Quote:
Originally Posted by jyl
No, because your simpler, lighter car still runs its engine at all times.
The biggest fuel savings of a hybrid car is that the gas engine is switched off at stop lights, in slow traffic, when coasting, etc. In effect, the hybrid doesn't waste fuel idling its gas engine (usually). The gas engine turns on when your foot is in the throttle, and turns off when you lift.
Regenerating electricity during braking is nice too, but that is secondary.
Agreed that a smaller, lighter Prius with lots of carbon fibre and aluminium, running a diesel/electric hybrid would get better mileage than the current one. And that a plug-in Prius will get better mileage yet. Hopefully, these are coming someday.
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You are completely missing the point. A hybrid is an expensive, overcomplicated solution to a simple problem. There were cars on the market in the 80's that got better gas mileage than a Prius that didn't need the electric motor, or the heavy battery array (that will eventually fail--either rendering the hybrid system inoperative or costing thousands of dollars to replace). Just because a Prius gets better gas mileage with a lot of bells and whistles does not mean that it is the best approach. Simply cutting weight from most cars would yield the same results without the reliance on an expensive, unreliable (in the long-term) technology.