Hybrid cars - Ford Forums

Falchoon · 03-20-2002, 17:46

From Sydney Morning Herald

Hybrid cars to be green only

Australia would save hundreds of billions of litres of petrol and greenhouse emissions could drop by more than 500,000 tonnes if its cars were all hybrid electric vehicles, an NRMA survey has found.

Drivers of cars, four-wheel drives, utes, mini-vans and small trucks could save $400 a year in petrol by getting away from conventional petrol and diesel engines - enough fuel to fill 3,500 swimming pools, it found.

Having put two hybrid vehicles through their paces on a machine which simulates several driving conditions, including different speeds and vehicle weight loads, the NRMA found the new cars used about one-fifth less fuel than petrol-based vehicles.
Big deal, try towing a boat/caravan/horse float with a Insight or Prius

Test operators collected all the exhaust emissions produced by the vehicles for analysis.

Already available on the Australian and international markets, the test cars are powered by a dual petrol-electric motor and battery system.

About 30 of the two-seater Honda Insights and 160 Toyota Prius cars - a five-seat, four-door sedan - have been sold here, compared with 70,000 Prius cars in the US, the NRMA said.

The NRMA's chief executive officer, Rob Carter, said although the hybrid vehicles were more expensive than comparable vehicles - meaning the fuel savings do not meet the extra cost of the car - they were likely to become cheaper overall.

The NRMA analysis shows that if the 754,000 "light" vehicles - cars, utes and other small vehicles - sold in Australia last year all had hybrid engines, 217 billion litres of fuel could have been saved.
Imagine how much fuel we could save if we junked our cars and walked everywhere. Bloody stupid comment by NRMA. I wonder if Rob Carter drives one of these POS, I bet he doesn't.

Joseph Kerr

Troutman · 03-30-2002, 01:55

Even as a very strong supporter of hybrid-electric cars, I agree that it is just childish to say we should all suddenly spend 50 grand on a tiny 2 seater Honda Insight. The kind of hybrid-electric car I aspire to is something like the Ecommodore. That was a concept car a couple of years back with aerodynamic enhancements made by the CSIRO. It used half the fuel of a Commodore V6 while retaining similar performance due to the combination of an all-alloy Vectra-derived four cylinder engine, and electric power.

The real solution involves the government ending import duty concessions for 4WD wagons, and encouraging local manufacturers to introduce more efficient vehicles (hybrid-electric vehicles' buyers currently pay full import duty and tax). But then, this is the same government that (in Vic) pats itself on the back for introducing supposedly life-saving 50 km/h speed limits last year, and the road toll down here is now at a 10 year high!

IPhido · 03-30-2002, 02:46

How can I say it...

HYBRIDS ARE A PRETTY SILLY SOLUTION..

The alternatives are:
Hydrogen combustion- too expensive, too energy wasting in the production of hydrogen, hard to keep
Current technology - More efficent internal combustion engines running on petrol/lpg/natural gas
Fuel cell - same as hydrogen combustion plus expensive
Electric cars - Batteries are not good enough, range down, heavy, expensive, disposal of batteries.
Steam - cheap, proven, light, improvable, diffrent

Explain how paying $60-$75,000 for a car with the performance and abilities of $15,000 makes any sense when it saves you only $400 a year.. IT DOESN'T.
And honda and toyota sell the hybrids at a loss!! if they went mass market they would be even more expensive.

Look at the advantages of steam, your city cycle will still be pretty efficent much better than petrol, quieter yet sounds better than electric cars, torquey and powerful, every reliable, cheap to produce, scaleable, uses current manufacturing and handling techniques.

But no one cares... The greenys all want zero exaust emissions from cars, which means they want 100% emissions from coal power plants which mean another 50 power stations would need to be built australia wide, not only that new power cables mostly high voltage would need be installed across wildlife reserves, habitat etc.. Maybe dam a few more rivers for power stations.

Everyone else things steams old tech, and engine the size of a house produces less power than a lawn mower. Its wrong and ignorant but people are stupid. The oil companies have gotten to everyone already.

Green technology is dead.. I basically forsee improvements in the basic petrol design for the next 50 years.. At which point we will switch to steam... Even if its powered by nuclear fusion or fussion or zero point energy or something. Battery technology is going no where and is impossible anyway.

So who wants to give me a grant so I can explore the future of engines today.

Mr Jucy · 03-30-2002, 02:53

bugger that unless they can get the same power at a reasonable cost I'll stick to the high octane thanks

xacoupe · 03-30-2002, 03:04

errr.. are you serious?

kinobi · 03-30-2002, 03:08

Quote:

Originally posted by IPhido
How can I say it...

HYBRIDS ARE A PRETTY SILLY SOLUTION..

hybrids were developed as a stepping stone for newer technologies like u mentioned, in the future when they are more affording to produce and maintain

Jamie XR6 · 03-30-2002, 21:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Falchoon

Australia would save hundreds of billions of litres of petrol and greenhouse emissions could drop by more than 500,000 tonnes if its cars were all hybrid electric vehicles, an NRMA survey has found.

Could probably do the same if we got rid of all the Hyundais as well!

Cobra · 03-30-2002, 21:10

She'll be right mate. Maybe if we used more conventional methods of fuel like the brazilians tried to do with the Methanol, just mass produce it and it shouldnt cost so much.

Ford Fanatic · 03-30-2002, 21:30

Ford are working on hydrogen powered cars as we speak. And have been for a while too.