Posted on 03/30/2008 6:56:03 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at wfaa.com ...
The hybrid cars like the prius are far better for city driving than highway as the battery gets most of it's energy from breaking and you do little of that on the highway.
I might also note that even given that test you’re looking at a national average cost of $36.88 ($3.25/gal national average)on the Prius in gas vs $43.25 for the bmw diesel ($3.99/gallon). That also ignores that the BMW costs $6.5k more than the prius which. That also ignores the great majority of US cars are not diesel.
“Now, aren’t you ashamed?”
Hell no!!!
I’ll keep driving my 1965 Chev PU with 1.3 million miles on it that I get 15 mpg on the 30k miles I drive a year.
“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.”
If they can make it three times as large with 1/3 the gas mileage, I’ll take a look at it.
The Prius rarely has a full charge on the battery in stop-and-go traffic. It’s true that on long downhill runs the battery will reach full charge.
braking techniques allow significant recovery, although practcal considerations may limit their usage. On the original prius you could get a 3rd-party circuit that allowed the driver to see when the brakes were using the generator, and when they started to use the pads.
I often use the simple regeneration of the “engine drag” to ensure full recovery, or very light braking (you can kind of sense when the brake pads kick in).
It’s true that under normal driving conditions, people just slam on the brakes, minimizing the amount of recovery.
Unfortunately, while the Prius tracks regeneration, it doesn’t track engine “brake” regeneration, only brake pedal regeneration, so you can’t really tell how much you are getting back (except you can watch the battery get recharged).
Frankly, I find it more efficient to minimize braking of any kind, because even regenerative braking is less efficient than simply not braking at all.
The Prius is not small or light. It’s not a large car, but it isn’t tiny. It’s a solid car (I should know, I ran one into a concrete pole at over 20 mph, and walked away without a scratch). My family of 4 can use it for a 1-week vacation, so it’s got enough room.
It is unlikely a gas vehicle of similar size would get the same performance and energy savings. I could show that through technology, but for now I’ll use a simple logical argument. Toyota engineers are not stupid. They built the car for a reason. If they could have acheived the same results without the extra few thousand dollars of parts, they would have done so.
Now, for your data. A diesel is an ICE. Diesels are not "50+" more efficient than gasoline engines. Diesel fuel has about 10% more energy per gallon than gasoline (Thats part of the reason it costs more). It is not "efficiency", to use higher energy fuel. When you back that out, a normally aspirated diesel engine (like in most automobiles) has more like 5-10% better efficiency than gasoline. Turbocharging and intercooling might get another 5-10%.
“If they can make it three times as large with 1/3 the gas mileage, I’ll take a look at it.”
Make that six times as large and include a Class III hitch...
And I'm hardly making your case for you. I was arguing electricity based cars vs gasoline engines. You then threw diesel into the mix and then compared car that gets no electricity from a household--just from breaking and gasoline (prius).
H.Akston: “they should put a solar panel on the roof of every car, so that while it’s parked at work or the grocery store, there could be some recovery.”
Psycho-Freep: “Clearly, you do not understand how electricity works. Solar panels will be completely useless for charging an electrical system of this type. A solar panel the size of a roof on an auto would have to be exposed for several months in order to produce an hour’s worth of power to move a mass such as this.”
Psycho, you ignorant slut - Read these and weep:
http://gizmodo.com/5022382/confirmed-toyota-to-offer-solar-panel+powered-prius-in-2009
http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4212545.html
I don’t expect to power the car totally with Solar, dipwad. I said so there could be some recovery. Please don’t ever get a job with Toyota.
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