Austin owned energy company has plug-in hybrids(claim 100 MPG)

WFAA-TV ^ | March 28, 2008 | Gary Reaves

[Dane]

It’s hard to say what sounds better: 100 miles-per-gallon, $1 a gallon fuel, or a car you only have to fill up once a month.

All that is the promise of a new type of car, and this one isn't a far off pipe dream, it’s something you should be able to buy in just 2 years. And it runs on fuel made in the USA.

The long yellow extension cord isn’t the only thing that makes the Toyota Prius Bob Breeze, and his co-workers, drive special. The Austin Energy Company's fleet cars have the one feature everybody wants.

“Definitely, you will get better than 100 miles per gallon,” said Breeze.

That’s more than double a regular Prius.

[Dane]

Pretty interesting story, video is at the web site.

Putting my tinfoil on, could the run up on oil be because OPEC and Wall Street know that these new products are in the pipeline and they are trying to squeeze every drop while they have us over a barrel(sorry about the puns, couldn't resist).

Watching a report like this makes me feel positive unlike the constant doom and gloom I see here on FR.

[DugwayDuke]

“The Austin Energy Company’s fleet cars have the one feature everybody wants.”

Sorry, but I’ll have to pass. I don’t want to drive around in anything that gets that kind of mileage. I’ll stick with my 17 MPG large pickup. But thanks anyway.

[riverrunner]

I want lots of people to drive them the more the better then we will beable to afford to drive are 17 mpg pickup trucks.

[tgusa]

Now the trick will be to keep the Gummint out of the equation before they have a chance to gum up the works. OBTW, you BET Wall Street and big oil are shaking in their boots and firing up the K Street crowd over this one. If McCain had ANY SENSE AT ALL he’d make energy independence one of the cornerstones of his campaign. But nobody has ever accused him of being overly cerebral.

[norwaypinesavage]

Electricity costs me over a dime per KWH. That works out to over five bucks per gallon, for the same energy as in a gallon of gasoline. This story starts with a completely erroneous concept.

[babygene]

Ping to find out more about the battery mentioned in the article

[Dutch Boy]

You might not be too far off. I get a feeling that certain commodities are on the verge of bursting. Oil and gold are the ones I think will be the ones. Oil goes high not because of the amount of oil in the world, but only because of the fear we might not be able to get it. Gold is high because people are being conned into buying it out of fear. It’s hard to turn on the radio without hearing these ads.

Things can only go up so high then it will come down. I keep thinking of silver in the 1980’s with the Hunt brothers.

[oneolcop]

The video wouldn't load for me but I read the accompanying article.

Looks like hype to me. But on the other hand, these sort of adaptations and refinements of conventional technology i.e. batteries are likely to lead to real progress. The total energy consumption of a vehicle should be a part of the equation. How much do the batteries cost, how much does each component of the vehicle cost to make, maintain and to dispose of once it wears out?

[purpleraine]

Two years ago I saw a Prius story in which Toyota said they were going to have 90 MPG by 2009. Haven’t seen any more on that since.

[Truth29]

Current Situation:

"NO car payment, 20mpg = $140 a month on driving expenses (Plus occasional maintenance)

New FORTY THOUSAND DOLLAR car = at least $350 payment, higher insurance.

I?ll pass."

Ah, to kick of from tgusa's comment, the Gummint WILL get involved and make it more and more difficult /expensive to keep older cars and cars with characteristics the Gummint doesn't want to preserve.

[Truth29]

of = off

[dark_lord]

$40K for a Volt — GM is insane. As Yogi Berra would have said, it is deja vu all over again. The Japanese will just sell hybrids for $4K - $5K over the cost of the equivalent gasoline only car (to cover cost of battery pack, electric motor, additional monitoring electronics and safety features.) And the US (Ford & GM) will again lose market share due to their stupidity, and the Japanese will gain.

[B.O. Plenty]

But you will not be saving the Earth for the childreeeeen, my man....

Just think.....the minute amount of greenhouse gas that YOU spew, may just be the "straw that broke the camels back" that throws the Earth into an irreversable heat cycle that incenerates everything.

Now, aren't you ashamed?

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

And don’t forget, the load on an already and over stressed Electrical infrastructure will not be able to handle the demand if everybody suddenly starts running these.

The costs to the taxpayers will be beyond feasible to upgrade the nations electrical grid to accommodate it. The current costs for electrical conductors and components to make the necessary upgrades will bankrupt most local governments. Not to mention the huge tax increases required to feed this bureaucratic beast.

[naturalized]

I thought electricity was free and left no carbon footprint?

[Doe Eyes]

I thought electricity was free and left no carbon footprint?

If we expand the number of nuclear power plants, this would be a great way to cut our dependence on Muslim oil.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

Not when the Liberals underwrite a cause. They have a magic pen with a magic eraser. Those aspects simply do not exist. Like the damage to the environment from strip-mining all that copper for those countless miles of electric-motor windings , or all the crude oil it will take to produce all those plastics, tires and roads. Or the massive amounts of electricity it takes to make ultra light alloys like Magnesium and Aluminum. And the safety glass included.

Imagine, what if Liberals had a brain......

[ChildOfThe60s]

Sounds nice, and not to criticize the main import of the story, but every energy/auto related story has a similar inane remark:

the head of Austin's city owned electric company believes they are the answer to America's addiction to imported oil because they run on power that's all home grown: electricity, coal, gas, nuclear, even wind.

All the damn oil is not going into gasoline. This will not solve the energy equation. We simply have to produce more energy.

The EnviroTards^TM are fighting tooth and nail to hamper coal, nuclear and gas. The Democrats have already shut down Utah's coal. Producing power from wind, in comparison to the scale of production we need, it's like urinating into the wind.

It would have a beneficial effect on gasoline prices by reducing some demand on refineries. But it is compete hogwash to think that conservation and efficiency will eliminate the need for imported oil. US oil production is so low we'd have to shut down. We absolutely must produce more energy, regardless of advances in technology. And we have the oil and coal reserves to do so.

Proof: Compared to 1975 we produce the same unit of goods/services using 50% of the energy. According to EnviroTard^TM logic we should be awash in [cheap] energy.

The real problem we must overcome is not acquisition of new energy technology, that will happen eventually for certain. The real enemy is the leftist environmental Luddites. We could develop cheap clean energy tomorrow and they would try to stop it. Because they want two things out of this battle: Extreme socialism, i.e. control of what you do and say; and they want to reduce the west to a lower standard of living, force us back a century. This car comes to fruition, they will find something wrong with it. Guaranteed.

[babygene]

Not to rain on anyone’s parade, But if you charge a battery for 10 hours on a 15 amp extension cord (15 amp circuit) , the maxim you are going to store is 18,000 watt hours. That’s assuming a perfect battery...

With a 100% efficient motor, that would be enough to deliver about 24 horse power for 1 hour. That’s just the way it is... All the engineering in the world isn’t going to make the system better than 100% efficient.

I’m afraid that’s not going to get you very far.