cars which are powered by electric to be more fuel efficient and environmentatl friendly… is this realy the case or just another propaganda
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This is for real. Hybrids, which can be any combination of power sources including gasoline & electric (as in the Prius), or diesel & electric, or biofuels & electric, or any other combination, really do get much better mileage. I’m not sure that the tradeoffs such as battery disposition have really been explored thoroughly yet.
Electric cars, as in purely electric cars like the Tesla roadster, are coming also.
Hybrids are not just luxury cars. The Prius is not, and Camry and Toyota Highlander can both be bought in hybrid form. The Tesla, all electric, is a sports car built on the Lotus Elise chassis. It does 0-60 in just over 4 seconds and tops out at about 140 mph. Mercedes showed a full size Merc at the European Auto Show that gets 44mpg. They’re planning on producing it. Well. okay, that one’s a luxury car.
They appeal to the Greenies who feel carbon and cholesterol must be avoided at all costs. They DO get better mileage, mostly because of the regenerative braking possible with electric drive…Heating brake rotors red hot takes a lot of energy, energy you pay for at the pump.
I also wouldn’t limit to luxury cars, but it does seem to be a pretty effective marketing gimmick.
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It is one method of improving mileage and reducing pollution. I would have to say that IMO it is still in development. It generally helps, but not enough to make up for the overall increase cost of production.
On the good side they are getting some good experience with the engineering and there may be something good come out of it.
On the other side, it is fooling a lot of people who think they are getting a lot more and it is costing all of us in the form of tax and other incentives to produce and sell them.
I don’t know about the long term side of it, and no one else really does.
That sounds about right to me. Someday they may actually turn into something useful (but I’m really doubtful). Now they are much to complex and costly for a relatively small gain in fuel efficiency (somebody was out sick the day they taught the KISS principle in freshman engineering class). I’m still not convinced the environmental footprint associated with manufacturing/disposal of these things doesn’t negate their operating efficiency. I guess we’ll see how it goes in about 20 years.
They do seem to have a certain “image appeal” to some people, sorta like driving around in a giant bumper sticker that says, “I care so much about the environment that I paid $25K for this little POS.” Almost as bad as the hummer crowd; “look at me, look at me!”.
Until this week I thought that the current hybrids were little more than symbolic since the payback of the added costs was very long for average drivers (15K miles/year), AND the looming hammer to replace the entire battery system at $1,200 or more every NN years further negated potential benefits.
My readings on the Prius have me reconsidering my position. Comparing the Prius to the Matrix is one way to look at it. Both have similar form factors.
The Prius is $3,000 more. But gets 15 MPG better than the Matrix. At 15Kmiles/year the Matrix burns $1,285
in fuel at $3/USG. At 15Kmiles/year the Prius burns $900 in fuel at $3/USG. That’s $385 better, worst case per year. Or, $32/month less expense. $32/mo at 8% for 72 months equates to a Present Value of $2,265.
which is over 2/3’s of the cost differential. Any further cost savings above this worst case calculation move the difference in cost closer and closer to the null point. Why is Prius the winner even at 2/3 the differential? Because it is a finer car in many other dimensions over the Matrix.