any environmentalists/Prius drivers ?

[gostraight]

Good article about Prius and other hybrids
http://clubs.ccsu.edu/recorder/editorial/print_item.asp?NewsID=188

[randywebb]

quite a gold mine of unstated assumptions in that article...

[berettafan]

Boy randy is right on that one. I think his comment is a bit too kind maybe.

Battery cars are NOT the answer (and i think they will be a major problem at some point when it's battery replacement time) but that quality of writing isn't helping anyone.

[gostraight]

I thought it was a great article. It sheds a Little light the dirty little secret of so called "clean"cars. Most of the consumers assume that the pollution process starts the minute the car leaves the showroom floor, when in reality some cars have already damage the environment before they were even sold.

Toyota realized years ago that there is a market for guilt free driving and that's what they provided.

P.S. I have nothing agains hybrids. After all my SC is one. Gas/oil

[Kraftwerk]

What Mr. Demorro fails to mention is that one third of ANY vehicles contribution to pollution is in its manufacturing. A used Porsche is a more enviromentally friendly choice than a new Prius (or used Hummer!) Cripes
the Prius ain't perfect but which one would you rather share the road with?
or have an unfortunate encounter with? This guy wants to work for an oil lobby so bad it hurts!
anyways... this should be moved to O.T.

[LeeH]

I hope the author's research is better than his writing skills.

[David]

I make the prediction that within 10 years (maybe 5) the most efficient cars will be powered by small gasoline engines with direct injection running at very high compression ratios much like a diesel. No battery packs, electric motors, or fuel cells required.

[ChrisBennet]

That link went around a while ago and one my friends instantly saw some of the flaws in it - like it would cost $325,000 to driver a Prius 100K miles.
-Chris

[widebody911]

The article doesn't even mention the smug that hybrids emit.

[rammstein]

Originally posted by widebody911
The article doesn't even mention the smug that hybrids emit.

Theeeeaaaanks!

I'm gonna go smell my farts now.

[trader220]

My lead foot wife is so hot to dump the Grand Cherokee and get a Prius to make a "statement". I told lead foot to go drive one of those whopping 72 bhp monsters first.

[Z-man]

After reading the article: my $0.42:

1. How many Hummers do you think will be able to last 300,000 miles? Not too many - I bet not too many would last to 200,000 miles.

2. Based on what I've read it takes more like 15 years to offset the premium paid for a Hybrid vs. a comprable gasoline powered car.

I think the author fails to mention a major issue with Hybirds -- the increased cost of maintenance for a more complex powerplant. He also fails to mention the environmental impact the used-up batterys will yield.

My take - direct injection powerplants are going to be the near future 'newest' technology that will help cars be more efficient and powerful, while hydrogen fuel-cell technology will eventually make it to production vehicles. Unfortunately, if car makers were to produce fuel-cell cars today, it would cost $200,000 to make, and they would have to sell them for $300,000. IE: The technology is still in its infancy. But the fuel-cell powerplant is the future -- mark my words.

-Zoltan.

[legion]

Z-man,

How will we produce the hydrogen for use in fuel cells?

[Z-man]

Originally posted by legion
Z-man,

How will we produce the hydrogen for use in fuel cells?

Coal & fossil fuels, of course! Or other environmentally unfriendly powerplants.

I kid, I kid. As I said, the technology is still in its infancy. But given the fact that there are lots of hydrogen pairs linked to little oxygen thingies, we've just got to find a way to coerce them into separating. The trick is to do it peacefully where no hydrogens and oxygens get hurt.

-Z-man.

[gostraight]

the trick is actually containing it. hydrogen has a nasty habit of escaping tanks, so the thought is to produce it on board.

[rammstein]

Nuclear fusion. Give it 20 years, 10 years for the test reactor being built to work, and 10 more to get working plants up. It will be awesome. The power from hydrogen engines will be better than gas, and we will all eat marshmallows and go skipping down gumdrop paths and girls will be nude.

[Racerbvd]

[wludavid]

Originally posted by Kraftwerk
What Mr. Demorro fails to mention is that one third of ANY vehicles contribution to pollution is in its manufacturing. A used Porsche is a more enviromentally friendly choice than a new Prius (or used Hummer!)

True. Way too many people only look at the EPA estimated MPG to determine how "green" a car is. In fact, you have to look at the whole footprint -- cradle to grave. If, instead of mpg, the sticker had the total number megatons of CO2 it would emit (or millions of barrels of oil, if you don't jive with the greenhouse thing) I suspect we'd see a lot of people moving from Hummers to Hondas.

Of course, this won't happen. Since something like one-third of all energy a car uses is during it's production, the average lifetime of the car makes an enormous difference. And the lobbies from Detroit would never allow Congress to put on the sticker what we all know to be true: a Honda is going to last a lot longer than a GM.

[red-beard]

Originally posted by rammstein
Nuclear fusion. Give it 20 years, 10 years for the test reactor being built to work, and 10 more to get working plants up. It will be awesome. The power from hydrogen engines will be better than gas, and we will all eat marshmallows and go skipping down gumdrop paths and girls will be nude.

[hytem]

The problem with hybrids right now is they aren't cost effective, with gas readily available and $2.50-3.00 per gallon. The savings is about $500 per year for 15K miles, and that isn't enough to overcome the $5-6K difference in price for the hybrid vs the lower mileage gas version (Corolla or Honda Civic.) My wife has a Honda civic, and I costed it out for her.

I understand the government is offering rebates for hybrids--up to $2500? for some models. But the formula is complicated and depends on how many cars of that model are sold, etc. Leave it to the government to make it complicated.

The picture could change if gas prices skyrocketed or there was a cutoff in supply. But really, what's needed is mass production of hybrids--more volume--to lower their cost. This is also one area where the government has to tweak the free market--as they did years ago with emissions and mpg standards. But they have let the mpg standards slip badly with trucks and SUVs, which are in everybody's driveway these days. That's what is keeping gas prices high--demand for gas caused mainly by these low mileage vehicles.