with about 2000 ft difference in elevation. Hybrids love hills!

Mike