More on hybrid Camry

What are the fuel specs on each?

From lexus.ca:

Lexus RX330 (conventional)

Lexus RX400h (hybrid)

Obviously an RX is not a Camry, but there's an impressive difference, none the less.

Regards,

Robin

They know no borders or boundaries, for certain.

------------------------------------------------ The DNC - Building a bridge to the 20th Century.

This isn't meant as a flame but simple a question from someone who doesn't follow the hybrid tech anymore ...but htf does a Hybrid get more HP with the same specs (unless I'm missing something on the spec data there)?! Is it just more efficient technology for power delivery or ?

I have no idea, but the hybrid has a CVT (continuously variable transmission) whereas the conventional has an automatic tranny. I'm no car buff so I'm not sure if the hp figures are engine output or bhp (I think bhp) but the different transmissions could make the difference.

Regards,

Robin

Obviously. However, keep in mind that if you're into gadgets & money's not that big a deal, hybrids might be fun.

Basically, it makes better use of fuel. Ie: your first option.

To achieve this, it has to resort to a number of strategems which at first sight can seem absurdly complex but which further study reveals are not absurd at all, just more complex than previously.

As Arthur C Clarke pointed out decades ago (see "Profiles of the Future"), many people suffer from either Failure Of Imagination (ie, they are unable to imagine something being true) or Failure Of Nerve (ie, they dare not face the changes in their lives some newer truth implies).

Consider: in the early days of computers, when thermionic valves (US: tubes) were what one had to use, overall reliability was Not Good; one struggled to keep a design as valve-free as possible. Today, with better tech, hundreds of millions of transistors in a single computer chip is not regarded as risky in the least. This has happened all over: think of the complex devices we shape our lives around: automated supply systems, a/c, medical gear, mobile phones, TVs, computers, aircraft...

IIRC, the fans of paddle steamers distrusted and mocked the new- fangled screw propeller, until a tug-of-war proved firmly which was better. Yet the design of screw which won that contest was pathetically clumsy, compared with its modern descendants.

Need I say more...?

Is this a joke? While your message provided for interesting (and mostly irrelevant) reading, it did not answer the poster's question.

About the only thing we already knew (given the engine's output, displacement and fuel consumption - all previously established) was that it "made better use of fuel."

Regards,

Robin

Possibly the combined output from both the I.C.E. and the electric motor ?

...

Thanks for the reply but I'm now actually much more confused than I was initially ...are you saying that the Hybrid engines use screw propellers and tubes to get better gas mileage or are there transistors in the gas tank that take the risk out of pumping fuel?

That would make it similar to the new hybrid Accord which provides V8 power from a 6 with electric assistance.

Just read the first line of my reply. That answers the question you actually posed. The rest was a discussion of how poorly some people react to new technologies, with extra notes on how modern systems are vastly more complex and evolved yet manage to attain a higher reliability than older technologies ever could -- all of which felt relevant to today's hybrids.

OTOH had you wanted to know _how_ the Prius achieves its improved efficiencies, that's quite another question -- which a quick scan of this NG on Google for the past month should more than service, including a URL to a nice Toyota PDF about their hybrid system -- with pictures.

The is a $2000 tax rebate for the first owner, though, and you can use the carpool/HOV lane freely. That remaining $2000 difference is going to be made back quite quickly given the $2.50 or so most of us seem to be paying at the pump.

This depends on your tax bracket.

For most of the people, this bracket is less than 20%, that translate into at most $400. Remember, it is $2000 "TAX CREDIT" not tax rebate. You can buy a top of line non-hybrid Camry or Accord and donate $2000 to any charity or political organizations to get the same benefits AND you still have more money in your pocket.

Bottom line, if you compare the smog index of the hybrid and PZEV version of Camry or Accord, the difference is minimal.

Electric motors can deliver 100% of their torque, 100% of the time. That's why we need those pesky transmissions on normal engines. At best a normal engine is a compromise between power and speed, while an electric motor doesn't have to play by those rules. :)

That's roughly what the V8 in a 4 Runner does, btw. Quite respectable.

That may be your opinion but every road test of every hybrid I have read says given the difference in drive home prices, credit and rebates, etc. it will take the average driver, driving the average US mileage in US of 15K a year, eight to ten years before they will save any money on fuel at $2.50. At that point any saving will be moot when you have to lay out $4,000 or more to replace the batteries.

The premium price, one must pay, between a nicely equipped Corolla, (which is the comparable car in size to the Prius not the Camry,) will buy ALL of the gas for the Corolla for the average three to four years that the average new car buyer in the US keeps their vehicle.

Personally I hope more buyer buy more hybrids. That will help make more fuel available and at a better price for those of us that like to drive powerful, sporty, V8 RWD cars. ;)

mike hunt

Joseph Oberlander wrote:

mike hunt

Of course if you compare it to the V6 Camry, which it will be equivalent to in power, it's a very nice deal.

Which is why I qualified the statement with "as a rule".

Thanks to the whackos I mentioned.

Let's hope so about refinery capacity. But conservation is far more than the band-aid solution of ridding the world of evil Hummers.

Personal cars aren't a fraction of the problem as has been shown by projections of the true reduction realized should hybrids rule the road. It just isn't much when compared to other expenditures.

------------------------------------------------ The DNC - Building a bridge to the 20th Century.

Talking about energy policy, refinement capacity MAY be a problem but a more immediate problem is that different parts of the country use different mixes of gasoline depending on the season. Bush has been president 4+ years. Is this still Clinton's fault?