I get 42MPG with my 4-cylinder Honda, and that's taking every opportunity to crank the throttle. But then again, I only have 2 wheels on mine...
Posted on 06/05/2007 9:12:50 AM PDT by BurbankKarl
Hybrid sales are booming, but Honda Motor Co. is pulling the plug on the gasoline-electric version of its Accord sedan.
Honda said Monday that the Accord hybrid would be discontinued after the 2007 model year, the victim of a high sticker price and unremarkable gas mileage.
"The reason it didn't sell is because the price premium wasn't justified by the gas mileage," said Jesse Toprak, an analyst with automotive website Edmunds.com.
Honda sold a measly 439 Accord hybrids in the United States last month. By contrast, Toyota Motor Corp. sold 24,009 of its less-expensive, segment-leading Priuses. And sales of hybrid vehicles as a segment more than doubled this year, while the overall market for new vehicles is flat.
Outfitted with a six-cylinder engine and heated leather seats, the Accord hybrid was positioned as a gas-electric for the performance crowd when it was introduced in 2004 — with a price to match.
The base sticker on the 2007 model is $31,685, compared with $26,820 for its closest competitor, the Toyota Camry hybrid sedan.
Those extra dollars don't provide much relief at the gas pump.
The Accord's combined city-highway mileage of 31 miles per gallon is respectable for any car but hardly in the same league with the Prius at 55 mpg or Honda's own Civic hybrid at 50 mpg.
And it's not much better than the 28 mpg delivered by the four-cylinder nonhybrid Accord.
Even Ford Motor Co.'s hybrid Escape SUV can do better, rolling along at a combined 34 mpg.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
With all the interest in alternative fuels these days, every major auto company has plans to introduce diesel engines in passenger cars in the next year or two. That way, drivers can use biodiesel where it's available, and the oil companies have come up with low-sulfur diesel blends to use otherwise.
Diesel cars were big in the late '70s and early '80s, when the emphasis was on mileage, not emissions. They fell out of favor when gasoline got cheaper and smog got worse. The balance has shifted again, and diesel fuel has gotten cleaner, so diesel or diesel hybrid engines are looking like a better option.
I know the European automakers are looking to bring to the US advanced diesel engines they've sold all along in Europe. I'm pretty sure I've read that the Asian and American automakers are also looking to bring back diesel engines in passenger cars and light trucks.
“Very true - that’s why I went out and bought a Geo Metro and fixed it up. Same mpg as the Prius, but $24,000 cheaper.”
Pontiac had this little Korean-built Le Mans they came out with in the late 80’s. My Mom bought one and consistently got in the 40-45 mpg range.
As you point out with the Geo, and others have the VW, this whole hybrid stuff is just nonsense. There have been cars built for the last 20 years or more that can hang with them and cost thousands and thousands cheaper.
They don’t scream “I’m green! Check how trendy and environmentally conscious I am!” though.
If the greenies cared about the environment at all, they would all drive used, read RECYCLED, cars. There is no way buying a used Geo has anywhere near the overall environmental impact as buying a new Prius or other hybrid. Building new cars takes a great amount of energy and creates a fair bit of pollution, hybrid or not.
You can get more power for the size of the motor if it is multiphase AC..
A co worker here has a Ford Escort that runs off of yellow top optima batteries, 96VDC... 9 inch motor, and it has quite a bit of oomph, he can spin the wheels well into 3rd gear...
my coworker with the electric ford escort has a Suzuki swift, he’s getting over 40 MPG...
“And the acceleration is incredible...”
Sweet!
The main factor is the rear axle ratio. Long legs.
The rough part is in Ca. to get into the HOV lanes with one person on board you needed a sticker. I didn’t know until recently that there was a fixed amount of stickers although they’re supposed to issue more in the future. Once they lost that little advantage, sales dropped bad enough that Toyota was offering incentives.
Believe me, for a 120 mile commute, the HOV lanes rock, except for the morons that do 55.
Most of my miles are in a company car so I could really care less. heehee
55 here. I haven’t had my 2002 Toyota over 55. It would probably do 120, but I am too old to care. Okay, I probably went 60 once in the past five years. It gets 16 mpg at best, and it isn’t exactly streamlined so 55 is fine. The Caprice sits gassed up and ready though, just in case I have to go 500 miles in a hurry, which when it runs out of gas would put me somewhere in the wilderness of Canada if I head east.
Enough to make up for the inefficiencies of an inverter when running off the batteries? It's an honest question, not a rhetorical one. That level of EE is way beyond me.
A co worker here has a Ford Escort that runs off of yellow top optima batteries, 96VDC... 9 inch motor, and it has quite a bit of oomph, he can spin the wheels well into 3rd gear...
Sounds like a lot of fun, but in practical terms, you want every minute of battery life to go to use, not to wheel spinning. Electric motors generally have great low-end torque, and most electric cars have continuously variable transmissions to best harness that.
Conventional transmissions work with internal combustion engines, because they're most efficient in a particular RPM range. It makes sense to shift up and down to keep the engine in that range as much as possible. Not an issue with electric cars, which also don't waste any energy idling.
Not when you include the size and efficiency of the multiphase inverter between the batteries and motor.
As long as your commute doesn't require accelerating quickly or climbing hills. I've driven the Metro and its Ford equivalents, the Festiva and then the Aspire, as rental cars; I knew just what to do in case of a brake failure. Turn on the A/C, and the car would slow to a stop in no time.
Which is?......
Def not worth it then. Honda Civic or Toyota Prius sounds great.
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